Continuous Improvement and Growth

There’s an expression: “If you aren’t moving forward, you are sliding backward.”  It is very true.  One of the fundamental truths about successful businesses is that they maintain the momentum of always trying to do better.  They are looking for ways to improve sales, productivity, and efficiency every year.  Doing this helps everyone in the company do better.

For me personally, it has been a great source of pride that the company I founded in 1986, ACP, has never had a layoff.  This would have never been possible had we not had the attitude of continuous improvement.  

I hope the same for your company and your career.  

I do want to warn against one thing that I see as a very clear danger.  You may be tempted to avoid productivity improvements in order to keep more people working.   After all, keeping people employed is a noble priority.  However, avoiding productivity improvements to accomplish this priority is a huge mistake.  It is short-sighted and counter-productive for two reasons: 

1.  Productivity improvements help employees.  They are able to produce more, often with less or equal burden, which ultimately pays the company and the employees more. 

2.  Competitors are working on improvements constantly.  If they improve and you don't, the consequences will be far worse than you ever imagined.

Take a look at all the blogs I have ever written, I've likely written more about this subject than anything else, by far.  Why?  Because, by far, it is continuous improvement, increased productivity, working smarter, Kaizen--whatever you want to call it--that leads to success and improved living standards for people of the world.