Republican candidate for governor of Tennessee, Mayor Bill Haslam of Knoxville, spent time on September 10th learning how area businesses have improved quality, efficiency and their bottom line, after completing courses at Pal’s Business Excellence Institute (BEI) in Kingsport, Tennessee.
Representatives from businesses such as Roadrunner Markets, Holston Valley Medical Center, Caris HealthCare, Holston Medical Group and Mitch Cox Development Group, relayed how each of their businesses has improved because of BEI’s techniques.
Mayor Haslam asked how making hamburgers and hotdogs efficiently could translate to so many other types of businesses. Those present were more than happy to answer.
“We’ve been able to take what we learned at BEI about standardization and use it to stream-line our surgery process to be more efficient,” said Britta Milhorn, Director of Performance Management for Holston Valley Medical Center. “This has greatly improved our process and customer satisfaction as far as how quickly patients get in and out for surgeries.”
Mayor Haslam says he’s interested in BEI not only because of what the courses have done for Tennessee businesses, but what he could learn from BEI should he become the next governor of Tennessee. Haslam says, “I was impressed with Pal’s commitment to quality and their willingness to share their wisdom with other organizations.”
After listening to the business leaders for about an hour Haslam commented, “Combining quality with efficiency that sounds like that’s the trick.”