Is Good Enough, Enough?

As we've stated before, operational excellence is no longer a competitive advantage. Globalization, access to technology, sophisticated communications and highly demanding and knowledgeable customers make it a competitive necessity. If your company is not world class now or becoming world class, chances are it won't be any class in the not too distant future. The good news is that world class business tools and techniques are available and affordable for virtually any company.Unfortunately, this can be a serious oversight since all that other important stuff -- systems, human resources, budgets, planning, etc. -- should really be driven by what customers are telling you. To optimize business processes, you must find out what customers are saying and thinking, what they like and don't like, what they value and what they need from you to give you their business.
Any way you look at it, improving operations means reducing cycle time or "doing more with less." Such improvements go straight to the bottom line. This is as true for the one-person real-estate franchise as it is for the multi-national manufacturer. Once you design products and services for your ideal customer and you finely tune your operations to deliver those products and services at a world-class level, customer expectations, markets, technology, the economy, will change. You cannot be enamored with or wed to the way your company operates; you must look for opportunities to initiate positive change.To encourage this kind of thinking throughout your company, develop macro productivity measures,

Where were these amazing strategic insights when they could've informed their competitive strategy rather than provide excuses after the fact? What were their executives thinking?

If they knew that their "brick and mortar" presence made cost competition difficult, could they not have differentiated their products and services another way - and I'm not talking about the ubiquitous coffee bars that are now a staple of booksellers?There are no victims; there are only volunteers. If you assume that "the world out there" is determining your fate, the world out there will determine your fate. We have become too enamored in our society with excuses and/or blame. It's as if no one is accountable for anything. Overweight: It's the fault of the food processors or the fast food joints! Drink too much, drive a car and get in an accident: Blame the bartender! Business failure: It must have been the competition, or the economy or the weather!

These geniuses just rode their horse until it collapsed and died on the track!

chart and communicate them frequently and benchmark them against tough standards. Macro measures, such as products/services to market, campaigns to profitability, staff to revenue, expenses to sales, etc., provide a simple and clear picture of productivity, how your company is doing and how it must continually improve.