The Early Origins of Enterprise Strategy Execution

Enterprise Strategy Execution has evolved from much earlier approaches to quality improvement and control, including Total Quality Management (TQM), Company Wide Quality Control (CWQC), and Policy Management. With each of these, the goal was to help organizations think about "quality" in a broader sense, moving away from pure technical specifications and manufacturing defect levels toward a more holistic interpretation. One that included defect reduction, along with things like cycle time improvement, productivity gains, employee safety improvement, and corporate responsibility.

Many of the tools and techniques used today have been evolving since the 1930s when Walter A. Shewhart invented the control chart for managing statistical variation. Shewart’s protégé, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, is often credited as the original quality guru. Though his American contemporaries resisted Deming’s approach, he found fertile ground in post-war Japan, where he was invited in 1950 to teach the basic principles of statistical quality control to executives, managers and engineers of struggling Japanese industries.

In appreciation for his teachings, and to further promote the evolution of quality control management in Japan, The Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) established the Deming Prize later that year, to be awarded to individuals and organizations that successfully follow Deming’s main principles: Plan, Implement, and Control (also called the Deming Cycle or P.D.C.A. for Plan-Do-Check-Act).

Despite their successful application in Japan, it was not until the 1980s that Deming’s principles were brought back to the United States, first by an electric utility company called Florida Power and Light (FPL).

Learn more about:

• The FPL Story
• The "Strategy Evolution" Organizations Experience
• Balanced Scorecard Basics
• 5 Common Hindrances to Successful ESE
• How ActiveStrategy Can Help