OS 64: Do The Right Thing with David Duryea

David A. Duryea is business improvement veteran with more than thirty-two years of experience in practical business improvement and technology innovation. He has led more than sixty business improvement and innovation projects in sixteen different industries. As a legal expert witness for failed technology and business innovation projects, David has performed project forensics on failed implementations for over a dozen large-scale projects. A popular speaker on business improvement, he has been featured at Computerworld, InfoWorld, and industry conferences. His articles in the area of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and advanced technology implementation practices have been featured. David holds a patent from the United States Patent Office, degrees in business administration and computer science, and an MBA with a focus in project management. David is happily married with seven children, four of whom were adopted from China. He and his family live near Cleveland, Ohio. When not studying the intricacies of business improvement, he enjoys hiking, bicycling, baseball, coaching, and investing time in activities with his children. His Business-Improvement Model Part 1: Business Strategy Structure Step 1 Understand the Law of Business Reality Organizations serve customers in a profitable way (balancequality and efficiency) or cease to exist. Step 2 Understand the Target—The Core Business Model Why organizations generate profit different from their competitors. Step 3 Influencers of the Core Business Model Pressure and Enhancers on Performance Step 4 Embrace Business Strategy and Structure Basis for Improvement—Whether Leaders Know It or Not Part 2: Business Process Structure Step 5 Common Processes and Functions of a Business Model The Law—Inherent to Process, Functions, and Operation Step 6 Industry Processes of a Business Model Developing Industry Common Process Structure Step 7 Core Business Model Processes Embrace for Uniqueness and Profitability Step 8 Business Processes Influencers Influencing Process Structure, Performance , and Profitability Step 9 The Business-Improvement Objective Change Operations to Further an Organization’s Core Business Model Step 10 Business and Operational Performance The Performance Goal—Core Business Model Productivity Step 11 True Operational Performance Measurement Measure the Goal: Core Business Model Productivity Part 3: Business Enablement Structure Step 12 Business Process Enablement: Resources to Realize the Core Business Model The Interview Transcript Interview with David Duryea Hugh Ballou: It’s Hugh Ballou again. My guest tonight is a man I met through another person, his publicist. We talked a little bit, and I discovered we had a lot of values in common and we do similar work. We are going to talk about David Duryea’s new book that is out. I have a copy of this book, and it’s really good. It’s 200 pages of really, really well-researched, well-written content. The book is called- I’m getting to the cover. I’ve started reading and I am deep down into it. The cover is a light bulb, and it says Do the Right Thing. My guest on this podcast is David Duryea. David, tell people a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to want to write this really great book Do the Right Thing. David Duryea: Well, first of all, Hugh, thanks for having me on again. It’s been a great conversation and connection with you as well. Basically, Do the Right Thing is doing the right thing in business improvement, including process and technology. I would have to say that I came up with the idea, or at least the inklings of the idea, somewhere around the late ‘90s, believe it or not, when we were in the heydays of putting in a lot of different technologies. Dot coms were coming up as well, and we were doing a lot of implementations. I also saw at the same time a very high failure rate.