Case Studies, Operations Strategy
Len Musielak
How We Built a $200M Testing Operation in 12 ...

How we built a $200M statewide COVID testing operation from scratch—in just 12 months.

How We Built a $200M Testing Operation in 12 Months—During a Global Crisis: What SHIELD Illinois Taught Me About Scaling Fast Without Losing Control
Case Studies, Operations Strategy
Len Musielak
Beyond the Scorecard: How We Built a Global ...

How an EMBA project became the foundation for scalable ops built on trust and performance.

Beyond the Scorecard: How We Built a Global Distributor Management System for Abbott Point of Care
Operations Strategy, Case Studies
Len Musielak
Fixing the Release Cycle: How a Kanban ...

After two years of missed software release deadlines, Liquidpoint needed more than just better estimates—they needed an operational overhaul. Here's how I uncovered the root cause and rebuilt a delivery system that just worked.

Fixing the Release Cycle: How a Kanban Transformation Delivered Liquidpoint’s First On-Time Release in Two Years
Case Studies, Leadership in Action
Len Musielak
Calm in Chaos: What 50,000 Runners Taught Me ...

What 50,000 runners taught me about calm, trust, and leading high-stakes ops in real time.What 50,000 runners taught me about calm, trust, and leading high-stakes ops in real time.

Calm in Chaos: What 50,000 Runners Taught Me About Operational Leadership
Len Musielak
Want to change your culture? Get in the weeds.

The politics in the middle management level of most organizations is designed to make sure executives don’t really know what the culture is really like. The only way to get past it is to dive into the weeds.

Want to change your culture? Get in the weeds.

Strategy

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Ask An Entrepreneur: Shannon Clemonds of Shannon Gail

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Ask An Entrepreneur: Shannon Clemonds of Shannon Gail

For our inaugural Ask An Entrepreneur, I spoke to my good friend Shannon Gail Clemonds owner/operator of Shannon Gail. Shannon Gail is a Chicago-based event planning firm producing 90+ weddings and events per year locally and across the United States. The team is comprised of a unique blend of business and event professionals with backgrounds in finance, marketing, design, venue management, hospitality, and catering and prides itself on being the go-to expert in all areas of event production. In its 10 years of business, the company has continued to set the bar for event management standards and has built an impressive resume of corporate and social clientele. 

Your organization has matured. Has your org chart?

Your organization has matured. Has your org chart?

You don’t need to go full hierarchy but adding a level of middle management will acknowledge the dynamics that are already present and make your organization more efficient.  You can hold onto your principles and organizational culture while still providing a framework that adequately specifies delegated decision making throughout the organization.

Strategy Drives Success in Baseball (and Business)

Strategy Drives Success in Baseball (and Business)

What are your strengths? What do you need to work on? What is the next pitch (opportunity) for your business? Will you be ready to knock it out of the park or will you foul it off? Do you know the answers to these questions or are you swinging blindly at whatever the pitcher throws? Competitive strategy is too important to leave to gut feeling, guess work, or good luck.

Follow the leader is a children's game not an innovation strategy.

Follow the leader is a children's game not an innovation strategy.

If you want to be the next Amazon, Apple, Intel, or Google the first thing you should do is disregard everything Amazon, Apple, Intel, and Uber except the fact that they followed no one. Throw out the mold. Break the barriers. Disregard the benchmarks. Ignore what you have read in every blog including this one. Forge a new path like the successful entrepreneurs before you. You can be the next great success story but only if you blaze your own trail.

Change is not a reason for change

Change is not a reason for change

Simply put, companies evolve or die.  If GE had maintained the same product line it started with when the company was known as Edison General Electric (i.e. Edison bulbs and direct current), the company would never have grown to become the multibillion-dollar multinational conglomerate it is now.  However, like New Coke and Crystal Clear Pepsi, some changes are just not warranted.

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Do Something: What to do when you can't do anything.

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Do Something: What to do when you can't do anything.

We have all been put in situations beyond our control.  We have all experienced a time where our fate or the fate of our organization rested squarely in the hands of someone or something over which we had no influence or authority. However, in my experience, there is always something you can do to improve the situation for customers.