The Law of Subtraction

Jay Arthur
888-468-1537
303-756-9144
KnowWare International, Inc.
DBA LifeStar
2253 S. Oneida
Ste 3D
Denver, CO 80224

We work with companies
that want to fire up their profits using
Lean Six Sigma

Copyright © 2011

If you haven't heard the buzz about the book and video called The Secret, you may have missed Oprah or the guy at your neighborhood Starbucks reading a copy or the video playing in a retail store in your local mall. In a nutshell, it's all about the Law of Attraction: you attract what you think about.

I discovered the flip side of this phenomenon in John Soat's IT Confidential column in InformationWeek. I laughed out loud at his take on The Secret as it applies to information technologies. Here it is:

The Law of Subtraction
"Whatever circumstances you're in...ratchet back your expectations by a factor of two and you're sure to be successful."

As a customer, isn't that what you do all of the time? Don't you expect suppliers, restaurants, and retailers to underdeliver, undercare, and undereverything? Don't you expect them to be sluggish and error prone. Don't you routinely build slack into your schedule to work around their inefficiencies and inaccuracies?

I know I do.

I recently sent a copyright application to the Library of Congress by FedEx. As I found out afterwards, FedEx goes to a different location for preprocessing and actually slows the registration process. Send it by snailmail and it gets processed more quickly. Trust the Federal Government to squeeze the speed out of FedEx.

Your Customers Are Too
As much as my staff and I try to be fast and accurate, I'm sure we disappoint a customer or two. As much as we try to be easy to do business with, I'm sure we disappoint someone. I wake up in the middle of the night worrying about the Law of Subtraction.

Are your customers using the Law of Subtraction when dealing with your business? Are they working around your inefficiencies and inaccuracies? Would they turn on you in a second if they found someone better and faster? You bet they would.

The Law of Subtraction also reduces sales, growth and profits, probably by a factor of two or more. Isn't it time to accelerate, simplify, streamline and mistakeproof your business against customer defections using the power of Lean Six Sigma?

© 2008 Jay Arthur, the KnowWare® Man, works with managers who want to plug the leaks in their cash flow.

Hire Jay Arthur to train your staff in his one-day Lean Six Sigma Workshop! Contact Jay at (888) 468-1537, support@qimacros.com.

Rights to reprint this article in company periodicals is freely given with the inclusion of the following tag line: "© 2008 Jay Arthur, the KnowWare® Man, (888) 468-1537, support@qimacros.com."

Want to increase your profits and slash costs by $250,000? Consider our risk-free trial of the Complete Lean Six Sigma System (#490)

To subscribe to this Ezine, go to http://www.qimacros.com/freestuff.html

Try QI Macros
FREE
For 30-Days

Or Buy It Now!