“How productive are you?” it is a simple question right? It is a question that many managers struggle to answer despite the platitudes given in board rooms and staff meetings about efficiency and being productive.   Most economist will agree that productivity can be defined as the measurement of output per unit of input.   More simply stated productivity is output divided by input.  An organization can easily calculate this equation and easily to determine the level of productivity in the organization.  It is done in most organizations quite frequently and without the explicit statement of a...

The baker counts aloud “Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen is a dozen” and smiling hands the patron the bag of goodies and says “thank you, come again and please tell a friend.” Everything we need to know about customer service can be learned from this simple interaction between a customer and the local baker. The baker is building a stable base of loyal customers by repeating this action to every customer that walks into his store. The satisfied customer does not realize that the baker just did four very distinct things that contributed to their overall satisfaction. In businesses we may...