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Articles tagged with: Case study

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[23 Jul 2009 | No Comment | 401 views]
General Motors (Pontiac Division) and Vanilla Ice Cream

A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors
‘This is the second time I have written to you, and I don’t blame you for not answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of Ice-Cream for dessert after dinner each night, but the kind of ice cream varies so, every night, after we’ve eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. …

human resources, lateral thinking »

[17 Jul 2009 | No Comment | 207 views]
Lateral Thinking – Money lender and pebbles

Many years ago in a small village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. The Moneylender , who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer’s beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgive the farmer’s debt if he could marry his daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the Proposal. So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let providence decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black pebble and a white …

human resources »

[16 Jul 2009 | No Comment | 56 views]
Focusing on solutions and not problems

Problem
When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that the pens wouldn’t work at zero gravity (ink won’t flow down to the writing surface). To solve this problem, it took them one decade and $12 million. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.
Solution
And what did the Russians do…?
They used a pencil .
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Problem
One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was …

human resources »

[14 Jul 2009 | No Comment | 116 views]
Insight into Decision Making

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track. The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange.
a) You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed.
b) Or would you rather let the train go its way?
Let’s take a …