If there is any single secret to the long-term success of world leader companies, this is probably it. They've structured their company's organization to the point where continuous improvement is a basic in-line part of the job of every man and woman in the organization. The fourth characteristic of these companies is that they blindside the competition. Innovative quality, cost and time management improvements result from programs that start way in advance of those of competitors, and which these competitors don't easily understand and correspondingly can't quickly duplicate. The fifth characteristic is that they sell their company as strongly as the product.
World leaders concentrate on both being good and getting credit for it.
And finally, the sixth characteristic of world class companies is that they measure right to manage right. Successful companies identify and prioritize important business improvement areas faster and better than their competitors. The railroad industry now increasingly recognizes both these six characteristics which define the competitive strength of world class companies, as well as the business importance of implementing the work processes needed to achieve the same high level of performance in customer satisfaction, financial performance and employee involvement. The time for this move has never been more critical. In today's globally competitive marketplace, the lifestyles of consumers and the work processes of companies now depend almost completely upon the reliable, predictable operation of products and services with little tolerance for the time and cost of any quality failures.