03-Jan-07 : Standardization anyone ?

03-Jan-07
Most of the day was unproductive...

Discussions with Chennai,Bangalore are showing me how vast and varied we are as a company.
The culture is different...the attitudes are different, the approach is different. Against this our tool doesn't stand a chance.

But it was a good idea to ask all the branches to deploy this tool at their locations instead of going directly on the company portal. This way most of these folks are getting a first-hand account of what it will take to use this tool. It also probably enlightens the top management about where all these branches are going and how they are planning to get there.

There are quite a few management lessons to be learned from the deployment of this tool :

>> When a company is growing at multiple locations, the top "Federal" management is expected to keep an eye on what the local cultural/demographic factors or patterns are.
>> When there is a local Regional Manager, there is bound to be a possibility that his/her personality will drive the way the branch goes about achieving its targets.
>> Setting targets for each individual branch is not enough..this is too obvious an observation to be written down, but I somehow get the feeling that it has been forgotten by everyone in the everyday hustle-bustle.


Questions to be asked now:
>> Is it necessary for the entire company to follow exactly the same procedures/tools for tracking quality ? If yes, what are the expected benefits out of this ? What is the cost of not doing so ?
>> As a company, are we on the same page on "What is quality" ? Isn't there a quality policy that defines for us the vision of this "Quality"..do we also need to follow the exact same processes ? What is the cost of enforcing this at such a vast scale (and growing...)
>> When the company adds a new center/aquisition, is there an induction/certification process before we accept/embrace it as part of our company ? Again, what is the cost of doing this ? and what is the cost of NOT doing this ?

Standardization has its benefits and costs, its values and pitfalls...where do we find the balance ???