You may think you know what your Customers want, what they really think about your company, or in fact how to best market or sell them on your product/service. But, what if you were to find out in the end that what you thought you knew about your Customers was wrong….dead wrong! Is it a risk worth taking? If through a crystal ball you had the ability to truly see what your Customers value the most, would it not change the approach you might take with them.

Understanding Customer value is a cornerstone of an effectively focused lean platform and the more visible, accurate and timely the information, the better. Learn how Cogent Power is using its Voice of the Customer insight survey as a lens into the world of its Customers to better understand their needs and wants. Its not for the faint of heart, or those that think customer surveys are nothing more than the uninspiring pieces of paper they become when simply shot out from one end of a facsimile machine to another, without a semblance of human interaction. You need to get out from behind the desk and go directly to the source of information for a first hand ‘gemba’ look, no different than what you would expect in your own production area.

Gregory MacDougall, Manager Total Quality Systems & Lean Coach

In his current role as Manager, Total Quality Systems and Lean Coach at Cogent Power, Mr. MacDougall is mainly responsible for the direction of quality management and continuous improvement, and has had a principle role in the VOC insight process in close association with Commercial. He is a Quality Management graduate of Mohawk College, holds a technical diploma in Metallurgy from McMaster University and was accredited in 2004 as a Lean Coach through SA Partners LLP, United Kingdom (Professor Peter Hines).

Previously Mr. MacDougall served as Corporate Director, Quality Management, ABC-Naco, Chicago, IL, accountable in his senior management role for the quality direction of numerous companies world-wide, and preceding this was Manager, Quality Systems, Dofasco Steel, Hamilton, ON, Canada. He has an extensive background in the steel industry involving quality improvement, is a past Instructor at Mohawk College and a Senior ASQ Member. He has served on several Committees related to Quality Management and authored a number of presentations under the topic heading of continuous improvement.

Chris Brown, Co-Director

Mr. Brown is Co-Director of Cogent Power inc., in Burlington, ON, Canada. As Director, Chris has responsibility for the overall commercial strategy of the business including sales and materials management along with a shared P& L responsibility for the overall business with the Director of Operations.

After graduating with a degree in Economics from Concordia University in Montreal, he went to work in the steel industry for Corus plc North American Sales office and held various account manager and sales manager roles from Jan. 1986 to May 1996 with a primary focus on sales and market development. His next role was with Cogent Power as a Director (Commercial & Strategy), which began in May 1996 to date. He has spent the last 10 years specifically involved in overseeing Cogent’s North American market presence and has been instrumental in the launch and direction of the VOC insight survey process. Chris is near completion of his MBA from the University of Warwick England.