Abstract 

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them" - Albert Einstein  

The challenges facing business and government are unparalleled in history; uncertainty associated with the economy, war on terrorism, failing confidence in business leaders, a dynamic global marketplace, and shrinking budgets.  These challenges all too often have led to “management by best seller”:  grasping for the “silver bullet” that will solve immediate problems and enable the enterprise to meet its monthly or quarterly “numbers”.  

Government agencies, like business and industry face the same challenges, however they are evidenced in shrinking budgets, broadening commitments, legacy systems maintained long after their planned life, financial and schedule pressure to meet milestone commitments, and the ever present urgency to satisfy constituents. As in business and industry, some government agencies have resorted to “management by best seller”.  All of these efforts by business, industry, and government are searching for a quick resolution to problems and situations that have been years in the making, and are supported by well entrenched cultures and bureaucracies. 

The search for the “silver bullet” plays into the Law of Unintended Consequences.  The five limiting factors of the Law of Unintended Consequences: lack of knowledge, error, imperious immediacy of interest, basic values, and self-defeating predictions are centric to “management by best seller”.  Pursuing a single program of improvement strategies ignores the interactions of the many factors, systems and processes of an organization.  It focuses on quick fixes to save the day ignoring or at least trivializing negative consequences.  It also leads to manipulation of results to match the required goals.  This approach will always, therefore, appear to solve the immediate need but will in the long term create an opportunity to look for another “best seller”.

The thinking that is required to eliminate this never-ending search for solutions is to implement a holistic approach to managing the organization.  Enterprise Excellence is a holistic strategy.  It is a strategy for achieving and maintaining the competitive edge. 

Enterprise Excellence optimizes the critical success factors of quality, cost, schedule and risk.  It uses a holistic approach for managing and improving operations of the organization, focuses the leadership, management and technology on the critical systems and processes of the enterprise.  This is accomplished through a focused, collaborative implementation of a Quality Management System, Voice of the Customer System, Six Sigma and Lean Enterprise.

The successful implementation of Enterprise Excellence will result in an organization with a culture based on fact-based decision making.  The infrastructure and processes of Enterprise Excellence will create an agile organization capable of quickly addressing problems, changing markets, changing technology, etc.  These traits will lead to maximized profits, reduced cycle time, reduced risk, maximized customer satisfaction, and increased value.

Biography

Normand. L. Frigon is a Vice president of VSE Corporation and Chief of Enterprise Excellence. He is a recognized leader with 25+ years experience in reliability, quality, engineering management in government and industry. He is an internationally recognized author, lecturer and consultant in the development of Quality & Reliability Programs in government and industry. 

Norm is the author and co-author of many successful books published by John Wiley and Sons, and American Management Association. He is a former Associate Director and Member of the Board of Directors of the University of Arizona, Reliability Engineering and Management Institute. 

Norm has designed, developed and led the implementation of Six Sigma, Lean Enterprise programs at for the Army at activities such as the TACOM, REDCOM-ARDEC, PEO Ammunition, PEO-GCS, PEO-CS-CSS the Joint Munitions Command, Alliant Technologies, General Dynamics (OTS and LS) and many other Army Suppliers. 

He was responsible for developing a reliability assessment and reporting program for the Navy's Weapons Quality Engineering Center and Strategic Systems Evaluation Department He was instrumental in McDonnell Douglas's implementation of Quality Improvement and Lean programs to reduce the cost of the C17 aircraft production - which resulted in the implementation of structured quality and reliability programs that significantly reduced production costs and helped position them to win the Malcolm Balding National Quality Award. These initiatives resulted in major improvements and significant cost savings in government and industrial processes. Normand has personally designed, developed, implemented and instructed numerous seminars on Quality, Reliability Management techniques for San Diego State University, University of Arizona, University of California, San Diego, the US Army, the Joint Warfare Analysis Center, GM Hughes Electronics, Department of the Navy, General Staff of the Egyptian Air Force and many commercial manufacturers with focus on both industrial production and service requirements. 

He has been a speaker and lecturer at the Federal Quality Institute; United States Information Agency; American Society for Quality Control; World Quality Congress; Reliability Management Institute and many others. His books and materials are being used internationally in government, military and commercial enterprises. These are activities as diverse as IBM, CIGNA, the Egyptian Air Force, Universities of Arizona and Beijing; Alliant Technologies, General Dynamics and the United Stated Information Agency. Normand holds a Bachelor of Sciences Degree in statistics, Master of Business Administration in Quantitative Sciences. 

His publications currently in print are; Fulfilling Customer Needs, Achieving the Competitive Edge, and The Practical Guide to Experimental Design from John Wiley and Sons, and The Leader, from American Management Association. His newest book titled Enterprise Excellence has been published January 2009. 

Mr. Frigon holds a current Top Secret Security Clearance. For further information please contact Normand L. Frigon at: Phone: 951-302-2645 Email: nlfrigon@earthlink.net  Cell: 858-864-8538

Meeting details are as follows: