If it ain't broke, can we improve it?

Industrial manufacturing leaders know how to innovate, industrial manufacturing managers know how to maintain it. This is because leaders move through life with their heads up eyeing the horizon. Managers move through the day with their heads down, focused on near-term tactics and getting things done.

Industrial manufacturing organizations that are governed by a managerial mindset may be well-oiled machines, but they may also not evolve well. This is because would-be leaders do not fit a maintenance culture. Even in private, mid-sized companies, second-generation owners who are challenged to lead, are facing a "this is how we do things here" mindset. They are being asked: If it ain't broke, why are we trying to fix it?

Here is why we all should fix it.

Few of our industrial manufacturing companies have reached their full potential in the marketplace. We can be much better. The marketplace has changed and so must we. The reason our numbers are down is not just because of this recession. The question is, for lack of vision, are we going to come out of this downturn as operationally pared down to survive but substantially impaired to grow?

Here is how we should fix it.

Our well-oiled, operationally pared-down, but underachieving industrial manufacturing companies can be improved. We simply need to expect more of ourselves, to become greater where it matters: greater at understanding the business we are in, so we can see our greater market potential: greater at understanding our customer segments, so we can solve their business problems; greater at understanding these segments' buying cycles, so we know how to cultivate long-term relationships based on the way they make decisions; greater at understanding how our marketing dollars should be spent, so we can at last evolve our sales effort beyond simply pushing a product line card; and greater at changing our business culture from one that is satisfied with going through the motions, to one that is measurably moving forward.

The nuclear power plants in Japan and in this country have been well managed and well oiled for decades. Strange, that in most every other kaizen-driven Japanese manufacturing company in the world, management defers to leadership and leadership insists on innovation by way of making improvements to products and processes.

If it ain't broke, whether in the nuclear industry or industrial manufacturing, there are clear reasons why leadership is needed to bring improvement.

jb
www.centrifuge-now.com