The Institute Way Blog
Wandering in Circles: The Shocking Truth about How Some Companies Choose Their Strategy
I received a text message from a friend today: “My brother-in-law needs to build a balanced scorecard. Where can he find examples?” ~Sigh~ That is like asking me, “My brother-in-law needs to get from New York to Texas. Where can he find any old Google...
3 Tips for Shark Tank: Would YOUR Business Attract a Shark?
I love to watch Shark Tank and I’ve been known to purchase a product that the Sharks reject. So, what was the problem? Why don’t the Sharks bite on a good product? Because it’s not about the product. It’s about the business. I’ve observed business owners make the...
How a Benchwarmer Won the Game
A rarely-used Major League Baseball backup player who spent the entire game (and most of the season) on the bench made a game-winning play…from the bench. Yes, you read that correctly. It wasn’t a highly paid player on the field. The game was won by someone sitting...
Gaming the System at the VA
Imagine you take your car to the car dealer to get serviced. Before you give your car to the service manager you see the following performance statistics posted on the wall: Average time to wait for an appointment after requesting one—27 days Number of people who...
Identify Strategic Thinking with One Simple Question
I used to work on a research team for a company that produced an operational risk software product. I always found it interesting how different members of the same team answered an important question: what do you do? Here is the way Person A and Person B...
4 Reasons Business Intelligence Systems are Like an (Unused) Gym Membership
My business intelligence (BI) and analytics software salesman friend said something interesting to me the other day over lunch. He said, “I don't sell software, I sell gym memberships. When someone joins a gym they are not really buying the membership....