As more of our clients have moved to agile software development, we've seen a growing need for business agility: getting non-engineering functions involved earlier and more collaboratively, so that companies deliver better revenue results as well as better software. Let's make this more concrete by mapping it to the restaurant business.

FORD'S ATTEMPT TO REGAIN TOUCH WITH THE MARKET
By Peter P. Roosen & Tatsuya Nakagawa

Ford has big problems – with marketing shortfalls being at the root of much of the company's current woes. Ford's marketing needs improvement. Marketing is defined not in the traditional sense of advertising and other sales related and supportive activities, but rather as the process of anticipating, identifying and satisfying customer requirements profitably. In short, Ford has lost touch with the market and needs to come up with well-priced products that many people will be happy to buy. Costs need to kept in line with this.

1985 COLUMN ARCHIVES

A New Class of Heroes
Tom Peters

Who are our business heroes? T. Boone Pickens, takeover artist; Ivan Boesky, arbitrageur; Arthur Rock, venture capitalist; and the entrepreneurs: Steven Jobs, formerly of Apple, and Donald Burr of People Express. Inside the corporation, the heroes are Macy's buyers, Hewlett-Packard's engineers, Trammell Crow's real estate deal makers.

Greatness Is Where You Least Expected It
By Tom Peters
Tom Peters - 1985 COLUMN ARCHIVES

Car buying is seldom a pleasant experience. Car ownership in often onerous, too. A minor breakdown, a broken turn signal -- and the first thing one thinks about is the inevitable struggle, the hours to be lost fighting with a surly, overcrowded, unresponsive dealership service department. one accepts it, though, because "That's the way things are."

Tom Peters - 1985 COLUMN ARCHIVES
MANAGEMENT: The One Thousand Percent Factor
Posted on January 07, 1985.
By Tom Peters

Despite the fact that they have never had a season as magnificent as that of the Detroit Tigers in 1984, over the past 25 years the Baltimore Orioles are more than 100 games ahead of the team with the next best winning record in major league baseball. With the same field length as the next team, and a generally poor draft position as a function of their prior season's good performance, the Oakland-Los Angeles Raiders under Al Davis' firm hand have put together an extraordinary record in professional football since 1963. They have 206 wins against 82 losses. Their winning percentage of 0.715 is the best by far in all of big-league sports.

LEADERSHIP, THE ONLY WAY TO MANAGE PEOPLE
By Ben Simonton

Managing people is all about leadership because leadership is the only way to bring out their full brainpower, in other words, their full potential of creativity, innovation, productivity, motivation and commitment. What's required is a superior leadership strategy because without it, your employees might just decide to "leave their brain at the door" as they enter your workplace.

Planning Procedures for Building Effective Management Systems
by Chris Anderson Part One of Series:   Next Week: Development

Have you ever had the opportunity to watch the construction of a large building? The daily progress from foundation to top floor is truly amazing, and if you're like me, you wonder "how does it all happen?" The answer: it takes a lot of planning.