Can any organization achieve six sigma levels of quality if there is strong leadership from the top, an aligned reward system, and a well trained workforce?
In 1995, Jack Welch, the chairman of General Electric, proclaimed that Six Sigma1 was the most important initiative GE had ever undertaken. Six Sigma places special emphasis on the tangible cost savings achieved by minimizing waste and use of resources, while increasing customer satisfaction through the improvement of quality2. A leadership from the top, an aligned reward system and a well trained workforce are indispensable factors for achieving six sigma of quality, but there should be more aspects to be considered, such as considering all stakeholders interests, finding the “True North”3 and sparing no effort to quality improvement.

Six Sigma places emphasis on the customer satisfaction, while inputs contributing to customer satisfaction are not necessarily contributing to shareholder’s interests. This inherent conflict will lead managers confused about the “True North”, which is, whether implementing six sigma levels of quality is doing the right job. The concept of enterprise can explain something about “True North”. It is just as important to serve the shareholder, the workforce, suppliers and partners4. In this case, designing the whole work process concerning about process and product management and human resource management become extensively crucial before the production implementation. Designing the work should be involved with both managerial level and production flow. Practices about management include the leadership type, reward system and workforce training which can be summarized to efforts concerning about people improvements. Knowledge-based system should be addressed to improve work skills and ensure leaderships at all the levels. Take flexibility into account because workers may need more