I enjoyed the thoughtful comments of Fred Nickols and Joe Colletti.
Joe Colletti agrees with me that no direct connection between TQM and
strategy design can be found in the West; however, due to his posting I'll
take a second look at Hoshin Kanri.
I like Fred Nickols' analogy of the stacked Dixie cups. He agrees that
operating folks stay out of the company's strategy. He points to
"disconnects all over the place". To be sure.
However, my point is that IF you really expect a firm's strategy to
reflect some hard analysis of future scenarios, competitor moves, and the
firm's countermoves, you have to involve primarily the people whose job
entails gathering the requisite information AND performing the cumbersome
attendant analyses, not those who'll be penalized if they produce fewer
widgets per pay period -- Interweaving the organization should not come at
the expense of the people who get the fewest perks....
On this unhappy note, Happy New Year! Will
Will(iam) Acar
Grad. School of Management
Kent State University
Kent, OH 44242
330-672-2750 x305
home: 330-673-6514
wacar@kent.edu