My local newspaper reported on two privatization scams in the last week. The state of Virginia is privatizing some of our roads and tunnels and apparently the local governments have no say in the matter. Meanwhile, several of our local cities have joined forces with private companies to study combining some city services. The private [...]
Bank of America just got a slap on the wrist for reportedly stealing something on the order of 4.5 billion dollars from its debit card customers. Here’s how the bank scam works. Suppose one day you use your debit card to make three purchases, all around ten dollars. Then you end your day with [...]
This is the true story of how Big Bank Bully (BBB) and Fit Financial Firm (FFF) tried to screw me over and how, after a long struggle, I beat them. The names of the banks have been changed, not to protect the guilty, but to ensure that they can’t sue me. Both BBB and FFF [...]
Cybernetics, according to Stafford Beer, is the science of effective organization. Clear as mud, you say! For example, a bacterium that was not effectively organized would quickly die. An ecosystem that was not effectively organized would very shortly be something else. A poorly organized human nervous system would not be able to regulate breathing, heart [...]
The question resounded throughout company XYZ corridors: “If TQM is supposed to help us be better managers, then why do we hate it so much?!?!” XYZ was entering its fifth year of Total Quality Management and had even won a State Senate TQM award. But the worth of their TQM program was questioned by [...]
In the 1950′s Stafford Beer managed the largest Operations Research firm in England. A large corporation would come and say “Our inventory is out of control. Can you develop a system for us to get the inventory costs down?” Stafford always said something like “We certainly can. You have come to the right place. [...]