Breaking Failure · How to Break the Cycle of Business Failure and Underperformance Using Root Cause, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, and an Early Warning System by Edsel, Alexander -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

About This eBook Title Page Copyright Page Praise for Breaking Failure Dedication Page Contents Acknowledgments About the Author Introduction

State of Management Applicability of These Concepts Benefiting from the Topic

1. Failure & Stagnation

Failure, Failure Everywhere Underperformance The Overlooked Costs of Failure: The Intangibles and Opportunity Costs The Clogged Pipeline The Causes of Failure Why Is Failure So Prevalent? Final Thoughts on Failure

2. Don’t Start Off on the Wrong Foot

The Action Bias Frames Framework Selection The Domain Transfer of Failure Mode and Effect Analysis Brief History of FMEA and Its Adoption by Different Disciplines Objectives of the FMEA Best Practices for a Successful FMEA Components That Make Up a FMEA Examples of Preventive Measures Detection Measures

3. The Business Failure Audit and the Domain Transfer of Root Cause Analysis

How Should One Proceed? The Domain Transfer of Root Cause Analysis Differences Between an RCA and Functional Area Audits The Adoption of Functional Area Audits Background and Use of the Failure Audit (Root Cause Analysis) NASA’s RCA Methodology How to Conduct the Failure Audit: An Overview

The Start of the RCA—The Fault Tree (Step 5) Step 6: Creating the Event and Causal Tree Step 7: The Final Recommendations

4. The Early Warning System

Background Creating a Z-Score Metric for Other Areas of Business The Option of Building a More Sophisticated EWS Creating the EWS and Its Foundation, the Causal Forecast

5. Blind Spots and Traps

Areas of Failure: Knowns and Unknowns The “Known-Knowns”

Problem 1: Faulty Research Problem 2: Leaving Out Key Questions or Data Points Problem 3: The Purchase Intent Fallacy Problem 4: Correlation Does Not Imply Causation Problem 5: Cherry-Picked Data Problem 6: The Shiny Object Compulsion and Losing Sight of the “Basics”

The “Known-Unknowns”: Forecasting Improving Forecasts The “Unknown–Unknowns”

6. The Preplanned Exit Strategy

The Trigger What Should Never Factor into the Decision Company, Product, and Market Exits The “In-Between” Strategies (or Plan B)

Differences Between Retrenchment, Contraction, and Retargeting Tools for Uncovering Contraction and Retargeting Strategies Different Scenarios

Exit Strategies

The Psychology of the Exit Decision The Harvesting Strategy: The Slow Exit

Faster Exit Strategies

The Spin-Off The Sale Liquidation and Voluntary Closure

Epilogue. Challenges with Domain Transfers and the Next Major Domain Transfer

Facilitating Adoption Finding the Team Leader Triggers, Protocols, and Documentation Incentivizing Behaviors Professional Certifications An Unlikely but Potential Solution The Future Domain Transfer: Artificial Intelligence

How Artificial Intelligence Works Artificial Intelligence Players Walled Garden Ecosystem Versus “Democratized” Artificial Intelligence Failure and Artificial Intelligence The Potential of AI in Business Artificial Intelligence: The Known-Unknown

Appendix. The Early Warning System-Details

Step 5: Entering Leading, Lagging, and Connectors into a Spreadsheet Step 6: Calculating the Variance Step 7: Calculating a Weighed Scored Step 8: The Early Warning System Dashboard Step 9: Troubleshooting: When the EWS Shows Underperformance Digging Deeper The Return on Promotion (ROP)

Endnotes

Chapter 1, “Failure & Stagnation” Chapter 2, “Don’t Start Off on the Wrong Foot” Chapter 3, “The Business Failure Audit and the Domain Transfer of Root Cause Analysis” Chapter 4, “The Early Warning System” Chapter 5, “Blind Spots and Traps” Chapter 6, “The Preplanned Exit Strategy” Epilogue

Index