I’ve spoken extensively about the unheralded — but, arguably, the most important — Pillar of The Toyota Production System: Respect for People. Today, I want to highlight an interesting company that appears to have done an amazing job at Participative Management and in eliminating fear and mediocrity in the workplace: Semco Group.

I was first made aware of Semco Group after watching this amazing video on the MIT website. I sought to learn more about Semco and found some pretty amazing case studies such as the following:

• Harvard Business Review: Managing without Managers

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Motorola (MOT), the inventor of Six Sigma, is in big trouble. Even though it invented Six Sigma, this is a clear example that shows how Lean or Six Sigma are not a cure-all for corporate woes, but that good leadership and a winning strategy are key in a competitive world — Lean or Six Sigma is necessary, but not sufficient.

The Art of Exclusion

Michael Porter (Porter’s Five Forces) argues — I believe correctly –, in his seminal work, What is Strategy, that Operational Excellence is necessary but not sufficient. What is needed — even still and always — is a winning strategy. In his article, he argues that the essence of strategy consist of two related propositions:

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In some organizations, the Customer Service function is largely viewed as a cost center, draining resources of the firm. I maintain that this perspective is what less mature companies support. More mature companies and, subsequently the more successful ones, understand the strategic fit of Customer Service in the overall value chain and it’s functional role in the supply chain.

In what follows, I’ll take a hypothetical iPhone defect case and show how customer service in this example plays a pivotal role in the overall iPhone supply chain — a key player in the overall product value chain.

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I spoke at a Lean Six Sigma conference last week, held in Chicago. The conference was packed with Supply Chain, Logistics, Fulfillment, Manufacturing, Transportation, Healthcare, and Service executives.

During the conference, I heard a lot of chest-beating, neutron-jack-welch type of comments and also a lot of focus and emphasis on the “tools” of Operational Excellence. I truly found this part to be quite disappointing, given that the audience and speakers were mostly executives from large Fortune 500 companies.

I thought and expected that people knew better but that’s okay — this represents a challenge and opportunity to do good.

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What happens after the customer clicks the “Place Order Button”?  For some customers, this is a large black hole.  But, wise companies understand that customers need to be informed and aware of the steps after the “Place Order Button” is clicked.  In fact, customers want to be involved in the end-to-end transaction.  In this article, we’ll discuss how we can better satisfy this critical customer need, thereby ensuring repeat-business, loyalty, and also good, old fashioned, customer happiness.

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A few months ago we adopted our baby girl, Mylie.  During that hospital experience, I had an encounter with a faucet fraught with featuritis and one that wasn’t humane and, during that same time, I noticed a piece of visual management in the hospital room that wasn’t effective in its intention to provide or share information.  This involved a sign in one of the cabinets, where the sign indicated in text the contents of the cabinet.  Below is a picture of what I saw:

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It’s critically important in any transaction to be able to answer the question “where’s my stuff” or “where are we in the process?” This requirement is often referred to as Traceability and Visibility; sometimes, people refer to this overall process as Click-to-Ship.

Almost all transactions have Traceability and Visibility as a requirement. From the customer’s perspective, they ought and need to know the status of the transaction. The company, then, needs to provide feedback and status to the customer whenever she needs it. Take, for example, the following transaction types:

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I just finished reading the book Lincoln on Leadership. I found it to be an excellent book, highlighting the leadership lessons that made Lincoln one of the most revered and respected people in the world. I highly recommend this book.

Abraham Lincoln’s life, in my view, was a personification of the Toyota Way — his respect for people, his personal tutoring of his followers through effective use of ambiguity and the Socratic approach, and his common sense — all pleasantly wreak of Toyota.

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