Quality, skills and the high-velocity economy

Back in May, I keynoted the World Congress on Quality / American Society for Quality, a fairly massive conference with about 3,000 attendees.

I focused, as I often do, on the need for rapid action in the high-velocity economy. At that time, just a few months ago, we had just seen the recall of various pet food products as a result of production quality issues at the Chinese manufacturer.

I noted -- and these words are verbatim from the tape - "What do we do with quality in terms of velocity?" I went on to note that with we might soon see the issue of quality and China merge together ... to such a degree that companies might have to scramble to deal with quality issues that were completely unexpected just a few months ago.

Fast forward, and we've got toy manufacturers testifying to Congress about quality concerns as a result of offshore production.

It used to be that when it came to quality, you'd plan --> execute -- > evaluate ---> innovate. But now, with high-velocity change, sudden new issues can appear, and you've simply got to execute before you plan.

What's the point? In my new book, Ready, Set, Done, I argue that talent and project agility -- that is, the ability to rapidly refocus your organization and team to deal with the rapid emergence of new issues -- will be a key cornerstone for future success.

This week, I'll be doing a keynote for Tenrox, a company that specializes in software that helps an organization with resource management and optimization: in other words, deploying the right skills at the right time for the right purpose. Exactly what I talk about in the new book.

The CEO, Rudolf Melik, has written a book, The Rise of the Project Workforce: Managing People and Projects in a Flat World. I contributed the foreword for the book, focusing on the theme of skills agility. It's an important issue that you need to be thinking about, particularly given the new urgency for planning on the fly.

With all due respect to Web 2.0, what's really important at a strategic level?

In the last few weeks, I've had several high-level sessions with the CEO and management team of a major construction company, as well as with the senior management team and customers of an organization in the packaging/consumer products industries.

Top of mind for these folks isn't their Facebook strategy, nor are they focused on thinking about what to do with Web 2.0. They've got businesses to run, critical issues that need to be tackled, and strategies to be implemented.

There's a lot of really cool Web 2.0 stuff going on, and yet from a pure strategic level, I'm coming to realize that there's a lot of hype with the bathwater. It's like it's 1999 all over again!

Here's what these folks are thinking about:

• an accelerated innovation cycle: how can they ensure that they get to market at the pace demanded in the high velocity economy?
  
• rapid ingestion of new technologies / methodologies: there's a constant flood of new stuff they must deal with, particularly as customers, suppliers, and business partners come to expect an ever-more sophisticated information relationship.
  
• faster time to market: how can they ensure their logistics capabilties, as well as the insight of their sales force, is finely tuned for dealing with shorter product lifecycles?
  
• rapid re-focusing of resources for opportunity or threat: consider the China issue and quality: there are lots of organizations now scrambling to redeploy staff and resources due to the sudden new focus and challenge that has emerged
  
• implementing narrow, niche oriented activities to avoid commoditization: how can they step up the value chain in order to avoid the dreaded "compete on price" trap?
  
• ….a mindset to deal with “high velocity change”: how can they lead their people into a culture that simply, "acts fast"
  

Groundhogs, innovation, and the end of summer

I'm back at work, although when you work at home, you never truly leave it.

There were two keynotes during the summer, including for the Destination Marketing Association International association, and the National Association of College Stores, as well as a private management get together with a major commercial/industrial construction company. The plan was to take the summer slow, recharge, and gear up for what looks like a busy fall.

One of the highlights of the summer involved the war with the groundhog who decided to take up space in our yard. I clearly lost -- he's back again today. I've tried everything, and even ended up writing an article for one of my regular columns about my efforts.

Aside from that, great feedback was had from the events I spoke at this summer : the NACS folks had this to say: "You were right about being highly energetic! You definitely did a great job in pepping the crowd up at Innovate 2007 in Tampa. The buzz in the hallway after your presentation was outstanding! Just thinking about the word "innovate" can be overwhelming. You did an excellent job in explaining the simple steps they need to take to incorporate innovation into their stores."

The new book is in final edit; we should be going to print within the month.