Have you ever played “Three Truths and a Lie”? It’s a great icebreaker for groups of people who don’t know each other. At the opening of a workshop I ask each participant to write three truths and one lie about themselves. Each person takes turn reading their four statements to determine if others can guess...

“Not long ago, accounting was boring”, said the front page of the February 6, 2002 Wall Street Journal. “With the profession facing a credibility crisis, a wide array of critics – from members of Congress to small investors to officials of the big accounting firms themselves – have begun calling for a major overhaul of the...

“Dusty BMW abandoned at the airport”. This headline caught my eye on a recent trip to Austin, Texas. Apparently a 1985 BMW 7 series sedan has been parked in the same space at Austin International Airport since September 2000. At this point, the owner who picks it up will owe $6,480. That’s $18 a
day for...

Based on my calculations, it would take Ford Motor Company 132 million years to make one of each possible combination of model, color and options currently offered to the buying public! While there is no single root cause for Ford’s staggering 3rd quarter ’06 $5.8 billion loss, I believe product line complexity is a major...