Six Disciplines Unveils Breakthrough Business Excellence Program

Early adopters in technology, manufacturing, and service businesses are among those that benefit from this unique program optimized for execution FINDLAY, Ohio, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Six Disciplines, LLC todayunveiled the next steps in its breakthrough business excellence program,specifically designed to address the greatest business challenge -executing a company's strategy. Six Disciplines offers a unique program that encompasses four elementsfor long-term success: a business-building methodology; continuousaccountability coaching; activity alignment software that inspiresindividual and team accountability; and the competitive advantages of ashared learning community. The program is delivered to small and mid-sizedbusinesses through Six Disciplines Centers, a nationwide network ofaccountability coaches who provide ongoing support, mentoring and trainingfor continual improvement. New elements of the program include: -- Individual Plans that provide the ability to track time against deliverables, prepare for weekly status meetings and rate progress against plans for efficient end-of-quarter performance appraisals on a real-time basis. -- Ten standard business processes, which provide a checklist of initiatives that businesses should engage in to develop their business excellence strategy, including projects and exercises and the ability to create quarterly and annual business-building calendars. -- A Methodology Console that allows senior leadership to monitor progress of company-wide initiatives, projects and plans by due dates, and identify activities that are behind schedule or off strategy. The console enables all employees to track initiatives, projects, and planned versus actual hours for personal monitoring and management of company deliverables. "While CEOs vary in their definitions of excellence, most agree thatbusiness excellence is a never-ending pursuit, in a world of increasingchallenges," said Gary Harpst, CEO and founder of Six Disciplines."Therefore, a business excellence program must be able to build anorganization's capability to execute, and it must do so in an enduring way.We challenge CEOs to realize that a specific current issue is a symptom ofa deeper need that all growing organizations have: the need tosystematically improve their organization's ability to manage their nextchallenge," said Harpst. Based on years of field testing, client feedback, 100 man-years ofresearch and development and a $20 million investment, the Six Disciplinesbusiness excellence program provides organizations with a holistic,enduring approach toward strategy, planning, organizing people andprocesses, and execution management. Compared to business excellence and quality programs like Baldrige,TQM, Six Sigma and Lean, which are prevalent in much larger businesses, SixDisciplines is the first business excellence program designed specificallyfor small and mid-sized businesses. Features normally associated with thesemuch more expensive approaches - similar to Balanced Scorecard, projectmanagement, key performance management metrics, integrated activityalignment, and business excellence rating systems -- are all elements ofthe Six Disciplines program. "Advances and innovations in a wide range of separate business andtechnology disciplines over the past 20 years have made it possible for usto attack this challenge of execution in ways never-before practical," saidHarpst. What makes Six Disciplines different is that it is structured to bepracticed by the entire organization to continually improve the way itovercomes increasingly dynamic challenges," added Harpst. Unlike executive coaching, which focuses only on the CEO or seniorleadership, the Six Disciplines program features a series of regularly-scheduled engagement workshops for senior leadership, cross-functionalteams, department heads and individuals to ensure total organizationalengagement. Early adopters of the Six Disciplines program come from diverseindustries including new media, health, veterinary sciences, printing,chemical, food, trucking and international manufacturing. Among its clientsare several "Inc. 500" businesses, companies certified for ISO-9000 qualitystandards, and a Malcolm Baldrige Quality award finalist. About Six Disciplines Six Disciplines, LLC, founded in 2000, has developed the first enduringbusiness excellence program - optimized for execution, specifically forsmall and mid-sized businesses. The Six Disciplines program integrates arepeatable methodology to drive organizational learning, localaccountability coaching, an innovative system to align the activities ofevery employee, every day, and a community of like-minded people toaccelerate and sustain business excellence. The program is offeredexclusively through Six Disciplines Centers, a growing national network oflocal business excellence centers. The organization was awarded the 2006Entrepreneur Top Franchise distinction. For more on Six Disciplines, visithttp://www.SixDisciplines.com.