Among the more challenging topics covered on this blog is our September theme: Making excellence last. I was inspired by the story of glass manufacturer Corning, whose decades-long excellence–including an impressive comeback–is detailed in this case study.
The Influential Voices reflected on this topic at length, as all quality professionals should. After all, as Influential Voices blogger Guy Wallace notes—the only constant nowadays is change. Take a look:
Tim McMahon warns us of the dangers of organizational complacency and lists 10 factors that help organizations avoid passivity.
Manu Vora writes about the foundations of sustainable change management, listing necessary organizational traits such as leadership and project management. John Hunter also compiles success strategies for companies, including viewing the organization as a system. Adds Edwin Garro:”An excellent company starts with leaders who actually want to be excellent.”
Dr. Lai points us to Kaizen, BPR and TRIZ as tools to use for continued excellence. Guy Wallace likes the term “continuous alignment”—that is, broadly sharing vision, metrics, and responsibilities, also noting that “the only constant nowadays is change.”
Speaking of which, Rajan Thiyagarajan notes that today it is increasingly hard to predict which companies will thrive and which will disappear. For organizational survival, pursue change when the times are good, advises John Priebe.
Nicole Radziwill writes about established companies that partner with young start ups and entrepreneurs for a jolt of innovation.
Jennifer Stepniowski makes a connection to another company known for excellence, Apple. Daniel Zrymiak writes about the continued excellence of Honda. And Robert Mitchell writes about the long-lasting success of his employer, 3M.
Anshuman Tiwari makes the case that quality must make money for companies, rather than being just “the right thing to do.”
Babette Ten Haken asks if quality is part of your organization’s product development and customer discovery from day one.
On the lighter side, James Lawther explains change management through the parable of the old fairy tale, “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”
Finally, Scott Rutherford wraps up the bloggers’ comments nicely when he says:
“Each organization has a unique culture with periods of great success as well as turbulent times. Ultimately, it is the alignment of culture, strategy, and execution that defines organizational sustainment during change of organizational leadership.”
