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October 2007

On Travel: Berlin, Germany and Dublin, Ireland

by Pete Abilla on October 31, 2007

travel berlin germany

A few months ago, I went to Dublin and Berlin for work.  I loved the trip — it was so good to see co-workers, that have become dear friends, in-person.  During my trip, I took a few pictures that I wish to share.  Sadly, however, I wasn’t able to take any pictures while I was [...]

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The Basics Perfect or Engendering Loyalty? or Both?

by Pete Abilla on October 30, 2007

Bijan shared this great, real-world experience of how getting the basics perfect is, in fact, a loyalty driver: his experience? — with Amazon.com Customer Service. In his words, Two weeks ago I bought an item on Amazon. It was a toaster oven. In my haste I shipped it to my brother instead of my home [...]

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Queueing, Waiting, Haunted Houses, & Halloween

by Pete Abilla on October 23, 2007

halloween, haunted house, coupons

This weekend my wife and I waited in the cold, wet, Utah winter weather to go through a haunted house — The Castle of Chaos.  In the course of trying to enjoy an annual American holiday tradition — Halloween — I received another lesson on the Psychology of Queueing instead. Before I tell my story, [...]

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Hacking at Branches or Striking at the Root?

by Pete Abilla on October 19, 2007

fishbone diagram example

Henry David Thoreau said “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil for every one striking at the root.”  His statement was a commentary on the human condition but, I believe, describes quite well the state of most companies: companies launch initiatives that don’t actually attack root causes of business problems, instead their [...]

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Shoulders of Giants: Armand Feigenbaum

by Pete Abilla on October 13, 2007

The Mckinsey Quarterly recently published an interview with Armand V. Feigenbaum, a long-time proponent of Quality, former Director of Worldwide Manufacturing at GE, and renown author on Quality.  The interview is not terribly interesting, but he does share some very obvious things worth reiterating: the customer is not an inspector and the customer judges quality [...]

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Jeff Bezos on Lean and Six Sigma

by Pete Abilla on October 7, 2007

jeff bezos profile

It’s been a while now since I was employed at Amazon.com, but I still greatly admire Jeff Bezos and Amazon.  Culturally, it was hands-down the most brutal and cut-throat environment, but one that really brought out the best in you — not from a people or relationship perspective, but from an innovation and business-thinking perspective.  [...]

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