Ten Strategies for the Top

Management
Strategies are:
1. Proactive Management
2. Adventurous and Bold change management
3. Do It Right First Time (DIRFT)
4. Continuous preventive action
5. Care for little things and accumulate gains
6. Ensure economic performance
7. Practice manage by walking around
8. Measure success
9. Never rest on laurels, continue to improve
10. Build a virtual organization
1. Proactive management
The leaders must have to foresee what will happen in the
future and take advance action to prevent the occurrence of
the problems as prevention is better than cure.
 Proactive Management Needs Proper System
- The problem can be identified before occurring, only if
there is a proper system in the organization. Unless, timely
action is taken to prevent problems, it may lead to losses in
terms of revenue, reputation and employee morale.
 TQM Calls for Proactive Management

- Inspite of best efforts, if an error has occurred, then corrective

action has to be taken after an analysis so that such errors are
not repeated. TQM envisages taking preventive actions so that
mistakes do not occur.
2. Adventurous and Bold Change Management

 Nobody Likes Change

- Human beings by their very nature resist change.
Even, if a change is going to make them much
more comfortable, they may not agree to it
straightaway.

 Change is Essential
- There should be an on-going rethinking and
restructuring of the organization, so that the
organization is receptive to the needs of the
customer. The management should look at every
process without any bias.
 Be Adventurous

- They should visualize the improvements needed

and make every effort to achieve it. Any
improvement is not going to be easy. If the
organization wants to maintain status quo, it will not
improve.

 Be Bold

- Boldness is very essential for making bold

decisions for improvement, based upon the study
and analysis of the current practices and system in
the organization.
3. DIRFT- Do It Right First Time

 Take Right Decisions

- In every organization a number of decisions have
to be taken by the CEOs, managers and
supervisors.

• Following sequence of activities leader must carry:

 Plan the decision

 Foresee the impact of the decision on the
organization
 Take opinion of the right people
 Involve the concerned
 Implement the decision
 Persist
 Role of CEO for Adventurous and Bold
Change Management

-Like many other aspects, the adventurous

and the bold change management depends on the
personal qualities of the CEO. The CEO, in addition
to his own bold initiatives, should support
innovative change management initiated by his
employees.
 Why People don’t Do it Right the First
Time?

-Do It Right First Time (DIRFT) concept

was advocated by Philip Crosby. This is a time-
tested concept and employees and
organizations should adopt DIRFT.
  Why Things are Done Wrong

1. The employee does not know what to do clearly,

leave alone how to do.
2. If he knows how to do, he is not motivated
enough to do it right the first time.
3. He may not have the right tools to do a good job.
4. He does not have the necessary education or
training to know how to DIRFT.
5. Probably his seniors have trained him to do the
wrong way.
6. He is not proud of the job he is doing.
7. He does not get appreciated when he does it
right.
 Problems of not Doing it Right

1. In some cases, not doing it right the first time may result
in not doing it right ever, thereafter.
2. Leads to unnecessary expenditure.
3. Increases the failure costs.
4. Demotivates employees.
5. Causes hassles to employees and customers,
6. Brings down the reputation of the organization.
7. Leads to schedule slippages.
8. Increases scraps leading to more cost on account of
storage, accounting, disposal, etc.
9. Forces the organizations to buy additional components
to take care of defects in the process.

10. The productivity gets affected due to holding up of the

process to correct the defective product shunting from
place to place for fault diagnosis, altercation between
employees as to who or which machine caused the defect,
wastage of supervisor’s time and the top management’s
time in resolving disputes.
 Basic Requirements for DIRFT

i. Define the requirement for each employees.

ii. Provide the wherewithal to achieve the requirement and
iii. Keep on motivating and encouraging the employee.

 Right the First Time and Every Time

-The “It” refers to every activity in the

organization. It is not only the making of the final product
or service, but also many things done by the employees in
their organization n a daily basis.
 Establish Right Processes

-Organization should establish a right process,

which is very essential. Within the organization, the
supervisors should train the new employees in the process.
It is essential that the management establish the proper
guidelines and train the employees to perform
accordingly.

 Choose Durable Raw Materials

-materials can be converted into products only

through the right process. Therefore, without the proper
raw materials, expecting quality would be farce.
 Set Right Goals

-It is essential for every organization to set the right

objectives towards which the organization should be
moving. As part of the TQM journey, an organization has
to arrive at a vision, mission and goals.

 Select the Right Personnel

-The whole process of recruitment starting from

advertisement, conducting interviews, etc. should aim at
selecting the right personnel for the right job. If a person is
not suitable for the Job-in-hand, then definitely it is going
to be counter- productive.
 Choose Right Machinery

-The process consists of people, machinery,

materials and method, out of which machinery generally is
very expensive. Therefore, machinery should be selected
properly so that the production can start from day one

 Consideration for selecting the right machinery

 formulating specifications
 Calling for competitive bids
 Arriving at a criteria for objective assessments of bids
 Getting a demo organized
 Thereafter placement of orders
4. Continuous Preventive Action

 Corrective Action is a Post-Mortem

-What is corrective action? When a product or
service is delivered, if the customer finds defects or faces
problems. Then the deficiencies are registered and
corrected by the organization.

 Prevention is Better than Cure

-There are two ways of handling a problem, one is

to cure it and the other to prevent it. All of us give
justification as to why a problem could not be prevented
early enough
 One Shot Prevention is not Good Enough

-Like other TQM principles and practices, preventive

actions have to be continuous and should cut across all
sections in the organization.

5. Care for Little Things and Accumulate Gains

 Care for small things

-While efforts will be made to maintain
sophisticated and expensive machinery and equipment,
the same care may not be taken of small things such as
accessories, jigs and tools.
 Communicate with Junior Employees

-No doubt, overall economic performance,

strategies, quality, council meetings, visit customers are
important, but at the same time, the junior most
employees are also equally important in an
organization.
 Keep on Accumulating

-Smalls gains accrued due to conscious initiatives by

the management should be accumulated. These small
rewards will be more permanent than the bigger gains
attained all of a sudden
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