1. Make the requirement less dumb.
2. Try to delete part of the process.
3. Simplify and optimize.
4. Accelerate cycle time.
5. Automate.

As someone who flies business class on American a few times per year, I am zero percent surprised that [American Airlines CEO Robert Isom] doesn’t know or care about the experience flying American’s competitors.

...I think it comes down to the classic idea of a “businessperson”. That an executive can just have a knack for “business”. That an MBA trains a would-be executive to run any sort of company. That’s probably the sort of executives who run most companies in most industries. But I don’t think it’s how excellent companies are led. Excellent companies, in any industry, seem to be led by executives who live and breathe whatever it is their companies do, and they stay up at night and wake up in the morning thinking about how to lead their industries in quality.

If the CEO’s primary perspective on the company is via spreadsheets — if it’s all just P&L to them — that company is not going to excel at quality. Or if they do excel at quality, they won’t for long.