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June 2009
Email: gcohen@co2partners.com
Dear Readers,
Leaders want to produce the best work possible, while increasing revenue and limiting expenses. Unless they lose some big clients or receive sharp complaints, they don't always give due consideration to their clients' expenses. They generally want their clients to spend more, not less.
Quality work is important, but leaders need to be mindful of costs--theirs and others'. At Brand Integrity, the partners met a few years back to set top business objectives. Brand Integrity had helped Wegman's Food Markets, Hallmark Cards, Erickson Retirement Communities, and other companies to better define and deliver on their brands, so the partners could have continued their profitable and largely effective practices. But founding partner, Gregg Lederman, thought to ask, "How much of our clients' money are we wasting?"
That question helped transform a pivotal service offering within their business. Over the next few years, Brand Integrity expanded its employee performance practice by moving away from paper-based tools and by integrating a software development and service business. With an online peer-to-peer employee engagement solution, Brand Integrity found they could do more for their clients for less money. The paper system couldn't detect whether employees delivered the brand strategy consistently. Now, their clients can do so internally to reap the benefits of rapid data collection, information sharing, and employee appreciation. In addition, they can better measure return on investment and identify useful new best practices.
While eliminating the paper-based training may have cost Brand Integrity some revenue in the short term, it has led to far superior results and even created new revenue streams. With their Partner Program, they are now offering their solution to other industries that work on strategy development, such as advertising and branding agencies, business consultants, and providers of Human Resource tools. They are also better prepared to address the needs of organizations of all sizes.
Before your clients turn to one of your competitors to provide better value for their money, ask, "How much of our clients' money are we wasting?" The answer may yield more efficient practices and more business.
Quality Management Isn't Just For Manufacturers
by Peter Coleman, Executive Coach & Business Advisor
You've probably seen the signs hung up proudly at factories: "ISO 9001 Certified". Those of us who have administered Quality Management (QM) programs know that the sign means the manufacturer has put rigorous quality control steps in place to ensure that products and services are delivered within specification and with proper documentation. Not only can the customers count on consistent quality in their purchases, but the manufacturer's production and rework costs are significantly reduced.
Well, there is no reason why non-manufacturing companies such as distributors and service providers--in fact, just about every business imaginable--could not benefit from the same QM thinking. After all, the best--run companies are those that set high standards for themselves and work to consistently deliver that quality experience to their customers!
While I'm not suggesting that every company has to pursue ISO certification, I do think every company could benefit from more QM thinking. By that I mean that every internal and external work process should be developed to meet the standards set by the company, and then those processes should be fully documented to make sure that everyone in the company who performs the process executes it the same way every time. Without the documentation, you're leaving the performance up to the interpretation and memory of oral training-not a good recipe for consistent and replicable customer experience, is it?
The real strength of a good QM program is in its expectation that errors can and will happen, and in its provision for what is called the NCR (Non-Conformance Report) process. Whenever a problem in internal (employee-found) or external (customer-found) business process is discovered or reported, an NCR is prepared by the employee who first learns of it. This is usually just a single page form with a short narrative of what the problem is and what immediate steps were taken to correct it. All these forms are sent to one person in the company who has taken on the responsibility of Quality Management Representative. This person logs every NCR received and then meets with all division/department heads and senior management at least once a month (or weekly, preferably) to review the NCR forms. The purpose of the meetings is to: 1) make sure the immediate correction was appropriate; 2) determine the apparent (proximate) cause of the problem; and 3)most importantly, drill down to its root cause. Once determined, the appropriate manager takes responsibility to correct the root and proximate causes, and this is noted on the NCR form before it is closed.
By having an NCR process in your company, you can determine if your organization is proceeding towards quality improvement or retreating from it. "Zero Defects" can and should be every business's goal, and you'll never know how that quest is going unless you document your failures. In the commitment to always improve by learning from our mistakes, knowledge is certainly power!
One final note: the best QM program in the world doesn't stand a chance of succeeding unless every person in the company knows that the business owner/CEO is fully committed to it. Don't start a QM program unless and until you're willing to hold your entire enterprise accountable to its aims. But once you're ready to do that, it will be one of the best investments you'll ever make!
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