The Operational Excellence Society is a “think tank” that creates and aggregates content for individuals who wish to be high-performance members of high-performance teams at high-performance organizations.
We define Operational Excellence as; “a state of readiness that is attained as the efforts throughout the organization reach a state of alignment for achieving its strategies; and where the corporate culture is committed to the continuous and deliberate improvement of company performance AND the circumstances of those who work there – and is precursor to becoming a high-performance organization.“
The Mirror Nobody Wants to Look Into
On Leadership, Self-Delusion, and the Six Dimensions That Separate the Real from the Counterfeit I was brought in to work with a company in Florida at the tail end of COVID. They employed a little over 100 people and were a regional manufacturer, first generation family-owned, struggling with profitability just enough to know that real peril was on the horizon. The owner — I’ll call him Warren — had built a great deal of what the company had become. His fingerprints were on everything. He was proud of that, and not without reason. In fact, Warren’s company was the subject…
Founders Desk Archive
featured articles
The Ground Worth Fighting For: Key Terrain in Military and Business Strategy.
This past December (2025) I had the opportunity to attend Thayer Leadership, thanks to one of my clients, Integra-Cast, a member of the Spartan Aerospace Group, and its CEO, John…
Best Practices For Becoming a High-Performance Organization
I started XONITEK in August of 1985 in Endicott, New York. I still own its latest incarnation, now located in Sheridan, Wyoming. Having owned my own businesses for the last…
Design Thinking for Operational Excellence
I was the Chairman at an Operational Excellence and Business Transformation conference in Amsterdam this past March (2023) which was produced by CParity. The lead-off workshop was on Design Thinking…
Best Practices for Designing and Deploying an Operational Excellence Program
These approaches can also be applied to Continuous Improvement, Lean, or Six Sigma Programs. I started my first business, XONITEK, in August of 1985. I still own its latest incarnation…
The 9 Questions To Ask About Operational Excellence
Summary; Most companies preparing to launch an Operational Excellence Program do not take a moment to contemplate what their program is hoping to achieve, or even if what they are…
The Importance of a Project Review Board
A key to success in any Operational Excellence or Continuous Improvement program will be found in the way opportunities for improvement are harvested and prioritized; and how well the projects…
Expert Contributors
The Engineering Throughput Paradox – Using Nearshore Engineering Resources
Throughput is not the goal. Aligned throughput is. In product development, speed is often mistaken for progress. Teams push for faster cycles, more prototypes, and quicker releases. Calendars fill. Backlogs…
Growing a Business Successfully Requires a Look in the Mirror
Achieving sustainable growth in any business can often be challenging. A recent study of growth, published in the Harvard Business Review, of 10,897 publicly held companies over a 43-year period…
Facts and Values; The Keys to Operational Excellence in Sales and Marketing
The leaders of B2B companies often face a conundrum in sales and marketing. Their products, services, and talented people solve customer problems daily. Their approaches to awareness, conversion, and retention…
Harnessing core values for success
This article is provided courtesy of theleanmag, a content partner of the Operational Excellence Society. Imagine steering a ship in tumultuous seas without a compass—this is like leading a business without…
What does Excellence taste like?
This article is provided courtesy of theleanmag, a content partner of the Operational Excellence Society. In the culinary world, excellence is often measured by the ability to create unique flavor profiles,…
Five core practices for OpEx
It’s all about the people… … the problem is, that seems hard… The joke often goes that managers pick up the Operational Excellence bible and flip through the chapters: hmmm…
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the opex vault
“Greyjing”? Air pollution fouls Beijing’s name
Gone are the days when Beijing was considered one of the more pleasant capitals of the world. Something terrible and life-threatening is literally overshadowing its parks, centuries-old palaces, history and culture. The…
Retail Import Growth Levels Out But Volume Remains High
The US is likely past the worst of its supply-chain nightmare. But recent improvements haven’t been enough to cool inflation, and the latest data suggests prices will keep soaring for…
China’s Currency: Stranger than Fiction
China’s president has argued that the “international currency system is the product of the past”; one that reflects the inherent vulnerabilities and systemic risks. Indeed, the dollar is more than…
Will Amazon Kill FedEx?
So far, for UPS and FedEx, Amazon’s been great for business. But lately, it seems all the more that it’s taking business away from them. With Amazon having spent $11.5 billion…
