How would you describe a worldclass organization? The American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) invited its International Benchmarking Clearinghouse members to share their definitions for a "high-performing, worldclass organization" in a brief survey. Many respondents created long narratives to capture the many sides to "world class." For company examples, 50 percent of the companies that respondents named as world class were mentioned only once. This illustrates the variety of companies and definitions that people assign to this term.

Overall, five categories emerged as the most common characteristics of a worldclass organization: employee focus, customer focus, leadership, profit, and process.

HAPPY EMPLOYEES

Organizations that focus on their employees create invigorating environments where employee participation and development are key. This category, which significantly outweighed the other issues in the survey, illustrates the emphasis organizations are placing on cultivating and maintaining happy employees.

Some of the key phrases that respondents mention include:

• "continuing education investment;"

• "well-informed, self-motivated, highly trained employees;" and

• "happy employees."

Several of the organizations that respondents listed as world class in this area include Federal Express, Sewell Cadillac, and The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Corp.

The term "happy employee" became a recurring idea expressed in many definitions from respondents. Organizations are experimenting with the right mix of training, benefits, empowerment, and alternate measures (such as flextime and child care) necessary to attract and retain the best employees. Unfortunately, some organizations give lip service to the concept that "employees are their greatest asset." Organizations that can communicate this message through their actions will be the ones to effectively achieve world-class levels in this area. As one respondent so aptly describes-"A worldclass organization always recognizes employees as essential to its success."

CUSTOMER FOCUS

Fifty-four percent of the respondents mention "customer" somewhere in their definition of a world-class, mature, quality organization. Customer focus is not new for many organizations-today it's just more outwardly expressed as a key focus. People are realizing that without customers, organizations can't exist. Several of the companies that respondents mention under world-class customer focus include Wal-Mart, Federal Express, and AT&T Universal Card Services.

"A world-class organization delivers what customers want, when they want it, with an appearance that enhances the customers' perception of the product/service," one respondent says. "This is accomplished by an organization that is continually focused on the customer and on continuous improvement in all aspects of the organization."

Customer focus can only be effective if the organization decides to truly listen to the customer. Employees who project that they know the customers' wants better than the customer will never survive in a customer-focused environment.

Other definitions focus on partnering with customers as an effective way to define customers' needs. Until organizations communicate with customers, they cannot be certain they are meeting or exceeding their customers` needs. Organizations first must understand their customers' needs, translate those needs into new products or services, and create new levels for service expectations.

LEADERSHIP

Without inspiring leadership, organizations have a difficult stretch to reaching world class. Respondents quote several phrases in the leadership category:

• "Visionary leadership"

• "Operates with integrity"

• "Leaders daily demonstrate quality commitment"

"A world-class organization has top leadership that provides, communicates, and demonstrates vision, direction, and a sense of teamwork." All of these verbs-"provides, communicates, and demonstrates" from one respondent are key terms that are essential for a world-class organization. All three words go hand in hand. If a leader provides a direction for an organization but does not "communicate" or "demonstrate" its message, the message is lost. It boils down to that overused, but often overlooked, phrase-"walking the talk." Employees are proud when they can say their organization's leader uses actions to support its verbiage about quality.

Members also say leaders of world-class, quality organizations must be visionary to move the organization in the right direction. "It is an organization whose leaders create the future vision, dedicate themselves to delighting their customers, and anticipate their future needs," says one respondent. Leaders need to possess such an instinctive nature to know the organization's needs. Milliken, 3M, The IAMS Company, and Corning all are mentioned by survey respondents as having top-notch leadership.

PROFIT

Without profit, organizations cannot survive for the long term. But to be world class, organizations cannot allow profits to be the focal point. As one respondent says, "A balance must exist between profits/employees/customer satisfaction." If a focus on profits tramples the customer focus, the organization will make decisions for the wrong reason-strictly financial, rather than customer oriented.

World-class organizations, so say our members, return rewards to their owners in the form of increased value year after year. Two organizations our members rate highly in this area are Corning and Eastman Kodak Company.

PROCESS

Organizations that understand their processes can more effectively produce their products and/or give superior customer service. Without this basic knowledge, anything can go wrong at any time in the process.

One respondent describes it this way-"A world-class organization is a clearly focused, agile learning organization that understands its work processes."

Processes are one of the hidden secrets of successful organizations. If something is not functioning correctly, it usually translates into a faulty process. Motorola, Xerox, and MBNA are all rated highly in this area by survey respondents.

HOW WILL WORLD CLASS LOOK IN THE FUTURE?

Our members say the benchmarks for world class are consistently moving higher and higher as customers expect and receive more special services from organizations.

While there are many ways to get closer to customers, survey participants say that enhanced information systems will become a key instrument in the strengthening of customer relationships in the future. New ways of organizing and utilizing customer information will help keep companies closely aligned with their customers.

Organizations also will form stronger bonds with their employees. With the lean work force of the future, our members indicate that, to be world class, most companies must change how they currently manage their employees.

Organizations have made some progress in creating a more friendly and appealing environment for the employee. Worker empowerment is a hot issue as companies explore the benefits of putting authority in the hands of those who actually do the work of the organization. Flextime is gaining acceptance, and child care issues, though volatile, are being explored by countless organizations. As these trends continue to develop, new ones will emerge.

While the customer and employee may seem to benefit most from the trends mentioned above, the organization as a whole is the main beneficiary. The outcome will be a more flexible organization, often referred to as a "learning" organization. These organizations change quicker; they can see the future with more than enough time to spare. "Being flexible enough to adopt instantly," says one respondent, will be the trademark of the world-class company in the 21st century.

VICKI J. POWERS is a communications specialist at the Houston-based American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC). During her five years at APQC, she has written numerous case studies and articles regarding benchmarking, customer satisfaction, total quality, and knowledge management.