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| Volume 5, Issue 5 - May, 2006 • “Beyond Six Sigma” – Book Review Having watched so many organizations adopt Six Sigma as the solution to all of their problems, I absolutely love the pronouncements, “Six Sigma as currently defined has limited ability to improve a company’s position in its customer-driven demand chain.” And, “Whereas Six Sigma tools are used with an idea of achieving Six Sigma accuracy (99.99%), the reality of the customer interaction does not allow for that level of accuracy. If you let the philosophy of no errors into the realm of customers, then no customer-related decision will ever be made.” I love the ground work that is laid by the authors in explaining that Six Sigma is about controlling an internal process and thereby improving product quality and in turn costs. I love the recognition that Six Sigma is a tool for controlling internal, mechanical processes. I love that the authors recognize that, “Continuous cost improvement and enhanced efficiencies are not the formula for long-term profitable growth." Growth comes from the external. Growth comes from the interaction of people and people don’t always act in a reliable, statistically predictable fashion. I love that a book with Six Sigma in the title has a chapter about “The Outside-In Perspective” that includes the statement, “…too often companies do not spend enough time thinking about business decisions from a perspective other than their own.” The authors then jumped from the statistical Six Sigma process to LEAN without explaining the difference to the reader. The part I loved here was the idea of creating a LEAN value chain but in reverse. In other words, building what the authors call a demand chain from the perspective of the customer rather than a supply chain from the perspective of the manufacturer. This to me is the gold nugget in this book. Everything else is downhill from here. The authors then proceed to tell us that we need to apply the same disciplined approach used in Six Sigma to our marketing. They go into detail about the process they suggest followed with, “Conducting detailed Demand Chain Economics and Customer Economics analysis requires countless hours of research, data collection and customer interactions. Ultimately, this work must be completed on all major value chains that a company participates in, but the operational reality is that most companies will not have the available resources, access to customers, breadth, or market research capability to assess multiple demand chains simultaneously.” I really appreciate their emphasis on the customer perspective, especially the end customer perspective, but really hate how they have complicated what should be a common sense marketing process. I also hate how much time and space is devoted to what they are not doing. In a sense it seems strange to me that the authors would advance a complex new concept that requires some understanding of current marketing thought and then spend so much time going over basics that really are required to understand the value of their concept in the first place. Finally, it seems very cheap and a bit misleading to utilize a title like Beyond Six Sigma as a title for a book that is all about a theoretical process the authors call CVC or Customer Value Creation.
If you have a subject that you would like to see covered in future issues of “Taking Aim,” please send me an email at aim@CannonAdvantage.com.
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Robert E. Cannon "Best Practice" Sales Force
Development Change Management Customer Service Assessment for ISO Requirements Smart Thoughts from Smart People – The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were. J.F.K. "Every memorable act in the history of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it because it gives any challenge or any occupation, no matter how frightening or difficult, a new meaning. Without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of mediocrity but with it you can accomplish miracles." Og Mandino "Don't spend your precious time asking 'Why isn't the world a better place?' It will only be time wasted. The question to ask is 'How can I make it better?' To that there is an answer." Leo Buscaglia "The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them." Bernard Baruch
Taking Aim © 2005 Bob Cannon, The Cannon Advantage Newsletter. All Rights Reserved. The Cannon Advantage visual branding by Zarney Creative. For contact information, click “Resources.” |
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