He continued to rely on Roxanne as his confidante, meeting with her about every two months. He brought up the subject of complacency during one of those meetings. After explaining what he was trying to accomplish, he asked her opinion about how to continue the progress.

Roxanne thought for a minute. “I’d like to start, Greg, by asking what you personally will do to sustain the gains, and to realize even more and bigger gains?”

“I’ve thought a lot about that, Roxanne. I’ll be visiting every plant and office at least twice a year. I’ve asked Cynthia (who had followed with him when he was promoted CEO) to arrange and publish a visit schedule covering the next 12 months. In fact, I leave for the Dallas Plant to see Savannah Richmond and her team next Tuesday. I’ve told all division Presidents to inform the plant and office leaders that I don’t want fancy presentations. I want to tour the facilities, talk to people at all levels, be available for group meetings to answer their questions about the business, and to find out from them what’s new and what’s troubling them. Those visits will also give me a better perspective on the talent we have coming along in the organization. I’ve also included a one-to-one meeting with the HR Directors who know I want the truth, and only the truth, about the health of the organization.”

“That’s a great start, Greg. What will you be doing to fan the flames of ‘change for better,’ the sort of stuff that energized everyone in Cosmetics Products in the past?”

“Good question. I’ve been working with two of my senior VPs, Alice Boyer, Engineering and Product Development, and Keely Horton, Human Resources. We’ve learned through the Product Management Milestones the importance of keeping a visible pipeline of ideas. We decided to use the same approach in each division to track how ideas, innovations, and improvements are moving along. As you know, we understand ‘our second job’ here; this approach gives us a formal repository for all ideas. We have all ideas and projects from every organization on a shared server and promote idea sharing between sites. We promote a learn-by-doing approach with carefully controlled pilots. The person who came up with the idea is provided necessary support and empowered to see if the idea works. If it works as intended or can be modified to work as intended, we roll out the improvement broadly. By the way, it’s not a suggestion scheme with rewards. All ideas get a thank-you from the line manager, usually the person’s team leader, and a note is placed in the personnel file so that the person is recognized again during his or her next performance review. Accepted ideas, and they’re running at a remarkable 40 percent, result in a thank-you note from the division President. I personally meet with people who are responsible for breakthrough improvements. People whose ideas are accepted are also noted on our ‘Second Job’ intranet page with a photo and description of them and their ideas. We’ve been tracking ideas per employee, our measure of Total Employee Involvement, and the numbers have soared to the high end of the upper quartile of companies that track a similar measure. Or at least they had soared. We’re seeing a recent decline in the number of ideas entering the pipeline and we haven’t been able to determine an obvious reason.”

“Any less obvious reasons, then? Tell me what was going on when the ideas were really flowing into the pipeline.”

“Well, Amalgamated was in the last stages of getting our Class A awards. People were trying to close the final gaps, and drive results to the required high performance levels.”

“And what did that feel like, to you?”

“No question about it, Roxanne, it was an exciting time.” Greg recounted some of the challenges, successes, and disappointments he experienced at that time. Then he stopped. “I think I know what’s missing now. At that time, we had a tough, seemingly impossible, challenge in front of us; we were all engaged in meeting the challenge while we continued to run the business; we worked side by side regardless of our functions or official jobs to help each other; we overcame barriers and celebrated successes, big and small. The organization was vibrant, and it was probably the most fun I’ve had at any time in my career.

“So I simply need to replicate what was going on then. I need to come up with a new, engaging challenge, and empower people to work on it. The question now is how to define that challenge. Why didn’t I see that before?” Roxanne was a practitioner, as are all good consultants, of the teaching methods of Socrates. Socrates asked questions that led his students to discover their own answers. Roxanne mostly asked questions, providing guidance and teaching only when necessary.

“You’ve got it, Greg. Next, two more questions. What are Amalgamated’s competitive priorities today? My second question is whether your vision and mission are still relevant, given the progress you’ve made?”

“I see where you’re headed, Roxanne. I suppose in the past few months we’ve all relaxed a bit. I now need to engage my Executive Team in a discussion about our competitive priorities for each division. It’s also time to schedule another session to review Amalgamated’s vision and mission statements and our strategic objectives. With our enhanced Integrated Business Management process and tools in place and working extraordinarily well, this should be a far easier task than in the past. As you suggested some time ago, we’ve upgraded our process to enhance modeling at both detail and aggregate levels, and we implemented a Corporate Performance Management system. It gives us an overview picture of Corporate and Division-by-Division performance, as well as a view of strategy deployment, financial reality and opportunities, business intelligence, and other key pointers to potential threats or opportunities.

“It is important for us to get a fresh look at the competition, threats, and opportunities. We’ve obviously been talking about these regularly, or we wouldn’t be Class A, but we’ve not been thinking about them in the context of ‘the impossible dream’ to really energize us and take the business to another level.”

“When did you last look at the maturity maps and Transitions, Greg? You and your team could begin there.”

“Good point. In fact, I’ll look at them myself to see if they get my creative juices flowing.”

“One more thing to think about again is succession planning,” Roxanne continued. “You did this well in Cosmetics Products, but I’m not so sure about where you are with Amalgamated’s senior management. People constitute the greatest strength of companies, and often present the greatest potential weakness. Like a race engine that outperforms its rivals, Amalgamated is a finely tuned organization now. You wouldn’t allow just any mechanic to tune a high performance engine; the risk would be too high. Yet I’m always surprised by companies that make that very mistake.

“For example, I know two young managers, let’s call them Bill and Doug, who, coincidentally, met each other during one of our Supply Planning in Practice courses. They’d just been hired as Supply Planning Managers in two different automobile companies. Bill was in a Class A Japanese Company; Doug in an American company, not yet Class A, but getting there. Coincidentally, they met again five months later on one of Effective Management’s Proven Path Club seminars. They talked about their experiences over coffee. Bill asked Doug how it was going. Doug replied that after his initial training and orientation, he started working with the existing Supply Planning Manager and within six weeks was doing the job on his own. In response to Doug’s question about Bill’s experience with the Japanese auto company, he said that after five months he was still learning what happens on the production line, how the people, processes, and tools worked together, the quality culture, and the high-performance team culture. If he continued to make good progress, he would begin working in the Supply Planning office in another six weeks. Which company was doing a better job of protecting its performance and culture; and which was putting itself at greater risk?” Greg agreed that without question Bill would be better prepared and “fit-for-purpose” to be a contributing team member.

“And if I’m going to protect my ‘finely tuned engine’ here, we need to do a more thorough job of preparing new people coming into our organization. Is that your message, Roxanne?”

“Yes, but let me expand that message and be more specific. This is a true story about a Class A company. Some time ago, the company’s COO developed a heart condition and was advised by his doctor to move to a less stressful position, which he did. Within six weeks, the Board of Directors appointed to the COO position ‘a high profile achiever’ from outside the company. For three months, the financials improved as he cut what he called excessive overhead. But then the company started a downhill slide, soon undoing six years of progress. The new COO stated frequently, ‘All this people stuff is nonsense. ’ He instructed those who wanted to stay on his staff to ‘forget the soft stuff’ and to push their people relentlessly until they exceeded all performance objectives. He insisted on overloading production lines by 20 percent stating, ‘What these guys need is a challenge to make them work harder.’ Morale and productivity declined, inventories overflowed the warehouse and were even being stored in rented truck trailers lined up in parking lots. Customer service suffered since the product in the warehouse and trailers was too often the wrong product. After all, the key to success is synchronization of customer requirements with a flow of matched sets of parts and end-items. Dysfunctional pushing and shoving of the supply chain results in gross mismatches and poor customer service. The company’s total sales of finished product fell by nearly 30 percent. All performance measures declined to below 95 percent and customer service plummeted to 65 percent during the seasonal peak, resulting in nearly $100 million in lost sales. Sadly, direct confrontation by his direct reports did no good in changing his behaviors. Making matters worse, no one was willing to risk going to members of the Board of Directors to express their concerns. It was only when the end of quarter results were reported that the Board saw how badly results had deteriorated in what had been the company’s best division. They reacted swiftly by sending in a consultant with Class A credentials to determine what had happened. It didn’t take long to discover the source of the problem: the new COO. Within the month, the Board bought out the COO’s contract and replaced him with someone from inside the company. It took three months to restore performance to the Capable level, and a further two years to restore their Class A status. Poor execution of succession planning, and lack of ‘fit-for-job’ requirements at all levels were the root causes of the decline.”

She paused and waited for Greg to respond. “We spend a good deal of time at the lower levels planning for succession, and I believe we did a pretty good job with the executives in Cosmetics Products, but I get your point. We have work to do here with the corporate executives. I need to start grooming the successors for the people on my staff and, at some time soon, for my own role if we intend to sustain our gains and deliver even further gains.” Roxanne just smiled.

With this in mind, Greg talked with Roxanne about the people on his staff and potential retirements in the next two years. He tried to balance in his mind the value of bringing in fresh thinking and the value of continuity gained by promoting people who had been through the years of improvements and knew how processes should work.

They discussed other issues, including Greg’s desire to promote Peter Bertrand as a well-deserved reward for his key role in coordinating all the Class A Initiatives so successfully. Peter had matured into a very capable manager and had developed an enormous understanding of all aspects of the business as a result of his involvement with all the teams. He was a team player, and he got the job done. Roxanne suggested that Peter could be invaluable in reenergizing the company’s move to the next level, and recommended that Greg figure out a way to make him a member of Amalgamated’s Executive Team. Greg understood the advantage for him and for Peter and agreed to consider the recommendation.

Back in his office, Greg had Cynthia photocopy all the Maturity Transition charts. Out of the formidable stack, he decided he would first concentrate on eight supply chain related charts. He would compare Transition 4, their current status, with Transition 5, the next level of maturity. First he looked at Demand Planning and Demand Control charts [Figure 20.1].

Greg was looking for the characteristics that differentiated companies in Transition 5 from those in Transition 4. He knew the descriptions in the charts weren’t extremely detailed, but contained enough detail to be useful for senior executives. It appeared to Greg that current Demand improvement activities were supportive of Transition 5 characteristics, although it would take too long to actually get there at the current rate of improvement.

He looked next at the Internal Supply charts [Figure 20.2].

He saw in Supply Planning reference to artificial intelligence (AI) systems and Upper Decile performance. In Transition 5 of the Supply Execution chart he saw near 100 percent performance expectation. He wanted to review this with David, but it appeared there was more they needed to accomplish in the physical world of manufacturing. He could envision no way of achieving this level of performance without additional automation and intelligent control systems. “Right-first-time” suddenly took on a new dimension.

He turned to the Product and Knowledge Management charts [Figure 20.3].

The traffic light suddenly turned red for Greg. He realized he needed to look at these maps as an integrated package. Until this point, he had been viewing them as Cynthia printed them, chart by chart. But now he moved to the conference room and laid them out on the long table, side by side, and read across from chart to chart. Now they made much more sense! He realized that Knowledge Management was a key requirement everywhere and was relieved that they had already invested in a system. He would need to determine if it would fully support Transition 5. He saw the term “parametric design,” and hoped Matt would know what that meant since he had only the vaguest idea. He saw requirements for additional automation in planning and office activities as well as in manufacturing and decision support, with something called “alerts,” with “auto-responses.” That also was new to him. And he needed to learn more about what was called “auto-sales” and “auto-marketing,” terms equally unfamiliar.

Greg could now view Supply Chain and Distribution Transitions [Figure 20.4] in the context of the others on the table; what was needed began to fall into place for him.

He next added all the other Transition charts to the side-by-side display on the conference room table. He began making notes about his discoveries and listing questions prompted by the review. At last he was developing a vision of the future, albeit still a bit fuzzy, and a sense of what he now knew he didn’t know. He recalled someone telling him early in his career that conscious incompetence is far better than unconscious incompetence. The last hour’s study moved him solidly into conscious incompetence. He now knew what he had to learn next. But he couldn’t go there by himself; he needed to get the rest of his team to the same level of understanding.

Greg later discovered that David, too, had been trying to understand the characteristics of Transition 5. He could answer many of Greg’s technical questions about the new terms relating to supply and planning, but was having difficulty seeing how the work to reach Transition 5 would come together, especially to deliver nearly 100 percent reliable performance.

Finally, Greg asked Cynthia to schedule a full day off-site meeting for his Executive Team and Peter Bertrand, with Roxanne, to plan for sustainability and future improvements. Roxanne suggested to Cynthia that Les Johnson, one of Effective Management’s Transition 5 experts, would bring a broader perspective and experience for that session. She explained that Les had experience actually working in the rarefied atmosphere of Transition 5 companies. Les led that effort for his company, before joining Effective Management, and became the first company in that industry to be certified at that level. Amalgamated would be joining a very small and elite group if and when they became one of the few Upper Decile performers in a mature industry sector.

When the team assembled, Greg first introduced Les, then explained his conversations with Roxanne on sustainability and succession planning. Les provided some insights from Transition 5 and 6 companies. This led to an energetic debate before they agreed in principle to move toward the new succession and development philosophy, and charged Keely Horton, Senior VP Human Resources, to prepare a structured proposal and related costs, if any. Greg reminded his team that two Senior VPs would be retiring within six months. He wanted a succession pilot program created to learn how to be more effective in bringing senior managers into the company, or into more senior roles in the case of promotion. Again he turned to Keely to shepherd this effort. Keely reminded Greg that she would be one of the two retirees, along with Andrew Jones, CFO. “Who knows better what onboarding activities, education, and training will make your replacement effective?” chided Greg. Keely agreed to begin developing the plan immediately and would personalize the plan based on the chosen successor.

They also agreed with little hesitation to create and fill an executive position reporting to Keely with responsibility for managing the social responsibilities of the company, both internally and in the public forum. Keely would flesh out the specific responsibilities and compensation plan after speaking with her counterparts in other socially responsible companies.

Then Greg invited everyone to stand along one side of the long table. He arranged all the Transition charts side by side, just as he had done for himself. Les took over at this point, asking people to read Transition 5 characteristics on the sheet directly in front of each individual. When finished with that chart, he asked them to move one position to the right, as in a loop, and repeat the process until they arrived back at their starting point. Sequence didn’t matter, he explained, since all the processes were integrated. Depending on the individual’s background and knowledge, each saw the whole picture from a slightly different perspective that enriched the team’s understanding of the whole picture of Transition 5.

They perceived a significant challenge, and felt they’d been thrown into the deep end of the pool. Les answered direct questions from the team for the next hour. As the questions waned, David asked Greg a question.

“That was a very interesting exercise, Greg, but what was your purpose? I know you must have one.”

“I’m going to answer that question with one of my own directed to all of you. What do you think of the opportunity Transition 5 provides? I know I normally ask you to make decisions based on hard numbers and facts, but I want to talk about feelings for a moment. What are you feeling having just read the characteristics of Transition 5 companies?”

Alexandra, now President of Cosmetics Products, was first to reply. “I was confused at first by the information overload and the new terminology, but as Les answered our questions and explained some of those terms, I began to see some real possibilities. As you all know, I go through in detail the quarterly benchmark data and monthly competitor marketing activity reports. Over the past five years, each of our divisions has hurt their competitors, especially our Cosmetics Products and Home Products competitors. Several smaller competitors have gone out of business or had to sell some of their brands, many of which are now, happily, in our portfolios. Over the past twelve months, however, we’ve started to see some aggressive responses from the bigger competitors in those two sectors. First we noticed significantly improved advertising using very creative humor to get consumers’ attention. More recently we’re seeing improving customer service to the wholesalers and major retail accounts to the point that their lower prices are eroding a little of our market share. Typically we’re seeing from them good package design and a 5 percent margin increase for the customers—the retail outlets; we suspect it must be cutting into their profits, but we need to respond. We need to keep clear blue water between them and us. If we can do that sustainably, I foresee a day when they’ll be left with niche markets only, and we’ll be in the same league as the really big players, at least in the domestic market. You know, I feel really excited about the possibilities of Transition 5. I needed that boost!”

“Anyone else?” asked Greg.

Over the next 45 minutes, each offered an opinion and recommendation, varying from cautiously positive to enthusiastic, for pursuing Transition 5, which they began calling “Ultraresponsive.” And that became the name of the new initiative, the “Ultraresponsive Service Initiative.”

“And that’s why I took us through this exercise,” Greg said. We were becoming complacent, at least I was. We had lost the excitement of the challenge. Competitors were taking advantage of that and beginning to catch up. As I read the characteristics of Transition 5, the excitement of the challenge began returning. Seems it has for the rest of you as well.”

As before, this new challenge excited and motivated the people, and once again there was a buzz of anticipation in the air. Les Johnson felt he’d helped the team align, but that it would be better if he let the group develop its own proposals. With Greg’s agreement, he left and invited them to call him at any time.

Organizing the new Initiative proceeded with Greg and his staff completing the Leadership Phase of the Proven Path, including a sound business case for the Initiative. Greg presented his plan to the Board and received enthusiastic support to launch the Ultraresponsive Service Initiative. The announcement throughout Amalgamated energized the organization and rekindled the sense of exploration, creativity, and fun. The challenge presented to this true learning organization improved morale, even though everyone recognized the breakthrough nature and difficulty of accomplishing the stated objectives. The growth objectives, for example, caused concern among some that they would begin competing directly with some of the industry giants in the Americas. Most welcomed the excitement of that challenge and still found it hard to believe Amalgamated had grown so large over the past few years.

Les came in regularly to coach, to encourage, and to conduct focused assessments to ensure processes remained integrated and on track. David perceived a conflict in one important area between what they had learned, and what they were actually experiencing. During one of Les’s visits, David set aside some time to discuss it a fairly technical but important concern.

David recognized a conflict between what he had understood about the three “Value Disciplines,” Product Leadership; Customer Intimate; Price Competitive, and what they were now experiencing with their current speed and agility, differentiated process lines, and segmentation [Figure 19.5]. They no longer saw the necessity of “focusing on one discipline” within the organization, as they’d been taught in the early days of Cosmetics Products’ first initiative. This seemed to be even truer in the case of the Ultraresponsive Service Initiative. David was concerned that he was missing something. To his surprise, however, Les agreed with his statement, adding, “When you were still getting your act together, back in the days of your Customer Service Initiative, what you heard about focusing on one Value Discipline was absolutely necessary. Since then, you’ve shifted paradigms several times, to the extent that in most cases the need to focus no longer applies, especially as you move into Transition 5. That need began to change when you approached Class A and you were facing a completely different situation. However, you must never let go of your focus on the customer in your Value Proposition, which defines the holistic benefits you want your customers to experience when doing business with your company. That must always include a desired external perception that distinguishes your company, such as a Product Leader for products under specific brands. But within the organization the supply chain must be responsive to all three of the disciplines in any mix. Your Value Proposition should also include the ease of placing orders; the courtesy experienced in phone calls; error-free communications and product; and all the other attributes you would like your customers to experience.” After a few more minutes of discussion, David understood and was satisfied that when they were at the Capable level, they had needed to focus on one Value Discipline, but with the enablers created in reaching Class A, they were no longer constrained.

While Amalgamated implemented the new Initiative, Greg and his Executive Team made several other key decisions affecting all the other work. He was now glad he’d not reduced staff in response to the resulting productivity gains. Some of those individuals would be invaluable in helping Amalgamated move to Transition 5. Amalgamated formed a company-wide Business Excellence team to support Initiative teams in all Division and to develop a charter and program to maintain the culture of continuous improvement even beyond Transition 5.

Both Cosmetics Products’ and Home Products’ eco-friendly product lines continued growing at double digit rates. Amalgamated could now provide consumer-responsive products at acceptable prices and margins. Consumer Products was becoming reliant on the capabilities of a highly competent Texas supplier of unique component materials. A risk assessment highlighting this crucial dependency led Greg to a decision to vertically integrate the company into Amalgamated. The long-term positive relationship between the companies enabled the friendly merger to be completed within six months. During the negotiations, Amalgamated demonstrated its interest and sensitivity to the views of the employees and the community in which the factory was located. They volunteered their manufacturing, logistics, and human resource values and plans with the county and local planners, and flew a contingent of plant personnel to Atlanta to visit with their peers in Cosmetics Products. The integration of the new company into Amalgamated included plans to bring their Planning and Control and Integrated Business Management processes to the Capable level within nine months. Meanwhile, the Texas management team was immersed in learning Amalgamated’s culture using the succession planning model, values, and principles of doing business. Amalgamated also benefited from areas where the Texas company excelled. After working through a few difficult acquisition problems, the company was absorbed into the Amalgamated culture and contributed to Amalgamated’s growth strategy.

After lengthy discussions with his Executive Team, and consideration of the Board of Directors, Greg was nearing a decision on another strategic move for Amalgamated. For some time he had been convinced the time was right to enter the European Union (EU) market, somewhat bigger than the U.S. market and essential to meeting the corporation’s long-term growth objectives. Greg decided to begin the expansion in Spain. Amalgamated had a number of Hispanics at all levels of the organization; language would not be a barrier for them, and market research confirmed a potentially significant market for Amalgamated’s products. Rosetta Ruiz, who had replaced Andrew Jones as CFO, was delighted with this news and modified her employees’ personal objectives to incorporate this new strategic objective. She followed the advice of professional financial advisors, and discovered available grants if their factory were built in a “development” area. An expansion team, called Team Spain, ensured there was suitable infrastructure for component delivery and outbound shipping. Team Spain proposed first opening a Distribution Center in Barcelona since logistics support in that very large market area was superb. Packaging changes were planned to add necessary language copy, incorporate Spanish market advertising aesthetics, and comply with EU regulations. The need for a few minor formulation adjustments would present minimum challenges and not affect formulation costs.

Expansion of their products into Spain was successful, meeting all volume and profit objectives. A green field site was acquired in eastern Spain, and the first buildings were erected within a year. The first construction priority was a mixing and finishing line to minimize shipping costs for intermediates and finished products. High-quality packaging and container suppliers were identified and brought into the supply chain as partners rather than as adversaries. The strong working alliance with its suppliers increased the company’s flexibility in adding product sizes, creating short lead-time promotions, and creating new and innovative packaging.

The management staff selected for construction and start-up was composed primarily of managers transferred from Atlanta and Dallas, either already Spanish-speaking or provided intense language skills courses to minimize language problems. Local management talent was identified by a management recruiter in Barcelona. Amalgamated invested heavily in the new Spanish managers who spent two months in Atlanta and Dallas learning about the company, its products and, importantly, about the concepts and principles of Class A. The new plant and distribution center were designed and operated from the beginning with Class A policies and procedures, and used Amalgamated’s global ERP system with advanced planning, optimizing, and scheduling capabilities. The Business Excellence team visited the new site frequently during the first year and reported the site was in compliance with Class A standards based on a detailed internal assessment. Amalgamated was now considering expansion into Germany. The even stricter environmental regulations there would provide a useful validation of their eco-friendly product model, including packaging and product disposal.

Back in Atlanta, Alexandra, now promoted to Senior VP Marketing and Sales, and Henry Stinson, Senior VP Quality and Regulatory Affairs, teamed up to drive quality and Sales and Marketing performance measures within the Ultraresponsive Service Initiative to 100 percent. When Greg mentioned that Transition 5 performance measurement requirement was 99.95 percent, Alexandra translated that performance to 500 ppm failures. Now that Amalgamated shipped more than a million units every day, 500 ppm meant approximately 3,000 failures each week, a clearly unacceptable level of failures for Amalgamated’s Executive Team. A strong desire to achieve Transition 5 and its expectation of nearly failure-free performance led to further interest in robotics and other forms of automation to eliminate the potential for human error. In turn, using robotics necessitates nearly 100 percent data integrity since robotics lines cannot produce error-free product without error-free input data. Similarly, transactions would have to be at least 99.9995 percent right first time with real-time automated input. The decision whether to move to a broad scale deployment of robotics in fully integrated automation was still in the future for the Executive Team, but the Initiative to take Amalgamated to Transition 5 had reenergized all of Amalgamated, resulted in positive press coverage, and proved again that success breeds success.

Alice Boyer, Senior VP Engineering and Product Development, suggested that Amalgamated invest in a “Skunk Works”^® to expand the boundaries of current thinking and to prepare for technology beyond today’s limits. She stressed the importance of keeping such a group isolated from the highly controlled business environment, company regulations, and free from all but health, safety and legal constraints. The Skunk Works, she explained, should be co-led by a person who was a true entrepreneur and a second person who was a sound business manager from the Atlanta headquarters office. The new group’s mission would be to transform, or even create, customer and consumer desires into breakthrough products and services. Given the combined capabilities of their people, processes and tools, ideas could pass through product design, development and launch at high speed. Increasing use of and reliance on the integrated knowledge management systems would be critical to success at meeting product specifications and dates right-first-time, with manufacturable products. Their mission would be to make Amalgamated the most innovative consumer goods company on the planet! Greg asked for information about how other leading-edge companies managed similar innovation teams. Alice was ready for the question and summarized the procedures of several other companies in different industries.

Greg later shared his thinking and recommendation with his Board of Directors. The Skunk Works was created and staffed. Within nine months of its formation, it had created two totally new-to-the-world Home Products innovations. One of these was based on nanotechnology, meaning Amalgamated was making yet another capital investment in its future.

Amalgamated achieved its Ultraresponsive Service Initiative, reaching upper decile performance and Transition 5, within two years. Their rapid growth continued at the planned rate domestically and globally. Several of their competitors retrenched to become producers of niche products, selling off some of their products to other companies, including Amalgamated. The work begun in Cosmetics Products had transformed the entire company and far exceeded the expectations of the Board of Directors and shareholders.

The question about robotics resurfaced. Amalgamated’s Executive Team was ready to consider the significant investment required to overcome barriers to further continuous improvement. The benefits were now obvious to the team: near elimination of human error, significantly increased agility, reduction of quality defects to nearly zero ppm through further reduction of process variation were all necessary to further distance themselves from their competitors. The only question to be addressed was one of return on investment. The team would make its decision following a three-month opportunity and feasibility study.

With its corporate culture of continuous improvement, abhorrence of the status quo, recognition of the strategic value of its human assets, ability to conceive and launch products well inside competitors’ lead times, and commitment to sustainability, Amalgamated Consumer Products Corporation would continue to transform challenges into business opportunities with its high-performing, self-directed team approach. Amalgamated’s people would continue to be its greatest strength in its continuing journey to be a leading global company.

No less important, the quality of life at work and at home improved noticeably as employees at all levels regained control of their business. Now that routine things happened routinely, people from the executive ranks to the shop floor spent their time improving processes, products, and results for all stakeholders. They also spent more time with their families.

Greg and Penny watched their boys grow into responsible adults, the younger of the two now completing a premed program with a goal of becoming a neurosurgeon; the older about to complete his second Masters degree, an MBA to go along with his Masters in engineering. As they finished dinner and strolled back to their private villa overlooking the island’s lagoon, they also rediscovered that two-week vacations were as relaxing and romantic as they had been ten years earlier.

The end . . . of the beginning.