We are going through a special moment in history. A time of great and profound changes in the scientific, technological, economic, social, political, cultural, ecological and demographic. Changes that apart from deep, are very fast.
Introduction
The place occupied by philosophers, scientists and economists in other times is now occupied by businessmen, gurus and futurologists. This undoubtedly marks the paradigm shift that is taking place in the world. The places that yesterday occupied a Kant, a Hegel, a Heidegger or a Freud, today are occupied by a Bill Gates, a George Soros or a Michael Dell. Metaphysics and anthropology no longer count, the evolution of the 30-year rate or the new version of Windows counts much more. In a globalized world, changes in the libor or prime rate, in the value of the yen, in the points of the Dow, the trade deficit of the United States or the price of Google on the New York Stock Exchange determines the amount of unemployment, the welfare of populations and the competitiveness of companies.
Although the change we are talking about has been taking place for a long time, the process has accelerated and deepened, especially with the speed that communications have taken and the great increase in computing capacity.
Knowledge moves faster, research processes develop faster, thus generating a spiral of growth elevated to the nth degree. This deep growth in knowledge and skills is not equally distributed, but this inequality does not occur so much between countries but rather between groups, at a global level, that understand and understand the new competitive rules, and adjust to them by preparing with determination. and discipline, and those others who, although they make a thunderous use of new products and services, only succeed in doing so, consuming them. Many inhabitants of the world are totally removed from such consumption,But those who only manage to consume without participating in the generating work are destined in the medium and long term to suffer serious problems if they do not change their relationship with the environment.
Dentro de este nuevo marco, algunas empresas han reconfigurado su organización y procesos, en tanto que una mayoría sigue obnubilada bajo las teorías y paradigmas de las décadas inmediatas posteriores a la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
For the latter have not yet taken into account the fall of the Berlin Wall, nor have they understood the meaning of the incorporation of Communist China to the World Trade Organization, nor do they understand the Internet revolution, and even less clearly see how the population world is increasing every day with greater speed. Pretending to direct and manage a company under old canons is no longer valid. Leading as in the time when most of the countries in the world were ruled by dictatorships is no longer possible, a new generation of beings has been born, grown up and educated under democratic regimes, and therefore they are not willing to accept leadership authoritarian. Against a time of scarce and expensive communication, there is another new one of abundant and practically free information,information without barriers that crosses national borders. This new reality leads to greater demands from both workers and consumers. The market has become global, people buy products made in China, Taiwan, Malaysia, India or Pakistan. What they are looking for is quality and good prices.
It is very clear that managing a business today is not the same as how it was managed in the recent past. Nothing will ever be the same as it was in the past.
It is neither good nor feasible to make major changes from one day to the next in order to adapt to the new circumstances and market demands, but it is possible to become aware of the change and act accordingly to progressively and systematically change the organization, from one focused and built to respond to the environment and demands of the twentieth century, to a new building to respond quickly and effectively to the requirements of the new century.
Organizations built on the foundations and paradigms of what Alvin Tofler called the First and Second Waves no longer have a chance to compete in the Third Wave. We live in the era of knowledge and therefore the management of knowledge and intellectual capital must have a high degree of priority in companies. And I say "must", because although many companies are already doing it, most have not yet taken due note of this need.
From traditional to competitive
On the traditional side we have reactive maintenance, as opposed to total productive maintenance, which includes both preventive and predictive, which is typical of companies that make prevention one of their main competitive weapons.
Just as in traditional companies we have pyramidal structures with various levels of supervision, in companies at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st we have flat structures, where decentralization, self-directed groups, and a focus on customer needs prevail.
From organizations with high specializations, walled sectors, processes focused on the functions and inspections at the end of the processes, we move on to organizations with high versatility of workers, teamwork, widely interconnected sectors, processes focused on products or services and quality planning-based (as opposed to control-based quality), training, and self-monitoring.
In the new era we go from organizations lacking strategic plans to organizations with strong strategic thinking.
From organizations with little or no innovation, it goes to companies with a strong content of creativity and innovation both in their products and services, as well as in their processes and activities. Creativity and the paradigm shift have become an essential strategic component.
From organizations striving to reduce costs by areas or concepts, we have moved to organizations focused on getting the most out of the analysis of strategic costs, and by processes or activities.
In new competitive companies, applied statistics and especially statistical control applied to quality, as well as costs, times, management ratios and satisfaction levels, are essential. On the contrary, in an ordinary company there is a lack of statistical data that allow both a better control, as well as having information for better decisions concerning problem solving and decision-making.
From training expenses considered as expenses, one passes under the new paradigms to consider them as an investment.
In the same way, we can continue to differentiate some companies from others in dozens of acts, paradigms and attitudes. Whether an organization is more or less competitive depends on how many concepts or practices it carries out in one way or another, and the breadth and depth with which it executes them.
An organization cannot go from one day to the next from one way of acting to another way of behavior. It is therefore necessary to carry out a diagnosis that allows to clearly visualize the needs, requirements, possibilities and feasibilities, resources and restrictions, and the cultural and psychosocial environment of each organization, in order to systematically and progressively carry out changes for the purposes of make the company more competitive. It is this progressive and systematic change that is the very basis of continuous improvement.
Any other way of wanting to quickly and massively implement large-scale changes or through complete changes by units, will end up requiring more time or will have lower and reduced results over time. On the other hand, starting for example with a productive maintenance at an organizational level that allows quickly and effectively to achieve concrete results, will open the door to future implementations in terms of error-proof systems, the five “s” or quality control circles among many others..
If there is something that is peremptory in the process of change, it is the imperative need to have data and statistical information in order to know where and how well or badly the processes and the organization as a whole are operating, starting from There, plan the changes that allow improvement in the different parameters.
The importance of the Dashboard
In a time like the present, marked by computerized processes, it is crucial to have or have means that make it easy, fast, accurate and economical to have the management with enough information for decision-making and the adoption of various corrective actions.
Within this new work scheme there is the possibility of making use of the Dashboard, consisting of a computer program that, gathering the information provided by other programs or loaded from different places or sectors of the organization, makes calculations feasible, comparisons with benchmarks and generate signals or reports by exception in the event of certain events.
From the use of the Dashboard and the Balanced Scorecard, organizations and their managers come to have a completely different vision of both their companies and the relationships they maintain with the environment, as well as the different results that their actions end up generating in the company.
How competitive is your company?
You and your collaborators ask yourself: how competitive is your company? How good are your services? How much value do your processes generate? How competitive are your processes in relation to those of your direct and indirect competitors? Do you have statistical data to answer and support each of your answers?
Now, if you cannot answer each of these questions: what are you or your company doing to overcome this problem or inconvenience? How much are they willing to invest to get the best information? Do you have an IT policy and strategy?
The days of running alone or with very few participants in the market tests are over for you and your company, you now have to compete with world-class players, therefore you must prepare for such competition. Like a swimmer who can settle for taking a minute to travel x meters in the pool when competing locally, he can no longer settle for such a mark when competing globally, in the same way producing with a certain level of costs, quality and productivity to generate a certain good or service, it is feasible within what was the previous competitive framework, but it is not now that it must confront competitors on a global scale.
It should now be made clear that you cannot be content simply to continue doing the same as you did yesterday, the demands are now greater and you must be in a position to meet them. Your competitors may not only come from abroad but also from other industries within the same market. A clear example of this is what happened with the famous Encyclopedia Britannica and its powerful new digital competitor Encarta. Similarly, your company may be the object of attack by a competitor from another industry, therefore, how good is the strategic monitoring carried out by your company in relation to the new technological possibilities applicable to your activity, products or services? Do you have Competitive Intelligence implemented in your company, or have you given this task to an external service?
What are your paradigms today?
Be honest with yourself: do you view workers as people to be managed based on orders and controls, or are you inclined to lead them based on participation? Do you consider that producing higher-quality goods implies restricting productivity, or do you agree that increasing quality leads to greatly improved productivity and thus lower costs? Do you view auditing activities as a bureaucracy or mere unproductive work, or do you confer strategic value on it? Do you think that planning is useless and that it only wastes time and accumulates dust on top of plans, or is it one that makes planning vital to the future of your company? Do you think that planning is something that only the highest levels should be involved in?Or do you prefer to involve all staff in their proper measure and place? Are you the ones who consider that your products are of quality because your customers never complain, or are you one of those who not only pay attention to quality, but also aim to make it happen "the first time"? Are you one of those who believe that continuous improvement is useless and only feasible for large Japanese companies or organizations, or do you consider that constantly and systematically improving your processes and products is essential to ensure your permanence and competitiveness in the market both in the medium and long term?Or is it one of those who not only pay attention to quality, but also aim to make it a reality "the first time"? Are you one of those who believe that continuous improvement is useless and only feasible for large Japanese companies or organizations, or do you consider that constantly and systematically improving your processes and products is essential to ensure your permanence and competitiveness in the market both in the medium and long term?Or is it one of those who not only pay attention to quality, but also aim to make it a reality "the first time"? Are you one of those who believe that continuous improvement is useless and only feasible for large Japanese companies or organizations, or do you consider that constantly and systematically improving your processes and products is essential to ensure your permanence and competitiveness in the market both in the medium and long term?Or do you consider that constantly and systematically improving your processes and products is essential to ensure your permanence and competitiveness in the market both in the medium and long term?Or do you consider that constantly and systematically improving your processes and products is essential to ensure your permanence and competitiveness in the market both in the medium and long term?
Answer all these questions truthfully and seriously to find out how up-to-date or out-of-date your paradigms are, and therefore how competitive or incompetent your organization is in dealing with your rivals.
Be anchored to the paradigms of the past, a past that will not resurface, a past that allowed you to succeed but that will not allow you to achieve equal success in the present and in the future. Not having the ability and willingness to modify their paradigms to make them more feasible based on the new realities is dangerous. Making wrong decisions in the present and in the future because you have not updated your paradigms can lead to destruction of your company.
Product life cycles are shorter every day, and the company must be in a position to face this new reality. The ten-year life cycles are over, now they are months, and in many cases they will be weeks. Its management systems in terms of development, production and sales must be rearranged and reinvented to this new reality. "If it falls asleep the tiger will eat it."
How aware are you and your subordinates?
Did you really become aware of the changes that have taken place and those that are coming? How much awareness have your employees and workers gained? It will not be that they continue to act as when capital was low cost and easily available, or continue to work as when their clients were content to pay dearly for something of poor quality. Many watch hundreds of television programs and attend dozens of seminars on global change and competitiveness, both managers and employees, but still do not dare to move a foot. They like more to continue with what they have always done. But these are not times of immobility. Either they change in time, or they must perish. The world is full of needs and every day many people wake up with the intention of conquering the world or a part of it.You are in a game of chess and you cannot refuse to move the pieces. Either he moves them, or he is eliminated. As in the game, there is a time limit for each move. And better, think very well which piece will move and where to move it.
Being literate does not only imply knowing how to read and write, it also means understanding what is read and heard. This new world brings with it a new lexicon and people must get used to interpreting and handling it.
Much of this lack of reaction is not due to fear of change but to illiteracy to interpret the new lexicon and reality of the 21st century, and another part to the lack of discipline for change, or what is the same, to attitudes strongly conformist.
Do you think that money will continue to flow to your company as quickly and easily as it did before? If you think in such a way you are wrong, totally wrong. Every day he will have to run faster just to keep his current job. If you are not willing to do so, someone else will take your place, be it as a businessman, manager, officer, or employee. Lots of companies, entrepreneurs and people are queuing to evict you and they will have no qualms about taking your place.
Eliminate your waste or you are the one to be eliminated
Each waste represents a percentage of your sales. Eliminate your waste and increase your profits.
Waste due to lack of quality, long waiting times, excessive bureaucracy, occupational diseases, pollution, high employee and customer turnover, low levels of customer and consumer satisfaction, accidents, excess inventories, excess Failures, bad debts and fraud, represent the evils to which companies are exposed daily and whose managers and directors pay little attention. It is about systematically measuring, analyzing, detecting, preventing and eliminating each of these loss-generating factors. Do you know how much you lose for each concept? What policies or systems have you established to prevent or reduce them? All loss factors are interrelated.Thus, low quality leads to increasing inventories to protect themselves in case of need, in the same way it happens as a result of breakdowns. Failures in credit matters will end up generating losses not only due to bad debts but also due to imbalances in the flow of income (late collections). Are you and your employees aware of each of the losses listed above? Do you measure them? How much does each of them represent as a percentage of your sales? How are they evolving over time? What measures have you taken or do you plan to take to avoid, restrict and eliminate them?Are you and your employees aware of each of the losses listed above? Do you measure them? How much does each of them represent as a percentage of your sales? How are they evolving over time? What measures have you taken or do you plan to take to avoid, restrict and eliminate them?Are you and your employees aware of each of the losses listed above? Do you measure them? How much does each of them represent as a percentage of your sales? How are they evolving over time? What measures have you taken or do you plan to take to avoid, restrict and eliminate them?
Having dissatisfied customers, lacking a “first time” level of quality, having high waiting times or low reaction speed, having high levels of breakdowns, having unproductive employees, having low levels of inventory turnover, and not having A good degree of collectability is serious, and even more serious if there are internal or external fraud. Without a doubt there is no other option, either eliminate their waste or they will eliminate you and your company from the market.
New tools adapted to every need
It is absurd to try to apply the same recipes for all occasions, leaving aside the environment, the sociocultural and technological characteristics of each company, leaving aside the thinking and feelings of its managers and workers, not taking into account their particularities, restrictions and potentialities.
The question is to see which tools and methodologies are the most useful for each specific case, as well as to modify these methodologies to adapt them to the particular needs and characteristics.
When it comes to continuous improvement, we must not only think about the systems and methods established by Kaizen, but about all those other tools developed by consultants such as Goldratt, Tompkins, Harrington, Chang or Semler, among others.
Even within the Kaizen system this does not apply in the same way in Toyota, as in Canon, Honda or Toshiba. Each company has a culture of its own and this must be respected. As Karatsu tells us, "each company has its way of doing things, and kaizen must adapt to it."
The fact that exhibitors of continuous improvement emerge in various European, American and Asian countries clearly shows the advancement of both the philosophy of continuous improvement, as well as the convergence of its principles and systems.
The fundamental objective is the elimination of the phantom factory or organization, one that destroys or consumes resources without generating any added value for customers and consumers, but which limits the profitability of the owners of the company.
Continuous improvement and its systems and instruments are applicable to all types of companies and activities, from what concerns the generation of goods, through the production of services, as well as in everything related to administrative-bureaucratic processes.
Do you apply continuous improvement to the processes that generate goods and services? Do you also apply it to administrative, financial and commercial processes? Do you continuously monitor the improvement in administrative, financial and commercial processes? How much has your logistics process improved in the last two years? Can you answer it, or do you lack data?
Creativity and innovation
How creative is your company, and how creative are your employees? How does your company encourage creativity? How innovative are your processes, products and services? And how innovative are the ways to market them?
Creativity and innovation were always important, but now they are transcendent. What do you think? Do I think it is not so? Think of the variety of watches, cell phones, and calculators. Pay attention to the number of car models currently on the market and compare it to the number that was offered a decade ago.
If you run a fast food restaurant, how many different types of burgers do you have to offer? What variety of salads do you have? How many types or tastes of pizzas are you offering? If you don't run a fast food house, watch what the major food houses do and then think about it.
Creativity and innovation at the service of better processes, products and services is the watchword of the moment. How do you offer your services today? Do you do it the same way you did five or ten years ago? How important are the articles developed in the last five years in your sales? At what stage of the Life Cycle are each of your products or services? Has the way you offer your products changed a lot in recent years? How much have you changed the way you market them?
Do you know that the same product marketed in another way can increase its value? In your strategic planning, do you have creativity and innovation duly considered?
A shift in the personnel paradigm
From a staff that only received orders, was tightly controlled and had very little or no participation, it has gone to a staff that manages itself, planning and scheduling its activities, that is self-controlled and now has a greater participation in the company (empowerment). From a highly specialized staff to a highly versatile staff, from an individual job to one focused on teamwork. From a continuous repetition of standards, to a continuous improvement of them. From a separation between mind and hands, to the integration of both.
These are the great changes that have taken place and are still taking place in the actions of the work forces. Of course many continue with their old ways of action, but as in any trend, no one can control and diminish the strength of the market. The changes that have taken place tend to reduce the levels of failures and errors, and to generate a strong increase in productivity and profits.
In a highly competitive market the best way to ensure profits is to take full advantage of market opportunities by making the most efficient use of scarce resources. It is therefore essential to make the best use of human resources, and the way in which they make use of material resources (equipment, supplies and monetary availability). Staff must be trained, trained, managed and motivated to achieve maximum productivity. Also demanding a cultural change, greater and better labor discipline, and a higher degree of flexibility, appropriate to this new economic-financial and technological environment.
Globalization + Internet + New Economy
Is your company positioned within the new globalized framework? How much does it respond in its actions to the new concepts and realities of the globalized world? Do you handle the new concepts of the new economy, the new socio-technical realities, and the power of the Internet? Have you built strategies appropriate to this new reality? Are you and your staff aware of the new processes of production and marketing of goods? How exposed is your activity to the opening of economies and higher degrees of competitiveness? How tough are foreign competitors?
Have you taken due note of all this? Yes she did, what do you plan to do from now on? Is he going to get to work, or will he sleep until the beasts wake him up? His future and that of your staff depend on what he does. Raise awareness and explain to your staff the new realities, demanding a greater commitment and willingness to change.
Outsourcing on a world scale, virtual companies, telecommuting, complete company transfers, global marketing, study of cultures, analysis of consumer behavior, Internet marketing, are all new realities that organizations have to face.
Begin the diagnosis of the company from the strategy
What is the mission? What are the customers and the area to which you aspire? What structure does it have? How appropriate is the environment to the structure, management capacity and mission of your company? Is the company structure in a position to achieve the established objectives and goals? Is the management capacity appropriate to lead the company to fulfill the mission and strategic objectives? How strategically balanced is the organization?
The Strategic Diagnosis Chart tells us that there are four factors to consider (the mission, the structure, the direction and the environment of the company), and that they must keep an appropriate balance and harmony in order to allow the company to grow and be competitive. Any mismatch, and the greater it is, will end up generating friction and imbalance between the components.
Attempting to achieve certain objectives, under certain environmental conditions and with a structure and direction not in accordance with them, will end up generating financial, personnel, and quality and productivity problems. All of this will have an effect on customer satisfaction levels, and therefore on their demand levels.
The question is: how balanced or unbalanced is your company? How consistent are your objectives in terms of profitability, variety of products and marketing areas, with the structural capacity of your organization and management? Are you in a position to supervise and lead your staff towards the proposed goals? Do the systems in operation respond to the objectives set and to the new realities of the environment?
Many organizations have a wide variety of problems and problems as a result of the imbalances between the four factors listed above. They are companies that functioned very well under certain environmental circumstances and / or under certain objectives. Modifying the environment, or changing the objective, structure and management mode (management) by not modifying it, causes problems of various kinds in terms of quality, productivity and satisfaction.
Conclusions
These are not times for contemplation but for action. Either act or others will do it for you. Every mistake you make will be exploited as in the game of chess by your opponents, and I assure you that they will not be contemplative. Each one plays his capital, his capacities, his income and his future. Making mistakes pays more and more expensive.
You usually ask yourself the questions previously asked. If you do, what are your responses? Is it competitive? Is it innovative? How balanced is the company? How much are you willing to invest in time and human and material resources to achieve continuous improvement in your different levels of performance? What role does continuous improvement play in your strategic plans? Does continuous improvement have a strategic value for you, and if it does, how important is it within the order of priorities?
A new hour is calling each individual. We are living moments of great change, which requires a transformation both at the personal level and in the organizations. For this, each one must fully commit to an obligation of constant improvement, improvement in levels of knowledge, improvement in creative and innovative capacity, improvement in paradigms, and improvement in the quality of our products, services and processes.
No one will be willing to pay a single peso, euro or dollar for products that do not fully satisfy the needs at a reasonable and competitive price. Companies and individuals are called to operate on a global scale, and therefore must prepare to face this new reality.
