I always take away gems of wisdom from the Baldrige Program’s annual Quest for Excellence conference. This year was no exception. The gem I will share today comes from Choe Peng Sum, the CEO of Frasers Hospitality Pte. Ltd. in Singapore. He spoke at the international plenary session that we hosted on Monday afternoon of the conference featuring speakers whose organizations had received their national quality awards.

Sum’s point that “Bottlenecks are always at the top of the bottle” has stuck with me because of its clear imagery and its frequent truth when it comes to organizations.

Although organizational bottlenecks are not always at the top, I can think of many examples that illustrate the point. I have found the statement to be particularly true in cases where the founder of a small organization also serves as the CEO, especially as the organization grows beyond being defined as small. But the syndrome is not limited to small organizations: Consider some school systems, or corporations with a particularly powerful board, or some corporations where individual or family stockholders hold a controlling interest.

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