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 About GSC
What's New
Feigenbaum Books
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GSC
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General Systems is a global leader in Management: operating systems. How do you define your business? We work with the largest manufacturing and service companies in the world, partnering with them to help them be the unquestioned leaders in their industries. Do you only work with specific industries? No. We originally began in the heavy mechanical industries, such as automotive and electrical, but today we're not only in all manufacturing industries, but also very deeply into services, everything from financial to railroads. What are the key policies that define General Systems? The first is to accelerate competitive value for our customers. The second is to continue to be a global company. And the third is to place great emphasis on research and development of major new offerings to keep our customers constantly in the lead. General Systems has certain major systems products. Would you briefly describe those products? We have 12 major systems product offerings that represent about 85 percent of our volume. These systems are constantly redeveloped and revised to meet the business conditions and customer needs of the time. In terms of recognition, our best-known products are our total quality systems. We originated the whole total quality field. Another of our major systems is integrated planning and control. This brings together in a single focus the dimension of business results drivers of transnational companies. Another is material flow and logistics, which is the aggregate flow of material, logistics, and goods throughout the global network. New product development and operations information Management: are other widely emphasized products. What do you find are the greatest rewards and dangers of technology? The greatest reward is that technology provides consistent foundations for us to offer new and more powerful business-improvement processes in an organized and timely basis. The greatest danger is to do this as an end in itself. Since you work with many companies, do you find that employees have the needed technological skills? Are our universities doing a good job of preparing leaders of tomorrow? The universities are increasingly doing a better job than the companies. The issue is really the ability of a company to take advantage of the skills employees now bring. I have great confidence in the strengths that human beings bring to their jobs - the ability to solve problems democratically, the ability to work as team players, the ability to be innovative. In 1951 you introduced Total Quality Control. Are you surprised at how the use of total quality control has caught on? Not at all. At the end of World War II, the United States was simply driven by production, and quality was a secondary consideration. It was inevitable that as the value of quality increased, buyers became better informed and more demanding. How do you define quality? Quality is what the customer says it is. In today's market, when a buyer likes your product he or she tells six others; when they dislike it, they are likely to tell 22 others. Is it possible to have a high level of quality and keep costs down? Absolutely. One of the great principles of quality, and one of the most difficult to absorb because in some respects it seems counterintuitive, is that the better your quality the lower your costs. You see major companies don't know what things really cost. They fail to recognize that delivering customer satisfaction is one of their largest areas of cost and greatest opportunities for reduction, compared to the slash and-burn kind of cost reduction that was so prevalent a few years ago. Is it the responsibility of chief executives to recognize this, and are they doing a good job? It depends. In the early years, some of the companies that were financially strongest were the ones that had the greatest difficulty going forward because they were too disconnected - both from the rapid changes in the way customers actually bought as well as from input by employees who directly understood those customers and their demands. The CEOs of today's pacesetting companies understand, respect and are responsive to this demanding customer. You say that General Systems is a global company. What areas around the world do you feel offer the greatest opportunity for growth? The areas that I see representing substantial opportunities are the ASEAN countries; Brazil, Chile and Argentina selectively; and selective areas in Japan and Europe. Many industries across the board mention China as an area of opportunity. Do you feel the same, or do you think there is somewhat of an overemphasis on the market there? Our new Power of Management Capital book was recently published in China following several Chinese editions of the Total Quality Control book. To generalize about China is a mistake. It is a great market when you are selective in approaching it. Do you find there are cultural barriers in the countries you work in, and how are you able to overcome them? The idea of being able to penetrate a culture that is deeply ingrained and respected simply by entering the market and speaking in technical terms is specious. The people want to feel we know and respect them, and that's how we behave. We've been in Japan for more than 50 years, and I hope we are recognized now as a value-driven contributor there. What is the structure of your company? We are structured as an implementation company. We specialize in providing expert consultation to top management for establishing direction and controls in the attainment of needed quality and business goals with specific targeted results. Do chief executives understand the need for change in their companies, or do you have to explain how your services are going to help their businesses? They have few illusions about the inevitability of the long-term nature of economic expansions. Their emphasis is on positioning to successfully manage whatever set of business conditions there are. Fundamentally we partner with our customers. We don't only bring advice, we bring technology and implementation. When a project ends, are your systems still used as though you have become a part of the company? Yes. Each of our systems is designed to be compatible with the other. One of the great principles of constant improvement is that it positions a company for a better way to operate. We are always introducing new technologies, and that is the basis of our long-term partnership with our customers. Can you work with two competing companies in the same industry? It depends on the industry. We never take a competitor unless the company that we're serving believes it is appropriate. Are the opportunities for large growth in the United States a thing of the past? Not at all. The examples are all around us. For example, the railroad industry, once a moribund industry, is a major growth industry today. To generalize from our global perspective, the United States remains the most attractive market in the world for many industry groups. What are some of your company's strengths? That we accelerate competitive value for our customers, that we do this globally, and that we generate hands-on business results that are traceable to the deliberate actions of those who are accountable. How do you deal with a Management: level that resists some of those systems? The key is to work with senior Management: directly on a face-to-face, we have-had-to-do-this-before basis, in terms of how their own areas of the business can be improved. Every company is unique, and we work with that in mind. Do employees worry that the way you improve quality will shrink the company and eliminate jobs? The fact is that quality creates jobs. What is very important is that, as an implementation company, we emphasize the experience of General Systems in accomplishing this. So it's possible for us to look employees squarely in the eye and tell them that the reason we are moving in this direction is because we ourselves have done it successfully. What are you most proud of as you look at your company today, and what frustrates you the most? I'm proud that
we have been able to help many of the largest and strongest companies in
the world accelerate their value and their growth. What frustrates me is
that there's still so much to do, with time and effort being such a
premium, to keep top management abreast of their new quality challenges as
we enter the 21st century. |
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Berkshire Common - South Street - Pittsfield, MA 01201 USA  | |||
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As originator of total quality
control, Dr. Armand V Feigenbaum, president and
CEO of General Systems Company, succinctly defines his company's focus:
"Quality is what the customer says it is. Growth in sales results when
your customer determines that your quality provides value leadership." As
he brings his Management: operating systems to companies around the world,
Feigenbaum constantly emphasizes the principle that "eliminating the
failures in delivering customer satisfaction is one of the greatest
opportunities for productive cost reduction. " For over 30 years General
Systems has been in the business of accelerating the value of businesses
on a global scale and has seen a transition from "the Management of
quality to the quality of Management ... It's subtle, " says Feigenbaum,
"and a powerful way to blind-side competitors. "