USATODAY.com – Gas companies’ record profits take toll on average Americans:

“‘We’re an oil and gas company,’ Exxon spokesman Dave Gardner says.”

It seems that Exxonmobil is not being customer focused, nor are they being “solution focused”, as the new Womack and Jones book, Lean Solutions, might suggest.

As a customer, we want to get from Point A to Point B and need something to fuel our vehicle. In this day and era, that fuel is gasoline. Is Exxonmobil being pragmatic or dogmatic? Are other energy companies, like BP, who talk about alternate technologies, going to be more successful down the road?

Don’t be the type of company that says something like “We’re a rotary telephone company.” Lean is great, but you also have to be customer focused. Building the leanest (or six-sigma) rotary telephone won’t get you anywhere.

About LeanBlog.org: Mark Graban is a consultant, author, and speaker in the “lean healthcare” methodology, focused on improving quality and patient safety, improving access, reducing costs, and fully engaging healthcare professionals. He is also the Chief Improvement Officer for KaiNexus.