Arun Hariharan

Founder and CEO

Arun Hariharan, author of Continuous Permanent Improvement (ASQ 2014), and The Strategic Knowledge Management Handbook (ASQ 2015) is a strategic quality, knowledge management (KM), and performance management practitioner with nearly three decades of experience in these fields. He has worked with several large companies and helped them achieve substantial and sustained results through quality and customer focus. He is the founder and CEO of The CPi Coach, a company that provides partnership, consulting, and training in business excellence and related areas. Former roles held by Hariharan include president of quality and knowledge management at Reliance Capital Ltd, and senior vice-president of quality and knowledge management at Bharti Airtel Ltd, India. He is a frequent speaker at quality and KM events around the world. He is also the author of more than 50 published papers on quality and KM.

Wed, 09/27/2017 - 12:03
Right Question, Wrong Question First think objectively so that you ask practical questions
Mon, 10/29/2012 - 10:02
Years of experience working with businesses—especially in areas related to quality, customers, and continuous improvement—have taught me some lessons. One of the most valuable is knowing the right question to ask. Although it may seem like common…
Growth or Quality: Do We Have a Choice? Not if you still want to be in business in 10 years
Mon, 10/22/2012 - 13:00
Company X was a new entrant in its industry. There were quite a few established players that X had to compete against. The current top three companies had each taken between seven and 10 years to reach their current size and position. X’s ambition…
Resolved but Not Resolved Beware the dashboard that just looks good
Mon, 10/08/2012 - 10:46
A company with a large customer base has a monthly practice of measuring its performance on quality and customer-related metrics. These are reviewed by the CEO and the rest of the senior management team. These metrics are part of senior management’s…
The Customer’s Tale Why complain when I could just walk away?
Fri, 09/28/2012 - 12:03
I’m a customer. One morning last week, I visited my bank for a small requirement that should have taken about two minutes. However, there was a big line and 27 people were ahead of me. This was my fourth visit to this bank for the same requirement.…
Quality Starts at the Board Does your company consider its customers key stakeholders?
Tue, 04/17/2012 - 11:03
Close your eyes and make a mental list of companies worldwide that use quality as their strategic weapon for achieving value for shareholders. Chances are you have some great examples, but most likely it’s a small list. Given the huge number of…
Close the Loop with the Customer, Part Two Thou shalt not say, ‘Not my job, man’
Wed, 04/04/2012 - 12:29
In “Close the Loop with the Customer, Part One,” we left off with Amla, the CEO of a large company, laying down what he called “commandments” for dealing with any problem brought by customers or agents. The commandments are based on lessons learned…
Close the Loop with the Customer, Part One Are you going through the motions with blinders on?
Wed, 04/04/2012 - 12:23
Sometimes, customer issues or complaints get tagged as “resolved” without actually resolving them from the customer’s perspective. At times, the customer doesn’t even know that their complaint has been tagged as resolved because no one from the…
First Time Right in Sales, Part Two Lessons learned
Fri, 03/23/2012 - 12:46
Is it possible to apply the principle of first time right (FTR) in a sales context? This two-part article looks at what happens when companies do just that. Part one defined FTR in sales, and outlined some of the obvious advantages. Part two looks…
First Time Right in Sales, Part One An experiment in measuring customer satisfaction
Fri, 03/23/2012 - 10:01
First time right (FTR), or doing things right the first time, is an important concept in quality. Some experts even consider FTR the very definition of quality. This two-part article summarizes an experiment in which FTR was applied to sales. Is it…
Layers of Performance Measurement Ensure the proper causal connection between the outcomes and the enablers
Fri, 08/19/2011 - 11:50
Traditional performance measures—usually financial outcome—are “after the event.” They tell us how we did last month or last quarter, but are of little use in predicting future performance. This article talks about four “layers” of performance…