Category: Culture

by guest author Aravind Chandrasekaran, associate professor of management sciences, Fisher College of Business Anyone who has taught lean principles grounded in the famous Toyota Production System (TPS) to organizations outside the manufacturing industry has – at least once – heard this common refrain: “(Insert industry here) isn’t cars on an assembly line. This doesn’t apply to my work.”

Culture matters – and the companies that do it right know it pays dividends inside and outside their four walls. This month, four Center for Operational Excellence members made the cut in an annual ranking by Columbus Business First of the Best Places to Work in the Columbus area. These companies scale the heights of the list by creating an environment where employees are engaged, inspired and driven to deliver.

The rapidly evolving digital world is changing how we communicate, how we process information, and even how we add and network with members in our organizations, raising many questions: Is my LinkedIn profile opening or closing doors? Are my internal presentations truly selling my ideas for change? What can I look at online when hiring a candidate? How can I build a value-adding network with other women in my organization?

Ryan Arbogast is the fourth-generation leader of COE member WillowWood, which joined the center in 2006.

Coming off two recent conferences that repeatedly emphasized the importance of “people over process,” I’m reminded again of some words shared by Helen Turnbull, one of the keynote speakers at COE’s spring Leading Through Excellence summit.