"That person is a Visionary."

This term is gratuitously used. The synonyms for visionary are imaginary, unreal, fantastic, fanciful, dreamy, and whimsical. Today a visionary is a person who has a vision and brings it to 'successful' fruition. However, it is applied in the high-tech business world only in retrospect, and it's based mostly on financial success. That is, the label 'Visionary' is applied only after some modicum of success is already achieved. This is much like the term 'Genius' applied by the media to successful NFL coaches: whoever wins the Super Bowl is a genius. Have you every heard of anyone being labeled a visionary based solely on a vision and before achieving anything? Visionary du jour is rampant these days.

"We are a World-Class company."

Try to find a concise definition of what "world class" means. It's difficult to do since the criteria vary depending upon the industry and economic climate. For example:

World Class is: "The recognition of an organization as a benchmark by its industry sector and, for some aspects, by other industry sectors." This seems to be a reasonable definition.

"World class manufacturing organizations consistently deliver exceptional performance, frequently in excess of expectations." - or - "World Class Manufacturers are those that demonstrate industry best practice." (See below for 'Best Practices'.) Now, how do you quantify these sweeping statements? Here are the criteria by which one government organization attempts to quantify a 'World Class' manufacturer:

• Make-to-order
• Streamlined flow
• Small lot sizes
• Families of parts
• Doing it right the first time
• Cellular manufacturing
• Total preventive maintenance
• Quick changeover
• Zero Defects
• Just-in-time
• Variability reduction
• High employee involvement
• Cross-functional teams
• Multi-skilled employees
• Visual signaling
• Statistical process control

This is a collection of industry buzzwords. What distinguishes these criteria as 'World Class'? And how many companies who claim to be 'world class' even validate their operations to such a list?