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Monday, August 27, 2012

Organisational Behaviour


I have recently completed my first module for my MBA in Leadership and Sustainability through Robert Kennedy College and the University of Cumbria.  It was an interesting start to this journey, enhanced by the multi-cultural and multi-business background of the participants in the course.  The individual views of individuals in the course widely varied depending on their cultural background and geographical location.
The discussions often included individual’s examples and their personal experiences, bringing a different perspective to the subject matter.  The course material was interesting and there was plenty of it.  More material was introduced as the course progressed.  The structure that lead from leadership and general organisational behaviour, through communication and teams, while looking at human capital and the motivation and management styles encountered in organisations did not only make sense, it was practical and allowed an in depth analysis on the way about one’s own present and past businesses.
The consideration of culture and conflict management as part of the organisational structure, as well as the tools discussed like balanced scoreboard, SWOT analysis and McKinsey’s 7s analysis allowed for a detailed analysis of an organisation, leading to clearly defined solutions relevant to our daily business lives.
The Professor was knowledgeable and easily approachable both through the public forums and through private communication.
I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to become a leader, or a more effective leader.  The investment of both time and money is minimal compared to the outcomes gained from the experience.  Below is a summary of this particular course (as taken from the Robert Kennedy College online campus).  Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best regards
Roland

COURSE OBJECTIVES 

-- To focus on increasing the effectiveness of organisations and thus, of their members. 

-- To understand why people and groups in organisations feel and behave as they do. 

-- To identify principles that can improve the behaviour and attitudes of organisational members. 

-- To develop and enhance your skills as an organisational member and a manager. 

COURSE OVERVIEW 

The course involves learning from a variety of sources - audio clips, slide presentations, textbook, lecture notes, case studies, and interaction with peers and faculty in the forums. 

The course aims to be an examination of research and theory on the forces underlying the way that the members of an organisation behave. Topics covered include the behaviour of work groups and supervisors, inter-group relations, employees’ goals and attitudes, problems in communication, the circumstances of change in an organisation, and the goals and design of an organisation. 

READINGS 

Please read the articles provided under the resource tab of this course to get a brief idea about the focus. Students can also avail of our e-library facilities to surf, and research for material. The faculty will also provide some online links for selected reading as and when required. 

ON-LINE PARTICIPATION 

All students are expected to participate regularly in the discussions taking place in the forums. A wide range of discussion is usually desired in these discussion forums. These areas are an interesting and informative way of interacting with peers and faculty. They also allow you to apply concepts learned in isolation to real life or personal experiences. 

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Lean Thinking - City Of Melbourne


I came across this page from Melbourne's government web site:

http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/ABOUTCOUNCIL/PLANSANDPUBLICATIONS/ANNUALREPORT/2010/ABOUT/COMMLEAN/Pages/LeanThinking.aspx

While I believe it is good that the city has focused some efforts on lean thinking, government traditionally do not spent much time following through.  Even here you can see that the last post goes back two years.  Lean is a continuous improvement path and journey that will never end.

The other issue I see is that they very much focused on the Senior leadership and management, but without including everyone in the business and creating a Lean Culture, the project is doomed to fail.  Both Labour and Liberal governments, both local and federal, their leaders Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard should take some time to take a closer look at how lean can help the government, opposition and most of all Australia as a whole.

I would welcome the opportunity to spend some time with our political leaders to highlight how Lean has helped thousands of businesses in Australia.  Many of our clients in the manufacturing industry are successful and continue to grow throughout these tough times.  Lean principles apply to all industries, but we must create a lean culture where the applications can blossom.  If you would like to challenge these thoughts, please drop me a line at roland.weber@chaseperformance.com or call me on 1300 880 338.  I am always happy to consider other views as part of our continuous Lean and Learning/Improvement journey.

Lean Thinking


Lean Thinking is an improvement system which focuses on improving the quality, timeliness and cost of services we deliver from the perspective of the customer. The system provides a structure, techniques and tools for carrying out improvements. Its ultimate goal is to deliver increased satisfaction for our customers and staff.  The City of Melbourne has been a pioneer in local government in Australia, fully embracing Lean Thinking as the continuous improvement model.
Lean Thinking within the City of Melbourne began in 2009, focussing on 10 organisational processes, incorporating many areas of the business including parking meters, child care, council reports and the recruitment process. One example of these improvements was the processing of construction zone permit applications. Prior to the application of Lean Thinking principles, the City of Melbourne took months to go through all the processes necessary to issue these permits. After applying Lean Thinking, the time has been reduced to around a fortnight. This is not only a major improvement for customers applying for permits, but also for drivers needing parking spaces, as the spaces are reinstated much earlier.  In our childcare centres, the Lean Thinking project identified 60 per cent of payments were overdue at any one time.  A more customer friendly online process has increased timely payments and freed staff from administration work to focus on more time on the children.
In 2009–10, the City of Melbourne Lean Thinking program has been coordinated by a dedicated team who provide guidance and support to managers. Our aim is to increase customer and staff satisfaction with improved services and processes, increase first time quality and timeliness, reduce costs and reduce the environmental impact. All process improvements must be measured against these outcomes.
In 2010–11, the City of Melbourne will continue to apply Lean Thinking across the organisation.  Our aim is to transform our organisational culture such that Lean Thinking is the way things are done every day.  Lean Thinking will be prevalent across the organisation, evidenced by supportive leaders who work with their teams to solve problems through the application of lean techniques. Because Lean Thinking focuses on processes from beginning to end we are also working with our external partners to ensure seamless service delivery for the benefit of our customers.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Increasing Productivity and Client Satisfaction


Melbourne 28th & 29th August 2012
2nd Annual LCI Australia - Increasing productivity and client satisfaction

You will agree that there is a lot of waste in the processes of our sector the newly formed LCI Australia network is bringing the focus back to improving the processes and outcomes delivered by our sector. Lean business practices bring the focus back to increasing value for the client, eliminating non value adding inputs and making sure all work flows reliably. 

Consider joining your industry colleagues at the 2nd Annual LCI Australia conference, the annual gathering for senior managers, industry leaders and Lean practitioners who are focussed on improving the efficiency of business practices and outcomes in our sector. Only 2 weeks to go so book your place today and forward this to your colleagues.

The 2012 conference will bring 60-70 attendees together all ready to actively participate in group discussions, Q & A and networking over the course of the 2 days conference, workshop and Industry Dinner. We invite you to share your experience and views as we delve into this year’s theme: Increasing productivity and client satisfaction

LCI 2012 will provide an overview and insight into the general practice of LEAN. Starting and sustaining an ongoing transformation on projects or in organisations, understanding the resistance to and motivation for change. The conference offers industry speakers full of case studies, experiences sharing the problems they have encountered in implementing lean thinking in their workplaces and solutions. Indications and examples of costs and benefits achieved through Lean implementation and sharing the results, including both traditional measures and longer term benefits are some of the tangible benefits of attending LCI 2012. 

Program is packed with Case studies, tools and research all the details are available on the website; 

·         CASE STUDY - Building lean capability Angela Corriero and Hunter Dean, Chase Performance / Systemix

Resistance to and motivation for change are key factors in determining successful Lean project delivery.
Angela is a Lean culture specialist who spent considerable time with Toyota in Japan and using this global experience will illustrate how problems can be eliminated before they even start – it’s a matter of building Lean capability into not only your project delivery, but within your fundamental business development
structure.

·         CASE STUDY - Lean Construction for Home Builders Brian Levitan, Managing Director, Lean Australia

In March 2011 the NSW Government organised a program aimed at construction companies and their suppliers. 10 companies signed up, in Dubbo and Mudgee consisting of 2 Builders, 4 Construction support service, and 4 mining/mining Support companies. This session describes the program, training challenges for the level of staff, success factors, roadblocks, and results for example Scott Hawkins Homes have reduced the time to build a house by 30% using Lean
construction tools, and can build 30% more houses with the same overhead. Most importantly, although the ‘Project’ finished over a year ago, the companies have internalised the culture change, and are still engaged in ongoing continuous improvement.

·         CASE STUDY - Techniques for improving productivity and client satisfaction Alex Kunz and Mick Jackson, Gehry technologies, Blue Ocean Consulting

Examples where the implementation of new processes and technology has led to project-wide performance improvement of commercial and civil construction projects. Particular focus will be on non-financial improvements and their corollary effect on project financial performance.

Lean practices, tools like ‘Last Planner’ and cultural alignment are explored through interactive sessions in 2 half day workshops on 29th August. I have attached the conference brochure so you can see the full speaker line up and it’s an exciting mix this year. 

Discounts available to LCI members / AAA members / EA Members and AME members. Student discount also available so book your place today.

We look forward to seeing you there.












P.S If you are not an LCI Australia member why not join today and enjoy the benefits of discounted rates to the Annual Conference and the FREE Regional Events Join LCI AU Today.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Lean Mining, Integration of Lean, Six Sigma & TOC Improves Performance


Lean Construction and Mining are on the forefront of our programs.  We are currently working with clients in Western Australia through our Perth branch, Queensland through our Brisbane branch and South Australia through our Adelaide branch, to create improvements in all areas of the construction and mining operations.  The article below, although published over two years ago is a great example on how easy it is to create improvements.  

Most mining companies have their own continuous improvement specialists who we work closely with.  The advantage we offer is access to more resources due to government assisted initiatives, as well as nationally recognised qualifications for the individuals completing the programs.  

We also assist in rolling out lean processes in departments like admin, procurement and planning, that are often located in head offices and not necessarily included in the programs run on site.  Contact us for a chat, to see how we can add value to your lean journey (1300 880 338).  Here's a link to a lean article I published a little while ago...  http://leanimprovement.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/lean-mining.html

Integration of Lean, Six Sigma & TOC (theory of constraints) Improves Performance

Right combination bring results in Brazilian mining and metallurgical plants
Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) approaches such as Lean, Six Sigma and TOC have been applied to help organizations to improve their efficiencies and profitability. However, there had not been research to quantify the effects and contributions of each of these approaches which led to a recent scientific research conducted from 2003 to 2005. This research also tested effects of a integrated approach applying the three methodology in a logical sequence and compared its effect with the implementations that were using each one of the CPI methods alone.
The integrated continuous process improvement tested in the research is called iTLS. It applies the Theory Of Constraint, introduced by Eli Goldratt, Lean which is best known as Toyota Production Systems (TPS), and Six Sigma developed by Motorola, in a sequence in order to optimize each approach's core strength.
Taking over two and a half years and involving 21 manufacturing plants with 211 CPI team leaders implementing their preferred CPI approaches,105 projects were completed.
The research also quantified the financial contributions realized through implementation of each one of these CPI approaches. The statistical analysis of the results indicated that Lean and Six Sigma contributed significant financial results for their organizations. Both Lean and Six Sigma contributed similar results (P-Value of 0.622, did not indicate significant difference between the two approaches, considering financial benefits factor.) However, the integrated approach, applying TOC, Lean and Six Sigma in logical sequence, resulted in financial benefits that were over 4 times (4X) higher (P-Value of 0.0000, indication of high degree of significance), if either one of these methodologies were applied alone. (For research click here.)
One company that used the integrated approach is Votorantim, which is the 4th largest private Brazilian group and operates in several countries in various market segments, such as mining, metal industries, cement, paper, steel, and fruit juices. Five facilities have adopted and benefitted from the Integrated TOC, Lean, Six Sigma, iTLS approach for continuous improvement developed by Dr. Reza Pirasteh, introduced publicly in 2006 (Pirasteh & Farah 2006), in a deployable form. Two of the plants in this case study were mining operations and three were metallurgical plants.
In this case study the iTLS approach successfully synchronized production with the available capacity levels while providing process stability. This approach was smoothly implemented through involvement and participation of the organizations' people and their powerful commitment for success.
The Integrated TOC, Lean, Six Sigma Model

iTLS integrates, synchronizes and harmonizes the three powerful ingredients (Lean, Six Sigma and TOC):
  • Focus on the few yet critical elements that limit the global performance of the organization by applying Theory of Constraint tools
  • Eliminates waste in the form of "hidden factories" with application of Lean tools
  • Reduces undesirable variability to ensure process stability with Six Sigma tools
The application of this integrated system to production for continuous process environments ensured that the invested capacities and resources were converted into stable production flow generating profitable revenues.
Results
The case study that follows is a summary of application of iTLS in a number of Brazilian conglomerates includes mining plants, ore concentrating plants, and metallurgical production plants. In all cases studied, when the iTLS was applied, within 3 to 4 months production throughputs significantly increased. Continuing with the implementation with additional 3 to 4 months the processes stabilized while achieving the desired strategic target production levels. This was previously perceived as impossible.
The new performance levels are significantly exceeding previous production thresholds without adding and investing in additional capacity. Consequences were simply generation of more revenues, more profits and higher ROI.
Case Study
Initial Condition
  • All plants were unable to meet production targets and had sporadic production performances, leading to lost revenues, due to missing deliveries.
  • There was a constant pressure on the plant managers for not being able to achieve the desired strategic production results which trickled down to all levels below in the organization. The other undesired effects observed were:
  • Targets were not met
  • Huge quantity of actions for problems solving which were becoming more unmanageable as the quantity of the grew
  • Growing pressure for acquiring more and more resources
  • People were frustrated. Their perception was: "the more we do, the less we achieve"
  • "Finger pointing" and "It was not me!", "I am not part of the problem" was a commonplace, creating an environment of non-cooperation and covering the back atmosphere
  • The productive utilization of resources were low
  • Lack of consistent preventive maintenance
  • Employee apathy
Application
The iTLS model was implemented in all plants simultaneously. The model was applied to bring stable and robust process flows to the market place consisting of the following basic elements:
  • A Drum that set the production pull tempo, established the delivery TAKT (at the pace that an operation needs to operate in order to meet the customer requirements) for the plant's product flow to the market
  • Established buffers (Kanbans) that responded to the process drum and protects the vulnerable processes and the shipments from natural process variability
  • Pull material release disciplines synchronized with the pace of the Drum
  • Implementation of Lean tools to identify sources of waste and removing them from the processes, making processes more effective
  • Application of Six Sigma tools to make improvements sustainable by bringing process performances under statistical control
  • Establish a repeatable and pragmatic problem solving framework for the workers and management to be able to continuously improve their processes autonomously
There is a direct correlation between responses to the operations' drum and process stability and the amount of financial gains achieved. Once the process drum was identified based on the optimal capability of the constraint resource, the operations drum became the pace for the material release and the shipments.
The constraint operations needed to be protected against variability caused by the feeding and interdependent operations, in order to ensure that full capacity was being converted to the product. In operations with continuous process environments, protecting the constraint which sets the operation drum and shipments was accomplished by creating sized protective buffers feeding them to ensure continuous flow of throughput to the market place.
Once adequately sized and implemented, buffers absorbed the process random variability shocks on the constraint resource and the shipments. It was important to note that the impact of the variability was buffer loss of volume or level, which needed to somehow recuperate. This was possible by utilizing the excess capacities at the feeding operations acting as virtual protective capacity. This allowed them to work when needed, at a pace which was higher (~10%) than the constraint or drum and the shipment's pace to replenish used buffers.
Therefore, any operation with capacity below 110% of the capacity of the drum, was tagged as a constraint, because it could potentially have a global adverse effect and jeopardize the throughput. It may seem that the operation becomes temporarilyunbalanced. Then the work teams began working on these operations, in terms of getting more from what they have by reducing waste and stabilizing them by reducing variability by applying lean and Six Sigma tools.
This model used buffer management to optimize decisions making based on interpreting the behaviour of the Buffers over-time. Buffers became the story tellers by letting the operations management know what is going on in the entire flow and allow them to anticipate potential disruptions, identify causes and derive actions for our Continuous Process Improvement (CPI), using Statistical Process Control tools.
The repeatability of results achieved with iTLS implementations was consistent with expectations. The following were some of the results achieved through implementation of this approach in all plants:
  • Production improved by 10% to meet 100% customer requirement, without any additional capital investments
  • Profits increased by additional 5%
  • Pay-back periods were only a few months at each plants and sometimes less as low as 28 days
  • Process stability improved exceeding the strategic target level expectations
Eugenio Hermont, General Manager of Votorantim Metais Unidade Tres Marias states that "...we have succeeded in another great achievement... that is why Tres Marias achieving all targets...."
Synergetic application of integrated TOC, Lean and Six Sigma, iTLS, provided a rapid and effective approach to improve capacity and productivity in metallurgical mining plants, which significantly improved the operations profitability and meeting 100% customer commitments. This model applied TOC to focus where to make necessary changes, Lean was applied to remove waste and Six Sigma tools were applied to control process performance and variability.
Reza M. Pirasteh, PhD., MBB, CLM is founder of iTLS-ISO Group. http://itls-iso.com/itlsgroups@itls-iso.com Eng. Celso G. Calia is founder and partner of Goldratt Associadoshttp://www.goldratt.com.br/site

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

7 ways lean healthcare management reduces cost


July 24, 2012 | Steff Deschenes, New Media Producer
Article by: Steff Deschenes
New Media Producer for Healthcare Finance News

With the financial pressures that healthcare organizations are facing, many hospitals are using traditional cost cutting methods to save money by looking at layoffs and staff reductions. Many more hospitals, however, are finding ways to reduce costs through lean management methods that don't require layoffs and can improve quality for patients.
"Lean is actually the best alternative to layoffs. It's all about encouraging everyone to participate in process improvement, as well as finding creative and interesting ways to save money for a healthcare organization to avoid those unwanted traditional cost slashing endeavors like layoffs," explains Mark Graban, a lean expert and author of the book Hospital Kaizen. "Layoffs don't lead to long-term cost reduction. And if you lay off people and don't fix any processes, you're risking patient safety and quality. As a result, more and more healthcare providers are looking at lean to break that cycle."


Graban has outlined seven different ways that lean management can help reduce system cost.

1. Reduce "never events." A "never event" includes falls, infections, erroneous amputations and other small-to-large-scale disasters. Reducing these events is, of course, best for patients, but there's also financial pressure to reduce never events. In 2009, Medicare stopped paying for care from events they consider preventable, and now private insurers are following suit. Pressure ulcers and bedsores, for example, are viewed as preventable. They shouldn't happen if a good process is followed – like patients being repositioned. Improving quality in general saves hospitals more than layoffs since "never events" occur when an understaffed hospital can't be attentive enough to a patient needs.

2. Supply chain improvements. It's important to consider looking at a more effective material restocking process. For example, more frequent smaller batch deliveries or rotating supplies more quickly reduces  both the amount of space used in internal warehouse and cash tied-up in inventory.


3. Delay or cancel construction and expansion. A trend in the last few years has shown that hospitals use lean to increase capacity by using current equipment and available space. Lean makes better use of existing resources as an alternative to increasing capital spending. "I worked with one hospital that through process improvement to patient flow – preventing delays from registration through to discharge – they increased the utilization rates of their MRI machines from 40 percent to 60 percent. And they didn't need buy more equipment," said Graban.

4.  Reduce overtime. Reducing overtime is a great opportunity to help make improvements with lean that doesn't alienate people the way layoffs do. Essentially, people want to get home to have dinner with their families in a predictable/consistent way. If you can improve charting during the process, for example, instead of having nurses do it after, you can improve staff satisfaction while trimming down overtime, which results in both morale and cost savings. It's a win-win opportunity.

5. Reduce length of stay. This certainly isn't about pushing patients home before they're ready, Graban notes. Reducing length of stay is done through preventing errors that would extend a stay or delay a discharge when patients are medically ready to go home. Because of miscommunication, poor planning, or when families or nursing homes aren't yet ready to take on the person being discharged, a four-day stay can suddenly turn into a five- or six-day stay. These process related things aren't medical issues, but they often extend length of stay which can cost millions.

6. Reduce unnecessary testing and diagnostics. A number of hospitals are trying to be responsible stewards of healthcare dollars by reducing inappropriate usage of lab testing and diagnostic imaging. For example, through medical evidence it's been shown that when a patient comes in with back pain more often than not what they need is physical therapy – not a fast pass to a CT scan, says Graban. ACOs help organizations benefit from their own cost reduction efforts and will do so in a way that doesn't shortchange what the patient needs.

7. Reduce delays and errors in billing. There are a tremendous amount of delays in billing, including too many people involved during different parts of the process. If there's a better flow, if people are handing off the work to the next person in the chain immediately, bills go out in a couple of days instead of a couple weeks. It's also incredibly important to make sure billing is being done properly. If mistakes are made and proper preauthorizations aren't followed, but procedures are done anyway, hospitals might be voluntarily giving away revenue.


To discuss how we can assist you with lean and six sigma in Australia, please contact Chase Performance on 1300 880 338 or visit our web site: www.chaseperformance.com

Top 25 Websites for CEOs


The following article is from forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/08/02/top-25-websites-for-ceos/) written by Mike Myatt (http://blogs.forbes.com/mikemyatt/) on 2nd August 2012

While I agree with many of these and like the way he leads from our own web site through the competitor and customer, we also need to consider the amount of time delegated to self education, which should form part of leader’s schedule.  There are certainly a number of other good web sites, but this is a good, well balanced list to start from in my view.

Top 25 Websites for CEOs

If you want to shorten your shelf life as a CEO, it’s easy to do – be uninformed and disengaged. There’s a big world out there, and CEOs need to get out of their bubble and go see it for themselves. Too many chief executives live in an isolated world of constant travel, public policy and capital markets road shows, board and executive meetings, and management briefings – everything is filtered, packaged and fed to them. THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM.
While many CEOs suffer from email, iPad and Smartphone addiction, the time spent on these devices is largely related to email, scheduling and logistics. The big miss here is far too little time is spent using the web as a digital learning medium. Successful CEOs don’t delegate business intelligence, learning, and listening – they do it themselves.

Let me be clear; isolation is not synonymous with highest and best use – it’s career suicide. Delegation should not be confused with abdication, and span of control should never be confused with span of influence or awareness.  I’m not suggesting chief executives engage in hours of mindless web-surfing activity, but I am suggesting they use the Internet for personal/professional development, research and business intelligence like the rest of the world does. CEOs must wake-up to the fact the Internet just isn’t a tool for their staff.
Following are my top picks for the Top 25 Websites for CEOs (in no particular order of preference):
The Obvious But Overlooked
1. Your Company Website: You’d be surprised how many chief executives have no idea what’s published on their own website – big mistake.  I was recently retained by a Fortune 100 company to work with their new incoming CEO, and when I enquired as to why he wasn’t listed on the company website, he sheepishly stated he’d been on board 6 months and hadn’t even checked the website. This is one of those “the buck stops here” things – if you’re the CEO, you better understand the entirety of your company’s digital footprint (public sites, sites behind the firewall, social media accounts, partner sites, etc.).
2. Your Competitor’s Websites: There are few competitive intelligence tools as effective as the online profiles of your competitors. There’s always a great temptation to delegate this activity to staff, but at a minimum, make sure you are briefed on a regular basis. However the better method is to own at least some of the homework yourself – you’ll find the knowledge acquired invaluable.
3. Your Customer’s Websites: It’s difficult to relate to your customers if you don’t know and understand them. A little time spent understanding the digital footprint of a client can lead to great conversations and big business. When customers find out you’ve invested time in getting to know their company, culture, challenges and opportunities, you’ll have escalated your relationship to a more fruitful level.

Unusual Suspects
4. Foreign Affairs: There are very few businesses of any scale who can’t afford to think globally, and there’s no better publication to inform you on international news and information than Foreign Affairs.
5. Psychology Today: One of the most thought provoking and informative magazines dealing with the human psyche. CEOs are first and foremost in the people business, and few publications will offer insights into the human condition like this one.
6. Mashable: This is where the cool kids hang out for news and information. With 20 million unique visitors and 6 million social media followers, Mashable has become one of the most engaged online news communities. It has both aggregated and original content, and multiple topical channels.
7. The Build Network: This is one of my favorite new publications/websites. With a truly unique format, the information here is short, crisp, relevant, and actionable. Well worth a visit for every CEO.
8. Twitter: This social networking site offers one of the best listening posts on the Internet. Virtually every major brand is represented on Twitter, as well as numerous thought leaders, and CEOs like Richard Branson, Michael Dell, Marissa Mayer, Thomas Geisel, Rupert Murdoch, and many more. If you think you’re too busy, or too important to be on Twitter, think again.
9. TED: Want to know what’s coming next? Visit the TED website and view videos from the world’s hottest innovators and thought leaders.
10. LinkedIn: Perhaps the world’s greatest talent engine, LinkedIn gives you virtually unfettered access to passive talent if you’re willing to pony-up for a modest subscription fee. Well worth the price.

News and Commentary
11. Forbes: You’re reading this now, so you must agree. Forbes has some of the best contributors and columnists in the business, while the site does offer hard news, the editorial content is definitely it’s strength – it’s rich and there’s a lot of it.
12CEO.com: The site offers aggregated and original content specifically designed for CEOs. Who’s hot or not, in or out, and tips and advice for the chief executive. A great one stop shop for C-level items of interest.
13. Chief Executive Magazine: Every industry has a leading trade rag, and this is it for CEOs. The site contains news, editorial and research specifically catering to the chief executive.
14. Wall Street Journal: Still the gold standard for financial news and insightful commentary. Plenty of hard news and some insightful commentary to boot.
15. The Economist: Consistently sound thinking with a global focus can be found on the Economist. Everything here is fair game; politics, religion, business, education, innovation, and of course, the economy.

Research and Intelligence
16. Corporate Executive Board: There aren’t too many global brands who aren’t members, so what’s your excuse? I’ve never met a chief executive who couldn’t benefit from being better informed.
17. Forrester: Probably the world’s best known business research firm. Forrester covers all major segments with top-notch analysts.
18. EDGAR: The SEC database on securities filings and forms. If you want the latest info on public companies, this the place to find what you’re looking for (10k, 10Q, etc,).
19. YouTube: The world’s second largest search engine (a subsidiary of the largest) is a great resource when you need topical video content at your fingertips. It was recently reported users watch 4 Billion hours of YouTube videos a month.

Leadership & Strategy
20. Strategy & Business: Published by Booz & Co., you’ll find timely information on all things strategy, and a bit of topical content on leadership as well. The site is particularly good for what I call catorials (editorialized case studies).
21. HBR: I have a love hate relationship with HBR. Some of the authors offer pure brilliance as their contribution, but you’ll have to filter through some mundane B-school nonsense to find it. Nonetheless, when it’s good, it’s really good.
22. The Conference Board Review:  Their tagline, ideas and opinions for the world’s business leaders, says it all. Snappy content on a variety of global business issues important to leaders.
23. Hack Management 2.0: Better known as the Management Innovation eXchange, this site encourages fresh debate on topics related to leadership and management. The site also sponsors numerous competitions for innovative submissions on the hot business topics of the day. You’ll find many thought provoking subjects worth the time to peruse.
24. Real Leaders: The website of Young President’s Organization’s official leadership magazine. Intended to inspire better leaders for a better world, this site contains leadership editorial, CEO profiles, and topical case studies designed for CEOs by CEOs.
25: The N2growth Blog: My personal favorite:) If you like what you’ve read from me on Forbes, CEO.com, Success, Entrepreneur, The Washington Times, etc., you might also enjoy my company’s leadership blog (authored by yours truly). Consistently ranked among the top leadership blogs, I write specifically for CEOs. As a bonus, a few other  blogs from leaders I enjoy are:Richard Branson’s Blog, Mark Cuban’s Blog, and Tom Peter’s Blog.
The above list is clearly not exhaustive, but it covers a lot of ground.
Follow me on Twitter @mikemyatt

Follow me on Twitter @goal1e