SimpleQuE Spotlight – Don Milinkovich

This month’s simpleQuE spotlight features our director and consultant/auditor, Don Milinkovich. Don has been with our company since 2012 performing consulting, auditing and training for ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and IATF 16949, and has an impeccable attention to detail. Don is certified by Exemplar Global (No. 129924) as both a QMS and an EMS Principal Auditor.  A Registered Professional Engineer with the State of Ohio (PE-42496), he is also a six-sigma black belt.

1. Client satisfaction is pinnacle to your background. What are your client-focused approaches to simpleQuE?
   I have found a good client approach that has worked over time throughout my career has been to listen closely to what your customer has to say and make the extra effort to truly understand what your customer is attempting to communicate. Remember, communication is not only about hearing the words, but listening for emphasis, watching body language and especially listening for what may not have been said. Probably the worst thing we do in communications is to assume we understood the communication and going off on a tangent, so it is best to confirm what you understood and many times that involves asking questions. You may have the best idea, product or service in the world to offer, but if you do not listen to what your customer is asking you to deliver you will only disappoint your customer and in the end, disappoint yourself.

2. What advice would you give to a new college graduate entering the technology industry?
   As a new college graduate you have demonstrated you have the ability to learn and most graduates want to immediately apply those learnings to their work. I have found over my 43+ year professional career that my most rewarding and enjoyable work assignments were those when I was afforded the opportunity to continue learning other new and/or different concepts, technologies, processes, and the like. So, be aware of what is around you, stop for a moment to take it in and seek assignments conducive to expanding and applying your knowledge.

3. Explain how simpleQuE is different from their competition.
   When it comes to consulting, simpleQuE truly lives up to its stated name, which is quality excellence made simple. In my experience, having been on both the client side and the supplier side of management system implementations with simpleQuE, keeping implementation simple goes a long way to ensuring management system success and sustaining system longevity.

4. How would other people describe you in three words?
   Attention to detail!