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2011 ASA Deming Lecture by Roger Hoerl – Need Any Country be Poor?

Deming Institute

And he discusses six sigma (which certainly has issues) but as I have written before if you want to learn what value six sigma offers listen to what Roger (and others such as Ron Snee, Gerry Hahn…) say. Hunter: an Innovator and Catalyst for Quality Improvement.

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Balancing Push and Pull Approaches to Improvement

Harvard Business Review

These mandated-from-above programs include Lean Six Sigma initiatives with experts (" Belts ") in command, big IT implementations, and reengineering of major end-to-end processes. An executive in the company's finance operations adopted a Six Sigma belt-driven approach to reduce costs in the company's global shared service centers.

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Diet and Exercise Tips from Process Fitness Fanatics

Harvard Business Review

The stories of how they have kept their processes fit are less well known than those of famous process fitness fanatics such as Toyota, with its Toyota Production System (also known as Lean), and GE, with its Six Sigma program. DuPont started with Six Sigma's classic focus on reducing product defects.

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How GE Stays Young

Harvard Business Review

Under CEO Jack Welch in the 1980s and 1990s, they adopted operational efficiency approaches (“ Workout ,” “Six Sigma,” and “Lean”) that reinforced their success and that many companies emulated. You need to think like a portfolio manager, allocating resources both to innovate in your core and for the future.

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Avoiding Catastrophic Failures in Process Improvement

Harvard Business Review

Engage the finance organization. Finance was on board at the company in our story. As I noted in a previous post "Keep Your Operations in Shape by Focusing on Management Processes," performance measurement (which is usually managed by finance) is one of four critical management processes for improvement program success.

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What Social Entrepreneurs Can Teach Your Company's Future Leaders

Harvard Business Review

The question is how to equip employees with the skills to handle complexities such as creating innovative solutions to emergent problems, understanding new markets, and pushing back on the "status quo." In our experience, social entrepreneurs can be extraordinary role models in this regard. However, the core skills they need are different.

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What Cincinnati Could Teach New York about Hurricane Readiness

Harvard Business Review

But increasingly, at the local level, innovative approaches involving unlikely partners playing unlikely roles are disrupting the status quo and addressing seemingly unsolvable challenges like those posed by Sandy. Government must adopt innovation practices that mirror those used by leading entrepreneurial companies around the world.