Case Studies & Best Practices

Theme 1: Measure What Matters

Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - 10:15-10:45 AM

Translating Strategy to Measures:  Describing the Canadian Blood Services Journey

Sophie de Villers, Vice President, Strategy Management, Canadian Blood Services

Canadian Blood Services is Canada’s national blood agency, dedicated to the safe collection and distribution of blood and blood products. CBS entered the Palladium Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame in 2007, several years after establishing an Office of Strategy Management and developing Balanced Scorecards that spanned the organization. In that time, they have gained tremendous insight into the “do’s and don’ts” of measure selection and refinement.  Vice-President, Strategy Management, Sophie de Villers will share with the audience the CBS journey of translating their strategy into measures – one that continues to this day. 

Key Issues 

• The importance of executive involvement and engagement in the selection of measures
• The need to view strategic measure selection as an iterative and ongoing process
• The requirement to use a structured methodology for selecting measures – to ensure that you are measuring things that matter

About the Speaker
Ms. Sophie de Villers, Vice-President, Strategy Management is responsible for guiding Canadian Blood Services in its adoption of strategic performance management practices, including the implementation of the Balanced Scorecard methodology. Tasked with facilitating the creation of a strategy focused culture, Sophie leads the Internal Communications group who assists in translating strategy into practice and creating a high degree of awareness of strategy at all levels of the organization. Sophie leads the corporate planning cycle essential to transforming Canadian Blood Services into a world class blood system and manages government relations activities as a means of fostering and maintaining provincial and territorial support for the implementation of the strategy. As leader of the Office of Strategy Management, Sophie helps the
organization with the prioritization of initiatives, implementation of sound project management practices and
the management of the corporate portfolio of key initiatives. Sophie is involved in international benchmarking activities and the tracking of national and international trends in the pharmaceutical, health-care and blood industries. Sophie has a Master of Business Administration degree from Queen’s University in addition to a Master’s degree in Social Sciences from Carleton University. She joined Canadian Blood Services in September 1998, as a member of the founding Executive Management Team.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - 10:45-11:15 AM

Benchmarking at Arizona Public Service: How to Strike a Balance between "Aura" and "Cynicism"

Kirk J. Gould, Senior Performance Consultant, Arizona Public Service
 
Benchmarking is the art of leaving your cozy little world and identifying who is the very best, who sets the standard, and what that standard is. Figuring out how the leaders got to where they are and determining

what you have to do to get there can be quite a daunting endeavor. How you go about doing this, where you look, and what kind of glasses you wear have a huge effect on what you will see. This session will review effective approaches to benchmarking, the effect of rose colored and mud colored glasses, and how to obtain useful data points when performing benchmarking ensuring you are aligning with the corporate strategy. Kirk will share best practices on performance management & benchmarking from his experiences

at Arizona Public Service, one of the fastest growing utilities that also manages the largest US nuclear facility.

Key Issues 

• Helpful Do’s & Don’ts when launching a benchmarking initiative
• The process for examining existing metrics and implementing new ones
• Understanding the current state of the organization’s Performance Management System

About the Speaker
Kirk Gould is a consultant for the Center for Process Excellence at Arizona Public Service in Phoenix, Arizona where he specializes in Metrics and Performance Management. He is the Founder and President of the Greater Phoenix Business Management Consortium as well as Knowledge Jam Global, LLC. He is a published business author and a BPTrends contributor. He and his family reside in Scottsdale, Arizona.  He is a degreed mechanical engineer from Purdue University.

Theme 2: Monitor What You Measure

Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - 2:15-2:45 PM

Operationalizing WellPoint Dental and Vision Strategies with the Balanced Scorecard

Dr. Ferdinand Tesoro, Strategy Leader, Commercial Business Unit, WellPoint

WellPoint is the largest health benefits company in terms of commercial membership in the United States, serving 34.8 million medical members.  The company owns Blue Cross and/or Blue Shield plans in 14 states  as well as independently branded Unicare and Healthlink. The Balanced Scorecard was piloted in the Dental and Vision (DV) business segment, an independent subsidiary with 6.7 million members and approximately $1.2 Billion in revenue. This case study will showcase how the DV organization identified 11 strategic measures and used the balanced scorecard as a vehicle for operationalizing its strategies. The results of   this effort led to DV now being showcased in other WellPoint business units as the benchmark for strategy execution.

Key Issues 

• Ensure company goals align with its strategies, initiatives and projects
• Describe the correlational and predictive relationships among the key strategic measures
• Provide examples of how the scorecard results were monitored and communicated to critical  decision makers

About The Speaker
Ferdinand Tesoro is the Strategy Leader for the Commercial Business Unit of WellPoint. In this role, he drives the creation, monitoring, communication and execution of business strategy. He manages the $14 Million project management portfolio for the Dental and Vision business segment and leads the governance process for prioritization and implementation. Prior to joining WellPoint, he built predictive models for forecasting online sales revenues and identifying the key levers that drive profitability. Dr. Tesoro is also currently a Senior Consultant for the Center for Effective Performance, which specializes in advising Fortune 1000 organizations to align their workforce performance with business strategy and bottom line results. He completed his Ph.D. from Purdue University.
 

Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - 2:45-3:15 PM

Using Analytics to Improve Quality and Customer Satisfaction at Ahold Financial Services

Kris Murphy, VP of Process Performance & Internal Controls, Ahold US Retail
Dave Hooper, VP of Ahold Financial Services

Ahold Financial Services performs accounting and financial services for Ahold USA, one of the world’s largest grocery retailers whose brands include Stop & Shop, Giant Foods and Peapod. In five years AFS has tripled output while operating with 2/3 the staff at 2/3 the cost. Join us as we review how AFS has achieved best in class for financial services, and is taking that to the next level by using analytics, ABC/M and Lean Six Sigma tools to reward customers and suppliers for efficiency, link their strategy with operations, better understand and improve overall corporate performance and design their “organization of tomorrow.”

Key Issues

• Linking strategy to operations with performance tools
• Creating visibility and accountability through relevant reporting
• A “process for the process of change”
• Improving quality and customer satisfaction while reducing cost

About the Speakers

Kris Murphy is Vice President Process Performance and Internal Controls for Ahold Financial Services.  AFS is the accounting shared service center for the US retail supermarket divisions and support companies of Ahold NV, one of the world’s leading food retailers.  In her current position, she is responsible for fostering continuous process improvement through activity based management and process re-engineering.

Kris is a Certified Public Accountant, whose areas of expertise include financial and operational auditing, process re-engineering and project management.  She holds a Masters of Business Administration from Loyola College and a Bachelor of Science, Accounting degree from the University of Maryland.

Dave Hooper is the Vice President of Ahold Financial Services, a position which he has held since 2004.  Prior to this position, Dave was Director of Accounts Payable and Capital Assets for AFS, and was a member of the original implementation team for the creation and development of this Ahold shared services center.

Dave is a graduate of Canisius College in Buffalo and joined Tops Supermarkets as a Retail Analyst and A/P Director prior to the creation of AFS.  For many years, Dave served as Fire Chief in his hometown volunteer fire company, as well as acting in the capacity of an EMT.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - 3:15-3:45 PM

Linking Strategy to Operations in Life Sciences: Brand Management

Michael Contrada, Executive VP, Palladium Group, Inc.
Randall Cole, Director, Palladium Group, Inc.
 
Kaplan and Norton’s new book, Execution Premium, makes the case that linking strategy to operations is critical to strategy execution and achieving results. How do organizations accomplish this? Using a life sciences case study focused on the process of launching new products, this presentation will discuss how to meet the challenge of aligning strategy, operations and planning. The case study describes an approach using several advanced business frameworks such as strategy maps and scorecards, operational driver models, and process-based planning to coordinate and communicate across multiple functions endeavoring to implement a complex brand management process. In addition to building a more effective management process, an additional value derived from the integrated approach is providing a blueprint for the technology solutions that support the process. The final result is a closed-loop management system.   

Key Issues

• Challenges in aligning strategy, operations and planning
• Using performance models to define operational drivers and metrics linked to strategy
• The need to integrate planning and analytics to close the management loop
• Leveraging technology to enable the integrated management process

About the Speakers

Michael Contrada leads Palladium’s Life Sciences strategy management practice.  He was a co-founder and executive vice president of Balanced Scorecard Collaborative, with David Norton and Robert Kaplan.  He has more than 20 years of experience in strategy and performance management across a broad spectrum of industries and settings.  He was previously associated with Renaissance, Deloitte, Braxton, and Symmetrix as a management consultant, and with Harvard University as an instructor in history.  

Michael is a frequent public speaker and has written articles in Harvard Business School Publishing’s Balanced Scorecard Report and other business journals.  He has a BA, MA, and has completed doctoral studies at Harvard University.

Randall Cole is a Director at Palladium.  He has many years of experience in strategy and performance management consulting, technology services and general management. He was previously associated with IBM, where he led Insurance Industry Consulting for the Americas; Health Dialog, a leading provider of health care management services; ArsDigita, a provider of open source software solutions; and Symmetrix, a management consultancy.

Randall has a BS, Trinity College and a MBA, University of Connecticut.

Theme 3: Manage for Performance Excellence

Thursday, September 11, 2008 - 10:45-11:30 AM

Driving Breakthrough Results with Strategy Review Meetings

Jay Weiser, Principal, Palladium Group, Inc.

Successful strategy performance review meetings are cited by executives as their most valuable and effective time together. These meetings focus the leadership team on strategy execution, driving and managing change, improving performance accountability, and enabling performance breakthroughs. The best meetings are theme-based; issue-focused; and action-oriented and provide a forum for an integrated discussion on not only strategic performance, but also the initiatives that are being relied upon to drive results. This session will demonstrate examples on structuring an effective review meeting and why it‘s important to integrate with other governance meetings (e.g. operational reviews; planning and budgeting, etc.) to ensure that there is a complete, effective, and efficient strategy management system.

Key Issues

• Structuring an effective strategy performance review meeting
• Conducting a theme-based; issues-focused; action-oriented meeting
• Integrating the strategy performance review meeting with other governance meeting to make a more effective and efficient strategy management system

About the Speaker
Jay Weiser is a Principal in the Strategy Practice at Palladium.  He has nearly twenty years of consulting experience focusing on strategy management and strategic alignment.  His client base consists of large,

global companies including experience/expertise in variety of industries including financial services, life sciences, and retail and a variety of functions including Finance and IT.  He is a subject matter expert on Strategic Governance and has written numerous articles on Strategy Review Meetings which have been featured in the Balanced Scorecard Report and Journal of Cost Management.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - 11:30 AM-12:00 PM

Managing the Risks of a Strategic Project Portfolio at United Illuminating

Brian Horgan, PMP, Director, Project Management & Philip Turner, Ph.D, Director,
Strategic Planning & Risk Management, The United Illuminating Company

United Illuminating Company, an independently owned and operated utility company has serviced roughly 35% of Connecticut for more than 100 years. In 2006-07 proposals were submitted to senior management restructuring capital budgeting and execution in order to improve execution of the capital project portfolio. These proposals were accepted and led to new measures being added to the company’s 2007 Balanced Scorecard and an associated risk monitoring and control plan executed during 2007. This effort dramatically improved capital portfolio execution and reshaped the corporate culture by empowering and educating UI’s leadership to build risk assessment, risk response planning and execution into the achievement of strategic program goals.

Key Issues 

• Relevant Scorecard measures to direct performance
• Capital Budget Process changes needed to accommodate explicit management of risks
• Communications strategies to make risk and opportunity management an integrated part of capital project management and strategy execution 

About the Speakers
Brian Horgan has been with United Illuminating for 19 years, the last six years as Director
of Project Management.  His responsibilities include managing internal project manager staffing, maintaining the corporate project inventory, establishing project management methodology
and coordinating the portfolio management process. Brian holds a Bachelor of Science from
Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Connecticut.
He is a certified project manager and is a member of the Connecticut Bar.

Philip Turner has twenty-seven years of service with UI.  Phil has been blessed with the opportunity to serve UI in varied capacities over his career, most recently, as director of strategic planning and risk management. Phil has represented UI in public testimony at the Connecticut General Assembly, DPUC, Connecticut Siting Council and Connecticut Energy Conservation Management Board.  Among his current assignments, Phil facilitates UI’s strategic planning and manage risk processes and is a member of UI’s Central Facility Team.

Phil is a graduate of Yale College and holds a doctorate in Mathematics from Wesleyan University,

Middletown, CT. He resides in Branford.

Thursday, September 11, 2008 - 1:15-1:45 PM    

Building a Culture of Performance Excellence at Skanska USA

Allen Emerick, Director of IT, Applications & Integration, Skanska USA Building, Inc.

Building a foundation for performance excellence involves more than focusing on worthy issues such as goals, metrics, KPIs and data quality. To implement a successful strategy, consideration must be given to the cultural impact of increased transparency, accountability and alignment. With executive support and direction as vital components of the process, an effective strategy empowers employees at all levels to make better business decisions. Performance excellence can be achieved by aligning company goals and measurements while enabling field personnel to excel at their functions. Learn firsthand how Skanska USA Building, the US division of Fortune Global 500 construction firm Skanska AB is shaping a culture of performance excellence while overcoming the challenges associated with cultural change.

Key Issues

• Review the Performance Excellence journey at Skanska USA
• Ways to overcome cultural challenges with awareness and alignment
• Lessons learned in achieving adoption and buy-in across our organization

About the Speaker

Allen Emerick is Director of IT, Applications and Integration for Skanska USA Building Inc, the US division of Fortune Global 500 construction firm Skanska AB. He brings more than a decade of technology innovation, business and executive management experience to the company, where he is responsible for enterprise architecture, business intelligence, application development and integration. His leadership in those areas has contributed to industry recognition and awards, including annual listings in both the InformationWeek 500 and CIO 100. He currently serves on several IT advisory boards for technology and software companies. Mr. Emerick has been featured in several case studies, articles and he is a frequent speaker at industry events.