What is the real issue with disruption of taxi services in Ireland via Uber?

by | Jul 26, 2019 | Disruption, Travel

In Ireland we have Uber in name – but not in the availability of private cars. What is the objection to this level of disruption? Would the disruption not result in better experience for consumers, better value for consumers, more capacity and greater use of these services by consumers? Clearly there would be disruption for the current incumbents – but this is inevitable with all new ways of doing business.

My own recent experiences in the US and Portugal have served to remind me that true Uber services are part of a modern economy – particularly when you are looking to attract and retain a strong tech community or to attract and develop tourism. And we want these people to grab an Uber rather than clogging up the streets with more cars.

Curious to see what transpires. Uber has of course attracted its own share of controversy in its short history. But as someone visiting foreign cities I have found the service to be outstanding – and represent much better value to me as a tourist than the traditional taxi options.

Just about to hop in another Uber…

The Open at Royal Portrush

by | Jul 24, 2019 | Sport

What a week – The Open played in Portrush and won by an Irish man, lowryShane Lowry.  Wonderful venue – built for golfers and spectators.  I spent Thursday and Friday on the links – following matches, taking in the atmosphere and enjoying the comraderie of golf fans from all over the world.

I was lucky enough to have been invited by a member to play Portrush last year.  The first hole seemed a lot easier with none of The Open pressure.  But then the pros made a lot of the other holes seem a lot easier than I had found them.

I drove from Dublin both days – or was driven Thursday and drove myself on Friday – a group of 4 on Thursday and 5 on Friday.  All of us enjoyed it.

Thursday was obviously a huge disappointment for Rory – but for all of us on the links was fantastic to discover so many vantage points – between 5 and 6, along 7, behind 16 – And many more. The village, the catering, the bars – all worked so well.  And we got to practice our donning and doffing of the rain gear.  The weather improved in the evening and we stayed to see Ernie finish – it was 9pm before we left. Access to the course was great – and all of the logistics leaving went very well.

Friday – what a great day.  Spent a couple of hours at the practice group.  Mesmerised by the skill, the attention to detail, the obsession with ‘pulling down on the inside’ – or so it looked.  Out on the links.  Lots of little battles – watching GMac make the cut, Darren getting there but only to throw it away with a 7 at 18, Rory missing out on the cut by 1.  And then there was the magic from Lowry..  Did not leave until 8.30.  And the fast food stop near Lisburn was welcomed by all.

Played golf Saturday at Carrickmines and then watched Shane Lowry do his magic – course record.  Fleetwood stayed in touch.  Beginning to believe.  Hard to reconcile my own 86 with Lowry’s golf.  Not the same game.  Although JB Holmes – on a bad day at the office – gave all of us some hope.

And then Sunday.  So much drama at the first.  Could have been a 3 v. a 6 in the top match – but finished a 4 v 5 – and the opportunity was lost (or the danger was averted!).  Spellbinding golf.  Would Lowry keep it together?  Absolutely.  And, in style and shotmaking approach,  a great throwback to the genius of Christy O’Connor, Paddy Skerritt and their ilk.

So much to remember.  And the opportunity for all of us to feel good about Shane, Portrush and The Open.

Unlearn by Barry O’Reilly

by | Feb 25, 2019 | Leadership, Book reviews - business, Management

Barry O’Reilly has written, ‘Unlearn’, a stimulating book for anyone interested in change management or business transformation.  In every walk of life we need to be able to set aside our preconceived ideas and take a fresh look. And this is the theme of the book.

Working with IAG

O’Reilly references in some detail the work he did with the IAG team some time after the appointment of Willie Walsh.  And he obviously has a proven method – and supporting tools – for getting senior executives out of the office and into a creative environment. In my own consulting work over the years I have always seen major benefits in getting people out of their day to day working environment.  It never ceases to surprise me how reluctant many CEOs seem to be to free up the time to make this happen.

C.S. Lewis

The book draws on many experts and is full of memorable quotes.  My favourite is from C. S. Lewis: ‘You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending’.  This seems to me to speak to so much to the reluctance to change, the resistance to kicking off transformation programmes.  Do not waste too much time thinking about what went before. Preferably celebrate it. But look to what you can influence: changing the ending.

I have run many projects in the past focused on business process redesign.  More recently I have become a convert to Lean – focus on customers, constant process improvement, work in the Gemba and relentlessly seek elimination of non value add. Barry O’Reilly references Toyota in a number of places – and picks out a quote from Taiichi Ohno which very much supports the Unlearn approach: ‘We are doomed to failure without a daily destruction of our various preconceptions’.

Leader challenges

O’Reilly sets out a number of challenges for current leaders – and is not shy about their likely need to unlearn much of that they practice. I thought his reference to entities with too much focus on cost cutting was interesting: risking resulting in people who cease to solve problems for themselves and embrace disempowerment.  His definition of the job of a leader would challenge many: to design systems to enable people to experiment with potential opportunities and learn as quickly, cheaply and safely as possible while they discover how to achieve the desired outcome

In conclusion I thought this was a pretty good read – and introduces a number of interesting references.  While I thought the pace of the book slipped in the second half, I do not believe this detracted much from the value of the book as a read for anyone looking to lead change or business transformation.

Lean applied in hospitals

Lean applied in hospitals

by | Dec 23, 2018 | Business, Healthcare, Management

Beyond heroes – a lean management systems for healthcare by Kim Barnas

Just finished reading my Kindle edition of this lean book.  Great reminder of what I learned a couple of years ago, completing my lean training.  Describes how lean was adopted in Theda Healthcare in the US.  Not all plain sailing. But lots of lessons learned. And lots of progress made.

Leadership and culture

Barnas puts the challenges to leadership/ management up front – side by side with culture.  If lean puts continuous improvement at the centre then how do we sustain the improvements?  Q leadership and culture. ‘Leadership succeeds only when it learns to evolve’ and ‘new management duties encouraged everyone to be more respectful, improvement focused and process orientated’. 

Principles of lean management system

Barnas describes these, for Thedacare, as:

  • Managing by process
  • Using A3 and
  • Plan-Do-Study-Adjust (‘PDSA’)

Standard work

The emphasis on ‘Standard work’ attracted my attention: ‘they use standard work for all value creating and incidental work in the enterprise – designed, documented and continually audited, revised and improved by line managers and work teams’.  Barnas sees stability in work processes underpinning continuous improvemet.

End to end value streams

Thedacare sees the patient as the ‘product’ and the flow of the patient through a cycle of care as the value stream.  Barnas noted that most patients pass through more than one value stream. And Thedacare set end to end improvement goals across some of those value streams – with 3 or 4 multidisciplinary kaizen teams.