Quarterly Column

by Aimée Cowher
President

How time flies!...

It seems like yesterday that we held our customer event at the IQPC Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement Summit in Orlando. It was late January and the week in Orlando was a welcome reprieve from the snow and cold in Michigan. It’s been a long winter and I’m grateful to be writing this 2nd quarter column with the office door wide open, the kids out playing in shorts, and admittedly, being eager to join in the fun! In this column, I summarize the powerful presentations that were made at our customer event, sharing not only the key points of each separate topic but highlighting the synergy between them.

Driving Performance Excellence in Education
Christian Ortega Lopez, Director de Servicios Institucionales at Laureate, México presented on behalf of Jorge Brake, President for Laureate LA, the output of their strategic planning process. The significance of the plan is three-pronged. First, the process itself is new to the organization. Having spent 25 years at Procter & Gamble, Sr. Brake brought to Laureate a structure that created the vision, strategy and tactical plans to focus resources on those things most important to the business. Sr. Ortega explained how effectively Sr. Brake engaged people in the organization, creating buy-in and commitment to the plan by listening, understanding, and incorporating the expertise of those who have been with Laureate for many years. Another significant outcome was the focus on creating a customer centric organization. While this may be old news for some companies, it represents a change in mindset at Laureate to think of the students and alumni as customers. This new perspective has led to some organizational changes. For example the creation of Sr. Ortega’s group to focus on improving the key processes that deliver value to customers, which represents the third important output of the planning process. Specific projects have been identified and Six Sigma will be the standard method to achieve improvement objectives. This is a perfect example of effectively using peoples’ knowledge to develop sound strategies and tactical plans that will 1) be supported because of the buy-in by key stakeholders and 2) achieve results because of the focused training of the necessary tools applied to the right projects.

Using Customer Satisfaction to Prioritize Improvement Efforts
Sheri Teodoru, CEO of CFI Group, gave a dynamic presentation on their approach to identifying the drivers of customer behavior and their resulting impact on the financial performance of an organization. CFI Group uses rigorous measurement science to diagnose customer relationships, resulting in exacting advice on actions that strengthen these relationships and improve a company’s overall financial performance. CFI Group technology is used by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) via the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. The benefit of focusing efforts on customer satisfaction is probably best shown by the performance of the CSAT fund (Download PDF).  This fund trades stocks based only on c-sat scores.  The general principle is companies’ stocks are bought and sold based upon “good” or “bad” CSAT scores. The portfolio of strong ACSI firms keeps outperforming just about every US stock fund out there with a 5-year return of 218% vs. 100% for the market (dividends included) and has an annualized return of 26%.  The PDF file contains a summary of the CSAT fund, as well as an HBR article talking about the same. Ms. Teodoru provided great insight to our customers in attendance, especially those who have a strategic imperative to change customer behavior. The services provided by CFI Group can identify and prioritize where tools like Six Sigma can have the most impact on financial performance.

Predictive Index and Performance Excellence
Elmano Nigri, President of Arquitetura Humana and Founding Partner of GPS-Brazil is a “Master Black Belt” in the use of Predictive Index®, an assessment tool that measures internal drives that affect how we behave. While the topic of managing human capital seems to have become the latest “buzz”, Elmano has been successfully helping companies since 1990. He helped GPS incorporate Human Architecture into our trademark framework to achieve Operational Excellence®. At the customer session, Sr. Nigri provided an overview of the motivating drives that are measured by Predictive Index and how this provides an understanding of how people work independently and in teams, how people can be matched to the right right jobs, and how to select change agents (“Black Belts” in the Six Sigma speak) with the greatest probability of successfully leading change. For more details of the integration of Human Capital Management and Six Sigma, see the recent review of the featured book.

Using Minitab Quality Companion to Drive Projects and Share Knowledge
Chris Paret, Senior Business Development Coordinator - Six Sigma at Minitab, Inc. provided a demonstration of their new product, Quality Companion 2. There is no argument that project documentation is necessary, to drive discipline, track progress and, ultimately, to share knowledge. There’s also little argument that it is viewed as a necessary evil. Until now… Minitab has developed a tool that not only facilitates project documentation but brings value to the user. In addition to the efficiency that results form the many templates (form tools) embedded in the package, it can improve the output of brainstorming sessions, streamline process mapping efforts, and increase the probability of conclusive statistical studies. The linkage of shared data between all documents and the repository in the Data Store allows for more efficient analysis. Consistent with their statistical software that has the most useful “Help” feature of any software I’ve every used, Quality Companion has an embedded “Coach” for every tool and is a great asset to using the right tool at the right time. This product is a must-have for Belts and others who are responsible for project work.

While each presentation provided considerable insight, the topics presented sequentially were very synergistic. We started by talking about using people to develop strategy that leads to the effective use of project work and tools like Six Sigma to achieve objectives. Where a strategic imperative is to improve customer satisfaction (and I could make the argument that it should be the only strategic imperative,) the measurement that determines the drivers of customer satisfaction is a critical first step. CFI Group is the best in the business and use the same technology as the engine behind the ACSI. Of course, whatever a company’s strategy, the effective management of human capital can ensure success. Overlook the human side of change and the best developed strategic plans will fail. Finally, we need tools that allow us to focus on driving progress, getting results and sharing knowledge. Minitab has developed one of those tools!

Again, I really appreciate the contribution from everyone to make this a great learning experience. I look forward to creating similar opportunities in the future. For those who weren’t able to attend, I hope the summary is useful. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you want additional information.