One of the biggest take-aways from my last business was the understanding that building a continuous improvement culture is essential for long-term success. The benefits were everywhere to be seen; reduced costs, improved quality and, probably most importantly, an engaged and <em>caring</em> workforce.

<blockquote>In fact to me that is what continuous improvement is all about. Care.</blockquote>

Anything is possible you can build a business full of committed people who genuinely care; about each other, about their own development and growth, about making customers happy, and about doing things "right". It is the antithesis of the Australian "she'll be right, mate" approach.

One of the best things I did was to enrol all my staff in a formal "Lean Manufacturing" course. This was facilitated by an external coach, who over an 18-month period helped to transform our approach to work. Talk about fostering a "can-do" attitude, I saw formerly disengaged workers come alive with ideas that made their jobs easier, quicker and with better quality results. 

So naturally this has got me thinking about how I'll apply and adapt these ideas to my future businesses in the Software space. The continuous improvement within the software industry is synonymous with the Agile movement, but I've already learned that Agile is at best ill-defined  


[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="645"]<img alt="" src="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/bpm/bpmjournal/1308_col_schume/images/leanprinciples.png" width="645" height="363" /> Source: IBM Developerworks[/caption]

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