Quality guru Philip B. Crosby published 15 books and helped countless companies improve during a distinguished career. His classic approach helps companies do things right the first time, eliminates hassle and waste and dramatically increases profits.

Take Ten Minutes continues this legacy. Published by Philip Crosby Associates and The Capability Group, Take Ten Minutes is written by Kevin Weiss, the CEO of both companies. In Take Ten Minutes, Mr. Weiss draws upon Philip Crosby’s Absolutes of Quality as well as the expertise he gained consulting for many companies across a range of industries. He writes in an accessible, down-to-earth, tell-it-like-it-is style to engage and challenge readers to take their business process improvement initiatives to the next level.

The readers of Take Ten Minutes are a broad group – from managers at newly-minted companies, struggling to maintain their original sense of customer focus while growing at substantial rates, to executives at international conglomerates, with a myriad of improvement initiatives but continuing operational issues. Our readers are in manufacturing, high tech, professional services and hospitality. They are in the executive suite, the call center and on the shop floor. They live in Beijing, Boston, Berlin and Bangladesh. But they all want to help their organizations become capable of solving current issues and meeting ongoing challenges — creating organizations that are reliable and flexible, cost-conscious and growth-oriented. If you are like them, Take Ten Minutes is written for you.

We are aware that any publication has its constraints, and you should be too. Take Ten Minutes can be a great initiator of discussions in your organization – from boss to employee, employee to boss, or within your workgroup or project team, and can highlight behaviors that may be preventing your company’s success. It can be a catalyst for process improvement, culture change, and customer-focused initiatives, or just be a weekly reinforcement for an organization that is doing well. For companies facing critical issues, it may even get people to see their problems in a different light. It cannot, however, fix those problems.

At the end of each issue, you will find a series of questions that allow you to begin applying what you’ve learned to your organization. It is here that the real benefit of this newsletter begins. Taking ten minutes to read the newsletter is only half of the process. Having you Take Ten Minutes to apply what you’ve learned to your organization is the real purpose of our writing.

Lasting change takes reflection, commitment, a process, and know-how. While the articles touch each of these areas over time, keep in mind they are written for a variety of organizations at various stages of the improvement journey. Improvement by newsletter is neither optimal nor recommended, because each organization is at its own stage of maturity and faces a unique set of critical business issues. Diagnosing those issues and executing a specific plan to move the organization forward is what Philip Crosby Associates and The Capability Group do. Use Take Ten Minutes wisely – to start, continue or reinforce the improvement process. When you feel your organization could be more successful, and is ready for real, lasting change, give us a call. We’ll be happy to discuss your specific situation.

One last note – please forward Take Ten Minutes to those who would benefit from reading it. If your boss is interested in organizational improvement — or needs to be — encourage him to subscribe. If your neighbor is having trouble solving a difficult problem at work, perhaps a subscription to Take Ten Minutes will give her a critical insight. When you encounter poor quality, poor execution, or a lack of customer focus, feel free to mention Take Ten Minutes as you discuss the issues with the manager. The ultimate goal of business improvement is not to make more money for our organizations, though that is definitely an outcome. It is to strengthen the good performers so they can eliminate the poor ones. When that happens, we all benefit from better goods and services that support a better quality of life.

Let the improvement journey…continue!

The Staff of Take Ten Minutes,
Philip Crosby Associates and
The Capability Group