Normally the application of Six Sigma for revenue generation is a top-down activity. For a consulting company, business opportunities are the bread winner. It is therefore important to identify, document, follow up and handle such opportunities without any flaw. When introducing Six Sigma was first suggested, the firm's manger was skeptical since he believed the methodology might interfere with existing operations. Later when these were clarified, the manager decided to implement the Six Sigma project. It was then understood that the project cannot proceed without clarifying four key terms namely, opportunity, disposition, appropriate and leak. An opportunity is a potential sale that is initiated by a staff member, client or any other external person. It is important to note that an opportunity can be specific or general. A specific opportunity pertains to a particular client order opportunity, whereas a general opportunity creates potential for one or more client order opportunities. A disposition is the final fate of the opportunity. This ideally could be an actual order request, proposal acceptance, proposal rejection or any other intermediate processes. An opportunity can get hung up for a long time by a potential client, associate or even inadvertently by a staff member. This leads to its leak that is appropriate less than disposition. Some potential clients might not notify the firm when a competitor is chosen for an order. An opportunity is considered lost if it did not get appropriately disposed of, meaning it did not have clear final fate and such a situation is called leak. This article presents how Six Sigma has improved the performance of the consulting firm. (no refs.)
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