On a recent visit to Japan, I had an opportunity to visit Toyota’s headquarters. During a meeting with some of its top executives, I asked one of them what role the senior leadership played in Toyota’s much-admired quality philosophy. The reply I received was, like many things about Toyota and Japan, disarmingly simple, yet profound. He merely said, “We follow a philosophy of improve every day.”
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That’s it. Improve every day. He had captured in three words the essence of what it takes to achieve, and sustain, excellence in business. Or for that matter, in any other field.
Just imagine the power of improvements, even small ones (in fact, mostly small ones), achieved every day, continuously over a period of weeks, months, years, and decades. Needless to say, any improvement, however small, must be permanent to be meaningful. “Permanent” here means not rigid or cast in stone, but sustainable for as long as it is relevant.
Companies like Toyota, with their leading positions in quality and business that they have achieved and maintained, are living examples of the power of “improve every day.” That is the theme of my recently published book, Continuous Permanent Improvement. (ASQ Press, 2014). Continuous permanent improvement (CPI) is not a new “ism.” The purpose of this book is not to expound any new theory or tools, but to share experiences in implementing existing methods with a bias toward business results. In fact, one of the important lessons we learned is that most existing improvement models or methods, if adhered to in the right spirit, will give results.
This book is a distillation of experiences and lessons learned from both successes and mistakes from nearly three decades of working with business processes, systematic thinking, customer-focus, and quality and performance measurements. I have used the broad term “business excellence” to refer to all of these. During the last 28 years, I have had the opportunity to work with many companies and industries as diverse as financial services, telecommunications, manufacturing, conglomerates, and management consulting. In addition, I have also been fortunate to interact with numerous business and quality leaders while speaking at conferences, corporate management development programs, and business schools.
Much of what is written in the book is based on my personal experience leading strategic quality programs at companies that went on to achieve tremendous growth and leadership positions in their respective industries. Obviously, many factors contributed to these companies’ achievements, including visionary leadership, business acumen, human talent, execution capability, technology, investment in rapid growth in geographical presence and distribution networks, and so forth. Along with all of these, it is my firm conviction that these companies’ cultures, strategies, and initiatives in business excellence also contributed significantly to their business achievements over the years.
Two questions must be asked and answered here. The first is: Have these companies reached perfection in business excellence? My answer to that is no, I don’t think so. Every company will continue to face challenges; what’s important is to recognize problems and challenges as opportunities for continuous permanent improvement.
The second question is: Has business excellence contributed to these companies achieving significant and sustained business results? My answer to this is a resounding yes. To repeat the cliché, quality is a journey, not a destination. These companies have shown that every step in the journey can give tremendous business results.
In fact, I think it’s good these companies, like any other, haven’t achieved perfection. This only makes them more real, and hence easier to emulate. If only “perfect” companies could achieve this, many would never even start the journey.
So, no, you don’t have to be perfect, and yes, every step in your business excellence journey can make your business stronger and give you results. After all, most businesses exist to achieve business results and not some so-called ideal of perfection.
The book’s aim is to strengthen the belief of the reader in the strategic importance of CPI because the stronger your belief, the bigger and more sustained will be your results. The book also covers challenges related to mindsets and other change management issues that leaders typically will need to grapple with. Some of the most effective improvement methods and tools to deal with this are explained in simple language with real examples, with senior business leaders in mind.
The book begins with the strategic aspects of business excellence and the role of the leadership. It talks about how to create a living roadmap for business excellence that is linked to the business strategy. This roadmap provides the broad framework that is essential for continuity and sustained efforts and results. It goes on to discuss knowing who your customers are and how to listen to them. Next, it covers how to design processes and performance measures from the customer’s perspective. These are the basis or foundation for continuous permanent improvement. The book then covers how to improve performance and sustain the improvement. It talks about the role of both formal methods such as lean, Six Sigma, and other business excellence models, as well as ideas and innovation in CPI. It introduces the 360-degree Knowledge Management model, with examples of implementation and results. This is followed by a word to business leaders, quality professionals, and services.
Why did I write this book? Although there are numerous books on specific aspects of quality or business excellence, I felt there was a need for a book that puts it all together. I have tried to cover all aspects of excellence, from strategy and culture, to implementation and measurement, and to results and sustainability. This book tells the story of my actual experiences in implementing business excellence in various companies. It mostly teaches through examples and anecdotes; I thought readers would find this format more interesting and, more important, easier to implement in their organizations.
So go ahead—read the book and judge if I have been able to do a reasonable job. Most important, I hope you will enjoy it and find it useful. I would love to hear from you after you read it.
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