Speak and Act with Data

Irrespective of the type of industry or nature of business, Quality Management tools and programs including Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, ISO 9000 & BPM all share one fundamental dependency. It’s called data.

Whilst approaches, techniques and duration of these programs will differ, data, on the other hand, will always be the sole voice of authority when it comes to making the right decisions and taking appropriate actions.

Data Types

Invariably, there are two types of data applied in most business improvement initiatives. Data collected for this purpose falls into Attribute (or Absolute) type data or Variable (Continual) type data.

Attribute or Absolute Data is obtained by measuring a characteristic that you can actually count e.g. number of defects is a type of attribute data.

Variable or Continual Data on the other hand, is obtained by measuring characteristics that change gradually. Example of variable data could be the measuring of viscosity (or thickness) of paints or fluctuating humidity and temperature of a controlled atmosphere room.

Understanding the difference between the two sets of data will help you decide what type of data to measure, why you need to measure it and hence the kind of decision to be made with each set of measured data.

Attribute data tends to look at whether or not something is done or achieved (a kind of yes or no), whereas with variable data we need to look for the variations of the values or how repeatable is the result. It helps answer the question, “Are we getting better or worse?”

The Rules of Data

Data however has one serious flaw. It can be overwhelming. So to avoid getting swamped in spread sheets of “data”, you can apply 4 simple rules to good effect.

These Rules state that data for Business Improvement purposes must always be:

Relevant: to the process or system we are trying to improve

Reliable: in collection, recording and accuracy

Representative: of the situation we are examining or trying to improve

Readable: be clear, understandable and usable

What gets measured gets Managed, and that’s a fact.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Quality Management.
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About Brian Venge

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I’ve spent 21 years in a career built around 4 multinational companies involved in manufacturing and service related industries (Nestle, Unilever, Vodafone and Crown Cork). In conducting several high profile Business Improvement projects across 5 continents and 12 countries, I discovered there is one universal translation to Continuous Improvement and it’s called Value Creation.

My new book , “Pimp Your Biz – The Complete Guide to Improving Your Business Under Any Circumstances”, a DIY Business Improvement guide, decodes this formula.

I now create corporate videos and involved in corporate video editing

Follow me on Twitter

Asking a few questions now can prevent crises later

One of the very best ways to prevent crises is to avoid them altogether. While obviously this isn’t always possible, there are steps you can take to shift the odds in your favor. In a recent blog post, Barry Hurd, President of 123 Social Media, gave a list of 15 questions organizations should ask of themselves. Some examples:

Who is responsible for monitoring the web for early signs of a crisis?

If someone doesn’t have an official responsibility to monitor for signs of problems (and opportunities) – you will be doomed to a very jaded moment of finger pointing when the executive team all shrugs and says “I thought you were handling it…”

Is your brand and mission statement integrated into a crisis plan?

In the digital world of reputation management and crisis control, responding quickly and transparently has huge benefits.

The simplest way to enable your team to act is to give them a direct brand and mission statement. By integrating this into the first step of your crisis plan, any employee in your organization should be able to ask a basic YES / NO question of “Do my actions support our brand and mission statement?”

This is critical for allowing an organization to have a consistent message at all levels.

How have you enabled your fans to support you?

Social media has some amazing benefits that extend outside of your immediate employees and business relationships. You have access to several different layers of social networks that can be activated to help you out.

• Friends and Family – do a survey of your immediate relationships and find out what influential connections exist within your friends and family network. These users/decision makers/influencers can radically alter the way your business is viewed online (and in the real world.) While you may be planning a reputation management strategy for a crisis, this list is also a very valuable asset to be leveraged during good times (new product launches, special announcements, brand studies, etc.)
• Happy clients and brand evangelists – these individuals may have no real reason to do something for you… except for the fact that they like your business, what you do, or who you are. This layer of fans has numerous advantages when dealing with the ‘digital mob’ that can arise during an online crisis. Understanding how to communicate correct information to this group quickly and effectively allows them to distribute it.

Barry’s list is a solid start, but don’t be satisfied stopping there. Every business holds its own risks – remember to include specific planning to counter those found in your niche. At my firm, we call that process a vulnerability audit, and if you’d like to see some sample questions from such an audit, email jonathan@bernsteincrisismanagement.com.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]

When I first started out in the non-profit sector, a funder told me that there was tension in the non-profit sector that was important to ensure that organizations changed and evolved and continued to evolve with their communities. I didn’t get it then, but now I do.

That tension is called competition and it goes to the very roots inside non-profit organizations. Staff, managers, agencies and non-profit organizations compete with each other. Staff compete to be the best program within the organization, managers compete to show the most positive change in their staff and programming, other agencies compete to get their share of the recognition when things are happening in a community (no matter whether they had anything to do with it or not) and non-profit organizations compete with each other for funding dollars. This ever changing competition is what drives non-profits to be the best they can be, but it can also be a double edged sword, in that this is what can also destroy them.

I compare being in non-profit to being on a diet. When you are on a diet, despite wanting to lose weight, you must eat to achieve weight loss. In the non-profit sector, while you must compete with other non-profits for funding and recognition, you must also work with them to best serve the community at large. This too creates tension and sometimes results in organizations that are not necessarily fond of each other needing to work together in both of their best interests.

I have even seen government intentionally create this tension, by making organizations that have nothing more in common than both trying to get funding from the government, be forced into working with other non-profits because the government made it a condition of their funding. Why would government do this you may ask? Well there are limited government funds. So by throwing these two non-profits into the same pool to swim together, one of two things can happen. First, the two organizations may actually succeed at working together successfully. Or, two, they could actually have a relationship break down between themselves and then the government would not have to provide either of them with funding. Either way, it’s a win win situation for government, because they aren’t the bad guys for having refused funding to anyone and the end result if negative is then seen as the making of the two organizations involved. Either way, the government comes out smelling like roses and lives to fight another election.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Nonprofit Capacity Building.

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By Ingrid Zacharias, Managing Director, Envisioning the Future International, Email: izacharias@envisioningthefutureintl.ca , Website: http://envisioningthefutureintl.ca/

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been an explosion of colleges and universities offering social enterprise or variations of that theme at the graduate level.

Many of these programs are tied to a business school, which can really help when you bring your great social change idea to the marketplace. And if you’re already mid-career seeking an advanced degree in social enterprise, there are many opportunities to do that as well.

Here’s a sampling of some well-regarded programs:

Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business has an Executive Program in Social Entrepreneurship. Details at http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/exed/epse/index.html

Harvard University’s MBA program has a social enterprise component and several CEU programs that specialize in social enterprise. Details http://www.hbs.edu/socialenterprise/

Duke University’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at the Fuqua School of Business has what I consider to be the best professor in the field, Greg Dees. Details at: http://www.caseatduke.org/

Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP) has a Master of Arts in Social Entrepreneurship, with a mixture of classroom and online education. Details at: http://gsep.pepperdine.edu/masters-social-entrepreneurship-and-change/

Bainbridge Graduate School specializes in online programs with short stints, with an MBA program emphasizing social justice and environmental sustainability. Details at: http://www.bgi.edu/

Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Kelley School of Business offer a Social Entrepreneurship certificate program. http://kelley.iu.edu/mba/academics/socialEntrepreneurship.cfm

Washington University’s Brown School of Social Work offers an SE specialization track as part of its MSW program that includes courses co-listed with the Olin Business School. For details http://brownschool.wustl.edu/Pages/Home.aspx

New York University’s Stern School of Business and Wagner School of Public Service has a well-regarded and well-funded social entrepreneurship track. Details at http://www.nyu.edu/reynolds/index.flash.html

Finally, some general resources to help you evaluate programs:

Aspen Institute does a periodic study of MBA programs that address social and environmental stewardship. Details at http://www.beyondgreypinstripes.org

ASHOKA lists a group of American universities offering courses social enterprise that are “committed to setting the global standard for excellence in social entrepreneurship education.” Details at http://ashokau.org/changemaker-campuses/

Good luck!

Copyright © 2010 Rolfe Larson Associates – Fifteenth Anniversary, 1995 – 2010
Author of Venture Forth! Endorsed by the late Paul Newman of Newman’s Own
Read my weekly blogs on Social Enterprise and Business Planning

One effective way to support the launch of a Business Process Management (BPM) initiative is by using a catchy and memorable campaign that symbolises your Business Change Agenda.

Like the way politicians rely on campaigns to garner votes, support for your BPM should appeal for everyone’s support and participation. The major difference being unlike a political campaign; in BPM we actually stick to our promise and get to deliver the goods.

A well-executed BPM campaign allows you to cut through the noise and command a share of voice with everything else going on in the business.

Two Ideas to help kick off a BPM Campaign

1. Launch a business wide competition inviting staff to submit a campaign title or slogan, rewarding the most appropriate with a decent prize (Most people would love a free iPod – the cost is negligible compared to the benefits you’ll reap from a BPM program).Keep the competition rules fairly simple, with the final decision declared final. We’re here to help the business improve not run the next “X Factor” or “American Idol” program.
2. Employ a “teaser” type of campaign tactic, made up of building suspense and anticipation. Suppose your campaign is centred on a soccer based theme (Kick Waste Out). In week one, your messages may contain an image of soccer boots, then the following week a soccer ball, then a whistle and possibly even a red card (let your imagination run wild).Keep everyone guessing up until the Big Bang announcement. Follow this through with consistent supporting messages throughout the validity of the campaign.

What a Campaign will do for Your BPM Program:

• Gets everyone talking
• Raises Awareness levels
• Builds Excitement and Anticipation
• Creates a much needed Buzz
• Adds Fun
• Keeps the Change Agenda on everyone’s Radar

How do you campaign for Business Improvement support ?

We asked several organisations including Immigration Solicitors London

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For more resources, see our Library topic Quality Management.
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About Brian Venge

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I’ve spent 21 years in a career built around 4 multinational companies involved in manufacturing and service related industries (Nestle, Unilever, Vodafone and Crown Cork). In conducting several high profile Business Improvement projects across 5 continents and 12 countries, I discovered there is one universal translation to Continuous Improvement and it’s called Value Creation.

My new book , “Pimp Your Biz – The Complete Guide to Improving Your Business Under Any Circumstances”, a DIY Business Improvement guide, decodes this formula.

I now consult for Immigration Solicitors Cambridge UK as the Head of CI.

Follow me on Twitter

Immigration Solicitors Holborn
Immigration Solicitors Finchley
Immigration Solicitors Hammersmith London
Immigration Solicitors Mayfair London
Immigration Solicitors North London
Immigration Solicitors West London
Immigration Solicitors Central London

Outstanding examples of good crisis management

The primary goal of Merrie Spaeth’s “Bimbo Awards” is to give a humorous look at crisis communications gone wrong. Occasionally, though, Spaeth picks out a few examples that stand in stark contrast to her usual fare – those who got things right. Here’s a sample, from her “Bimbo of the Year” list:

A passenger on a Virgin Air flight wrote a humorous and illustrated letter of complaint regarding food he was served on a flight. It generated a personal response from CEO Sir Richard Branson who invited him to help select meals for the airline in the future. Another example of how important it is to respond quickly, to have a conversational and humane tone, and to use humor. If communication is to be a strategic tool for business, this is a good example of how to handle complaints. Telegraph, “Virgin complaint letter: Author of Virgin letter offered chance as airline’s food tester,” Jan. 28, 2010

Another good example is how Walmart reacted when an announcement over their loud speaker in a New Jersey store ordered all black people to leave. Predictably, shoppers were horrified, angry, and word spread quickly. Rather than wait to find out what had happened, Walmart immediately apologized saying it was unacceptable, and pledged to find out what had happened and share whatever they found with the public. A 16-year-old boy was discovered to have commandeered one of the courtesy phones. This is how a company has to react in this day of instant news, even before it knows all the facts. The county prosecutor “praised the company for their strong cooperation in the investigation,” and the NAACP, which has been critical of Walmart in the past, weighed in to say that the company has worked hard to show it cares about diversity. (The moral: even bad news can be a platform for positive news). MSNBC, “Police: Boy, 16, made racial comment at NJ Walmart,” March 20, 2010

While these two cases took different approaches to these negative incidents, the constant was direct, honest and public communication. As a result, both came out with improved reputations and a bundle of free publicity.

Want to see the winners and more honorable mentions from this year’s BIMBOs? Check out my HuffPost blog!

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]

Communication is important in a crisis, but say the wrong thing and it can quickly backfire

Foxconn, the Taiwan-based manufacturer of devices for Dell, Apple, and several other high-end electronics companies, has been facing criticism and protests following the ninth worker suicide at its southern Chinese factory. The company has been failing spectacularly at crisis management efforts, choosing primarily to dodge critics rather than engage and respond, and issuing canned statements that do more harm than good. Here’s one example of a particularly damaging quote, from a Communicate Magazine article:

In the case of Foxconn, crisis communications failed spectacularly. In a now much-criticised rearguard action, Foxconn quickly tried to paint itself in a positive light, pointing out it is overwhelmed by applicants when it announces vacancies. “We are certainly not running a sweatshop,” Foxconn chairman Terry Gou said.

A common mistake organizations make during crisis communications is to use the very labels they seek to avoid in defending themselves. Of course, the first thing reporters seeking a good headline will see is the word “sweatshop” in the chairman’s reply, which they will proceed to gleefully misquote in the quest for increased readership. Don’t place a negative connotation upon yourself, avoid these trouble terms and you can dodge the pitfall that Foxconn has fallen into.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]

There’s still time to pick up some holiday gifts that also help social enterprises. If there’s a restaurant or coffee shop in your town that’s a social enterprise (and the odds are there’s more than one), give them a call to see if you can purchase a gift certificate. Many of them will let you do that over the phone, saving you an extra trip during this busy time of the year. Or stop by your nearby nonprofit thrift store and pick up something for yourself or someone else. It’s not regifting if it’s for a good cause!

Or you can go online to find some great social enterprises to support during this holiday season, not by a donation but by a purchase. Here are a few that I can think of at the moment, but the possibilities are endless, even if the timeline is not. Well, and of course, you can always give gifts after the holidays — your friends/family will still appreciate them, as of course the social enterprise will as well.

First, check out the Social Edge Gift Guide for Social Entrepreneurs, which offers several suitable items from around the world. Another great example is Relief International, where you can make a gift of $35 to help a women start her own business to grow her own food (in Darfur, for example), AND as a holiday gift, they will send you or your loved one a unique “Relief Beads” bracelet, hand-crafted by women in Africa. But the deadline is today if you want to receive that bracelet by December 24!

And then, finally, there’s my own favorite, here in Denver, the Women’s Bean Project, which sells both food and jewelry to help women break the cycle of poverty and unemployment. They are offering free shipment for any orders tomorrow, December 17, so that would be good deal not to miss.

Happy Holidays!

Business Improvement initiatives rely heavily on Action Plans to define important tasks for implementation. This charts the the way forward by crucially defining who does what, and by when.

Failure to pay due care in compiling an Action Plan can seriously affect the quality of your efforts and output, denting any chances of your improvement idea ever taking off.

Done correctly however, Action Plans can be an effective weapon of mass improvements.

How To Make Good Action Plans, Great.

1. It’s a good idea to split your Action Plan into 2 sections, one for “Short Term” (to be done within the week in question) and another for “Long term” (more than a week required to complete the action). This will make it clear what needs to happen immediately.
2. Actions should be documented and targeted at the intended audience as if they were not present when the action was assigned. This will ensure the correct context of the action is provided and help avoid the “What was this all about?” type of question further down the road.
3. Endeavour to send out the Action Plan as soon as possible, preferably on the day the Actions are assigned.
4. Start with the most important Actions, by using the pain vs. gain prioritisation technique. Actions with a higher business impact and requiring lesser effort being the highest ranked.
5. Group related actions together and if necessary create categories to form clusters of related actionable efforts.
6. If you do use a meeting room, consider using a whiteboard demarcated as your Action plan template. At the end of the meeting, simply take a digital photo of the completed whiteboard and email it to all assigned action owners. No double handling, no typing, no waste – typical Continuous Improvement!
7. Always start the actual action statement with a verb. A verb is called an “action word” for a reason! This makes it clear from the onset exactly what needs to be done.
8. Assign a unique number for each Action. This will make it so much easier during discussions and meetings. If you refer to Action # 24, everyone immediately knows which one is referred to as opposed to explaining the action or reading it out – saves you a bit of time.

How do you make your actions happen ?

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For more resources, see our Library topic Quality Management.
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About Brian Venge

I’m a self-confessed coffee addict, technology geek and business improvement strategist. At the time of writing I am 42 years old. Even I’m astounded to realise 21 years, (or half of my life) has been spent working in the incredible world of Value Creation or more specifically Continuous Improvement, doing something I truly understand and enjoy.

My career was built around 4 multinational companies involved in manufacturing and service related industries (Nestle, Unilever, Vodafone and Crown Cork). In conducting several high profile CI projects across 5 continents and 12 countries, I discovered there is one universal translation to Continuous Improvement and it’s called Value Creation.

I’m the author of a DIY Business Improvement eBook, “Pimp Your Biz – The Complete Guide to Improving Your Business Under Any Circumstances”

Follow me on Twitter

Strong customer service creates valuable crisis management opportunities

In an article from my most recent Crisis Manager newsletter, friend and reputation management consultant Jeff Chatterton wrote about the significance of customer service in crisis management and the negative results that quickly come from ignoring said customers. On the heels of that came a posting by my colleague in the UK, Jonathan Hemus, on his Insignia Talks blog, that provided even more proof of this principle. First, the Tweet that inspired his post:

Earlier today BBC presenter Clare Balding posted the following tweet:

Sat next to nice woman who’d been on Qantas flight when engine blew up. She said pilot was amazing. He spent 2 hours talking to passengers afterwards and gave them his mobile number if they had questions or problems. She said Qantas were amazing.

Unless you make the effort to be there for your customers, such helpful word of mouth would never be generated. How do you do it, you ask? Jonathan knows, and goes on to share his insight with readers:

If you want your employees to help protect your reputation in the event of a crisis, the starting point is instilling a customer service culture. Next, you need to empower staff to make decisions and do the right thing in the event of a problem.

Finally, when the crisis breaks you need to brief the frontline – receptionists, call centres, security guards, salespeople – on what’s happened, how they should respond and what to say. This should be an essential part of your crisis communication plan.

Take this approach and your own people can play a big part in protecting your reputation. More than that, supportive words from those directly affected by the incident provide a real opportunity to enhance your reputation. That’s certainly true for Qantas given that Clare Balding’s tweet has now reached 35,000 followers: now that’s positive word of mouth on a huge scale.

While many organizations seek some sort of “secret formula” that will magically produce buckets of goodwill and a torrent of happy Tweets and Facebook postings, the reality is that no such thing exists. These results come from enabling every member of your frontline staff to serve as brand ambassadors and crisis communicators and, obviously, the hard work that these people put into creating and nurturing customer connections.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]