Business Thinking

How do you get better at understanding — and therefore doing — business?

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Process Behaviour Charts: More Than You Need To Know

The process behaviour chart is the easiest way to differentiate between routine and exceptional variation. This is everything you need to know to use it well.

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Feature image for The Deming Paradox: Operationally Rigorous Companies Aren't Very Nice Places to Work

The Deming Paradox: Operationally Rigorous Companies Aren't Very Nice Places to Work

Is it possible to be data driven and operationally rigorous and still be human centric at the same time? Deming — who came up with these data techniques — believe that it is possible. I'm not so sure.

Feature image for There Is No Truth in Business, Only Knowledge

There Is No Truth in Business, Only Knowledge

'Knowledge' here is defined as 'theories or models that help you predict better'. How an idea from W. Edwards Deming may well be a working philosophy of business.

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Operational Excellence is the Pursuit of ‘Knowledge’

It turns out that operational excellence results from the pursuit of a certain form of knowledge and using metrics in business is about the pursuit of this knowledge. This is Part 3 of the Becoming Data Driven series, and the result of a deep dive into the field of Statistical Process Control.

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How to Become Data Driven

The answer, like most things from Statistical Process Control, is more surprising and more obvious than you might think.

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Feature image for Goodhart's Law Isn't as Useful as You Might Think

Goodhart's Law Isn't as Useful as You Might Think

Goodhart's Law is useless. It tells you about a phenomenon, but it doesn't tell you how to solve it. We look at how organisations actually prevent Goodhart's Law, and illustrate this with Amazon's Weekly Business Review as an example.

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The Shape of a Technological Window

Technological Windows is Steve Jobs's conception of the game of consumer technology. We look at how he used it over the course of his career. Note: this is a follow-up to and an update for the Commoncog Case Library Beta.

Feature image for Is This a Moat: Mailchimp and PayPal’s Algorithmic Advantage

Is This a Moat: Mailchimp and PayPal’s Algorithmic Advantage

Two case studies of real world competitive advantage, followed by a question: was this a moat or not?

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Feature image for The Disaffected PhD Skunkworks: A Story About Process Improvement

The Disaffected PhD Skunkworks: A Story About Process Improvement

A concrete story of positive process improvement, deep from the trenches of early customer service at Amazon.

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Process Improvement is Trickier Than You Think

Most companies skimp on process improvement. But the surprising thing is that they do so not because they're bad or lazy — but because there are system dynamics that prevent them from doing so. We take a look at what those are.

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