With each passing day, recruiting and retaining the right executive talent to lead Lean & Six Sigma efforts and Green & Sustainability initiatives poses a greater challenge…

Today’s most experienced Lean leaders hail from those industrial sectors which were pioneers in continuous improvement.  As still greater numbers of companies venture into lean and Six Sigma, the demand for this expertise is beginning to outweigh overall supply. So where and how do we seek out the best of these individuals?  

On the other hand, the challenge in recruiting the right Green leaders is different, but no less daunting. Can we even agree about what makes an executive Green? How do we deal with imprecise definitions and varying skill sets?  How can we focus on targets which are moving due to the evolving nature of executive backgrounds?

In both situations you’re hiring change agents, quite often the executives who will outline a new vision for your company, and then inspire your team to make that vision a reality.  So what does it take to recruit the right Lean & Green executives for your organization?

In this special report from Adam Zak, a top executive recruiter of Lean, Operational Excellence and Sustainability leaders, you’ll quickly learn:

• The key principles and goals underlying lean, Six Sigma and green and why these are important to business success.
• How to identify and differentiate among the various stages through which companies ascend on both their lean and green journeys.
• How to then determine where your own organization currently stands on these two ladders – and evaluate the lean and green status of the companies from which you want to recruit.
• How to identify the common characteristics among the lean and green leaders who really stand out from the crowd—the qualities they bring to the table to deliver impact for their companies, and
• FIVE KEY STRATEGIES you must understand in order to attract and retain the best-in-class Lean and Green Leaders
• FOUR ideas you can implement TODAY to make your own recruiting processes more lean and green… 

To receive your complimentary copy of this timely special report, please email Adam Zak with:  your name, title, company company phone number and business email address  zak@LeanRecruiter.com

And this thought, in turn, brought some of us to question how and whether or not our manufacturing industries can afford to continue their emphasis on “Green” in light of Mr. Biden’s weekend assessment that maybe we’ve underestimated the degree of this economic downturn.

Perhaps we need to reposition the question and redefine the issue. Green will survive and thrive to the degree that it’s redefined as a business necessity, not just something nice to have around. If we can quickly come to realize that by “doing Green” we are also removing waste (in this sense, non-value added processing, resources, etc.) we are also doing good for the corporate bottom line.

I believe there is already a growing realization that operational excellence principles and practices can offer much in the way of direction to the rapid acceleration toward Green business.

More and more business leaders agree that the shift to Green is necessary and, when done well, can be profitable, and that Lean, Lean Six Sigma, and other Continuous Improvement strategies can be applied to integrated management systems as a framework for the shift to Green. This is bottom-line stuff, and dramatically so, meltdown economy or boom times!

Like Lean, Green can embrace the concept that reducing consumption and preventing waste is more efficient and effective than subsequent mitigation. Global Lean leaders have seen first-hand how continuous improvement across the value stream can capture competitive advantage. Lean’s focus on reducing input cost, waste, and risk; promoting line-level innovation and professional development; and building proactive EHS strategy to mirror the triple bottom line impact Green seeks to generate. Add marketing and social responsibility to the mix and the result is a Lean + Green management strategy that brings PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) principles that many “Green-only” transition managers often don’t realize they’re missing.

If you do “Green” right, with core “Lean” principles and practices as your guiding beacon, you’ll be amazed at the results you can achieve.

This is Adam Zak, and that’s how I see it…

Developing a strategy that focuses on global sustainability can ensure future productivity and strong consumer confidence – but only if companies do it right. As we move forward into an increasingly interconnected world, companies that have chosen to operate with LEAN & GREEN (sustainable) practices will begin to break ahead of the less innovative. How do you decide where to dedicate your resources to achieve the most return, economically and environmentally, in the future?

The Executives’ Club of Chicago is sponsoring a half-day conference at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago.  The program begins with a 7:30 breakfast and networking session and runs through lunch, and should conclude around 2:00 PM.  The conference focus is sustainability and I expect to hear quite a lot of information about the connections between GREEN and LEAN.   Contact the Executives’ Club directly for registration, or download the program invitation by clicking on the link below.    As a long-time supporter of the Executives’ Club and frequent participant in their outstanding programs, I encourage you to consider attending. 

“Business Sustainability in a World in Crisis”  

(Read full article from our October, 2008 edition of LeanConnections.)

CO2 - BAD!

We fly less. How? We’ve developed some interviewing ideas and techniques which allow us to more effectively evaluate and assess candidate interests, qualifications and cultural fit via telephone and Webcam (think Skype). We’ve been able to reduce the amount of air travel to candidate interviews by 25% in each of the past two years. We still do face-to-face interviews, of course, but only with top finalists for your executive search. Less travel, less cost, faster search cycle time. Oh, and when we do fly, paperless ticketing is the rule.

Candidates travel less.  We invite finalists to visit us at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, scheduling multiple interviews on one target date whenever possible. Candidates never leave the airport (no rental cars, no ground transportation – dollars saved, reduced emissions, and no missed return flights).

We pioneered the use of fuel-efficient hybrid cars for our transportation services. 

We provide personal recycle bins for employees. Our kitchen supplies – everything from cutlery and plates to cleaning supplies – are eco-friendly.We are in the process of substituting eco-friendly alternatives in our office supplies as well. 

About paper. We preview and final edit on-screen. When we do print, we use recycled paper. We  print double-sided. Our toner cartridges are remanufactured. We’ve eliminated all office copiers – we  scan, transmit and store documents electronically for instant retrieval, then recycle them. No file  folders or cabinets (less office floor space required-smaller footprint),reduced energy requirements  (those printers and copiers sure use a lot of juice) and no time wasted filing and unfiling stuff. 

How’s that for Lean+Green!