Continuous Improvement Programs Offer Competitive Advantages On Key Financial Metrics 

IndustryWeek recently reported on a survey it conducted with TBM Consulting about the impact of continuous-improvement programs on three financial metrics: anticipated revenue growth, operating income growth, and cash flow over the past year. 

“Across the board, companies with no continuous improvement programs performed worse across all three measures,” TBM Consulting researchers revealed here:

§ More than 50% of respondents with no continuous improvement program said they expect revenue growth to be 3% or less in 2012, compared to fewer than 20% of companies with mature continuous improvement programs.

§ Nearly half of respondents with no continuous improvement program anticipate operating income growth of 3% or less in 2012, compared to less than half that percent from firms with continuous improvement programs.

§ Slightly more than 20% of companies with no continuous improvement programs reported an increase in cash flow over the past year compared to more than 50% of companies with mature continuous improvement programs.

§ Companies with continuous-improvement programs also were far more likely to employ forward-looking resources in their strategic planning process. Such resources include competitive analysis, market focused business analytics and information about customers' forward-looking strategies.

BOTTOMLINE:  Continuous improvement programs such as Six Disciplines (Baldrige, and others), offer companies a way to continually assess their business performance, improve processes, develop organizational learning and leadership, and improved alignment of activities to goals. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­