Why Choose Six Sigma?

The advantages of Six Sigma do not exactly lie in huge cost benefits that can be realized by its implementation. The glaring examples of many corporations having saved billions of dollars are true benefits but the intangible results, such as having met the expectations of customers, and being able to improve employee relations are also paramount. Because some corporations have experienced its failure to meet stated goals, some critics often raise questions about the feasibility of implementing Six Sigma, while still others are dismissing it plainly.

Benefits of Six Sigma:

Obviously, in almost all cases, the reasons for Six Sigma failure have been external factors such as wrong or misguided selection of the tools, lack of application and lack of support from upper management. It is important to keep in mind that the successful implementation of Six Sigma requires a top down approach and perseverance throughout. Also important to the process is proper and thorough Six Sigma training.

Six Sigma Is All About Eradicating Business Problems.

Problem solving involves rational thinking. Somehow, companies always found themselves compromising quality with problem solving, which is the main reason why companies decide to implement Six Sigma and support Six Sigma training.

The top-down approach of Six Sigma requires dedication and application at all levels of the organization and on a continuous basis. The statistical methodology of Six Sigma sheds light on existing flaws and their causes after thorough analysis. Emphasis is placed on experimentation following analysis and redefining the processes and their goals. This is unlike other quality assurance methodologies. The benefits of supporting Six Sigma training for company professionals are apparent.

Financial Benefits: Cash flow increases due to creation of additional revenue. Through this process although cost decreases and increased profitability can be seen. It is important that all professionals involved in Six Sigma implementation have proper Six Sigma training. Although Six Sigma training is relatively expensive, the financial benefits of supporting it greatly outweigh the upfront costs.

Operational Benefits Of Six Sigma Training: employee satisfaction due to improvement in work flow, reduction in process times and steps, better usage of work space, etc. result from implementation of Six Sigma. One major operational reason for choosing Six Sigma is its success in waste reduction and redundancy. Waste reduction is measured in terms of improving time, product movement and decreasing material consumption.

Conceptually, the benefits of implementation of Six Sigma emerge from breaking the mindset that product processes are invariable. Benefits also emerge as a result of interconnected activities. The result of this methodical approach to quality management is evidenced by reduced fluctuations in processes. Stability of this kind triggers a series of positive chain reactions within organizations.

Success stories of Six Sigma training are evident in all fields of business. Since Six Sigma methodology encompasses the entire process of doing business, it is likely to show a flaw here or there, such as companies that embraced Six Sigma have found out. Howsoever small in number the failures may be, they are all due to differing reasons. However, any negative results can probably be traced back to either improper implementation or incomplete Six Sigma training.

"When business is good, it pays to advertise. When business is bad, you`ve got to advertise."

If you are in business, whether to sell a product, promote an event or let people know about a service you provide, nothing can more true.

The fact is you need to advertise, and studies have shown your advertising must appear somewhere between 5 and 7 times (on average) in front of your prospective customer in order to land a customer.

So what makes up a good advertisement, especially when it comes to doing so on the Internet? Neal Freeman of Ophthalmology Times writes, "Marketing planning is a broad-based procedure. Each of the four "P`s" of marketing (product, place, price, and promotion) must be considered." He is absolutely correct and for our purposes here in this article we are going to focus in on the last "P", promotion, or what most call advertising. There are three types of advertising styles we want to touch on today. Each one or all three can be very valuable when running your next advertisement.

In your advertising you want to be specific. An example of a specific objective would be: "We are offering a 20% discount on all of our widgets if purchased by December 1st." Freeman writes, "Determine what kind of response you seek in what target market in what period of time." That he says will help you better define your specifics.

If you advertising to inform a consumer or potential customer, keep in min advertising is to increase the primary demand or in other words to demand for the product or service you are offering. If a potential customer is informed about your service, chances are they will more than likely choose it from the provider of the information. So make sure your advertising is informative.

Another form of advertising is persuasive advertising. Persuasive advertising builds selective demand, i.e., demand for the service of one particular provider. With your advertising you are trying to persuade the customer that your product or service is the one they should go with.

The third type of advertising we will touch on today is reminder advertising. Reminder advertising is used for services that have been available for an extended period. If the community or customer base in your market already knows of you, then you want to advertise to just remind them that you are still out there, you still offer great services and/or products and so on. Nike is a company that is a good example of this.

The ultimate goal of most advertising programs is to build "top of mind" awareness of your services. Informative, persuasive, and reminder advertising combine to achieve this result. When the patient finally decides to obtain a service, you want to be the provider that comes to the top of the patients mind.

What is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma is a revolution in the way businesses operate. It was first created in the 1980s by Motorola and then adopted by Jack Welch at GE although its roots come from W. Edwards Deming's work in the 1970s on production quality in Japan.

Overall Six Sigma can be broadly defined as three things:

1. A system of management to achieve lasting business leadership and world-class performance

2. A goal of reaching near-perfect performance

3. A statistical measure of the performance of a process or product.

In addition because Six Sigma is a widely used and enormously successful methodology for business process improvement it provides a wealth of tried-and-tested tools and techniques that can be leveraged by managers to assist them in improving operations.

The name "Six Sigma" comes from a statistical measurement of variation known as the standard deviation (Ã). This is used as a measure of how well a process or procedure is operating or, in other words, how many "faults", "defects" or "errors" it has, and is based on a "bell shaped" normal distribution curve.

If a process is operating at "1Ã" it has around 31% accuracy which means 69% of the product or service suffers from faults or errors. For a process operating at "4Ã" this has improved to 99.38% accuracy. At first glance 99.38% may sound pretty good, however this still means 6,210 faults per million opportunities (i.e. sales, customers served).

OK you say, fine. But what does this have to do with me?

The aim of Six Sigma improvement is to achieve wherever possible a 99.9997% accuracy. This still accepts that no product or process will ever be completely perfect, but it sets a limit on how many errors are acceptable to your business and ultimately to your customers.

If you think this is unrealistic or fanciful then be careful, because your competitors all over the world are implementing Six Sigma programmes across their organisations with EXACTLY this goal in mind.

Furthermore, Six Sigma initiatives have achieved high profile and massive improvements in customer service and in profitability. Even if you haven't heard about it yet, it is likely that if you work in a large organisation there is already a Six Sigma programme somewhere that will eventually cross your path.

The real difference between Six Sigma and other quality initiatives such as "TQM" is the degree to which management plays a key role in monitoring and owning program results and accomplishments. Many organisations are tying part of their executive remuneration directly into the successful delivery of Six Sigma initiatives.

Relationship Marketing: Build Your Business With A Festive Seasonal Open House

Ready to launch your business to the next level and beyond...but just not sure which marketing strategy will give you the most bang for your buck?

One of the most effective marketing strategies just happens to be one of the most reasonably priced strategies. Are you surprised? Perhaps you have come to think that marketing has to be a costly, high budget endeavor and something you can not afford to engage in unless you have the available funding of deep pockets.

It is not surprising if you think that way! We have all pow wowed with fast talking salespeople who tried to convince us of the virtues of all sorts of expensive marketing techniques to reach our customers. With eyes glazed over by the bottom line costs that we know are out of our league...costs that could support a family of four for a year. Don't sign the contract! Stop and consider your options. Don't let someone rope you into signing a contract that will legally bind you to a program that may or may not generate revenue for your business. Beware!

Costly, ineffective advertising could put you out of business! If your money is tight... don't gamble with expensive advertising! It is a proven fact that advertising is only really effective when it is conducted in a strategic, consistent and tightly focused manner. Then perhaps your advertising dollars will be a good solid investment. But until that time when you can afford regular advertising there are certainly other options that can prove effective.

Always begin by asking yourself:

1.) Who am I trying to reach?

2.) What message do I want to relay?

3.) What outcome do I want to achieve?

Then start thinking about what steps you will need to do to accomplish your objective. Consider carefully if your objective can be reached through relationship marketing. Perhaps you will come to realize that relationship marketing would be the best way to achieve your goal. It is through good relationship marketing that many business owners reach their business, professional and personal goals.

People like to do business with people that they know. It is vital that as a business owner you and your staff are engaged in the business of building relationships with your customers.

Through the process of building dynamic relationships with your clients, your business will continue to grow and reach new levels of profitability.

So how do you do this? This is a great time of year to host an open house.

Invite your clients to special open houses. A Festive Autumn Open House is a great way to show you care about your customers. Open houses are the perfect opportunity to showcase new products and services.

Open houses do not have to be expensive or time consuming for you to put together. Special open houses have the potential to sky rocket your marketing efforts and maximize your profits. If you are looking for ways to generate traffic, increase sales and wow your customers... then don't ignore the potential of hosting an open house.