The Customer is Right

It seemed simple and straightforward enough. A client of our mid-sized consulting company wanted to talk about another potential project. At the time we had one consultant working with them on a small improvement event. The client was happy with how things were going, and had a new idea. They wanted to hire us to help them create a “Lean Project Management” program. (I have to admit I’d never heard of the term, but a quick search showed it’s a real thing…and in fact listed in the Project Management Institute as a business approach).

The consultant pitched the idea at our weekly staff meeting and was quite excited about the prospect. She liked working at the company, and the thought of staying there longer term was very appealing. Also, the extra bonus of bringing in new business was nice too. However, she was not ready for the Director’s reaction to the news.

The Director had a “Black Belt” from an online diploma mill and had never facilitated an improvement event as far as any of us knew. But she was shrewd and driven and had built the CPI practice up inside the company. She was usually quite upbeat about new business. But when the consultant said the client wanted “Lean Project Management” the Director scoffed.

“There’s no such thing…the client doesn’t know what they’re talking about,” was what the director said. The room got silent quickly. Instead of having the consultant with the prospect partner with somebody from Biz Dev, the Director announced she would be working with the consultant on landing the new business. And the meeting moved forward to new topics and discussions.

About a month later I had the chance to have coffee with my colleague who had the prospect. I asked her how it went, and she just shook her head. The consultant regaled me with a story on how the Director took over; crafting an approach and proposal that was nothing like the client’s request. Instead of focusing upon the customer’s desire for Project Management, the Director pitched a 6-week assessment. The idea being a team would come into the company, look around, and give ideas of where there were improvement opportunities. Of course, our company would then be glad to provide a whole bevy of consultants to help them address those opportunities. My colleague informed me the Director strictly forbade the use of “Lean Project Management” anywhere in the presentation. The Director was still convinced it was not a real thing.

The client turned the Director down. They felt they had a good handle on the overall operation of the company and did not need to pay for an “assessment.” What they needed was a project management program that had a Lean philosophy. The sad part was that the client was so put off by the lack of listening to their needs, that when my colleague’s contract ended, they did not renew it, despite being very happy with her work. She had to move onto a new engagement.

I’ve often noted that teams that run CPI programs, often do not use CPI. Here it was a simple case of not listening to the Voice of the Customer; instead, seeking to increase profit at the expense of the client’s true needs, thereby ending the relationship.

A few years later, after moving on from the consulting company, I ran into somebody from the client company at an ASQ Conference. Recognizing the company name on the name badge, I offered to buy them a cup of coffee and we chatted. They set up a Project Management Office (integrated with Lean principles), with the help of a competing consulting firm. After the office was up and running, they felt confident enough to go forward on their lean journey by themselves…they’d built up a big enough team and have a solid culture of quality. It must have worked, because they were growing, and, as of writing this, years later, they are still expanding and have a stellar reputation in the industry.

And in the Ying and Yang of the business world, the Director from this story was fired a few years later. And the consulting company, while expanding, had dropped Process Improvement as a division. All of this gave credence to my observation that teams running CPI programs, often do not practice what they preach. In this case, Deming said it best with his 4th point, “End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.”

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