1. I was thinking about the concept of continuous improvement and lean six
sigma principles and how many well known and well regarded companies -
state they are "continuous improvement" or "lean six sigma" companies. I got
to thinking, is that really just a marketing ploy to bring in top athletes and to
market the company to Wall Street as a choice investment? As Jeff
Foxworthy would say, “you know you are a redneck if...”, I put together a few
Ifs for continuous improvement companies as a measuring bar.
You Know You Are a Continuous
Improvement Company IF…
By Halden Zimmermann

2. You know you are a "Continuous
Improvement" Company if:
1. Not continuously restructuring
For people who are lean six sigma
experts…this one probably threw you,
but give me a second to explain why
this is number 1 on my list. Many
companies file for restructuring
deductions every year as part of a way
to save money, take out heads and drive
operating profit. This is typically done in
the 4th quarter.. If you are a company
that continually and every year
restructures under this model, especially
at the end of the year, or when there is a
last minute stretch to make the qtr you
are NOT a continuous improvement
company.
Why: Companies that need to do last
second restructuring every year clearly
do not have the processes, metrics and
long-term strategy to stabilize and
manage a focused execution of their
original plan. True continuous
improvement companies are dynamic,
and use proactive metrics and processes
to drive growth, cut costs, out- acquire
and out maneuver the competition. If a
company consistently has to rely on
cutting headcount as a large last minute
event, it is not sustainable and is cause
for concern. Cost management needs
to be a consistent and systematic
process that flexes with performance
and expectations.
2. Business System
Companies that have a standard
business system which is documented,
followed and improved upon are
continuous improvement companies. A
business system is part of the core
processes that takes long-term strategy
to short-term execution, deploying
priorities in a systematic and standard
way company-wide. Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs - proactive and reactive)
are also part of the business systems
that trickle down to the teams that are
closest to where work happens and
measurement allows teams to
understand problems before they hit the
fan. Last, a business system must have a
way to hold teams accountable and
reward performers. Typically this is done
through a goals and action plan system
that plugs back into compensation and
talent development as well as being
aligned with the long- to medium-term
strategy of the business.
So………
STRKE
a. Strategy and
Operating Agenda
Process with
Deployment
b. Talent Development,
Compensations and
Rewards
c. Results-oriented
d. KPIs (measurement)
and model to follow up
systematically (action
plans to Execution)

3. 3. Process Orientation
Of course now we are getting into the
crux of what continuous improvement is
all about. Most of you are thinking I am
going to talk about manufacturing here,
and this may surprise you. THE BEST
continuous improvement companies
have strong process orientation in
commercial environments and back
office areas. I have proven time and
time again you can drive more growth
and results with the right process
improvement in commercial and
transactional levers of the business way
beyond what you can achieve by
focusing on just manufacturing. I have
personally executed projects that drove
significant growth and performance by
applying lean processes, continuous
improvement tools and metrics to front
end levers far beyond what could have
been done in operations. Here are some
examples of my process improvement
initiatives which resulted in growth.
A. Sales
 Prospecting
 Deal Management
 Funnel management
 Time and territory management
B. Marketing
 Demand Generation and ROI
 Pricing (Transactional, Market
and Deal Level)
 Market Strategy (Segmentation,
Competitive Analysis, Offer
Development)
 Online Marketing
C. New product development
 Product road mapping
 Blue Ocean Strategy
 Design (Design for six sigma and
ROI)
 Beta Testing
 Commercialization
These are just a few examples of
commercial processes that dramatically
change the face of how a company does
business, improve the customer
experience, drive organic growth and
proactively manage costs.
4. Financial model
This might be an overlap of #2, but I
wanted to clear something up
specifically around this that very few
people may think of. The financial
model for a company is an equation, and
that equation MUST always balance to
the profit side, i.e.
budget or "market
expectations".
Don't let any of the
above fool you into
thinking because I
do factor number 2 I don't have to worry
about EBITA or Operating Profit. Any
great company must have a financial
model that is plugged into daily, weekly
and monthly management of the
business and the managers of the
business must be held to balance that
model each and every day. The financial
model must have non-dilutive growth as
a key priority and should always position

4. goals in a way to outgrow the market
within an agreed upon timeframe. This
financial system must be standardized
throughout the company, have the
same terms, definitions and analysis
framework so apples to apples
comparisons can be made when doing a
financial review.
5. Right sense of urgency
The right sense of urgency is a cultural
mindset that is not measured; it is set by
the leaders of the organization
identifying specific things that need to
get done NOW to be successful. Be
careful here, because there is such a
thing as false sense of urgency, where
everything is important all the time.
That mindset leads to fatigue and then
nothing is important. The right sense of
urgency is an alignment, gut feel of
what needs to get done today, now that
will move the ball forward to WIN for
the team (not you, not the department
but the company). The right sense of
urgency should be an alarm bell that
goes off in your mind when you see it,
hear it or witness it...and it should spring
you into action either because you are
seeing the train come off the tracks or
because you see an opportunity that
may be a game changer. Lastly, the
right sense of urgency also should
prioritize your day, week and
month…think about it…when a crash
victim is wheeled in to the ER, the
patient’s bloody toes need attention but
the hospital staff always starts with the
airway, heart and severe bleeding with a
high sense of urgency. Your employees
must have clarity around what
constitutes truly urgent priorities.
I believe these five factors are good
starting points when thinking through
raising the bar with your team and
company to become high impact. We
didn’t touch on values, ethics and loyalty
on purpose, which of course are
extremely important on any team and
should always be present. There may be
other factors as well. There is a
distinction between what an
organization believes they are doing and
reality. When senior leaders state they
are a continuous improvement
organization but have never held a
process kaizen themselves or do last
minute restructures every year just to
make the quarter…have they thought
through what they are really saying?
Halden Zimmermann has over 20 years of
experience at different levels of management in
fortune companies as well as smaller operations
changing their game on how to think about
business. His reputation is based on real results
positioning companies and teams to out-compete,
out-innovate and outperform the market.