This is an original article taken from the NIST Baldrige blog, written by Harry Hertz, Director Emeritus of the Baldrige Program. 

Over the past 1 1/2 years two iconic corporate leaders of the 20th and early 21st century passed away: Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines and Jack Welch of General Electric. Both built phenomenally successful companies during their tenures. Both had unique leadership styles, that differed in many ways. However, there were a number of striking similarities, that provide leadership lessons for all times and some specific pointers for surviving times of crisis. Not surprisingly, these are characteristics called out in the Baldrige Excellence Framework and displayed by leaders of Baldrige Award recipient organizations across all sectors. Let me share the characteristics I gleaned from numerous readings about these two leaders and summarized in these articles about Kelleher and Welch. I will relate them to the Baldrige framework and then to important lessons for times of challenge.

Part 3 of "The New Supply Chain" blog series by Mike Loquercio, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management Expert.

Part 2 of "The New Supply Chain" blog series by Mike Loquercio, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management Expert.

The first reaction to a severe supply chain disruption is “organized chaos” and then you attempt to rebalance and update all your purchasing, replenishment, planning, distribution, and warehouse parameters.

It’s nearly April, and April is the usual time for spring cleaning at my house. Since the word “clean” has taken on a whole new meaning for all of us, I decided to really dig deeply into old dark corners to tidy up and truly sanitize. When moving some old picture frames and clay pots aside, I found a resource that I’d forgotten about. Published in 1992 and written by Donald T. Phillips, the little paperback Lincoln on Leadership is a profound, timeless reminder of the simple yet effective things we can do, not only in times of trouble, but every day to build confidence and loyalty among our employees. (And I found it on Amazon for as little as a quarter! Now that’s a bargain.)

During these days of rapid change and long isolation, it is easy to lose sight of the organization's longer-term needs.  Now is a good time to slow down and assess your organization’s strengths and challenges so that when we do return to a new normal, you’ll be able to upscale quickly with employees who are clear about and committed to your mission and vision.

Part 1 of "The New Supply Chain" blog series Mike Loquercio, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management Expert

For those of us in the supply chain field, we may or may not have sophisticated systems that provide big data relative to sales, markets, items, transit times, on-time delivery, shipped in full, and all the other metrics that help assess the health of the supply chain.

Depending upon your products, customers, and your manufacturing footprint, the most recent crisis may have taxed your supply chain to its limits or maybe you have a business continuity plan (BCP) that encompasses all the challenges.

This is an original NIST Cybersecurity Insights blog post, written by Jeff Greene.

Your employer has unexpectedly directed you to telework—and you are feeling overwhelmed. With many changes happening at once, telework security could be an afterthought or completely overlooked. This could put you and your organization at increased risk from attackers, who are always looking for opportunities to take advantage of disruption generally and weak security practices specifically. But it’s more than your organization at risk—if your telework device is compromised, anything else connected to your home network could be at risk too.

This is an original NIST Cybersecurity Insights blog post, written by Jeff Greene.

Conference calls and web meetings—virtual meetings—are a constant of modern work. And while many of us have become security-conscious in our online interactions, virtual meeting security is often an afterthought, at most. Who hasn’t been finishing one call when attendees of the next call start joining – because the access code is the same? In the moment it may be annoying, or even humorous, but imagine if you were discussing sensitive corporate (or personal) information. Unfortunately, if virtual meetings are not set up correctly, former coworkers, disgruntled employees, or hackers might be able to eavesdrop. Using some basic precautions can help ensure that your meetings are an opportunity to collaborate and work effectively – and not the genesis of a data breach or other embarrassing and costly security or privacy incident.

An original article by Nico Thomas, Performance Analyst for the Program Evaluation and Economic Research  group of NIST MEP.

Technology is the single greatest challenge (and opportunity) for the manufacturing industry … or is it? It’s true that technology has evolved and changed how manufacturers—especially small and medium-sized manufacturers—operate their businesses, in ways that even a few years ago didn’t seem possible.

This is an original article from NIST Manufacturing Innovation Blog.

Cybersecurity threats are a huge business risk for all companies. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) — including manufacturers — are especially vulnerable to attacks. Small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) are often seen as an easy entry point — a “soft” target — into larger businesses and government agencies. One of the first steps when prioritizing how to manage your business risk is to gather information about the threat environment. The 20 important (and shocking) cybersecurity statistics listed below focus on what manufacturers need to know about the “what” and “so what” of cybersecurity, so they can start planning their “now what” actions.