Why is it that typically the only time you see managers realize that they are fat and slow is when they are in deep trouble financially?

All of this momentum is being driven by one man; Chairman Lee Kun Hee. He is absolutely obsessed with the need for constant change and innovation. For example, about 50,000 Samsung employees receive training each year at Samsung’s Creativity Institute 45 minutes south of Seoul, Korea.

In a recent Businessweek article about Walmart titled “What Good are Low Prices If the Shelves are Empty,” it describes all the complaints emerging because customers are finding Wal-Mart out of stock on many of the kinds of products that people buy regularly. The article cites the core problem as being the fact that “Walmart has been cutting staff since the recession and pallets of merchandise are piling up in its stockrooms as shelves go unfilled” due to inadequate staffing.

Her public admonishment was quickly followed by removing the leader of the hardware division. It is very rare to see such a public chastisement, and led to the industry press being filled with comments about the appropriateness of her moves.

My wife and I operate a foundation where we give college scholarships to high school seniors who will be majoring in engineering, science or math. In interviewing a perspective recipient recently I was struck by how clear it was that she has real leadership potential.

Net, Nokia seems incapable of doing two things at once; keeping the low end phone business growing while aggressively trying to catch up in smartphones. What is the problem here? Basically when a leader has two efforts that deserve major attention.

Having fun in business, and making career progress, is all about driving things that make a difference, and being part of an organization that strives to continually improve. Don’t get bogged down with a bunch of wimps!

Discontinuing a project, product, or service requires much more energy to achieve than most people realize. The reason is that it is somewhat counter to human nature.

In mid-September, 2012 when Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, was on stage in San Francisco introducing the iPhone 5, the Samsung Galaxy team was huddled with its ad agency listening to the presentation, tracking each new feature and watching real-time comments on blogs and social media sites.

I recently met with the leaders of a company that, for the past three years, have been working to improve its operating profit margins. The leader was very proud of its 14% improvement over that three year period, going from 8.0% to 9.1%.

When I asked to understand the details, the leader reviewed with me a large spreadsheet which summarized over 40 different initiatives, each with a leader named and a description of the opportunity, the idea being pursed, target savings, target completion dates, and current progress assessment.