Reflections on Excellence

"Good morning , Suzuki San , how have you been "asked Miss P when she noticed him walking through the door .

" I am fine , Miss P , how about you . Today I have want to tell something that is not going to make you happy . I am really surprised why you and many others did not attend the Learning series on WHAT IS QUALITY conducted by my good friend KJ on the 19th May . Those who attended enjoyed the program and it gave a new outlook on the understanding of Quality .

I know what you will tell . That you were busy and though you tried you couldnt make it . I cant accept that Miss P . You must know that these are great opportunities for enhancing your knowledge levels , and all that you are going to spend is just 2 hours purposefully "

Miss P hung her head in shame . "I know Suzuki San , I dont have any reasons , I was trying to complete some work that I had and felt that I was too busy . But I do realise that when we have so much TIME to spend on trivialities and gossip etc... for a purposeful learning , we can always afford time . I will tell my apologies to KJ and ensure that I attend the programs in future without giving any reasons "

Suzuki San continued " I am not surprised by this lame reasoning , Miss P . I will see if I can ask KJ to conduct this program again in the near future . Atleast you go and tell others in the Industry to take advantage of this .

Have you heard of the concept of 3 BOX MODEL by Vijay Govindarajan . "

Miss P innocently asked " No , Suzuki San , is it something related to packaging ?"

Suzuki San who was so tensed up till now , burst out laughing .
"Miss P , you made me laugh now . I was so angry with you when I walked in . This is a MANAGEMENT CONCEPT proposed by a management guru called Vijay Govindarajan .

Prof.Vijay says that most of the Organizations are very myopic ( Senior management ) . They look at handling their current chores and responsibilities as a major task and invariably lost out on the future .

The 3 BOX MODEL is as follows .

BOX 1 - MANAGE THE PRESENT

Prof.Vijay says the present is something you will have to just manage . There may be very little control on what large changes you can achieve to give new directions to what is happening currently .

BOX 2 - SELECTIVELY FORGET THE PAST

Not all things that happened in the past are good or bad . However , certain mistakes and bad happenings need to be forgotten while retaining the ones that will be useful .

I will make an analogy of  driving a car . Just imagine if one keeps looking only at the rear view mirror and driving . Will he/she be able to drive forward . But at the same time do you drive only looking in front . No . We also keep looking at the rear view mirror ocassionally .

So the idea behind this is that , the good things of the past should be a reference only .

BOX 3 - CREATE THE FUTURE

You need to know where you want to be say 10 years from now . And to be WHAT YOU WANT TO BE 10 YEARS FROM NOW , there is no point in starting to act after 10 years , but NOW .

To be what you want to be in 10 years from now , you have to start planning and acting right now .

The moral of this concept is that and what I observed is that , WHAT KJ IS TRYING TO DISSEMINATE IN TERMS OF KNOWLEDGE IS NOT FOR YOU TO MANAGE THE PRESENT , BUT FOR YOU TO PREPARE YOURSELF TO CREATE THE FUTURE " .

So , stop giving stories like you were trying to finish some job , manage the present and all that , Miss P and look at using these opportunities so that you can be in better positions in the future . "

Miss P was almost in tears . "Suzuki San , I now understand fully what you conveyed . Yes , I do want to be a Managing Director in 10 years from , and I now realise that to be that in 10 years , unless I start using these opportunities now , I can never think of nearing such positions . So I am going to do one thing now .

I will selectively forget the past , my habit of saying that I was busy , and will look forward to attending KJ's next Learning series . Thanks a Lot , Suzuki San for this "

Suzuki San smiled . " you see , you got the concept right .

Now , I want tell you something . My other friend Mr.Eric Miller is in Zambia . He is a Management Consultant and a Lean Expert . He has done consultancy in many organisations in the Europe and has also worked as a Professor .

He is currently in Zambia and is volunteering his services for the Kaizen Institute of Zambia . I met him the other day and Eric sent me an article on Reflections of Excellence , which I felt will be immensely useful to all and hence have asked KJ to post it in the blog . Eric wishes to thank the authors Keith Mobley and agency Life Cycle Engineering for this article . Please read them and benefit . If you have any queries on lean , please email Eric on millereric450@gmail.com

Copy paste link or Click on the link details below :

https://www.dropbox.com/s/66cw9iiv4e7wrm4/Reflections-15-Laws-for-Continuous-Improvement%20May%202016.pdf?dl=0

Ok, Miss P , I am running late for a meeting now , Next week I will share about the Gemba program that happened in Sakiza Spinning in  Kitwe by the Kaizen Club of Zambia - Copperbelt Chapter "

Note 1 : Suzuki San , Miss P and her company are characters  developed by KJ and has no relevance to any particular person / processes/situation    . All mention are purely for illustration purpose of the central theme of the case and are personal opinions unless cited and shall have no recourse of consequences to author . Readers can use their practical inputs to alter any of the material that may be published . Readers are invited to express their views on this continuing case study series .

Note 2: Some of the readers have mentioned that they are unable to place their comments . Please click on the "No comments"  link , and make your comments and if you do not have any prior registration , you can choose anonymous and feel free to give details or not , though it will be nice if we can have your name details in the comments .

Miss P and Kaizen – episode 2

“Good morning Suzuki San “ , Miss P said , “what a surprise I thought you would return back from Lusaka after a few weeks only “

Suzuki San responded “ Good morning , Miss P , I was attending a Kaizen training program in Lusaka this week , and thought I will do some article on Kaizen success stories from a few companies, but since they were busy with office , I thought I better use my time visit here “ 

“Last week you mentioned about six sigma ,Suzuki San .Can you tell something about it “ 

“ Before we talk of six sigma , I want to ask you a question “ Suzuki San continued “ What do Excellent companies do “

Miss P thought for a few seconds before responding “ I presume they do high end brain storming , Develop complicate strategies , have a huge capital budget layout to execute their expansion plans , something like this … “ 

“May be , Miss P  , but do you know that Excellent companies work very hard to ensure basic things are done properly and consistently ¹   “ 

“Can you elaborate further Suzuki San “ 

“ Yes , for example , may I ask you what time your work starts and what time you reach to office every morning “ 

“ Well , my work starts at 08:00 hrs in the morning , and I generally reach between 7:55 to 8:00 , and maybe some days I may come in by 08:10 hrs “ 

“ Good , but Miss .P don’t you feel that 08:00hrs is the start of work and not the time you are expected to arrive in office “ 

A confused Miss P “ yes, very true  , I have never actually thought about this “ 

Suzuki San asked “ Miss P , do you fly in aircraft frequently “ . 

“ Yes , I do , when I go for meetings in Johanesburg or for trainings , why do you ask that , Suzuki San” 

“ Have you ever reached the airport 5 minutes before the aircraft is to depart , Miss P “ 

“ Oh , I see the point , Suzuki San “ Miss P said smilingly “ you are pointing out , when we can exercise discipline when we want to achieve something , why show a different attitude in work “ 

“Exactly , the first step to Kaizen and doing simple things right is to start arriving atleast 15-20 minutes before , and start your work at 08:00 hrs , Do you agree to that “ 

Suzuki San continued “ what happens generally is that we all tend to arrive at around 08:00 hrs , then take some time to settle down , and by the time one starts working , its already 08:30 hrs . As an individual , it may or may not be ok , but collectively , if you have 50 staff ,  we lose 50no.s x 0.5 hrs = 25 man hours per day already “ 

Miss P cheerfully added “ and if this time were saved , it will eventually increase productivity over a period of time . Wow , what a simple thing and I just never even thought about it , Thanks a lot Suzuki San for pointing this out , I will share with my team immediately  , what else do you think can we improve up on “ 

Suzuki San said “ I am happy that you got the point so fast , Miss P . This is suffice  for this week , I shall share my experiences with my friend KJ who publishes a Kaizen blog , so that many more Kaizen club members can read and benefit . In the coming weeks , we will gradually discuss more serious issues on continuous improvement , See you later then “ 

“ Thanks Suzuki San . Have a great weekend “

*¹  - In search of excellence , Tom Peters & Robert Waterman Jr.

Note: The case study is developed by KJ and has no relevance to any particular processes/situation  that may be followed in the concerned industry , All names are fictitious and do not represent any individual or organisation . All mention are purely for illustration purpose of the central theme of the case and are personal opinions unless cited and shall have no recourse of consequences to author . Readers are invited to express their views on this continuing case study series .