RE: Software Excellence (was: Computerworld article - it's notjust the box dummy!)

A few months ago I heard a report on NPR that rung true to me.
They were reporting on a company that a few years ago looked like
it was heading toward failure. Now it is very successful, being
recognized
by customers for their quality, record profits etc.

The part that I made note of was that the employees credited the turn
around
with the priorities that were established my management when things were
looking bad.

They were:
1. Safety
2. Employee Satisfaction
3. Customer Satisfaction
4. Product Quality
5. Profits

What was significant was not only the order, but that management
apparently
was very serious about the goals and the order.
Safety was viewed as a moral and legal responsibility.
If you hire the right people, which this company felt it had, and take
care of
Employee Satisfaction, each of the other goals tend to follow on it's
own.

I've seen basically this same list at a number of companies, but not in
this order.
I suspect that some of those companies would be better off now, in a
couple of
cases maybe still in business, if their goals more closely matched this
list and
it's order.

Just some thoughts,
 -steve cotes

> ----------
> From:         PaulMmn[SMTP:PaulMmn@ix.netcom.com]
> Sent:         Thursday, July 16, 1998 7:00 PM
> To:   MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> Subject:      Re: Software Excellence (was: Computerworld article -
> it's notjust the box dummy!)
> 
> The company for which I work has its 3 'goals' stated:  1) Make the
> numbers.  2) Make quality part of everything we do....
> 
> We have to keep the stockholders happy (and we have).  But, as Dean
> has
> expounded so well, don't promise what you don't already have.  *sigh*
> 
> Ford used to say, "Quality is job 1."
> 
> If quality is number one, profit, customers, and success will follow.
> [Let's ignore the Betamax and Apple Macintosh as abberations to this
> rule].
> 
> 
> --Paul E Musselman
> PaulMmn@ix.netcom.com
> 
> 
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