Here's how:
#1 GET RID OF COMPETITION
Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler, Amin and Mao killed opponents. Now, you can't kill detractors but you can get rid of them. Harry stipulated when a company bought his trash: "the current quality professionals must not be recruited for positions of leadership". That is, people who are intelligent, experienced and who can see through your scam, must be sacked.
#2 FAKE QUALIFICATIONS
It is important to have some qualifications to give validity to your scam. Harry had NO experience in quality. He was NOT an engineer. He was NOT a statistician like the giants of Quality, Dr Shewhart, Professor Deming, Dr Chambers, Dr Wheeler. Harry's supposed PhD was in education, from Mary Lou Foulton Teachers College. He then faked his profile.
#3 MAKE YOUR SCAM OUTRAGEOUS
Having every process drifting 1.5 sigma because of a stack of discs, was outrageous. How could wildly out of control processes ever be a good thing? The fundamental premise of Six Sigma was so utterly ridiculous, no one believed it could be wrong. No one thought to question it. As the Minister for Propaganda advocated "Make the lie big enough."
#4 MAKE THE PRICE OUTRAGEOUS
Toyota for example, trains all their employees in Deming's fundamentals of Quality. Workers have made over 2,000,000 process improvements, saving billions of dollars. The cost of such training is peanuts. You will never get rich on peanuts. People are more likely to believe in your scam if your price is outrageous. People equate high prices with the best. Harry charged $70,000 a gullible head. At such ridiculous prices, victims thought it had to be magic pudding.
#5 MAKE OUTRAGEOUS CLAIMS.
Your scam must be the equivalent to walking on water. Harry said that if you gave him benefaction of $70,000 you would be richly rewarded with an astounding ANNUAL benefit of $1,400,000. In 10 years that's a 20,000% payback. It was irresistible magic for the naive.
#6 MAKE IT SEXY
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to add +/-3 sigma and +/- 1.5 sigma to get nine sigma. Nine sigma is as sexy as boiled cabbage. 'Six Sigma' sang the siren song of sales.
#7 A BIG SUCKER
Most importantly, you need a sucker, a big one, to get your scam rolling. If your sucker is big enough, no one will care about the little details such as the nonsense behind your scam and its inevitable trail of disasters. Harry picked Neutron Jack, a man who said he thought using his tummy. Perfect choice. Jack said that Harry was a madman and incomprehensible ... but he handed over $1B anyway.
#8 KEEP MILKING THEM
When you find someone gullible enough to buy into your scam, it is important to keep milking them. The belts were a clever idea. Toss in anything you can find but keep them coming back to hand over more cash.
by Dr Tony Burns BE (Hon 1) PhD (Chem Eng)