Business, Tech, Consulting, Analytics

On November 25, 1120 A.D., the son and sole heir of the English king Henry I , boarded a new, fast ship to cross the French channel.  The heir, William Adelin, generously provided the crew with wine. Many of England’s elite were on board.  Some on board, just before departure, hurried off the ship—rightly worried about a thoroughly intoxicated crew.  The ocean was churning from storms during the night.   The “white ship” struck a rock and all on board, except for a butcher, drowned.  The cost to society for this entirely avoidable disaster was enormous. The loss of William Adelin set off an English civil war lasting for years, with thousands perishing as the armies of his sister Matilda and Stephen of Blois ravaged the countryside.  In 2014 the city of Flint Michigan made the decision to switch its water supply from the more expensive Detroit system to using the Flint river as its source.  Serious health problems resulted. Babi...

In Praise of Captain Obvious Injustice.  That’s what I think about when the poor dude is humiliated every half hour on television. Why?  In real life and business management, there’s value in questioning the obvious.  Following are some examples from my practice over the years (modified for client privacy) : ·         Obvious : employees get sick, at least once every few years.  Nonobvious : Some employees went for five or ten years without getting sick (zero sick hours).  Resolution : Employees had an informal deal with their supervisor, to not report sick hours, unless it got “out of hand.”  When those employees left the firm, they were over compensated for sick leave not taken.  ·         Obvious : fixed assets cannot have a value less than zero.  Nonobvious : Good intentioned employees shifted assets and broke some of them down into more tractable...