CONTENT TRANSCRIPT Page 1© University of Phoenix 2014 Feedforward Control and Feedback Control Podcast ID: 02-AUDIO-538cbdb0d04694245225a529 Feedforward Control and Feedback Control Podcast RECORDED ON Jun 02, 2014 SPEAKER Scott, Diane, Will Gordon Scott: Hey everyone, welcome to all of you. We are here again, telling you what you need to know about the business world. Today we're talking about some control tools, piggybacking a little off our last podcast on the control process. Diane: That we are! We’re going to talk about feedforward controls, concurrent controls and feedback controls Scott: So, how do these factor into the control process? Diane: Simply put, these controls are ways to fix problems either before, during or after something is happening. Scott: Okay, so you’d more than likely prefer to use the control that’s implemented BEFORE something happens, right? Diane: Ideally, sure, but that isn’t always possible. When you aren’t able to head something off at the pass, you’ll be glad to have the other two controls at your disposal. Scott: Then, which of the controls is implemented before the activity? Diane: A feedforward control is implemented to try to stop a problem before the problem happens. If you expand into a different market or start to sell a new product, any research done ahead of time can identify supply issues, cultural issues, logistical issues, or any number of problems, really, before something becomes an expensive sinkhole. Scott: I’d assume too, that by getting out in front of these problems, you could also avoid anything that might hurt customer impressions of your company or product, which could have a snowball effect, right? Diane: True, it certainly could. And when a feedforward control doesn’t work, the next control is concurrent, which makes sense, given the name. This control’s success stems from being watchful of core processes as they happen. Whatever your business, you track everything that is happening as it is happening and analyze it to make sure that, if there are issues, they are fixed as soon as you’re aware of them. CONTENT TRANSCRIPT Page 2© University of Phoenix 2014 Feedforward Control and Feedback Control Podcast Scott: I’ve also heard that one of the most effective aspects of concurrent control is “management by walking around” or MBWA as some people call it. Truly, the name describes it: managers having direct contact with employees so they are always in the know and nothing catches them off guard. Diane: Precisely. And that leads us to feedback control which, although it comes at the end of the process (when something is already done), doesn’t mean it is an afterthought. Scott: Exactly. It would seem to me that feedback is one of the most important forms of control because it happens after a good or service is experienced by the consumer. Any response, good or bad, small or large, can result in effective feedback. Diane: And then this information can be .

1. CONTENT TRANSCRIPT
Page 1© University of Phoenix 2014 Feedforward Control and
Feedback Control Podcast
ID: 02-AUDIO-538cbdb0d04694245225a529
Feedforward Control and Feedback Control Podcast
RECORDED ON
Jun 02, 2014
SPEAKER
Scott, Diane, Will Gordon
Scott: Hey everyone, welcome to all of you. We are here again,
telling you what you need
to know about the business world. Today we're talking about
some control tools,
piggybacking a little off our last podcast on the control process.
Diane: That we are! We’re going to talk about feedforward
controls, concurrent controls
and feedback controls
Scott: So, how do these factor into the control process?

2. Diane: Simply put, these controls are ways to fix problems
either before, during or after
something is happening.
Scott: Okay, so you’d more than likely prefer to use the control
that’s implemented
BEFORE something happens, right?
Diane: Ideally, sure, but that isn’t always possible. When you
aren’t able to head
something off at the pass, you’ll be glad to have the other two
controls at your disposal.
Scott: Then, which of the controls is implemented before the
activity?
Diane: A feedforward control is implemented to try to stop a
problem before the problem
happens. If you expand into a different market or start to sell a
new product, any research
done ahead of time can identify supply issues, cultural issues,
logistical issues, or any
number of problems, really, before something becomes an
expensive sinkhole.
Scott: I’d assume too, that by getting out in front of these
problems, you could also avoid
anything that might hurt customer impressions of your company
or product, which could
have a snowball effect, right?

3. Diane: True, it certainly could. And when a feedforward control
doesn’t work, the next
control is concurrent, which makes sense, given the name. This
control’s success stems
from being watchful of core processes as they happen. Whatever
your business, you track
everything that is happening as it is happening and analyze it to
make sure that, if there are
issues, they are fixed as soon as you’re aware of them.
CONTENT TRANSCRIPT
Page 2© University of Phoenix 2014 Feedforward Control and
Feedback Control Podcast
Scott: I’ve also heard that one of the most effective aspects of
concurrent control is
“management by walking around” or MBWA as some people
call it. Truly, the name
describes it: managers having direct contact with employees so
they are always in the
know and nothing catches them off guard.
Diane: Precisely. And that leads us to feedback control which,
although it comes at the end
of the process (when something is already done), doesn’t mean
it is an afterthought.
Scott: Exactly. It would seem to me that feedback is one of the

4. most important forms of
control because it happens after a good or service is
experienced by the consumer. Any
response, good or bad, small or large, can result in effective
feedback.
Diane: And then this information can be brought to the attention
of management, who can
assess whether or not the desired quality exists, and if not, can
determine what changes
should be implemented, and when.
Scott: This is why, whenever you go to a fast food place these
days, they ask if you will
call a number on the back of your receipt to give them feedback.
While not everyone will do
it, such a large number of people go to these establishments that
even a small percentage
calling will yield information that is invaluable to a company.
Diane: Looking at these control mechanisms, it is pretty easy to
see that one single control
is not better or more important than the others. They all have a
certain place in the
process, and when done correctly, can have a very positive
effect on a company’s bottom
line.
Scott: Well, sure. In any activity I do, I want to try to minimize
errors in the planning stage
and while I’m doing the activity, and then see what the results
are. That way, should I do

5. the activity again, I can avoid any errors that may have
happened the first time. It’s like a
recipe for a cake. The ingredients and quantities must be precise
and they must be
combined and baked correctly. After eating the cake I can
determine whether or not to
change anything before I make it again!
Diane: That’s exactly it. And now, to distract me from thinking
about eating cake, we’re
going to turn to Will Gordon who works as a manager in process
improvement, project
management, and architecture strategy for information
technology. Will also has his PMP
certification. Welcome to the program, Will.
Will: Thank you
Diane: What kind of controls do you use in your workplace to
ensure a certain standard of
performance is met?
Will: There are several that we use. The most basic and the
most commonly used, of
course, is the performance review. We use pretty much like
most companies do, kind of a
three-step performance review. It starts with establishing a
baseline, any control has to
have a baseline or standard; it has to be measurable. So, we
start out by establishing at
the beginning of the year, measurable goals and objectives. This
would be done with the

6. employee and their manager and it would have timelines so that
deliverables can be
CONTENT TRANSCRIPT
Page 3© University of Phoenix 2014 Feedforward Control and
Feedback Control Podcast
measured; this is kind of your feedforward type of control.
Then as you go through the
year, you would have certain checkpoints established where
you’re verifying that you’re are
still on track with your goals or if there’s issues and those are
going to be quarterly or
mid-year reviews or you might even have such as a weekly one-
on-one meeting and that
sort of thing. Those are types of controls that we use ongoing
which would be your current
controls. Then at the end of the year, you have your year end
review which basically says,
“how did we do?”, how did we do with achieving our objectives
and then you get feedback
through the employee and hopefully there’s no surprises
because you have been doing
your current controls and monitoring as you go along. But, at
the end of the year you then
measure against what you said you were going to do with what
you actually did. That then
hopefully carries forward for the next year for process
improvement, where you didn’t
deliver, you ran into issues so hopefully you can work those
into your next planning for the
following year when you’re establishing goals and objectives
and dealing with those so that

7. you have improvement every year. One of those items might
even be like a 360 review
where you have other teams or customers or peers that they are
not only giving feedback
besides your manager on how you actually deliver on an
objective, but from their
perspective, how did you do from a customer service point of
view; some of the softer skills
and whether they felt that you were successful. The 360
feedback, again, can even be
brought into the following year. It can be the standard for a
particular job role or job
function. There are standards out there that we would expect a
certain set of questions or a
certain rating to come back that would set a standard or average
and you can prepare the
employees with that. And then you can also say you would like
to see them improve that in
next year’s goals. You could say we want to see a 10%
improvement or whatever that is.
So, that’s pretty much the most common and what we do to
monitor progress and
performance for employees.
Scott: Thank you so much!
Will: You’re welcome.
Diane: We are all out of time this week, but join us in our next
podcast when we talk about
factors that affect business ethics; specifically, what will help
to determine ethical behavior.
Take care!

8. [End of Audio]
CONTENT TRANSCRIPT
Page 1© University of Phoenix 2014 Controls Podcast
ID: 02-AUDIO-538cbd45d04694245225a528
Controls Podcast
RECORDED ON
Jun 02, 2014
SPEAKER
Scott, Diane, Timothy Pittman
Scott: Hey everyone, welcome to the podcast where we talk in
detail about management
and business principles that YOU need for success.
Diane: Today we're talking about the control process – what it
is and why it's important.
First off, what is controlling?
Scott: I'd say “my mother-in-law,” but I don't think that's quite
the answer you're looking for!
(laughs)

9. Diane: Not quite, no! Controlling is about keeping track of and
fixing work performance,
and it is a key weapon in every manager's arsenal. Without
proper controls in place,
determining issues and understanding how to go about fixing
them will be difficult indeed.
Scott: Now, when you say “controls,” do you mean that a
manager needs to be involved in
every single aspect of their employees’ day?
Diane: It doesn't have to be as invasive as it sounds. It just
means having routine
standards in place to check work quality, worker knowledge,
and performance standards.
It's crucial to have controls in place because, let's face it, even
the best laid plans can be
foiled through human error.
Scott: And that's not even to say anything malicious. Just the
fact that we're imperfect
means that having controls in place can catch those things that,
through no fault of
someone's own, might fall through the cracks.
Diane: Exactly. Imagine an ATM that has faulty software. It
gives out $100.00 for every
$20.00 someone tries to withdraw. It is very possible that it
would take a long time for
patrons to alert the bank to the problem, and in the meantime

10. the bank could be losing
thousands of dollars. To top it off, customers might face the
headache of having to return
money they've already spent. All of this could be avoided with
certain controls in place to
make sure that the money being dispensed is accurate to the
letter.
Scott: Wow! Well, with so much on the line then, obviously the
process of putting controls
in place is crucial. How exactly does a manager go about
creating controls?
Diane: Great question, and there actually is a control process. It
has three steps and it
represents the best way to put controls in place. You start by
measuring the performance,
CONTENT TRANSCRIPT
Page 2© University of Phoenix 2014 Controls Podcast
then you compare it to a standard, and then you take action to
attend to anything that
needs addressing.
Scott: Well, that makes sense. Observe a performance, compare
it to a set of optimal
performance standards, and if or when you determine any don't
line up, management steps
in to take whatever action is necessary to bring everything up to

11. speed.
Diane: And although it might sound simple, there are a lot of
things that go into making this
process work. Take measuring, for example. This is the most
important part of the process
because if you measure an item incorrectly, or measure the
wrong process entirely, then
the rest of the process will be flawed and the results you get
will be next to useless.
Scott: So, measuring is important, and I'd also assume that it's a
pretty varied set of
metrics – observations, oral and written reports, statistics, etc.
Diane: Precisely. And the more hard data backed up with
numbers you can get, the better.
However, not all important metrics are going to be easily
quantifiable, and that's where
more of the subjective, personal observations will come in
handy.
Scott: So, after you have measured the performance, now you
compare it against some
set standard, correct?
Diane: Right you are, Scott! The important part here, of course,
is to not jump the gun. Like
anything performance based, you have to be aware of deviation.
What we are looking for
isn't the standard deviation. We are hoping to find big swings

12. outside of the normal
deviation, because those are the actual problems that need
addressing.
Scott: Which makes perfect sense. So, now that we have looked
at the performance and
compared it to the standard, we can do one of three things:
correct the performance,
correct the standards, or do nothing at all, right?
Diane: Yes, that's exactly it. If there is a problem and it is
noticeable, then things need to
change so that the actions taken are the desired actions. It's
possible, however, that the
performance was much better or much worse than the standard,
and that might mean the
standard itself is to blame. Think about a typical sales job. If
the quota is to sell four
widgets, and everybody is selling 50 widgets, it is more than
likely that the standard is far
too low.
To delve more into the specifics, however, let’s talk to Timothy
Pittman, who works for
Honeywell IT in Continual Service Improvement. Tim, give us
an example of how these
processes play out Honeywell.
Tim: Well, Honeywell has what they call the “Honeywell
Operating System.” It’s based on
management operating systems used around the world. It
developed out of the Deming

13. process of plan- do- check-act and it has to do with say, “What
are we supposed to be
doing?” “Are we doing what we’re supposed to be doing?” And
if not, “What do we do to
get back on track?” Basically what we’re talking about here is
that Honeywell has put in
place what we call “critical success factors;” what does it take
to be successful in any given
operation. And then what we have to do is take and say, “In
order to achieve those critical
CONTENT TRANSCRIPT
Page 3© University of Phoenix 2014 Controls Podcast
success factors, what key performance indicators are going to
tell us that we’re on track to
be successful?” Then the next thing is, once you have key
performance indicators, is to
make sure that you’re measuring those, and you’re looking at
those, and you’re checking
those on a daily basis, if possible. Because if you are on a daily
base and you say, “Look
here is where you are,” we can talk about what is happening,
what’s successful and we can
get feedback from the frontline people who actually work the
process and can provide
feedback to management. Management then can take action to
improve whatever is
creating a barrier to success and that completes the loop that’s
required for management
and labor to successfully work together to make sure that we’re
moving forward and we’re
keeping on track.

14. Scott: Thank you for that insight and all your time today, Tim.
We really appreciate it!
Tim: Thank you!
Scott: And thank you all for sticking around with us. Tune in
again when we talk about feed
forward, concurrent and feedback controls. Until next time!
[End of Audio]