The traditional approach to productivity in your business is going to dry up, if it hasn’t already. At some point, every department will have squeezed out what they think are the last remaining pennies by cutting overhead costs, improving yields or utilizations, applying lean/six sigma to their areas of responsibility, or squeezing their suppliers one more time. When productivity begins to dry up, so does the funding for growth. Before that happens, companies need to innovate their approach…

The farm is where I learned that to keep things running at peak performance you had to listen carefully for squeaks, grinding or other out of place sounds that signaled adjustments and repairs were needed before things got worse. The same goes for business. Here’s what to do about the sounds coming from your…