Similar to Lean and Six Sigma methods, operational excellence also focuses on the concept of value and defines it from the customer's perspective. Value essentially represents what the customer really wants and is willing to pay for. Value streams are the processes of building the products or services desired by the company's customers. The systematic development of operational excellence is aimed at creating efficient value streams. Experts in the field make the timing of value streams visually apparent. In an industrial plant, the assembly line is an immediately visible value stream. If the production speed is at the right pace, the observer can see that all processes are running smoothly. In other words, there are no bottlenecks, no backlogs of semi-finished goods, and no downtime when workers are waiting for materials from the previous station.

According to the model of operational excellence, the designer's work begins with the creation of a vision and a framework for strategic thinking, which includes mapping the expectations and problems to be solved by the company's target group, as well as identifying organisational needs. At the same time, a decision is made to not only maintain the current market position, but also to increase it in order to ensure future survival and competitiveness. All of this is translated into a form of strategic planning, which links the strategy developed with the actions to be implemented. The measurable goals and priorities thus created provide the framework for the company to improve its operations and introduce innovative new products and services. The pursuit of excellence and perfect quality in execution and continuous improvement rests on two primary pillars: systematic management of operations and a commitment to a positive culture that focuses on customer needs. In addition, it is essential that empowered employees clearly understand organisational goals and plans and feel confident about innovation initiatives, enabling them to resolve identified problems quickly and effectively.

However, it matters how big the problems are, or to put it less bluntly, how big the challenges are. This is because every organisation faces an endless number of minor and major problems and challenges, which process development specialists ideally try to identify and then solve. However, these efforts are limited by the resources and competencies available to the company, or by a lack of problem-solving skills. Companies that practise process development at a high level, such as Toyota and other automotive companies, have recognised that employees at different levels of the organisation contribute differently to the value creation process.

The primary task of senior management is to incorporate value into planning and to create an open workplace environment that encourages experimentation and learning from mistakes. The task of middle management is to eliminate the three "MUs" inherent in processes, namely fluctuations (MURA), overloads (MURI) and major sources of waste (MUDA). The primary task of those at the lowest level of the corporate hierarchy, i.e. blue-collar workers, is to establish and adhere to standards and eliminate sources of waste (Imai, 2012 and Fehér, 2018).

This question brings us to a critique of the model and an interpretation of innovation that goes beyond process development. If we take a closer look at bottom-up excellence initiatives and the process development experiences of various experts, we can say that in most traditionally operating manufacturing companies, only one (!) out of three developments can be completed in a sustainable manner. There may be several reasons behind this experience, and company managers tend to think that only engineers and researchers can solve significant probloems, not to mention initiating innovation developments that navigate the company onto a new path (Fehér, 2018).

One of the main criticisms of the operational excellence model is that, with its focus on the perfection of current operations, it does not encourage significant innovation or reveal new, unmet customer needs and markets. We could also say that companies and their employees get stuck in their current activities and strive to perform them better, faster and without mistakes. To put it bluntly, they become slaves to habit! Operational excellence requires constant focus, and in the process, it becomes a mantra to perform tasks better and better. However, an increasingly thorough and deeper focus on one's own products and processes can lead to tunnel vision for the department and the company as a whole, especially if it does not pay attention to its environment and does not respond to events that threaten its position with significant initiatives of its own.

Operational excellence plays a very important role in how much profit a business generates TODAY, but it is also worth asking company leaders the question: what will generate profit TOMORROW? We can be sure that it is not operational excellence, but innovation excellence that will generate tomorrow's profits! The aforementioned example of KODAK proves this point. This long-established company did not become a major player in digital photography, even though it manufactured the most and best quality accessories for traditional photography. To use a somewhat morbid analogy, we could also say that in earlier times, candle manufacturers did not see the potential in the discovery of electricity.

In connection with this idea, another criticism of operational excellence is that many companies are content with minor improvements and solutions that can be implemented with common sense. This is understandable, because according to consulting practice, about three-quarters of corporate development initiatives do not require significant engineering and research work and can be implemented with relatively modest resources.1 According to Karren Gadd, innovation consultant at Oxford Creativity, the ratios on Figure 5 show the different types of innovation in terms of the number of corporate developments (Fehér, 2018):

Owners and managers need to consider whether it is more important to take dividends, replace the company's (luxury) cars every year, or perhaps spend money on costly and uncertain innovation projects that lay the foundations for tomorrow's growth and competitiveness.

Based on my investigation of the practices of companies that have successfully implemented innovation, as well as my own experience as an innovation expert and manager, I recommend that, in addition to a continuous focus on operational excellence, it is worth reviewing the innovation opportunities of the core business at least once or twice a year through a well-structured brainstorming process, and then investing in the development and testing of more radical ideas that could lead to future growth for the company.

We conclude the chapter on organisational excellence and corporate success with the first line of Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina, as it rhymes very well with the findings of research related to the topic: "All happy families are resemble one another; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."2

Lesson: not only in families and private life, but also in the corporate world, the characteristics and processes of successful companies are similar, and it is worth paying attention to them for those striving to catch up.