Operational excellence is a mindset, and it achieves breakthrough results. It's about finding money and performance boosts in areas. Redefining Operational Excellence covers it all: processes, people, and operations. This revelatory guide presents a groundbreaking way of doing things that will benefit organizations and their customers.

CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1: THE NEED FOR A NEW DEFINITION 5 The Beginnings of Operational Excellence 6 Redefining Operational Excellence 8 Would You Know Operational Excellence If You Tripped Over It? 12 Organizations That Exemplify Operational Excellence 13 Why Operational Excellence Is Important to Any Organization 18 Redefining How We Operate 20 Chapter 2: MAKING OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE HAPPEN 23 The Core Components of Operational Excellence 23 Evolving Toward Operational Excellence 30 The Four Phases of Operational Excellence 32 Creating Gates: Protecting Your Gains 38 Four Types of Organizations 40 Redefining the Way We Measure Success 43 Chapter 3: ATTRACTING AND RETAINING TOP TALENT: DON'T SETTLE FOR SECOND BEST 46 The Key Principles of Leadership 47 The Four Attributes of a Great Leader 52 Attracting the Best People 56 A Strategy for Talent Management 65 Breathe Life into Your Organization by Letting People Go 66 Is Your Turnover Rate Too High? 69 Chapter 4: THE INNOVATION EQUATION: THE IMPORTANCE OF COLLABORATION 71 How to Foster Innovation 72 The Cycle of Innovation 76 A Culture of Innovation: The Interaction of Empowerment and Skill 85 How to Become an Innovation Master 89 Accelerating the Adoption of Innovation 93 Chapter 5: ALIGNING STRATEGY AND TACTICS TO ENHANCE PERFORMANCE 99 Without Execution, There Is No Strategy 101 How to Achieve Execution Excellence 104 The Difference Between Responsibility and Accountability 108 Gaining a Tactical Advantage: Finding Performance Boosts Where You Wouldn't Normally Look 111 Performance Boosts: The Do-It-Yourself Version 119 A Final Word on Strategy Execution 120 Chapter 6: ACQUIRING AND KEEPING THE CUSTOMERS YOU WANT 121 Why Current Customers Are Your Best Opportunity for Growth 122 Stratifying Your Customers 127 How to Turn Customers into Great Referral Sources 132 Other Strategies to Strengthen Customer Loyalty and Engagement 135 The Five Myths of Customer Engagement 140 Chapter 7: OPTIMIZING SPEED MAXIMIZES PROFITABILITY 146 Determining Optimal Enterprise Velocity and Responsible Speed 146 Slow Down to Improve Results 150 How Speed Impacts Profitability 153 The Speed-Profitability Correlation and the Four Components of Operational Excellence 155 The Myth of the First-Mover Advantage 161 Knowing When to Speed Up and When to Slow Down 166 Implementing a Culture of Speed Optimization 168 Chapter 8: CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE: NOT SO MUCH 170 Why Centers of Excellence Aren't Always Excellent 172 Why Create a Centralized Department? 177 CONTENTS vii 01ROE-FM-3_Front Matter 3/19/14 9:16 AM Page vii The Benefits of a Centralized Department 180 Centrally Led, Locally Executed 181 Ignore the Center and Focus on Excellence 183 Chapter 9: INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVES 185 Retail 186 Services 190 Health Care 193 Technology 197 Manufacturing 201 Chapter 10: GETTING TECHNOLOGY OUT OF YOUR WAY 205 Fix the Process, Then Implement the Technology 206 Technology and Change Management 212 Using Technology to Enhance Operational Excellence 214 Operational Excellence and Automation 225 Chapter 11: A BRIGHT FUTURE WITH OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE 227 The Operational Excellence Crystal Ball 228 You've Achieved Operational Excellence-Now What? 231 Appendix: ARE YOU ON THE PATH TO OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE? 237 Index 239 About the Author 245 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS