Going Against the Flow
“Then there was this law of life, so cruel
and just, that we must change, or else pay more to remain the same.”
—
Norman Mailer (from The Deer Park)
A Norwegian folk
tale describes a husband who became so frustrated by his contrary and
argumentative wife that he thew her into a foaming river. Her body was
found a few days later — upstream.
It is not easy to
“go against the flow.” But it will bring you closer to the source. And
it might lead you to the truth. It also may cause you to become very,
very frustrated.
We all admired
Japan when the country put Deming’s principles of quality improvement to
work and started to make extraordinary cars, cameras, Walkmans and
computers.
But Japan has been
plagued by negligible growth for 14 years running. Toyota has just
recalled 350,000 cars; Sony is being confronted over cell phone
batteries that explode. A recent Wall Street Journal editorial bemoans
the deterioration in the quality of Japanese products.
The companies that
copied Toyota are faring no better: Ford, GM and Daimler-Chrysler are
all making high quality cars that remain unsold. What’s going on?
If you were making
a product of such high quality that only 3.6 out of every million are
defective, would you change your production process? I think not. You
have attained the standard for perfection in manufacturing.
No change means no
increase in productivity. No change means that you are sitting still,
while your competitors are making products faster, better and more
cheaply — or offering new and better designs — or inventing something
no one else has even thought about.
What happened to
Sony’s fabulous Walkman when Apple introduced its iPod? Or to Kodak
with the advent of the digital camera? Or to TiVo when cable and
satellite TV providers offered their own inexpensive DVRs?
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Apple is famous for
being contrarian. It has the best and most innovative products, but
cannot make a dent in Microsoft’s Windows market. But Microsoft’s stock
price has been flat or falling for over five years. The power of a
near-monopoly is not eternal. And somewhere out there, a certain
individual is already inventing the next Microsoft, or the next Apple.
Going against the
flow is risky. But going with the flow is even riskier. Think of the
giants of the past: Montgomery Ward, AT&T, Westinghouse, Sears, Enron.
They are either entirely gone, or they have become very different and
much smaller companies.
For the survivors,
change is a constant. But change itself does not guarantee survival any
more than quality does. No change, however, guarantees
extinction in a changing business world.
These are the rules
for survival:
1.
Waste not — extreme lean is best for everyone.
2.
Innovate, with both the customer and the competition in mind.
3.
Lead — don’t follow.
It helps when
everyone takes responsibility for their actions, and pulls together
towards a common goal. But the questioning must never cease: Goals
change, responsibilities change, and alignments change.
Mostly, the
questioning comes from contrarians.
They are not your
enemies.
They are your
compass.
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Leading, innovative companies understand the
power of productivity as the strategy for achieving greater
corporate performance and bottom line results. Yet, most
companies do not apply a systematic and rigorous process for
realizing their untapped productivity potential. 80% of all
corporate initiatives focus instead on efficiency
improvements that are not tied to overall growth objectives
and do not produce any breakthroughs in performance.
Productivity improvement, on the other hand, is so highly
leveraged that even small increases can dramatically affect
revenue, cost effectiveness and profits, while raising
employee satisfaction and customer delight. For publicly
held companies, stock prices and market capitalization can
increase dramatically.
Tor Dahl & Associates is the world leader in this "new"
field of productivity. We have debunked the old myth that
productivity takes away jobs and that it is only concerned
about "doing more with less". Our successful productivity
strategy is rooted in the fundamental belief that
productivity is about removing barriers to individual
performance, freeing up resources from unproductive
processes and reallocating those resources to higher yield
activities that support organizational growth objectives. It
is a positive method that leads to greater earned
competitive advantage, increased job satisfaction and
positive employee engagement, rather than job losses and
downsizing.
Tor Dahl & Associates offers a compressed tutorial for
corporate teams during which the fundamental principles of
productivity will be taught and practiced. It is an
enjoyable, stimulating, practical and valuable session that
identifies key factors that impact productivity and how your
organization can apply this insight to make dramatic
improvements in personal and organizational performance.
Contact us now to arrange for a customized tutorial for your
leadership team. |
