The examples
of engagements below are drawn from some past employers and
clients; Norwich Union, Clerical Medical International, Royal
SunAlliance, the NHS (a local Health Authority and a PCT),
Nat West, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Medicash and UPC
(a European cable company).
The examples cover:
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Making a real difference to a market leading business. |
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Background: I was asked to help out
in a contract at one of the UK?s top 5 insurers. This client was implementing a
major transformation and integration programme. A technology company had been
contracted to carry out the systems integration; the client teams were doing
the process redesign and the target system development.
The Problem: The client had fallen badly behind schedule within the first 3
months on the process redesign; within that time none of the scheduled
deliverables had been produced. Meanwhile the technology company was forging
ahead with the systems integration. There were major dependencies between the
two parts later on in the life cycle.
What I did: My role was to lead the client teams to help with
their process design work, and to bring that part back on
schedule. I initially spent a short time identifying the root
causes of the problem, which turned out to be;
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There was a very large amount of specialised work to be done. Every business process |
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had to be examined and most redesigned; the plan had underestimated the effort. |
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Furthermore, many of the target processes
and systems were not adequately documented, |
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so much of the
information required to do the exercise resided only in the
heads of client staff. |
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The client teams had never done this
type of work before and the internal consultants were |
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not
trained in process analysis. |
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To address these problems I took the
following action; |
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I
analysed the processes to identify which ones were most likely to
present a risk to the |
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other workstream if they were not delivered
on time, and prioritised them. For example, the designs of
surrender and maturity processes are highly dependant on the
nature of the contracts and data, and so were a priority.
Whereas direct debit collection processes are similar on all
systems and so de-prioritised. |
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To deal with the lack of documentation, I arranged and
facilitated a requirements workshop |
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for each process,
gathering together the appropriate staff. To make the
workshops efficient, requirements were developed and
documented in real time with the team, using a laptop
and projector. This meant they could see exactly what
was written there and then, and so removed almost all
the traditional problems with subsequent sign-off
of the document. Any issues unresolved in the workshop
were logged, owners assigned and tracked through to
resolution. The requirements then formed a sound basis
for the process redesigns. |
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I provided training and mentoring to the client?s
internal consultants in requirements |
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analysis, process
documentation and design, and facilitation. |
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I subsequently
carried out a process review, and worked with the technology company |
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team to
amend their system integration method, so such projects would be less
vulnerable to such problems in future. |
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Benefit: The project was
brought back on track within 3
months and ultimately delivered on time.
Failure would have caused an additional cost of £500k per month
of delay, and put strains on the relationship between the
technology company and their client. Furthermore, the skills
I gave to the client and the changes in the method gave both
companies the capability to avoid such problems in future. |
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Using technology to enable business performance. |
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Background: Some years ago I was running a project to develop
an extra-net for intermediaries in a UK market. A major part of
the scope was the delivery of monthly and quarterly performance
data to the site users. This information was already being
delivered to the market on paper. My role was to manage the
project but also to be the process consultant.
The Problem: The monthly information was taking 4 weeks
to produce, and the quarterly data 9 weeks, so both were out
of date almost as soon as they were issued. Both sets of
information were still needed on paper, but now HTML was also
needed for the web pages and .pdf for download. I was asked
to shorten the time scale for production, reduce the process
cost, and publish the data in 3 formats instead of 1.
What I did: I set about documenting the current production
process so I could understand how it worked and where all the
data was coming from. Overall the process was long, manual and
complex, with multiple hand-offs and delays. At the end of
the process, copy for printing was manually produced
(paper and glue). Sign-off was given by various departments
which resulted in multiple, costly changes to the copy. |
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The actions I took to fix this were as follows; |
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I redesigned the process so it was simpler
and more straightforward, and documented |
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the new design. |
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I involved all key players in the
process so no-one had any surprises, and introduced them
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to one-another so they knew what each was doing. |
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I negotiated with various departments
to move work around so as to reduce unnecessary |
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hand offs.
I also negotiated a change in the management control
environment to simplify sign-off. |
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I developed a data base and spread
sheet so all information could be collected |
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and collated
locally, and in one place. |
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I had the staff research and acquire new
software that could create copy for printing, but |
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also export
to HTML and .pdf, so the 3 forms of publication required
could be produced from a single source at no extra cost.
This also meant that only one piece of copy had to be signed
off. |
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I also ensured that training was given
to staff for both the new software, and the use of the
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process documentation. |
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Benefit:
The overall result was that the time taken to publish monthly
data was reduced from 4 weeks to 3 days, and the Quarterly data
from 9 weeks to 4 days. Process costs were reduced by 60% and
output was tripled. The whole of the new process was now
documented, and all the software used was within the control
of the staff operating it, so they could continue to improve
it on their own.
The core of this solution was the software which collected,
collated and published the information, but as always the process
design and involvement of people was also crucial. |
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Influencing Board level thinking. |
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Background: I had been working for some months facilitating
the strategy planning of a top UK Life & Pensions company.
The Problem:The board had identified that Strategies in
past years had failed, and blamed the problem on the strategic
direction they had taken.
What I did: I was not convinced they could reliably draw
this conclusion; I believed that the strategies had not had a
chance to prove themselves to be right or wrong, as they had
failed in implementation. Until the company had the internal
capabilities to reliably deliver strategic change and move the
company in the chosen strategic direction (whatever that
direction it may be) they would get the same results for
good strategies and bad strategies. |
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So firstly I set about checking if my
view was correct; |
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I looked back at previous projects to
see how successful they had been. This revealed that |
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little data was kept on project success; delivery of benefits was
not monitored, baseline project plans and budgets were rarely
kept and never reviewed against actual experience; and there
was little formal change control for project scope.
Anecdotal evidence suggested that projects almost always
ran over budget, over time and under scope. |
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I also examined divisional and departmental objectives. This
revealed that the objectives |
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rarely aligned with strategic objectives;
one division?s objectives sometimes conflicted with
another?s; and where co-operation was required
between divisions they rarely had shared objectives.
Furthermore, most objectives lacked any objective measure
of success. Anecdotal evidence suggested that divisional
managers only did things that they could control in their
division, because they could not get co-operation from
other divisions. |
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The upshot was that only divisional changes were made, and because
they did not focus on strategy, many conflicted and there was
little genuine improvement.
I presented this back to the board, and convinced them that they
had a major problem with their ability to define and deploy
strategic objectives, and with the ability to implement and
monitor the projects and other activities necessary to deliver
strategy. They accepted that this had to be addressed before
they worried about exactly what their future strategy was to be.
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To address the situation I; |
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Implemented a system of cascading objectives
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based on one used in Japan called Policy Deployment (Hoshin Kanri).
This ensured that all objectives were aligned with strategy, and with each other.
Objectives were cascaded down the management chain and into
projects, and progress was subject to periodic review. |
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Persuaded the board to establish a Project Department |
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to
oversee the running of projects across the company. I worked
closely with the manager appointed to set up a system which
prioritised projects, monitored re sources conflicts, identified
and monitored benefits, installed a QA/QC system and gave
training as needed to the project managers. |
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Benefit: the company was in a
position to implement strategy effectively; this was a
major leap forward in its internal capability, and without
it no strategy would have been successful. |
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Applying a holistic understanding of how business works. |
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Background: I was involved in a project to implement an internet site for a
Life Insurer, to deliver information and brochures to customers,
and sales ideas to its sales force. The speed and ease of
publishing such information was a major attraction of the
development, and it was intended to increase the responsiveness
of the sales force and so increase sales.
The Problem: The project was run by IT and was being driven
in some isolation from the rest of the company.
What I did: The practical area of thought leadership that
I offer to clients is my holistic understanding of how insurance
companies work. As a process consultant I understand both their
business and management processes. As a licensed user of the
Organisational Cultural Inventory I am familiar with assessing
culture. As a qualified actuary I understand their products,
finances and the regulatory environment. I see companies as an
integrated ?system? where products, processes and culture
combine to deliver to results to all stakeholders.
What I did in this instance was to bring this experience to bear,
and look wider than the initial scope of the project. I made a
point of looking beyond the immediate delivery of the site, and
into some of the client?s off-line business processes.
I discovered that the process for developing and authorising
product changes, brochures and other information was extremely
cumbersome. If a product feature was changed it could take 6
months to publish the revised brochure. If an opportunity arose
in the market, it could take 4-8 weeks to publish the leaflet
giving the idea and advice to the sales. This meant that when
the site was delivered, the company would be unable to gain the
benefits hoped for. |
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The problems were; |
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There were 5 different teams involved in
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the process who were in 3 different cities. The brochures
were developed by being sent round each in turn to make
amendments. One team would then amend another?s amendment.
This was a problem with the process. |
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The process was over controlled, with 4
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the 5 teams having a controlling role; the one team who
had no control were the team tasked with writing the text.
This was a problem with the control environment. |
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The team writing the text were given no
training |
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by the other teams in what they would be looking
for when they were approving the text. Consequently the
initial drafts were rarely even close to what was
acceptable. The company was very oriented round its
functions, and co-operation and sharing of understanding
did not come naturally. This was a problem with the
culture. |
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I made a series of recommendations to
the client to address these issues. |
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Benefit:
if the client did not address these issues the benefit of the
new web site would not be realised. It is a good example of
how a technology development may fail to gain benefit if one
only considers the IT system?the whole system needs to be
examined and redesigned if necessary.
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Innovating in management. |
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Background: An outpatient unit of a local hospital trust
had a problem when the consultant left unexpectedly. The
hospital knew it would take many months to find a replacement,
so I was asked to help the unit?s junior management to organise
themselves such that they could operate without a consultant.
When a consultant did arrive, I also assisted with the planning
of a new strategy for the unit.
The Problem: Clinical units in hospitals in hospitals have
three separate reporting lines ? one for doctors, one for nurses,
and a third for administrative staff. A consultant ties all of
these together, and without one there is considerable risk that
the unit will cease to function effectively. Also, at district
level there was pressure to consolidate such units, and there
was a perceived threat of closure if the unit did not perform.
What I did: I helped the unit to establish a self-managing
team in place of a consultant. I advised them on setting up a
steering group to lead carry out the role of self management,
and helped them to set their own agenda for improvement. I
coached them in improvement techniques, and helped design a
questionnaire to assess patient satisfaction.
The use of a steering group for the unit, which involved
representatives from all disciplines, was a revolutionary
approach for the hospital and contributed to a significant
improvement in staff satisfaction. The use of data on patient
satisfaction to drive the agenda for change was also innovative
and was much appreciated by my client. |
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As a result, the unit introduced changes
to the way they operated, for example; |
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A telephone unit was established for
delivery
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of results, which improved the unit?s efficiency
and decreased (i.e. improved) the rate at which patients
failed to attend for appointments by 30%. |
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The appointments system was improved,
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so that patients could be offered a wider choice of appointment
time (which reduced waiting times) and could be offered a
doctor of their choice. |
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After 12 months a new consultant was appointed. I worked with
him to help him understand the innovative approach used by
his unit, and to see the value in working in this way. I was
then asked to help him plan out a strategy for the unit,
part of which was to address the perceived threats of
merger at district level.
We also worked on understanding who the unit?s stakeholders
were, and improving service to the patients. For example,
close links were established with a related clinical unit
which lead to staff sharing, improved training and a more
seamless service to patients. |
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Benefit:
The unit continued to operate and improve throughout the
period they were without a consultant. They subsequently
won the hospital?s award for quality and a national
accreditation from the King?s Fund.
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Shaping a technology-enabled strategy. |
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Background: had been asked to review the e-commerce
strategy of an international Life & Pensions company. They
were operating mainly in the European market and wanted to
have all applications and quotes for policies placed on-line
to reduce costs and speed up response times.
The Problem: The strategy was fairly standard for the
time, and many UK companies were looking at the same approach.
However I believed that it was necessary to analyse the European
market to ensure there were no factors that may make this
approach inappropriate
What I did: I worked with the client?s IT and business
teams to look at their market ? its products, distribution and
technology.
In most of Europe insurance products are distributed through two
layers of intermediaries ? ?distributors? who are the customer
facing intermediaries, and ?master distributors? (MDs) who act
as umbrella organisations. These MDs form the relationship
with insurers, agree commission rates, and act as an
administration office for the distributors. Commission is
paid to them, and they then pay a part of this to the
distributor. They are similar to UK organisations such as
Countrywide, but have a much stronger grip on the insurers
as there are not many of them; so if the insurer loses a
contract with one, they will lose a large proportion of
their distribution.
I argued that if quotes and proposals were put on line, and sent
directly from the distributor to the insurer, this would cut out
the MD from the process and so undermine their role with their
distributors. There was a risk that they would not take kindly
to this and may terminate their contracts with my client.
Subsequent discussions with MDs confirmed this.
In addition, we identified that the distributors worked almost
exclusively from lap-tops. They tended to be mobile, and not use
desk-tops connected to the internet. So having on-line quotes
would be of little benefit to them. They currently had a simple
quotes system written in C which they obtained from my client,
and was updated by floppy disk every month.
Basically, my client was moving too fast for the market; what
would have worked in the UK would not be appreciated in Europe
at that time. So I had to advise my client to slow down their
strategy, and match their approach to the current methods in
the market. This was somewhat contrary to the exciting new
world that was envisaged by all at the time, but I could see
my client was not going to change a foreign market on their
own, and would most likely alienate a significant portion
of their distribution network.
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So I helped them to change their strategy to; |
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Create a role for MDs in the on-line distribution process. |
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Offer MDs a share of the cost savings by
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increasing commission rates if they used the on-line
facilities. |
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Continue to use the C based quotes program, but deliver
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updates by down-load rather than by floppy disk. |
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Benefit:
The revised approach cost less to implement and significantly
reduced business risk.
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