“Change is not necessary. Survival is optional”

By Al Norval,

One of my favourite quotes from W. Edwards Deming goes like this “Change is not necessary. Survival is optional”. I find this strikes to the heart of the debate companies have over whether or not to begin a Lean Transformation or in fact undertake any Continuous Improvement activity. Why change the status quo? Sure we always want to get better but things aren’t too bad the way they are. In today’s day and age, if you’re not getting better, you’re falling behind. Those that fall behind don’t survive. Fortune magazine says that on their Fortune 500 list of companies, ranked by revenue, only 62 companies have been on it every year since its inception in 1955 and 2,014 have appeared at least once. If that doesn’t make the case for change, nothing will.