Sustainable Job Creation through better Operating Efficiency

As published in The Witness Tuesday 23 August 2011 by Rick McCarthy

In October 2010, The ANC-Led South African government made an announcement promising to create 5 million new jobs by 2020.

Yet with a looming double dip recession, many business owners are wondering how to keep their current employees on the payroll, let alone add more.  In fact, as costs of doing business continue to climb, many business owners are looking for ways to cut costs, and a direct hit to the payroll is usually the easiest answer.

The bold announcement obviously begs the question: What is the most responsible and logical way to create more employment opportunities in a country that is battling with a high unemployment rate?

Gain operating efficiency though better problem solving.

As published in The Witness, Tuesday 20 September 2011 by Rick McCarthy

After reading my last article, many of you may be asking “What is Lean? So just to give you a very brief introduction, Lean is the Management system that leading companies around the world are adopting in order to reach a goal of becoming world-class operators. By World-Class, I mean companies that can offer lowest cost, highest quality and the shortest lead-time.

Return to Business Basics

As published in the Witness 1st November 2011 by Rick McCarthy

WHEN it comes to improving business it sometimes appears that we are overlooking the obvious, which is to focus on the basics: 

1.Focus on quality

2.Reduce customer lead time

3.Quicken cash flow

4.Reduce cost/increase profit

5.Improve employee morale

With so many options that range from IT solutions and process automation to Lean and Six Sigma promising to help business achieve these objectives, how does one know where to start?

Introduction to Business Improvement

 As Published in the Management Today November 2011 issue by Rick McCarthy

In May 2011, The International Institute for Management Development (IMD) released its World Competitive Rankings for 2011. This is an international measure of efficiency for both Government and Business. It measures, among other things, how well Government and Business are working together in the 59 ranked countries. This is especially relevant now as the latest rankings can be seen as a measure of how well each economy is bouncing back from the recent recession. The IMD reports that South Africa is ranked 52 out of 59 falling 8 positions from 44^th to 52^nd from 2010. An interesting comparison is that this leaves South Africa as the least competitive of the BRICS countries: Brazil-44, Russia-49, India-32, China-19.