By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog.
Paula Marshall, the CEO of the Bama Companies, discusses her adoption of Deming principles at Bama Companies. In the podcast she discusses going to see a Dr. Deming 4 day seminar in 1990 and then working with him for 3 years on bringing new management thinking to the Bama Companies. And she continues with the experience continuing to use Deming’s ideas to manage.
Bama Companies is best known for being the single supplier of the famous Apple dessert pies to McDonalds. McDonalds actually brought Paula to the Deming seminar in order to help their supplier improve. And Paula, Bama and McDonalds have enjoyed the benefits of that active focus on helping suppliers improve for decades now.
In the podcast she discusses her experience working with Dr. Deming as she tried to improve the performance appraisals at Bama Companies. Eventually she finally understood why Dr. Deming called for the elimination of the annual performance appraisal. And for the last few decades Bama Companies has benefited from eliminating that wasteful and damaging process from their business.
Paula’s latest book is Sweet as Pie: Tough as Nails.
Related: Deming Podcast: The Deming Journey at New York Label & Box Works – Hallmark Building Supplies: Applying Deming as a Business Strategy