Editors: Permission to Reprint Articles

Permission to reprint articles by Robert Cannon, C.M.C. at no charge is given to all print and electronic media provided that the following biographical information is included with the article in your publication. Permission is also granted for reasonable editing.

June / July 2010 - The Mystery of Advertising

• Most small to medium sized businesses don’t fully understand the process and consequently waste much of what they spend. Inventors and start-ups don’t always do a good job of understanding their prospective customer.

April 2010 - Government Needs To Go LEAN

• The growing encroachment of government into our lives, the increasing level of debt and the elected officials ignoring the pleas of their constituents is wakening We the People to the tremendous problem facing our country.

March 2010 - People Fit Interviewing Tips

• Hiring the right person is always a risky business, but as business improves there will come a time when you are going to have to add people to your organization.

December 2009 - Inventor Mistakes to Avoid

• Unless you have created something of unusual design, most design patents are not worth the time or the money.

 October 2009 - Tenacity, the Key Resource

• I couldn’t be bothered with the small stuff, I had big dreams and only concerned myself with big ideas, big opportunities …and big risks.

 September 2009 - Mousenomics for Humans

 I am here today to help you humans gain a better understanding of your economy by studying Mousenomics.

 August 2009 - Options for Today’s Economy

• Recent interviews with companies have provided me with 5 problems and solutions that are being used to advantage.

 July 2009 - The Recession Strategy Fail

• The future of your business depends on your selling effort, but how do you know what to sell, how to sell and where to sell if you do not keep up to date with how the world is changing around you.

 June 2009 - Steps to Survive Uncertainty

•  On the business front, we have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world and more government regulations (OSHA, EPA, etc.) than our foreign competitors.

 May 2009 - The Three Levels of Existence

•   If we accept that organizations and businesses in particular are groups of human beings striving to meet their individual needs by satisfying the needs of others, then we can begin to see that organizations and businesses operate on a continuum as well.

 April 2009 - How to Unleash Unlimited Possibilities

•  Our traditional semi-free market approach isn’t working as demonstrated by the problems surfacing with big corporations these last few years.

 March 2009 - Feeling Down?

•  Manufacturing and Marketing Leaders up to $100 million in size who believe that business is good because it provides valuable products and services to customers, job security to employees and a return on investment to the owners.

 February 2009 - How to Kill the Golden Goose - Big is not Always Better

•  As a consultant and speaker, I have come to appreciate the importance of distance from the day-to-day issues that allows me to gain a much different perspective.

 January 2009 - You Might be a Digital Dinosaur

•  Way back in the early 90s, the economy was going through a downturn, media had been tremendously affected by USA Today, Cable TV and more targeted advertising.

 December 2008 - The Tree of Knowledge 3.0

• Today, with personal computers and the Internet we have arrived at The Tree of Knowledge 3.0.

November 2008 - Eight Reasons Why New Products Fail 

• The most optimistic success rate I have run across for new product ideas is about 3%. In other words, 97% of product ideas never successfully enter the market. 

 October 2008 - Perpetual and Situational Indecision

• Situational procrastinators, on the other hand, need to understand what is happening and take the four steps to insure that they don’t transition into perpetual procrastinators.

 September 2008 - Don’t Solve Problems

• There are two kinds of businesses in this kind of economy. There are those who sit on the sidelines and wait for the economy to turn and there are those who scramble to make the best of the situation.

 August 2008 - Uncertainty Planning Strategies

• There is talk in Washington of nationalizing everything from Energy to Medical Care to the Banking System. Our courts have become political entities rather than judicial entities.

 July 2008 - Strategies for Exponential Change in the Global Market

• Since I am all about enhancing performance in organizations, it is pretty obvious that organizations are going to have to be very agile to survive in the new world we are facing.

 June 2008 - 2008 National Hardware Show Redux

• Manufacturing may be leaving China! I heard from several people that they are moving production to Mexico or back to the U.S. In part because of the price increases coming out of China.

 May 2008 - Taking Aim at Optimizing Human Performance 

• This past year, the bull’s eye has evolved in my mind to being a metaphor for the evolution in management and leadership that faces us all. Understanding this bull’s eye not only shows the evolution of leadership, but also helps us as leaders to optimize human performance in our organizations.

 April 2008 - 12 Cold, Hard Reasons Why The Soft Stuff Counts

• To my knowledge, the book “12 The Elements of Great Managing” by Rodd Wagner & James K. Harter, PH.D. is the first of it’s kind to provide proof that the soft stuff of management really counts in business.

 March 2008 - You won't be until you are

•  It is a statement with wide applicability and yet the meaning has haunted me for years and always implied some deeper meaning.

 February 2008 - Secrets of a Happy Life!

• If you are not happy and want to be happy, there is only one person who can make that happen. The benefits of being happy are many in that you are more likely to attract what you want from a positive mindset than you are from a negative one.

 January 2008 - Progress Requires a Starting Point

• Over the course of my career, I have come to understand that there are four phases of business. Virtually every company I visit or read about is in one of these phases.

 September 2007 - 10 Truths for Inventors

• My experience as an inventor combined with my work as a coach for inventors has resulted in the following 10 truths that every inventor needs to know.

 February 2007 - Eight Steps to Improve Your Decision-Making!

• Problems are negative almost by definition and negative thoughts invoke the constricting “fight or flight” response in us rather than helping us to relax and be inspired and creative.

 July 2006 - Blue Ocean Strategy & The Product Life Cycle 

• 2005 saw the publication of a new book entitled “Blue Ocean Strategy.” It is about, “How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant.”

 December 2005 - Decision-Making Rules Learned 

• Today, I want to revisit Rule #1 from a little different perspective and talk a little about some of the other rules that I have learned. Hopefully this will be of some benefit to you without having to suffer the mistakes that were part of my learning process.

 November 2005 - The 5 Inherent Defects of Traditional Decision-Making 

• This is the basic “How to make a decision” approach that we have used since Ben Franklin introduced the old compare the pros and cons approach several hundred years ago.

 October 2005 - Decision-Making is a Serious and Growing Problem 

•  The top casualties of poor decision-making are profits, company reputation, long-term growth, employee morale, productivity and revenue.

 September 2005 - Beyond Scientific Management 

• There are the beginnings of LEAN, TQM, Re-engineering and much of what we believe to be modern management thinking. Amazing to think that it has only taken us about 90 years to start to implement some of the ideas about which he wrote.

 August 2005 - The Seen and Unseen Components of Business Success 

• I have seen intelligent, knowledgeable people with great business plans fail and I have seen others less well equipped seemingly stumble into tremendous success.

 May 2005 - New Product Launch Checklist 

• Launching a new product or service is an exciting time and it is possible to overlook something in the rush to get that product or service to market. I developed the following checklist to make certain that I didn’t make the same mistake twice.

 April 2005 - The Impending Paradigm Shift in Hardware Marketing 

• The following is an attempt to give you a snap shot of some of the things that have brought me to this point in my thinking as well as some early pioneers in this shift and what they are doing that have the potential to revolutionize this business.

 March 2005 - Taxes as a Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy 

• “As Europe Cuts Corporate Tax, Pressure Rises on U.S. to Follow” in the January 28th edition of the Wall Street Journal online.

 February 2005 - Change and the Cycle of Specialization 

• There is a Cycle of Specialization that has repeated itself over the centuries. It has been difficult to spot because the cycles have frequently been far apart, but the pace is quickening. 

 December 2004 - Agility for Sustainability 

• The rate of change is outpacing our ability to adapt. We are witnessing this inability to adapt every day as organizations in business, government, religion, healthcare etc. fail right before our eyes. 

 September 2004 - The Overhead is Killing US! 

• I have worked in a number of different and varied manufacturing environments and have always been amazed to find overhead charges at 300% of the labor costs or more. 

 August 2004 - The Power of the Question 

• The power of the Question is incredible and it cuts across all areas of life. If you don’t believe me, just think back to your last trip to the doctor’s or the dentist’s office. 

 July 2004 - Collective Intelligence and Collective Wisdom 

• There has been much written about the change from a manufacturing economy to a service economy and there has been much written about the movement of manufacturing jobs off shore, but I want to concentrate on another kind of change.

 May 2004 - New Product Development 

• The problem developing successful new products is not a shortage of ideas, but rather the expense in producing and marketing new products without any guarantee of success. 

 February 2004 - Inspiration or Incineration Management! 

• Throughout my career, I have asked managers what they look for in hiring new employees. The single most sought after characteristic is a positive attitude.

 December 2003 - Would I Hire a Consultant? 

• As an operating manager, the details of the daily business are all consuming and they are critical to business. Outside consultants have a fresh perspective and tend to focus on the big picture, the latest thinking and processes to facilitate change.

 November 2003 - <1 Sigma Decisions in a 6 Sigma World 

• Six Sigma has become the standard for product quality in our highly competitive world, but we are still wrestling with decision-making that is running at a less than one sigma success rate.