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› Is your team driving in the right direction?
The other day I came across this podcast on the NUMMI car plant in Fremont California which recently shut down production. When I read Chris Brogan’s post A Perfect Dichotomy I realized this struggle isn’t simply just an operations phenomenon – but one of more broad-ranging applications across all business.
Summary of the podcast: A car plant in Fremont California that might have saved the U.S. car industry. In 1984, General Motors and Toyota opened NUMMI as a joint venture. Toyota showed GM the secrets of its production system: how it made cars of much higher quality and much lower cost than GM achieved. Frank Langfitt explains why GM didn’t learn the lessons – until it was too late
I think this should be required listening for anyone who in charge of operations, leadership, managing teams or faced with evaluating innovation.
Some key takeaways:
- alignment of goals – once everyone was moving in the same direction, success followed
- importance of process – the same people were able to implement the new system
- adopting teamwork concepts – all levels of an organization need to ‘buy in’
- impact of ‘doing things right the first time’ – correcting problems later is incredibly inefficient
- willingness to accept new ways of doing things – openness is necessary for survival
We try to instill these values throughout our firm but sometimes it is hard to articulate why taking shortcuts doesn’t pay off. This case study is a really powerful example.
Check out this podcast- and ask yourself these hard questions- does your firm take shortcuts it knows will sacrifice quality? Are processes in place that actually enable poor-performance to go uncorrected? Please share your experience.
Posted at 5/14/10 by tking in GGGroup, Industry Trends, News & Views Tags: Best Practices, Chris Brogan, Management, Nummi, Operations, Process, This American Life | No Comments »
Review internet service:
Similar to voice service package. If you have the same Internet service package for the last 3 years, you should find out from your Internet service provider (ISP) offers a better value package.
Review Web Hosting service:
They used to be $20-$50 from a few years ago. Web hosting service is as little as $5/month nowadays.
Review monthly phone bills:
Look for unknown phone lines that you can cancel. You will be surprised to see unused phone lines they you have been paying in the past.
Review voice/phone service package:
If your voice package hasn’t been changed in the last 3 years, chances are your voice service provider has more competitive packages. If you don’t ask, they won’t tell you there are better value packages for you. If your voice service provider doesn’t offer any better value packages, give us a call. Our voice service partners offer very competitive packages. Free or low cost voice over Internet (VOIP) to replace traditional long distance service.
Posted at 9/15/09 by ewong in GGGroup, Industry Trends, News & Views, Tips Tags: Budget, IT Cost Saving | No Comments »
SnagIt:
It’s the easiest to use screen capture tool. It’s the perfect tool for documentations. It cost $49.95 per license.
www.snagit.com
X1:
The most flexible searching tool for Outlook & files. It allows you to index multiple
PST files as well as Public folders. It cost $50 per license.
www.x1.com
pdfFactory:
This is the fastest pdf creation tool. It cost $49.95.
www.fineprint.com/products/pdffactory/index.html
Posted at 8/13/09 by ewong in GGGroup, Tech Tips for the Office, Tech Tips for the Small & Home Office, Tips Tags: PDFFactory, SnagIt, Tools, X1 | No Comments »
› iPhone
iPhone has became one of the most popular PDA. iPhone now has more commercial apps than Windows Mobile. I have recently acquired an iPhone from one of my associates. It certainly is a great device for viewing email, especially with HTML, Word, Excel or PDF attachment. But it is not a great device to compose an email. The on screen keyboard made it hard to type a long email. The web browser is far better than any other PDA of similar size. The “multi-touch” feature makes zooming in/out of screen a joy to use. Since iPhone can’t replace my Blackberry in composing email, I am carrying both iPhone and Blackberry every day. I can’t wait to see if Apple is going to release a new iPhone in June.
Posted at 7/23/09 by ewong in GGGroup, Industry Trends, Security-Mobility-Accessibility, User Reports Tags: iPhone, mobile device | 6 Comments »
Tom knows juggling. He can juggle bean bags and tennis balls…but what about routers and switches and Blackberries? Oh my!
Can you do better? Have a Juggling Technology Story?
Show us what you’ve got! Upload a video reply to our YouTube site or send your best story (triumphs & failures!) about “Juggling Technology” to goodtogo@gggroup.net and you could win a prize as GGGroup’s Juggler of the Month!!!
Posted at 7/1/09 by admin in GGGroup, Juggling Stories Tags: Juggling, Juggling Office, Juggling Technology | 1 Comment »
› How do we measure our service?
GGGroup uses NPS score to measure our service.
NPS score is Net Promoter Score which is used by Apple, American Express, American Airline, M5 Networks. GGGroup retains a market survey company to ask the following question to our clients: On a scale of 1-10 (one being low, ten being high); how likely would you be to recommend GGGroup to your friends or colleagues? With the results from our client, we compute the score based on a simple calculation using the following: http://www.netpromoter.com/np/calculate.jsp.
Posted at 6/29/09 by ewong in GGGroup, News & Views Tags: AT&T, Core Values, Customer Service, NPS, Quality Assurance, Verizon | No Comments »
Yammer:
This is the best tool that you can update your co-workers about your status. All you need is Internet connection on your desktop, Blackberry or iPhone. It’s easy to install and use.
Go to www.yammer.com to activate accounts for your own company. You can pay Yammer to get more features.
Spark:
Want an in-house only Instant Messenger? This is it. It does require software installation on server and desktops.
www.igniterealtime.com
SyncToy:
A free file synchronization tool from Microsoft. This is a simple tool to keep files on your laptop synchronizes with your file server.
Browse to www.microsoft.com/downloadand search for “synctoy”. Download “SyncToy v2.0″.
Posted at 6/13/09 by ewong in GGGroup, Tech Tips for the Office, Tech Tips for the Small & Home Office, Tips, User Reports Tags: Spark, SyncToy, Yammer | No Comments »
› Video Conferencing Made Easy
Video Conferencing Made Easy Simple and affordable video calling for small businesses, remote offices and telecommuters who need to talk face-to-face has never been more affordable. Historically, video conferencing has been the domain of large corporations that invested heavily in dedicated ISDN telecom lines for proprietary hardware. GGGroup has tested various video conferencing solutions and feels that Polycom offers the most affordable and capable products for the SMB market.
Polycom solutions allow you to leverage your existing IP-based Cable, DSL, or T1 connection (backwards compatible with ISDN); delivering natural, smooth motion video and crystal-clear audio in a convenient and compact design–ready to plug into a standard NTSC or PAL display and any broadband connection. Ideal for the office environment and conference room within a small enterprise, it is also suitable for a telecommuter operating from their home office and ready to hold a face to face meeting over their high speed broadband connection.
Posted at 5/3/09 by ewong in GGGroup, Industry Trends, Tech Tips for the Office Tags: A/V, Polycom, Teleconferencing, Video Conferencing | No Comments »
› Revolutionary Step Forward in Customer Service
GGGroup proudly announces the release of GGPlus, our advanced management system that allows our consulting staff to deliver more proactive, efficient, managed services to our clients. It represents a revolutionary step forward in the way service is provided. GGPlus improves upon the traditional IT support model by combining the resources of several best-in-class network monitoring applications with an industry-leading ticket management system.
Posted at 6/6/07 by admin in GGGroup, News & Views Tags: Management, Proactive management, Remote Access, Support, Technology Automation | No Comments »