Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1330321
30 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2021 organization, there is little more management can do to demonstrate an employee's worth. Henry Ford understood this. The anecdote goes that when a consultant, upon seeing one of Ford's employees sitting with his feet up on his desk, asked Ford why he paid that man $50,000 a year, Ford replied, "Because a few years ago, that man came up with something that saved me $2 million. And when he had that idea, his feet were exactly where they are now." Greater Agility Continuous improvement future-proofs your business. Incremental changes to adapt and optimize are at the core of creating an agile company. There is a close relationship between continuous improvement and company evolu- tion that requires the presence of human ob- servation. In a recent conversation on the topic of smart versus automated processes, Calumet Electron- ics' Dr. Meredith Labeau said: "You're not go- ing to get there if you completely remove the humans who are watching and learning the process, understanding how to iterate through that process, and then understanding that pro- cess control enough to say, 'I can move it this way and get this result.' And, 'Hey, that result, while it was out of process, is next-generation technology.' We fundamentally believe that hu- mans are the future, coupled with some really great machinery." Grow the Business All these benefits contribute to growing the business. By doing more with fewer resourc- es, and doing it more ef- ficiently, small changes add up incrementally to big results. The knowl- edge that comes from consistently analyzing, improving and measur- ing processes contrib- utes directly, allowing the business to grow. The Rever team states, "A lack of visibility will prevent you from reach- ing your goals. Remember that no business can grow without realizing what's causing it to stop growing." Conclusion As quaint as it may sound, continuous im- provement is never-ending; it's continuous. Change is continuous, too. A recent exam- ple from the U.S. entertainment industry helps make this point. Blockbuster was a video rent- al company (it technically still is, with one re- maining Blockbuster retail outlet in Bend, Or- egon). Sources say that, at its peak, Blockbust- er had 9,000+ stores and employed 58,000+ people worldwide. Blockbuster had a good business model and dominated the video rent- al industry. No surprise, then, that Blockbuster management was reluctant to change even as the market changed around them. Enter companies like Netflix and, a bit later, Redbox. Netflix began in 1997 as a DVD mov- ie rental service, operating through mail-order and a website instead of a storefront. The Netflix subscription model—a flat monthly fee with unlimited rentals and no late charges—changed how its customers consumed the content they rented. The convenience of having a DVD show up in the mail, ready to watch, without rental restrictions, created deep cus- tomer loyalty to which Blockbuster did not adequately respond. When Netflix further evolved in 2007, introducing the streaming op- tion, Blockbuster's unchanged business mod- el was simply unable to compete. In contrast, Netflix intentionally innovated new distribu- tion methods that were not only less expen- The last Blockbuster store on the planet is located in Bend, Oregon.