「華人戴明學院」是戴明哲學的學習共同體 ,致力於淵博型智識系統的研究、推廣和運用。 The purpose of this blog is to advance the ideas and ideals of W. Edwards Deming.

2010年1月26日 星期二

台灣戴明圈 200-09

台灣戴明圈

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天氣

為什麼將天氣翻譯成不好?

『天気待ち 監督・黒澤明とともに』
情圖文並茂『天気待ち 監督・黒澤明とともに』 (文藝春秋、2001年、文春文庫、2004年)等雲到:與黑澤明導演在一起

天氣

氣候。在一定區域和一定時間內,多種氣象要素綜合顯示的大氣狀況。文選˙曹丕˙燕歌行:「秋風蕭瑟天氣涼,草木搖落露為霜。」唐˙杜甫˙麗人行:「三月三日天氣新,長安水邊多麗人。」
空氣。天空中輕清之氣。禮記˙月令:「天氣上騰,地氣下降,天地不通,閉塞而成冬。」
運命的徵候。漢˙趙曄˙句踐伐吳外傳:「吾誠已說于國人,國人喜悅;而子昔日云:『有天氣即來陳之。』」
時候。指某一時刻。水滸傳˙第八回:「兩個公人帶了林出店,卻是五更天氣。」兒女英雄傳˙第五回:「莫如趁天氣還早,躲了她。」

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幾天前接到宋文襄先生的女兒的賀卡
我想宋先生在久泉之下一定會以他的家人為榮

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繼日本豐田汽車(Toyota)近日宣布召回700多萬輛問題車後,日本本田汽車(Honda)29日也宣布將召回64萬6000輛問題車。 本田汽車公司29日表示,因為窗戶開關的瑕疵,本田共將召回64多萬Fit/Jazz和City款式的汽車,其中14萬輛在美國售出。本田汽車去年即曾因安全氣囊 ...

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2009/5 游該地 已須戴安全帽 陸客已相當多 感到有點不舒服 .....

2010/1/29〔記者游太郎/花蓮報導〕就差一秒鐘!二十八歲來自中國瀋陽的女性遊客王捷,昨天下午遊罷中橫九曲洞步道, 將安全帽交還後,跨上遊覽車前,不幸遭從天而降的落石擊中頭部,有十五公分的撕裂傷,送往慈濟醫院前原已無生命跡象,急救後雖恢復微弱脈搏,轉往神經外科 救治,但延至晚間九時許仍宣告不治。

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Review: Finding the Soul of Big Business
American Chronicle
Another leader whose business principles Marshall and Bama have pursued is mathematician and statistician Dr. William Edwards Deming. Deming is well-known for improving production in the USA during the Cold War. He is also known for changing the 1940 census, wherein the US government used a sampling technique that he developed in 1982. Above all, Deming is known for having been sent to Japan after World War II to rebuild the country's industrial infrastructure.

Deming penned Out of the Crisis, which includes his four principles of System of Profound Knowledge and 14 points enumerating key management principles. Deming's four principles, which Marshall justifiably claims to have particular relevance in to-day's environment are: appreciation of the organization (including suppliers, producers, employees, customers and consumers), knowledge of variation in cause and range of quality, theory of knowledge, which distinguishes what is applicable to the organization and what is ineffective, and knowledge of psychology, the understanding of human nature. The basis for the application of Deming's 14 Points for management is the System of Profound Knowledge. Marshall informs us that the common denominator of all these points is human capital or people. As a result, all of Deming's principles and points have been successfully integrated into the company's operations.

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豐田頻現召回事件 汽車質量遭質疑
豐田史無前例地決定暫停銷售其在美國最暢銷車型﹐凸顯出這家全球第一的汽車廠家無法擺脫的最大問題:它在追求攫取全球市場份額的過程中是否犧牲了質量?
豐田汽車接近拿出油門踏板缺陷解決方案
豐田在華合資公司將召回75,552輛RAV4汽車

福特暫停在華生產全尺寸商務車
福特汽車公司已經暫停在中國的全尺寸商務車生產﹐因該公司發現這類車輛的加速踏板供應商捲入了豐田汽車公司的召回事件。
福特實現2005年以來首次全年盈利


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江陰張畏岩,積學工文,有聲藝林。甲午(西元1594年),南京鄉試,寓一
寺中,揭曉無名,大罵試官,以為眯目。時有一道者,在傍微笑,張遽移怒道者。
道者曰:「相公文必不佳。」
張怒曰:「汝不見我文,烏知不佳?」
道者曰:「聞作文,貴心氣和平,今聽公罵詈,不平甚矣,文安得工?」
張不覺屈服,因就而請教焉。
道者曰:「中全要命;命不該中,文雖工,無益也。須自己做個轉變。」
張曰:「既是命,如何轉變?」
道者曰:「造命者天,立命者我;力行善事,廣積陰德,何福不可求哉?」
張曰:「我貧士,何能為?」
道者曰:「善事陰功,皆由心造,常存此心,功德無量,且如謙虛一節,並
不費錢,你如何不自反而罵試官乎?」

了凡四訓---袁了凡(明)



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修正油門問題 豐田停售美國8款車 【1/27 11:28】

〔本報訊〕媒體報導,豐田汽車繼油門踏板出現問題,在美家回收230萬汽車後,昨天進一部宣佈2月1日開始在美國停止販售旗下8款車輛。

豐田汽車更暫停了美國德州和加拿大的生產線,準備修正油門踏板的問題;而其下8款車輛包括RAV4(2009-2010)、 Corolla(2009-2010), Matrix(2009-2010)、Avalon(2005-2010)、部分Camry (2007-2010)、Highlander (2010)、Tundra (2007-2010),以及Sequoia (2008-2010)都將停售檢驗。

豐田公司表示,為了提早解決所有車輛問題,這次的決策是必要的措施,為了消費者的權益會盡全部努力去執行。

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律師行裁員、顧問業縮編 專業白領度小月

作者:經濟學人  出處:天下雜誌 440期 2010/01

相關關鍵字:經濟學人

這波衰退,讓一向被視為「高級白領」的專業服務業,頓時風光不再,更開始面臨經營模式的典範轉移。

從紐約到洛杉磯,從愛丁堡到雪梨,這兩年的不景氣,讓律師這一行飽受重擊,顧問業也元氣大傷,特別是專門處理併購、私募股權等金融領域的法律、顧問業者,受創最深。

專業部落格Law Shucks形容,去年是「律師行裁員最兇的一年」,估計共有一三八家大型律師事務所,傳出多達二一八次裁員。光是英國最大的事務所高偉紳(Clifford Chance)就裁了十次。不少知名的美國律師行更在這波金融風暴中滅頂,宣布解散。

裁員最兇的一年

企管顧問公司的營收也縮水。有些小型業者撐不下去,陸續被大型對手併購。三大龍頭業者——麥肯錫、波士頓與貝恩——雖然否認裁員,但據說都大幅提高了員工耗損率。麥肯錫目前的顧問人數就少了一○%。

最慘的是人力資源顧問業者,以英國為例,去年的平均營收下跌了兩成。收入銳減的壓力,迫使韜睿(Towers Perrin)與華信惠悅(Watson Wyatt)兩家業者在去年決定合併。而會計業雖然比較不受景氣循環影響,但到去年六月為止的年度裡,PwC與安永(Ernst & Young)兩大會計師事務所的營收都縮水了七%。

經過了這波衰退震撼,一向被視為「高級白領」的專業服務業,勢必發生長期、結構性的轉變。首先,行業內的強者會更強,拉大與其他對手的差距。而律師業更可能面臨最重大的改變。

美國伊利諾大學法律系教授瑞布斯坦最近在論文中指出,幾十年來一成不變的律師事務所,未來可能掀起一波經營模式的新實驗,就連長期以來的計時收費 (billable hour)制度,也會被挑戰。而且還會有愈來愈多事務所決定跟隨澳洲Slater & Gordon的腳步,放棄傳統的合夥人模式,轉成公開上市。

不過,並非每個人都支持這種改變。「對麥肯錫這些公司來說,合夥人制讓他們得以度過危機,因為他們相信長期的投入,」哈佛商學院教授洛希指出,跟那些從合 夥改為上市的投資銀行相比,後者「一心追求獲利,變成有如貪婪的野獸。」未來無論專業服務業如何轉變,律師與顧問們都必須確保他們的專業文化,不受影 響。(吳怡靜譯)
Professional-services firms

WHAT do you say to a recent law-school graduate? "A skinny double-shot latte to go, please." From New York to Los Angeles, Edinburgh to Sydney, the downturn of the past two years has hit the legal profession with unprecedented severity. As even some leading law firms struggle for survival, recruitment has dried up. The lucky few who get jobs are often being told to find something else to do for now, and report for duty on some far-off date. The same is true for MBA graduates seeking jobs in management consulting. Even the mighty McKinsey is said to be postponing start dates by several months.

Given that new graduates are the grunts of the professional-services industries, earning less than anyone else and working the longest hours, the lack of demand for their services is the clearest indicator of how bad things are. Although a deeper-than-usual cyclical downturn is largely to blame—and is hitting hardest those firms that specialised in financial-market activities such as mergers and acquisitions, and private equity—it is already clear that there will be long-term structural consequences, not least a growing gap between the best firms and the rest.

Cutting lawyers' jobs used to be frowned upon in the profession and thus rarely happened, even in recessions. But last year was the "worst year ever for law-firm lay-offs", reckons Law Shucks, a legal-industry blog. It counted 218 reports of lay-offs at 138 big firms, including no less than ten rounds of cuts at Clifford Chance, a British firm whose ambitious global expansion before the crisis now seems a big mistake. Thacher, Proffitt & Wood, a New York firm which by 2007 earned around half its revenues from structured finance, was devastated by the bursting of the subprime mortgage bubble and ended up being dissolved in December 2008. It was followed in March 2009 by the venerable but property-exposed Philadelphia firm of Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen.

As for management consulting, in the third quarter of last year Marsh & McLennan reported a 10% decline in its consulting revenues, in line with the overall shrinkage of the industry. Figures from other big firms are patchy, since they are private partnerships. Still, in 2009, to ensure they had enough cash to weather the financial storm, even leading firms such as McKinsey and BCG held back a chunk of their partners' bonuses. Of the big three, McKinsey and Bain are said to have suffered slight falls in revenues last year, while BCG, after a strong second half, was slightly up. All three deny making lay-offs—although it is said that they made their "attrition rates" increase, by significantly raising the bar on their traditional "up or out" policy. McKinsey now has 10% fewer consultants.

The experience of some once-booming boutique consultancies has been even worse. Marakon Associates was bought for a song by CRA International after the bankruptcy last January of its parent, Trinsum; and Katzenbach Partners was saved by Booz & Company after shrinking alarmingly in the first six months of 2009.

Perhaps the hardest hit of the professional services has been human-resources consulting, where revenues fell by 20% in Britain last year. Pay-and-benefits consultants also suffered: sharply falling revenues were one reason why Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt decided to merge last year. And although accounting firms are less exposed to the cycle than most professional-services firms—annual reports still have to be prepared and audited, whatever the state of the economy—in the year to last June the two biggest accountants, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young, each suffered 7% falls in revenues.

Of course, firms with countercyclical activities, such as bankruptcy work, have fared better. Consultants offering outsourced services, like IBM and Accenture, have also done well as cost pressures have driven other companies to use their services. In particular, legal-process outsourcing is booming, as law firms parcel out some of their more basic work to reduce costs. One of the leaders of this nascent market, Pangea3, whose offices in Delhi and Mumbai take on work from clients worldwide, expects to earn twice as much revenue this month as in January 2009.

Another booming business is helping the government sort out the economic mess. This is favouring the market leaders most, says Heidi Gardner of Harvard Business School, because the crisis has made governments risk-averse about whom they hire. Slaughter and May, a big London law firm, earned £33m ($54m) for its work on the financial crisis, including on the nationalised Northern Rock bank. Sullivan & Cromwell in New York has also done nicely from helping the American government with troubled banks. Big management consultancies have done well too, despite their poor record in the public sector (see Schumpeter). BCG, for instance, has advised the quango created to oversee America's state-rescued car firms.

Under the knife

Though the best will gain at the expense of the rest throughout professional services, the legal profession seems likely to undergo the most profound structural changes. For the first time—long after IT and finance departments went through the same experience—the corporate legal departments that hire law firms are under great budgetary pressure, and are thus demanding much better value from them.

In a recent paper, "The Death of Big Law", Larry Ribstein, a law professor at the University of Illinois, argued that after decades without changing, law firms are likely to have an outburst of experimentation with different business models: even the venerable and lucrative "billable hour" method of charging clients is in doubt. The experimentation may include more firms abandoning their traditional partnership model to go public, following in the footsteps of an Australian law firm, Slater & Gordon, which went public in 2007.

Not everyone is excited by this idea. "At firms like McKinsey it was the partnership ethos that helped them through the crisis, as partners believed they were in it for the long term. At some law firms too," says Jay Lorsch of Harvard Business School. Contrast that with the investment banks that switched from being partnerships to public companies, such as Goldman Sachs. "If you talk to some older Goldman partners they are unhappy with the behaviour of those now running the firm, who have abandoned the partnership ethos in favour of aggressively pursuing profits and have ended up looking like greedy bastards." As they adapt to survive a tougher climate, lawyers and consultants will need to ensure that any changes do not put their culture of professionalism at risk.




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我是後知後覺
昨天在這本書的書單中發現在約2003年 哈佛大學和牛津大學之出版社都出版專書討論"零容忍"
與死刑等議題......



美國製造--凝視美國文明
美國製造--凝視美國文明 這是一本全面介紹美國文明的書,包括美國的經濟發展模式、宗教信仰、文化、移民、種族、吸毒、暴力、政治體制等等。而「美國到底是個什麼樣的國家?」每個 人根據其處境不同,會有不同的回答。而本書的作者,即是以其長居美國多年的觀察及研究,寫成本書,作者對法國及美國有相當深刻的了解,

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