Kevin Herring

"Always keep your eye on the puck. If I said it once, I said it a hundred times when I introduced my family to one of my favorite sportsice hockey. The action is at the puck. And where the puck ends up determines who wins.<br /><br />People new to hockey seem to have a hard time following the puck. The same can happen in a business.<br /><br /> In the 'eighties, it started with companies determined to beef up their products and services in the name of quality. Florida Power & Light went after the Malcolm Baldridge Award and became the first U.S. company to win the prestigious Japanese award. Behind the fanfare, however, was a company drained of resources and exhausted from the process. Despite bragging rights to quality, Florida Power & Light's celebration was short-lived. After having spared no resource to win the award, they spent the next several years teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. In their case, quality was not free, as some have suggested. Not long afterwards, the Wallace Company, another Baldridge Award winner, lost it all in two short years following their day in the sun.<br /><br /> They, too, found the costs to be more than a little troublesome.<br /><br />Then came along ISO 9000 certification. It seemed that if a manufacturer wanted to play in the international arena, they had to prove their compliance with ISO 9000 standards by passing an ISO audit. Companies poured money and resources into creating paper trails consistent with practices and labor-intensive approval processes only to find that the more innovative their culture the more burdensome was compliance with the ISO standard. Some companies reported wasting so much time and money making changes, getting them approved, hiding documents from auditors, and going through audit after audit, that the process and cost nearly drove them out of business. <br /><br />Today, the latest quality gadget takes the form of a Six Sigma program. Companies use Six Sigma to drive down costs and improve efficiencies from one end of the business to the other. To hear people talk about it, however, you would think they were all enrolled in Mr. Moto's karate class with green belts and black belts. Now we find that efforts to control variances and improve predictability through Six Sigma have nearly destroyed 3M which was once considered on top of the most innovative companies in the world. And new 3M CEO George Buckley is working hard to re-energize innovation as an essential, but neglected, core competencythe competency considered most responsible for 3M's tremendously successful past.<br /><br />Interestingly, Toyota Motor Company, the company that defines quality and innovation for the rest of us, doesn't care about Six Sigma or ISO 9000. They don't use either system. A Toyota division occasionally wins the Malcolm Baldridge award, but attaining the award is never a major distraction to the business.<br /><br />As Toyota has shown, success is not about winning an award, becoming certified, or implementing the latest quality program. The marketplace has no interest in how many black belts are running around the plant or what's hanging on the lobby wall.<br /><br /> Success is dictated by specific business outcomes relating to profitability, quality and service. ISO 9000 certification may be a means to enter new markets, but if the process destroys innovationan essential competency for the businessleaders should be taking a second look at the decision or means of getting there. Likewise, leaders should be clear whether the goal is greater quality as one of several critical success factors, or a quality award. Awards rarely make businesses successful, but attaining profitability with quality products and service does. Effective leaders keep their eyes on the puck, making sure everything supports achieving the goals, and that includes not letting critical business objectives become subservient to lesser initiatives.<br /><br />Trying it on for fit: When launching any new initiative, assess its relevance by ask yourself the following questions.<br />1)       What is the objective of the business? How will the initiative be used to achieve the objective? If it doesn't support it, discard it. If it does, determine how you will prevent it from becoming so prominent that it diverts attention and resources from the business objective.<br /><br />2)       What is your core competency and how does the initiative align with it? Know your core competency and leverage it in the marketplacedon't casually abandon it. If your core competency doesn't create strategic advantage, then find a competency that does and put resources into acquiring or developing it. Don't let a tool or initiative compromise your core competency.<br /><br />3)       What are your strategies for attaining business objectives? How does your initiative support the strategy? Don't let unaligned or resource-leeching initiatives steer you away from your essential marketplace strategy.<br /><br />4)       What is the business case for pursuing the initiative? How will it help you achieve business objectives? Make sure your initiatives are supported by a clear and compelling business case before pushing them forward regardless of how popular they may be.<br /><br />Send an email and let me know what you learn from your experiences. I would love to hear from you!