A balanced improvement strategy

Focusing your business strategy on the 4Cs will help leadership to think globally and act locally.

By Darrin Wikoff, Eruditio LLC August 1, 2014

Think globally and act locally. Management must first think of the global business, then of the local company, and strike a balance within the overall business strategy.

– Customer-based – Growing your business means gaining new customers while retaining existing customers. Focus on improving “value” not just the quality of your product.

– Competition-focused – Mirroring the competition is not enough, sustainability of your business requires innovation in order to produce a superior product (cost, quality, lead-time).

– Cash management – Minimize the fixed costs within a single location and share the cost of capital throughout the corporation, in affect extending the company’s overall Return On Assets (ROA).

– Community support – Longevity of your operation is contingent on gaining the support of your community through job placement, talent management, investments and innovative supplier solutions.

Darrin Wikoff specializes in organizational change management, Lean manufacturing, business process re-engineering and reliability engineering. For the past twelve years, Darrin has continued to train, coach and mentor industrial leaders like Kraft Foods, Wells Diary, Cargill, Merck Pharmaceuticals and Alcoa World Wide Aluminum through the rigorous process of implementing and managing improvement initiatives in support of Lean Manufacturing. This article is an excerpt from his book Centered On Excellence.