Print: GOP candidates take Texas businessman's pledge of efficiency
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While presidential candidates furiously work to charm Iowa's Republican electorate, a visit with Texas businessman Mike George has become a vital stop on the road to the 2012 nomination
”Star Telegram
Mike George with pledge signer, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich
August 2, 2011
By Aman Batheja
While presidential candidates furiously work to charm Iowa's Republican electorate, a visit with Texas businessman Mike George has become a vital stop on the road to the 2012 nomination.
More than 20 years ago, George created Lean Six Sigma, a business methodology that the U.S. military and major businesses have employed to cut waste.
Last year, George, 71, shifted his focus to politics and launched Strong America Now, a nonprofit urging presidential candidates to pledge to erase the national deficit by 2017 using Lean Six Sigma practices. The group now counts thousands of Iowans as members.
"It is the largest grassroots organization in Iowa -- and it's not me, it's the message," George said.
In the past two months, several Republican candidates have met with George and enthusiastically adopted his group's pledge. There are indications that Gov. Rick Perry may also support it if he runs.
The Strong America Now pledge is one of many that various groups are asking presidential candidates to sign to certify their conservative orthodoxy.
Americans for Tax Reform and its leader, Grover Norquist, blazed that trail 25 years ago with a Taxpayer Protection Pledge, in which candidates promise to oppose all tax increases. Now Republican presidential candidates must consider pledges covering a wide range of issues, including abortion, gay marriage and the budget.
Of those pledges, Strong America Now's is among the more detailed. Candidates who sign it promise to attend two days of training on Lean Six Sigma, conduct a "waste reduction project" before taking office, and use waste reduction tools as president to cut federal spending by 25 percent a year and wipe out the deficit by 2017.
When he signed the pledge in June, Tim Pawlenty said integrating Lean Six Sigma into the federal government "would be one of the most important things that the next president and Congress can do." Newt Gingrich, Gary Johnson and Herman Cain have also signed the pledge. Last week, Rep. Ron Paul and Rick Santorum joined the club as well.
"They've all come to our training classes," George said.
Quest for efficiency
George's journey to political activism started in 1986 after he sold his engineering company and traveled to Japan to see "why this little upstart Toyota was beating GM to death." The experience inspired George to craft Lean Six Sigma, a systematic approach to making companies more efficient. The methodology has been employed by the Army and Navy and companies including Xerox and Frito-Lay.
Four years ago, Irving was the first Texas city to implement Lean Six Sigma throughout its operations, said City Manager Tommy Gonzalez, who was exposed to the concept in the military. Gonzalez said the process helped identify unnecessary work done by city staff.
Through Lean Six Sigma, the city saved $38 million and now has 248 fewer workers than it did five years ago, he said.
In 2007, George sold his consulting firm, the George Group, to Accenture. He said he no longer has a commercial interest in Lean Six Sigma. His son, Mark George, is a managing director at Accenture.
Last year, Mike George launched Strong America Now to inject Lean Six Sigma concepts into the GOP presidential primary. The nonprofit has built up a large staff in Iowa. Aside from a few small donations, George said, he is bankrolling the entire operation.
"I was so frustrated [with] Congress. I figured we had to influence the presidential election in Iowa," said George, who has spent about half his time this year in Iowa.
With the federal deficit a leading concern among Republicans, the group quickly drew strong interest from the campaigns.
'Most absurd pledge'
It has also attracted criticism. In June, liberal-leaning MSNBC pundit Lawrence O'Donnell criticized the pledges that GOP candidates were signing and singled out Strong America Now's oath as "the most absurd pledge ever placed before a presidential candidate."
"Let's just take a moment and imagine if Democratic candidates for president were signing pledges to lobbying groups about how they would conduct themselves and limit themselves ... constitutionally," O'Donnell said. "Republicans would correctly attack those Democrats as having signed away the constitutional powers of the presidency."
George said his pledge is not meant for just Republicans. He hopes to train President Barack Obama in Lean Six Sigma methods.
"Waste is not partisan," George said. "There's not a Democratic or a Republican who say, 'I want more waste in government.'"
Texas pilot program
This year, state Rep. Raul Torres, R-Corpus Christi, persuaded lawmakers to approve a pilot program incorporating Lean Six Sigma practices in the Texas Workforce Commission, making Texas the first state to codify such language into law, according to George.
"This is the only option available that doesn't make government choose between two evils, which is cut services in great demand ... or increase taxes," Torres said.
Perry backs the program, spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said. "The governor supports the bill and any efforts agencies will make to cut wasteful spending," she said.Given Perry's support of the bill, George said he believes that Perry would sign the Strong America Now pledge if he runs for president.
Aman Batheja, 817-390-7695
