‘Indian firms will have to be quality conscious to operate globally’

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Related Articles

‘People still prefer piracy to paying for world ci...

: With companies operating in a challenging environment, every management knows they need to elevate performance to boost sales, profit margins and market share. These are survival tools in today’s businesses and Lean Sigma technique is enabling companies to achieve their goals. An industry veteran, Anand Sharma has been leading lean transformation management for the last two decades through TBM Consulting Group which he founded. With more than 150 consultants operating in five continents, the company headquartered in Durham, US, helps discrete and process manufacturers and service companies create a competitive advantage to generate significant growth. Armed with an engineering degree from Roorkee University and a Masters degree from Boston University, Sharma has been credited with turning around hundreds of companies worldwide in the manufacturing and service sectors. In an interview to Fe’s Saikat Neogi, he explains the principles of transformational management and how Indian companies can benefit from it. Excerpts:

How do you see the relevance of Lean Management in today’s context?

I think Lean is the replacement to 21st century management system. I believe in transformational management, which has certain key ingredients. The first factor is quick response time, which would bring down the time for the customer. The criteria for transformational management is that your reliability has to be very high, that means you make the product exactly what you said it would be and true to the specifications and at the same time delivery should be reliable. The next two are focused on companies: rhythm that means you have to synchronies exactly with what the customer demands. The next is responsibility that is being given to the corporation and it the responsibility of the company to use minimum number of people, space, inventories and machinery and by doing that you are leveraging corporate assets. The other part is responsibility of natural resources because we are in a limited natural resource environment.

Where is the relevance of a customer?

It is the duty of the company to be relevant to the customer’s changing needs. You have to learn to capture the voice of customers in a way that they are not able to describe to you. And by being close to the customer, walking into their shoes and by capturing those unarticulated needs, you will be able to develop product and services that will always delight the customers.

How is Lean different from Transformational Management?