Category : Coolness, Feeling stuff
11th February 2008, Monday morning 8 a.m.
“Good Morning Gordon, how are you this fine sunny February day?” Sue Armitage, Andy’s secretary, loved to multitask so had no problem being polite and sociable with me whilst she filed stuff away.
“Morning Ms Moneypenny, I’m fine. How are you?”
“I’m doing fine, nearly Valentine’s day.” She continued to file as she chatted away.
Sue was always a sociable soul, organised and efficient. Her knock-off Chanel suit reflected her style, yet she somehow managed to appear more informal than her attire would suggest. And clearly Valentine’s day was an added boost to her.
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Category : Coolness, Feeling stuff
If, like me, you back up your photos on a separate drive but think the archive and the originals may no longer be in sync, download Microsoft’s Windows tool SyncToy 2.1:
Simple to use, FREE (my favourite price) and did a good job at making sure these match.
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank Phil Bowers, University of Edinburgh, in both his capacity as the lecturer who introduced me to the “Theory of Constraints” and as the MBA dissertation adviser for his guidance and help through my own “bottlenecks”. The resulting dissertation was top in class. This book draws on that research, together with more recent experiences, and Phil’s kind review of the near final draft of this version.
I also acknowledge those at the financial services company – referred to as Warrender Financial – that provided the access and support in the original endeavour. And those in other service environments that have helped cement the belief that even at the basic conceptual level, the Theory of Constraints and the bottleneck metaphor really do add value.
I also wish to thank my parents for their support, interest and understanding. And to those friends and acquaintances that follow the same path of curiosity, passion, and willingness to challenge limiting beliefs! Keep stepping up!
“It’s amazing how long it takes to complete something you’re not working on.” R.D. Clyde
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10 profitable eways to make the “Theory of Constraints” work in Services
About three years ago I published this short, provocative book on how to use the “Theory of Constraints” in service environments. Over the coming months, I’ll be releasing most of the content here. It was very much a labour of love, probably involving over 1000 hours of research and writing to get it distilled to this. Feedback was mostly good, though as ever, one or two felt challenged by the style and content. Can’t please everyone, all of the time.
“I heartily recommend it, to novice and experienced ToC users alike”
Vicky Mabin PhD FORS, Co-Author of “The World of the Theory of Constraints” and Associate Professor at Victoria Management School, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
“I really enjoyed reading this…It conveys your very fine mind, providing practical solutions from your own experience in this field”.
Phil Bowers, Former MBA Director, Edinburgh University Management School, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
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Over the past few months, I’ve been working with Angler’s Companions to package up years of journalism, articles and scientific research on fisheries management in Scotland. In wanting to use colour photos, graphs, maps and illustrations in a niche market, it became clear that the costs of traditional publishing just didn’t stack up. The solution was to create PDF e-books for either download or CD distribution (not everyone in the UK has superfast internet, whilst others want to have that original file on CD).
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11th February 2008, Monday morning 7:30am
“This is not good” I said out loud. “Definitely not good”. I had arrived at the office thirty minutes early in the hope that there would be plenty of time before the meeting to incorporate my weekend work into the report.
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