The Friday Editor's Column

by Marc Simard

Unbelievably ( well at least to me) a new academic year will soon be upon us. Here at the NSCC, faculty return to the office on Monday, August 28th with the students arriving on the following Tuesday (September 5th).

I have often thought that for most of us, at leastparents and children , September is the real New Year. While we don't stay up late at night ( Ok, I confess I do the night before classes as I am always exciting to start afresh), blast off fire works and drink inexpensive champagne it is a time for new goals, that plan to do better this year, a time where we in the academic world promise to do better, to improve, to make a difference in our world.

So my new year's resolution this year is to provide the readers of our little blog an article written by NSCC staff or industry each Friday. I was speaking to an alumnae yesterday who reminded me that the blog is useful as who has the time to do all the reading to find articles of interest to industry. So I promise not to loose sight of that !

I would sincerely invite yout to set up a dialogue , a discussion of articles that resonate with you or perhaps you disagree with mildly or strongly. Just click on the comment icon and write away. We would really like student industry interaction and think this is a real time (or nearly) way of doing that.

Don't hesitate to email me ( marc.simard@nscc.ca) with comments or story suggestions or even rants of your own that I could add on a Friday Afternoon.

I read some blogs more regularily than others and would like to share with you a portion of my regular "Tom Peters Times". I have been a big fan ever since I first ran across his search for excellence("Search for Excellence"). I encourage you to read his blog (There is a link just to the right in the links section) it still to this day is a "blinding flash of the obvious". It startles me with insight and some time just damn annoys me. At any rate this article from this weeks Times to perhap wet your interest.

Tom Peters Times! August 2006

Tom's Necessity for BoldnessFive Bold Objectives In an Office Solutions article, Tom rants: I am an avowed incrementalist. Try, test, and experiment are among my favorite words. I still fervently believe that a pragmatic, incrementalist approach to progress is sound. But I also believe the visions to which we aspire must be grand ones. Not so much because inspiring visions are superb motivators, which they are, but because we must markedly pick up the pace of change in our businesses. If we don't, we face the prospect of a permanently reduced standard of living. Bold Objective No. 1: Speed of innovation Whether retailer, banker, or science-based company, reduce your product development cycle time--this year--by 50 percent. If we are to master the new competitive environment, shortening the product development cycle is imperative in every industry. Bold Objective No. 2: Premium products Through service, quality, and enhanced innovation, shift your product or service portfolio to differentiated, higher price, and higher value-added plateaus immediately. The specialty steel, specialty retail, specialty chemical, and specialty forest product companies outperform the diversified and generalist members of their industries by 50 percent or more. Bold Objective No. 3: People and organization Reduce the number of layers of management at any operating activity to two. Pare corporate staff by 80 percent; eliminate all first-line supervision jobs; get 100 percent of the people on the payroll into a profit-sharing program. Bold Objective No. 4: Paperwork reduction Reduce the paperwork and procedures in every operation by half. Bold Objective No. 5: Time and attention This year, devote fully half of your time to the single strategic priority that is most vital for you to achieve lasting distinction in your markets. Visit the customers--visit the stores! Any of these five goals is imposing, especially for an old or large firm. Yet, I strongly believe these or like objectives are essential to the survival of most firms, whether they are high- or low-tech, service or manufacturing. Originally published in Office Solutions, Volume 20, Issue 5, pp. 44-45

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Subscribe at http://www.tompeters.com/your_world/join_the_fray/