Every business has the power to be innovative, but there are certain steps you need to take. Disruption is a fact of life for industries today. Cassettes disrupted the vinyl record industry and then were disrupted themselves by the iPod. Digital cameras disrupted the photographic film industry and now cameras […]
Every seasoned business traveler knows that you never plan to fly north in the winter, especially from Chicago. I’ll blame it on the mild winter, the grass (not snow) outside my window, or maybe a false sense of confidence; but whatever the excuse, I planned my March trip to Minneapolis. […]
As commerce has gone global, so has the supply chain that supports the system. This has created both challenges and opportunities for procurement professionals. The complexity of today’s cross-border commerce has put those companies that haven’t automated their processes at a distinct disadvantage. In a recent article in Supply Chain […]
I thought Amazon’s drone delivery service would be the most amazing approach to last mile delivery that couldn’t be topped. Obviously, I was mistaken. There’s no arguing the fact that we’ve all become used to an e-commerce “on-demand” world, where consumers want what they want when they want it…and they […]
We always talk about employee recruitment, but how do we retain those employees in a way that makes them look at their job as more than just a paycheck? I hate to start off this blog with a negative, but here’s a depressing statement, “In a recent survey, Gallup Research […]
You can’t manage what you can’t measure, so improving shop management relies on capturing the right metrics. What goes on in your shop should be looked at with the same scrutiny that you view every aspect of your business. But first, you need to be aware of what data is […]
Why is it that we often take for granted the great things in our own backyards? I live within an hour’s train ride of some of the most visited attractions in the world—The Art Institute of Chicago, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile—yet I rarely visit them, unless an out-of-town guest […]
When new trucks are delivered from the manufacturer, you would expect everything would be working to its optimum performance. Not so fast. Our industry is only too familiar with the tight margins we all operate under, so getting the best performance out of our vehicles, parts, and components is absolutely […]