Successfull Leadership is all Random

I was reading an article on “Great Leaders”.  The article said that all great leaders have “an innate ability to read the forces that shaped the times in which they lived—and to seize on the resulting opportunities.”  

My question is, “Did they simply get lucky?”.  It seems like there are many people who think they know what direction the world is moving.  If you read any stock website or investing newsletter, there is no shortage of opinions about the “times in which we live” and how to make money.

There is also no shortage of people who are willing to invest in some scheme hoping that it turns into the next Amazon.com, McDonalds or Avon.  Some of these ventures are successful.  A few are wildly successful.  The majority are break even or worse.

There is a popular theory that says, “given enough time, a chimpanzee typing at random will eventually type out a copy of one of Shakespeare's plays..”  Is that same thing true about entrepreneurs?  There are millions of entrepreneurs around the world with millions of ideas.  Each one is hoping to get rich.  Is it only hard work and some kind of sooth-saying ability that makes the difference between great success and average success or even failure or is it just inevitable that a small percentage will get it right.

I would like to see someone do a study about people who thought they had some great, world-changing idea and failed.  Are those people like the Ray Kroc’s and Sam Walton’s?  Are they just as smart, just as hard-working and just as educated?  Was there problem simply one of timing or luck?

Take Dean Kamen for example.  Everyone says he is a brilliant, hardworking, successful guy.  He has many wonderful inventions that changed healthcare.  He also owns his own island, so he is doing something right business-wise.  His one main failure is the Segway.  He thought it would be an invention that would change the world.  He said that third-world countries would design cities around the Segway.  Well, its been a few years since it was invented and the world has not changed.  Apparently, he could not read the forces shaping his time.  Maybe if he would have introduced the Segway at a different time or was able to sell it for a lower price, it would have caught on.  Could it be circumstances that is keeping the Segway from being successful?

I’m not ragging on Doctor Kamen.  He is a great scientist, inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist.  I am saying that he may not be included in the list of great leaders because of timing and luck.

Six Sigma

The September 2005 issue of Fast Company has an article called “Six Sigma Stigma”.  The author was in Japan visiting a car-making facility in Toyota City.  Toyota is renowned for its quality.  In fact, Toyota had the #1 ranking for auto manufacturers in JD Power and Associates 2005  Initial Quality Study.   The funny thing is, Toyota does not use Six Sigma.  The engineers at Toyota had never even heard of it.  On the other hand, Ford, who has been using Six Sigma since 1999, finished below average on the JDP survey again.

The article also lists Xerox and Sprint as Six Sigma adopters whose quality scores fall below that of their peers.  Canon, Toshiba and HP have better quality then Xerox.  Verizon beats sprint.  None of the companies with better scores are Six Sigma disciples.

What does this say about Six Sigma?  Is it a bad tool for management?  Does it help improve quality?  Six Sigma is a good tool that can help improve quality.  The problem is most likely with management’s attitude.  The people at the top might want excellent quality.  They may realize that it not only improves sales, but it saves money—so, it affects both the top and bottom lines of the income statement.  That is all well and good, but one other thing management is looking for is an easy fix or a sure thing.  They don’t want to have to work hard at quality.  Quality is not what gets them a bonus.  Higher stock prices lead to higher bonuses.  Management doesn’t really believe in quality because it takes too much effort and takes time away from “growing the business”.  So, they sign up for the sure thing or the latest buzzword that will meet the immediate need with minimal effort on their part.  The board of directors signs off on the huge expenditures needed to train everyone because Jack Welch said it’s a good idea.

Here is a truth about managers, especially at the upper-level.  They don’t do real work.  They think, plan, manage and DELEGATE.  Programs like Six Sigma are great because they let management do what it does best—lead.  However, that is the big problem when it comes to quality.  Management can not simply dictate quality and go back to analyzing sales reports.  They must stay engaged.  They must review quality reports and continually ask why the company is not meeting its goals.  They must fund projects that focus on increased quality.  Six Sigma makes it too easy to issue the order and forget it.

Why are companies like Toyota successful at having high quality when they don’t even know what Six Sigma is?  Because they work hard at it from the top of the organization on down.  Other companies who talk about quality should start working at it as well.

Create and Publish Blogs in Word

I read on Google’s blog about a new add-on for MS Word. It lets you write a blog in a Word document and instantly publish it to your blog. No cut and paste. Just write and publish.

I wrote this post in Word. If you want to try it out, go here

Disposable message recorder

Here's another thing I would like to see. I would love to have a post-it note like device that recorded short, digital recordings. Imagine being able to stick a small piece of paper onto something, squeeze a corner of the paper and then record a short message. Another person would later squeeze the same paper to hear the message. If the device was cheap enough to be disposable, it would be a much better way to leave messages then writing.

Personal Assistant

One of the things I really want is a digital personal assistant. I know we are years away from having a full blown assistant, but maybe someone could make one that does one single task. Of course, speech and speech recognition would be essential. Here are some things I would like mine to do. Any one would be good.

** Keep track of my to-do list no matter where I am. So, if I'm driving in the car and I think of something that needs doing, I should be able to tell my assistant and it will add it to the list. Also, my list should be accessbile wherever I am. It should be automatically copied to all of my computers--network at home, PC at work, all handhelds, phone, website, etc.

** Play songs from my music library. I should be able to ask for a specific song, artist, genre or playlist. The assistant should ask me questions if it is confused.

** Track down simple encyclopedia-like facts.

Can't someone write a bot that does these things?


"For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." – 2 Cor 12: 10