Would you spend millions of dollars for a return of more than a billion? Sure you would, but that’s just a fantasy, right? It wasn’t just a pipedream for GE’s CEO Jack Welch, who expected to reap a hefty return for every dollar his company spent on Six Sigma. Needless to say, he did. In 1997, GE invested $380 million in Six Sigma-mostly for training-and received about $700 million in documented benefits from increased productivity and decreased waste. It’s no wonder Six Sigma devotees at GE and elsewhere speak of the initiative in terms bordering on miraculous.

Unfortunately, not all stories are as rosy as GE’s. Many companies that adopted Six Sigma failed to sustain results, and therefore the program was either put on the back burner or eliminated completely. They didn’t realize, or couldn’t accept, that the program takes years of dedicated work to implement successfully. To succeed with the initiative, organizations must look at their business processes in an entirely new way. They must understand that Six Sigma brings about sustained, long-term change as opposed to a quick fix. Any company that applies it as a Band-Aid will reap little or no benefit. The changes must be fundamental to the business companywide and persistently pursued.

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