Achieving Class A Business Excellence: An Executive's Perspective

17

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Greg, you once told me . . . that the status quo was the reason you were in such a mess. Sounds like you might be falling back into that ’status quo’ trap.

Your job is to keep the ideas and improvements flowing and aligned with your vision.

And there’s worse news. The order lead time for (the competitor’s) products varies between two and four days for A-Items, compared with five to seven days for ours.

 

 

 

 

 

Greg arrived at work the next Monday morning with a list of ideas he’d written at 1:00 A.M. on a nightstand notepad next to his bed. He’d long since learned that until he wrote down the thoughts that woke him in the middle of the night, he couldn’t get back to sleep. Now, sitting in his office and reviewing the list, he was uncertain what to do. In addition to his list, the teams had developed a long list of additional areas to address as they designed and implemented their new business processes. He knew he had to keep the momentum going while people were still engaged and willing to accept change. How to sort the critical few from the long list was the question. He picked up the phone and called Roxanne.

“Roxanne? It’s Greg. Is it possible for you to give me a day of your time this week? I need to talk through my thoughts and get your advice about where we go next.”

Roxanne took the call as she was leaving for the airport to visit another client “Hi, Greg, it’s good to hear from you. I’m looking through my calendar . . . let me see. I’m leaving for ...