Doughnut Principle: Definition and additional resources from BNET
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BNET Business Dictionary

Business Definition for: Doughnut Principle

  • a concept that likens an organization to an inverted doughnut with a center of dough—the core activities—surrounded by a hole—a flexible area containing the organization's partners. The doughnut principle was originated by Charles Handy in The Age of Paradox (1994). He saw organizations as having an essential core of jobs and people, surrounded by a space filled with flexible workers and flexible supply contracts. He maintained that organizations often neglect the core, developing the surrounding hole instead. The doughnut analogy is a way of helping a balance to be achieved between what has to be done and what could be done, by analyzing the dough and the hole of a particular organization. The principle has also been applied to personal life.

Additional Resources

Present Your Data In A Doughnut Chart
Using Microsoft Office Excel 2007, you can quickly turn your data into a doughnut chart, and then use the new formatting features to make that doughnut chart easier to read. For example, by adding a legend, data labels, and text boxes that point out what each ring of a doughnut...
Tags: Chart, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software
White papers
Massachusetts Doughnut Shops Confident They Can Withstand Krispy Kreme.
By Erica Noonan, The Boston Globe Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Jun. 22--George Koleas would like you take a moment to navigate the rugged terrain of a hand-cut blueberry nugget doughnut from Demet's Donuts, his family's shop. Notice the heft and heaviness...
Tags: Boston Globe, Construction, Dunkin, Massachusetts
Research articles 2003-06-22
Thailand's Mister Donut Is in Expansion Mode.
By Natalie Suwanprakorn, Bangkok Post, Thailand Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Aug. 22--Running rings around your competitors in the doughnut business is no easy task, and it's a sure bet that it involves considerable investment. No doughnut proprietor knows this more...
Tags: Bangkok Post, FINANCE, Investment, Manufacturing, SALES, Thailand
Research articles 2002-08-22
The Borowitz Report: Shaq to Testify About Doughnut Abuse in NBA
Former L.A. Lakers and current Miami Heat star Shaquille O'Neal will testify before a Congressional committee investigating rumors of widespread doughnut abuse in the National Basketball Association, the chairman of the committee confirmed today. With a new study showing that 200 out of 426 NBA players are overweight, the...
Tags: Government, NBA
Research articles 2005-03-22
Krispy Kreme Doughnut Chain Plans Grapevine, Texas, Store.
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Aug. 12 -- Ready to be glazed and confused? Krispy Kreme, maker of the fluffy doughnut that caused traffic jams in Arlington, has picked out Metroplex location No. 2 -- in Grapevine. And it won't just...
Tags: Cooper, franchise, INTERNET, Manufacturing, Mrs., SALES
Research articles 1999-08-12
Aetna rolls out 'doughnut' plan
Aetna Inc. is getting into the doughnut business.
Tags: Aetna Inc.
Research articles 2005-04-22
When the kitchen does the cooking
Microchips may soon be in your shoes, monitoring your body temperature. But how long before they take you for a walk? 'Look, you're a doughnut." Professor Michael Hawley is stating his case for embedded technology. "You're a roundish little thing with a hole in the top and you pour...
Tags: Components, HARDWARE, Manufacturing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, technology
Research articles 1998-10-01
How to Sidestep the Peter Principle
The Peter Principle holds that we rise to our level of incompetence. In other words, at some point in our career, we all end up in over our heads. Tom Foster's Management Skills blog has a post on how to find a life preserver when you've...
Tags: Blog, Blogging, Professional Development, Internet, Career, Michael Fitzgerald
Blog posts 2008-04-21
Editor's Letter: Eyes Open
By Seth Arenstein 'Twixt optimist and pessimist The difference is droll; The optimist the doughnut sees- The pessimist the hole. The above, which predates the Mayflower (the donut shops, not the ship) and is sometimes known as The Optimist's Creed, often appears this way:...
Tags: Atlanta, Brandeis University, Cable, NETWORKING, TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Research articles 2006-04-03
On Dunkin' Donuts Campus, Franchisees Get Ready for Doughnut Wars.
By Farah Stockman, The Boston Globe Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Mar. 4--BRAINTREE, Mass.--They are everywhere. Across the street. Around the corner. Next door. They are even cropping up in distant, unexpected places: Indonesia. Peru. Qatar. If Dunkin' Donuts is an empire...
Tags: Boston, Boston Globe, Dunkin, MARKETING, PRODUCTIVITY, SALES, Strategy
Research articles 2003-03-04
Buffett buy-in rumor lifts K. Kreme's sagging stock
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Shares of embattled Krispy Kreme Doughnut Inc. jumped 22.5 percent March 4 on speculation that legendary investor Warren E. Buffett, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., might take an investment stake in the operator or franchisor of 401 doughnut shops. The one-day surge to $7.50 still...
Tags: Berkshire Hathaway Inc., FINANCE, Investment, stock, Winston-Salem
Research articles 2005-03-14
Knowledge Management as a Doughnut: Shaping Your Knowledge Strategy Through Communities of Practice
Debate about the utility of knowledge management continues today. This author, a recognized authority on the discipline, suggests that as long as one adopts a good model for managing knowledge, in this case, a doughnut, its practice can give a company a decided advantage. The term "Knowledge management" has had...
Tags: Knowledge, Knowledge Management, Strategy, Business Intelligence, Enterprise Software, Software, Management, Data Management
White papers 2004-01-01
Falling profits, inquiry haunt Krispy Kreme national doughnut chain.
By Paul Nowell, The Daily Oklahoman Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Jul. 30--CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Shares of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. sank more than 15 percent Thursday after the doughnut maker said federal regulators were looking into the retailer's franchise repurchases and...
Tags: FINANCE, Government, Regulations, Retail, SEC
Research articles 2004-07-30
Testing the Pauli exclusion principle - physics
Testing the Pauli exclusion principle The Pauli exclusion principle stands at the heart of modern molecular, atomic and nuclear physics. By insisting that no two electrons, protons or neutrons can occupy exactly the same quantum state, the principle explains why matter doesn't collapse on itself. Several research...
Tags: electron, exclusion, NIST
Research articles 1990-05-05
Doughnut corporation will not file report on time
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. won't file an annual report for its retirement savings plan on time, the company said. In a filing late Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the troubled Winston-Salem, N.C.-based doughnut maker said accountants have been too busy to complete the...
Tags: accounting, FINANCE, SEC
Research articles 2005-07-04
Thai Food Group Set to Revitalise Doughnut Franchise.
By Nareerat Wiriyapong, Bangkok Post, Thailand Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Jun. 6--The new managing director of Royal Food Group RFG plans to reposition the 22-year-old Dunkin' Donuts brand and refresh the image of the bakery cafe chain Au Bon Pain in a...
Tags: Bangkok Post, Branding, MARKETING, SALES, Thailand
Research articles 2003-06-06
No one injured when car plows into doughnut shop.(News)
Byline: Josh Stockinger Daily Herald Staff Writer ***** CORRECTION/date 05-04-2007: To correct a story in some editions Thursday, Bosa Donuts is at 2536 E. Main St. in St. Charles. ***** No one was hurt when a car...
Tags: accident, car, storefront, Subaru
Research articles 2007-05-03
Legislative entrenchment: a reappraisal.(allowing legislatures o bind their successors)
INTRODUCTION There is a principle of constitutional law holding that "one legislature may not bind the legislative authority of its successors." (1) The Supreme Court recently discussed that principle at length in United States v. Winstar, and although the case was decided on...
Tags: Blackstone, Newton, statute, U.S. Congress, upshot
Research articles 2002-05-01
Krispy Kreme Casts a Sweet Spell With Halloween Treats
Halloween Combo Offers Customers a Pair of Pumpkin Favorites WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Oct. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. is taking the mystery out of finding this Halloween's perfect treat. The signature pumpkin shaped doughnut and pleasantly spiced pumpkin cake doughnut are back in stores, giving...
Tags: Halloween, HARDWARE, Insurance, Retail, SEC
Research articles 2008-10-06
Time Management - Pareto's 80/20 Principle
The Pareto Principle is known by many names and seems to be an almost intrinsic law of nature. Amongst its other names two in particular pinpoint what it is about: the law of imbalance and the 80/20 rule. The principle can be expressed in many ways and has been used...
Tags: Imbalance, Tony Atherton, Pareto Principle, Time Management, Productivity
White papers 2007-01-17
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