Big W Core Values: Mission Success

If you ever see a veteran who has had a very long day, who looks just absolutely done, tell them “charlie mike” and then watch how they react.

Very early on in Big W’s journey I chose 6 values to represent how we worked.  Mission Success is the first.  As we are approaching our first anniversary, it’s time to share them in depth.

Mission Success Defined

Squad lanes are one of the most formative training activities in the U.S. Army.  They are the first level of collective training, requiring the application of core battle drills in a team.  Some activities in the Army are physically exhausting, and some are mentally exhausting.  Squad lanes are both, requiring not just the physical effort of carrying out the mission under duress, but also applying your knowledge of how the drill should be executed, given the situation. 

The last step of any battle drill was always “continue the mission.”  In earlier stages of training, this step could never really be trained effectively.  You get through the steps, and then you see the last step, “continue the mission,” and this often means it’s time to rotate stations, or maybe it’s time for chow.  One of the most formative moments in Basic Training is getting done with a battle drill in a squad lane, being absolutely exhausted and ready to be done, and then hearing “charlie mike” from your drill sergeant for the first time.  The first time you hear it, you think “who is Charlie Mike?”  You then are quickly reminded that this isn’t a “who,” it’s what you should be doing.  It’s a call to action using the NATO phonetic alphabet to CM: Continue the Mission.

It was quickly (and sometimes painfully) learned that this was a reminder that although the drill was done and this particular situation had been resolved, the overall mission goes on.  It was a call to mentally reset, put whatever exhaustion remained behind you, and focus on executing the next phase in the mission.

The real learning value is when the mission just keeps going.  Time after time, being exhausted, thinking you can’t possibly continue, and then another “charlie mike.”  Years later, you learn that true success comes from having the persistence to keep going, even after completing that short term goal that feels like success at the moment, until you finally reach your desired end state. 

Application to Quality

The goal of an effective quality program never ends at passing an audit.  Customer satisfaction is the desired end state, and continuous improvement is an expectation.  The toughest aerospace and defense customers see ISO 9001 or AS9100 certification as an admission ticket, not an automatic qualification.  Getting certified is a requirement that is necessary, but not sufficient. 

Prime contractors have to be tough to be successful.  Over the last 10 years their customers have raised the bar; the only way for them to remain successful is to flow these expectations throughout their supply base.  They choose their suppliers based on who can most reliably meet these expectations.  While cost is still a consideration, Mission Success is the true deciding factor.  These are the insights I wanted to share when I started Big W.

We want to contribute to your Mission Success

It’s been 28 years since I first heard Charlie Mike at basic training in 1998.  My dedication to the mission continued after retiring from the Iowa National Guard, working at Goodyear Topeka, where we made the most of the Humvee tires, as well as a good share of other military truck tires.

In the Army, it was known that the best gig wasn’t in the military, but in being a contractor that supported the military.  This was my next step after Goodyear, moving to Kansas City National Security Campus, where we made 80% of the non-nuclear components for the nuclear deterrent.  Meeting our business unit’s quality objectives were a basic expectation, meeting our NNSA customer’s expectation was a higher goal, but the real prize was seeing how what we did impacted the Air Force and Navy’s ability to continue their mission of global nuclear deterrence. 

What I learned in this role was that the real heroes in this mission were never the ones in the spotlight.  When desperate situations arose, like a last-minute design change to a safety mechanism that halted production of the largest weapons program in over a decade, it was the Purchased Products Division that was able to deliver the quickest recovery to the program. 

The true heroes here were the small to medium manufacturers who supplied Purchased Products.  The only thing I liked better than getting praise from the Air Force or Navy was passing it along to the suppliers who made these major efforts possible.  Even though they never got the public credit for solving a problem most of the US never knew existed, you could tell the impact this had by the pride they took in their work and their operations when you came to visit. 

With global uncertainty only increasing, and with the aerospace market being held to ever-tightening expectations, we are excited to help you take your quality systems to the next level.  Whether you are exploring certification or just trying to get into more complex markets, let’s talk about what Charlie Mike looks like for your team.

Big W Values

1.       Mission Success

2.       Integrity

3.       Systems Thinking

4.       Data-Driven

5.       Accountability

6.       Partnership