That was Then... This is Now

Andrew Smith (2013). “ How Are We Doing?” Tracking Efficiency, Utilization, and Productivity. Universal Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 1 , 137 - 140. doi: 10.13189/ujibm.2013.010402. ABSTRACT Productivity gains lead to competitive advantages. To achieve success, managers need to know if they are making the most effective use of resources. Understanding how well a business is performing compared to other firms in an industry is vital. Efficiency and Utilization are two measures that can be used to answer the question “How are we doing?” Once you have defined key variables and established benchmarks, programs like Microsoft Excel make it easy to set up the necessary calculations and track performance over time. A spreadsheet application is demonstrated that illustrates the concepts discussed. Formulas are included and explained. KEYWORDS                Efficiency, Productivity, Utilizat...

If you aren't already accessing the Internet through a Virtual Private Network at work or home, you should be. Here is a great article on why you should be using a VPN  and how to choose the best one for your needs.

It is already well into July. Guess I should post something! This slideshow from Baseline offers some good advice for using Social Media .

We are off for the summer but I went into my office today and ran into a former student who is pursuing a degree in Marketing. They currently work at Marian in our office of Marketing Communications. We were discussing the growth of Social Media and how things have changed and he shared this article about the emerging role of the  Marketing Technologist with me. Also a fascinating "map" of the leading companies in Marketing Technology can be found at LUMA Partners by clicking on the image below:    

The Interop conference and exhibition was held last week in Las Vegas. The event featured more than 125 workshops and conference classes and more than 300 companies participated. If you weren’t able to go, click here to check out this slideshow of 10 top products from InformationWeek.

Once again in my BUS 350 Operations Management class, we held the "Billionaire's Challenge." The exercise involved analyzing a production case-study problem using Microsoft Excel's Solver "add in." Students had to first set-up and solve the problem then change key variables using Excel to earn at least one-million dollars profit. After achieving that goal students may compete to make at least $1,000,000,000.  This year saw all previous records in the simulation fall. Congratulations! Our newest Billionaires are: Michael Cummings - $292 Billion Cory Slade - $1.5 Billion AJ Christian - $5 Billion And two "Billion, Billion, Billionaires": Adrianne Johnson - $10 Octillion Morgan Crutcher - $4.9 Decillion Awesome!!!