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.
What is Operational Excellence?
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
Build Organizational Capacity and Capability – For Free
I was coaching one of the national oil companies in the Middle East, offering mentorship to the director of their operational excellence program. He was frustrated because he had invested…
The Fault Lies Not in the Stars, but Within Ourselves
I hear all too often from professionals in Continuous Improvement how “Senior Leadership does not give me the support I need”. Some go further by making the claim that “Senior…
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…
The Strategic HR Department
I have been in business, running a consultancy (XONITEK) since 1985. Besides it making me uniquely unemployable, I have had the opportunity to observe and interact with the many incarnations…
Choose Your Hard
Life is a never-ending stream of decisions. From the moment we wake up in the morning to the time we go to sleep, we are making decisions. Even the very…
Considering the Entire Employee Lifecycle
I wrote an article entitled “The Strategic HR Department” where I shared my thoughts on the characteristics of a Human Resources Department that is strategic with a purpose of being…
Expert Contributors
Biannual Supply Chain Report: Five Trends Shaping the Economic Landscape
From disruption to continual risk. After several years of disruptions, US supply chains are entering a new phase in which they are no longer fixed but expected to be in constant motion. Firms are operating in an environment where trade policy,…
Action items for AI decision makers in 2026
Expect a level-set year and a sharper focus on enterprise value. Artificial intelligence has dominated economic and business attention for the past several years. But the hype cycle is slowing…
The Best Manufacturers Build AI with Workers, Not for Them
Summary. Manufacturers are pushing ahead with AI, but workers often feel unprepared, uncertain, and distrustful. Research shows a clear gap between executive optimism and frontline experience, driven by unclear roles, weak…
Why We Love to Hate HR… and What HR Can Do About It
Five smart moves that will help, by Peter Cappelli Summary. Complaints against Human Resources (HR), which are nothing new, have a cyclical quality. They’re driven largely by the business context. When…
Applying Lean Six Sigma Methods to Litigation Practice
A growing number of law departments and law firms are exploring Lean Six Sigma and similar methodologies to continuously improve the way they deliver legal services. By tailoring these techniques…
Whatever happened to Six Sigma?
GE adopted Six Sigma from Motorola in 1995, and under Jack Welch it became corporate religion. But as GE began a long, slow decline, so did the popularity of Six…
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THOUGHT FOOD
the opex vault
RPT-INSIGHT-Mario Draghi’s German problem
Reuters reports on Mario Draghi’s German problem: In early October, European Central Bank board member Benoit Coeure paid a discreet visit to the Chancellery in Berlin to express concerns about rising…
9 Trends in the Transportation and Logistics Industry to Look Out for in 2023
In recent years the supply chain of today has met with unprecedented levels of disruption, from an inexorable and exponential rise in consumer demand, fuel shortages, to a global pandemic…
Reinventing Performance Management
Any company worth its salt should be aware of the possibility that their current process for evaluating the work of people is increasingly out of step with their main objectives. This…
Continuous Improvement Capability: Has the training worked?
CONTENT PARTNER CONTRIBUTION As seen in the Jun-2015 edition of the Lean Management Journal Continuous Improvement (CI) is a well-established concept within organisations. Many have developed elaborate CI strategies and…
