A few months ago, I went to Dublin and Berlin for work.  I loved the trip — it was so good to see co-workers, that have become dear friends, in-person.  During my trip, I took a few pictures that I wish to share.  Sadly, however, I wasn’t able to take any pictures while I was in Dublin, but the people there and the atmosphere was great.  I loved Dublin, Ireland and am so sad to not have pictures to share.  So, what I can share are just a few pictures from my visit in Berlin, Germany. 

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Bijan shared this great, real-world experience of how getting the basics perfect is, in fact, a loyalty driver: his experience? — with Amazon.com Customer Service.

In his words,

Two weeks ago I bought an item on Amazon. It was a toaster oven.

In my haste I shipped it to my brother instead of my home address.

Even worse, it was my brother’s old address so the product was shipped to the wrong house and I don’t know the owner. Even worse, that new owner signed and accepted the shipment.

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This weekend my wife and I waited in the cold, wet, Utah winter weather to go through a haunted house — The Castle of Chaos.  In the course of trying to enjoy an annual American holiday tradition — Halloween — I received another lesson on the Psychology of Queueing instead.

Before I tell my story, let me first remind the reader of the notion of Queueing, the mathematics behind it, and why we should care.

2 to 3 Years of Your Life Waiting

It’s an ugly approximation, but pretty much a fact — you will, on average, have cumulatively waited 2 - 3 years of your life waiting in a line. 

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Henry David Thoreau said "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil for every one striking at the root."  His statement was a commentary on the human condition but, I believe, describes quite well the state of most companies: companies launch initiatives that don’t actually attack root causes of business problems, instead their aim is on the branches — we need to pay Taiichi Ohno’s 5-Why’s a visit and remember that surgically attacking statistically validated root causes is the only way to solve problems, improve the customer experience, and improve the enterprise.

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The Mckinsey Quarterly recently published an interview with Armand V. Feigenbaum, a long-time proponent of Quality, former Director of Worldwide Manufacturing at GE, and renown author on Quality.  The interview is not terribly interesting, but he does share some very obvious things worth reiterating: the customer is not an inspector and the customer judges quality based on the value of the whole offering.

Specifically, he claims:

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It’s been a while now since I was employed at Amazon.com, but I still greatly admire Jeff Bezos and Amazon.  Culturally, it was hands-down the most brutal and cut-throat environment, but one that really brought out the best in you — not from a people or relationship perspective, but from an innovation and business-thinking perspective.  Indeed, the cut-throat culture invited very heated debates and some bridges would be burned along the way, but the next day people move on.  This month’s interview on Harvard Business Review underscores my point and also shares Bezos’ views on Lean and Six Sigma (I can personally share many stories on this topic at Amazon…).  Much is also said about how Amazon follows the Start with the Customer and then Work Backwards model, which I’ve also spoken about much on this blog.  The article is a good read.  Here’s what Bezos specifically says about Lean and Six Sigma and defect reduction:

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