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Variables for Wealth Creations-The Roles of the Internet
The major variable for creating your wealth is you. Just like me, you were neither born with some millions working and waiting in the bank for you to clock 18 nor were you born with a last name that could open doors of influence, and opportunities. We share the reality of challenging the burden of today to create an endurable wealth that we can enjoy today and pass on to our coming generations. The choice between maintaining the status quo and pass it on as received or becoming a pacesetter..........
Making Lean Part of the Business Strategy
With the best of intentions, many companies fail to secure the desired results for lean manufacturing initiatives. Why? Because the lean initiatives are not part of the overall business strategy.
Getting New Managers to Deliver Quickly
As companies start transforming their businesses in response to changing market conditions, they need their people to deliver. Every CEO faces two main people challenges. The CEO's first challenge is to develop current high performers into good leaders who can put in place a multiplier effect on their talents. The CEO's second challenge is to induct new talented people and get them off the block quickly. Organizations that have a strong process culture can get their new manager's off the block quickly and with less pain.
The Customer Satisfaction Trap
Most companies that use satisfaction surveys to learn how happy their customers are with their products and services often mislead themselves. What matters is not what customers say about the level of satisfaction, but whether they feel the value they received will keep them loyal. Loyalty or repurchase behaviour is the only true measure of customer satisfaction. As tools for measuring the value a company delivers to it’s customers, satisfaction surveys are not very useful because, amongst other reasons, they focus primarily on transactional issues, such as product quality, deliveries, technical knowledge, hygiene factors, product specs etc. These items are simply the minimum requirements for entry into the market.

Culture and Institutional Reform
Culture is often described as "the way we do things around here." In fact it is more complex. It is also feelings, underlying beliefs, values, history, and assumptions about an organization. Those are rooted in experiences, stories, and behaviour patterns sometimes decades or centuries old. The culture tells people what is and is not okay. Culture is enduring, difficult to develop or reshape.Despite that, fundamental culture change is necessary for the reforms envisaged in Results for Canadians.

Other improvement efforts Related Articles

Have you read Forrest Breyfogle’s new book on Integrated Enterprise Excellence? Thoughts/comments?
Member Question: I recently read one of Forrest Breyfogle’s new books in his 4 book-volume series on the Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) System; i.e., "The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System: An Enhanced, Unified Approach to Balanced Scorecards, Strategic Planning, and Business Improvement." The subtitle to this book describes what is covered in varying details in the other three volumes. My sense is that Breyfogle has pushed his (and our) thinking to the next level and addressed issues that many of us struggle with regarding Continuous Improvement efforts. His “Integrated Enterprise” thinking makes sense to me, what are your thoughts or feedback?
The Service Factor during Economic Turbulence
Improving and maintaining good customer service is not an exciting endeavor. It involves detailed study and steadfast execution rather than temporary brilliance or inspiration. Therefore, customer service improvement is fundamentally an effort of continuous improvement. You must develop a basic competency in process improvement to attain and sustain high levels of customer service. This means that it is absolutely critical during tough economic times that you don’t make the mistake of cutting resources that support service excellence in your attempt to control operational costs.
Continuous Improvement
Firstly, this article asks the question ... "Is Continuous Improvement possible?" With a slight caveat ,the answer is 'yes'. It then sets out how you can achieve continuous improvement - without adopting any of the commercial 'methodologies, without using expensive consultants. You will , of course, have to put in some effort ... mainly thought! But it is possible - for any busines.
Blame Management for Poor Service
Buried in the publicity of a nasty airline strike was a vivid example of how misdirected management's service improvement efforts can become. To improve service, the airline ordered all attendants to attend three hour "Commitment to Courtesy" classes without pay. "They told us the reason we were losing money was because we were rude to passengers," said one attendant.
Change Management Can Lead to Rigidity and Resistance to Change
Beware of formal organization improvement or "change management" (an oxymoron) plans. Like strategic plans, organization improvement or change management plans can reduce an organization's effectiveness. They can lead to rigidity, bureaucracy, and resistance to change. This sounds like an argument against planning. It's not. We have found that constant and ongoing personal, team, and organization improvement planning is vital. But too many "change management" and improvement plans are built on the same faulty premise as strategic planning - that there is a right path, which can be determined in advance and then implemented. We often hear managers declare that they have the right strategic or improvement plan, but the reason things aren't going according to plan is because of "execution problems." This is a deadly assumption.
How Total is Your Quality Management?
Many well intentioned "Total Quality Management" improvement efforts aren't working. In their international study of Total Quality Management practices, the Conference Board of Canada found one study which showed that "seven out of ten North American companies fail in their attempt to execute a total quality strategy".
Personal Recognition and Appreciation is an Inside Job
Like improvement efforts, effective reward and recognition is an integrated process, not a bolt-on program. Since you can't make your team or organization into something different than you, it has to start with you. Whose needs are your recognition and reward systems designed to serve? What are the goals? Are they to manipulate, control, and "motivate?" Or do they build an atmosphere of helpfulness, appreciation, and high energy? How do you know? As with beauty, quality, or customer service, reward and recognition are in the eyes of the beholder.

Process Management Pathways and Pitfalls (Part Two)
Make sure all your process improvement activities are clearly and tightly linked to your strategic imperatives. Each effort should also have highly focused and specific improvement goals (that are an aggressive, major stretch) and measurements. Establish feedback and follow-up steps for each process management and improvement team.

Stepping Back to Step Ahead Through Reviewing and Assessing
Our performance results are determined by what we finish, not by what we start. But whether it's diet and fitness, investments, leadership development, or organization change and improvement efforts, many people search for the quick and easy technique or approach. When the latest improvement fad doesn't create a quick transformation, the next hot book, guru, theory, or change program beckons.

Why Most Change Programs and Improvement Initiatives Fail
Many team and organization change and improvement efforts are lost or badly bewildered. Decades of studies have consistently shown that 50-70 percent are failing. There are as many reasons that improvement endeavors lose their way, as there are people, teams, and organizations trying to improve.
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