We are tracking our progress toward this goal by measuring our member, volunteer, and customer satisfaction levels, our financial results, and our employee morale. One of our goals is to strengthen our already strong volunteer and staff partnership, and together lead the standards industry in areas of expertise. Since my arrival at the Institute, I continue to be more and more impressed with the importance and success of our IEEE Standards Activities. We have gained the respect of the user community, government, and industry world-wide because of the integrity and openness of our process. Becoming and staying the best requires at least continuous improvement and most often, dramatic improvement with the prudent introduction of new technology.
Improvements require a focus on the customer and a passion for ever-improving levels of service.
I know of no better method of accomplishing these improvements than through the rigorous adoption of process management and process re-engineering techniques. The standards customers are demanding faster standards cycle times, while competitive technological advancements are being developed at faster rates. I challenge the IEEE standards community to rethink our standards process with the goal of reducing the cycle time by a factor of at least four. The output of this effort should include a multi-year plan that defines the path forward. Our staff is prepared to partner with the standards volunteer leadership in dramatically improving our standards processes.