For Father’s Day, I was expecting the traditional breakfast in bed, cards from the kids, and my only sleep-in-past 7AM for the year, but I got something extra this year: tickets to see Snoop Dogg and 311!

Six Sigma and Snoop Dogg

I have to say this was a huge surprise because I don’t listen to Snoop Dogg. I like 311, but I’m not into Snoop all that much. When I was in 5th grade, I bought my first tape — a $2 USD bootleg of NWA. I pretty much grew-up on NWA, Eazy-E, and Dr. Dre, but I never got into Snoop. Those early years of my life were years of trouble and self-destruction and I’m glad I’m not there anymore. Now, I’m fully focused on staying positive, contributing back to society, and just doing good in the world.

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Several months ago my wife mentioned, in a subtle way, that she misses Giordano’s Pizza. Giordano’s is our favorite pizza joint and we used to eat there daily while I was a graduate student at The University of Chicago. I’d say most of my graduate student loan debt went to Giordano’s in exchange for their delicious and famous stuffed pizza.

To appease my wife’s appetite (and mine), I decided to purchase some Giordano’s for overnight delivery. In this post, I’ll discuss good pizza and the supply chain it takes to deliver it, including the strategic role of The Warehouse.

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“people remember experiences, not features or attributes” - a.g. lafley

I love companies and products that are disruptive, simple, and yet elegantly meets an unarticulated but dire customer need.

Today, we are speaking with Gauri Nanda, the inventor of Clocky and founder of nandahome.com.

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Tell us a little about yourself: education, background, and career focus.

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Motorola (MOT), the inventor of Six Sigma, is in big trouble. Even though it invented Six Sigma, this is a clear example that shows how Lean or Six Sigma are not a cure-all for corporate woes, but that good leadership and a winning strategy are key in a competitive world — Lean or Six Sigma is necessary, but not sufficient.

The Art of Exclusion

Michael Porter (Porter’s Five Forces) argues — I believe correctly –, in his seminal work, What is Strategy, that Operational Excellence is necessary but not sufficient. What is needed — even still and always — is a winning strategy. In his article, he argues that the essence of strategy consist of two related propositions:

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In some organizations, the Customer Service function is largely viewed as a cost center, draining resources of the firm. I maintain that this perspective is what less mature companies support. More mature companies and, subsequently the more successful ones, understand the strategic fit of Customer Service in the overall value chain and it’s functional role in the supply chain.

In what follows, I’ll take a hypothetical iPhone defect case and show how customer service in this example plays a pivotal role in the overall iPhone supply chain — a key player in the overall product value chain.

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I spoke at a Lean Six Sigma conference last week, held in Chicago. The conference was packed with Supply Chain, Logistics, Fulfillment, Manufacturing, Transportation, Healthcare, and Service executives.

During the conference, I heard a lot of chest-beating, neutron-jack-welch type of comments and also a lot of focus and emphasis on the “tools” of Operational Excellence. I truly found this part to be quite disappointing, given that the audience and speakers were mostly executives from large Fortune 500 companies.

I thought and expected that people knew better but that’s okay — this represents a challenge and opportunity to do good.

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What happens after the customer clicks the “Place Order Button”?  For some customers, this is a large black hole.  But, wise companies understand that customers need to be informed and aware of the steps after the “Place Order Button” is clicked.  In fact, customers want to be involved in the end-to-end transaction.  In this article, we’ll discuss how we can better satisfy this critical customer need, thereby ensuring repeat-business, loyalty, and also good, old fashioned, customer happiness.

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Think about the metrics in your company: most likely, the metrics that you are accountable for and report on are reported as averages.  Am I right?  Perhaps, those metrics are averages and are lagging or leading, depending on the context.  

But, from the customer’s perspective, it is always important to remember this axiom: The Customer Feels the difference in the experience, not the average.  If you stop to really think about it, the concept of an “average experience” doesn’t exist.  Yet, we report on statistical means.  

The distinction, from a mathematical perspective, is simple: it’s about variation.

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