Available On-Demand Event

2012 High Performance Virtual Summit

This year's summit on “Creating Real Change” gives you the opportunity to learn from leaders in healthcare and industries who will share their experiences and perspective on improvement and transformation with an emphasis on what really works.

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New White Paper

Enterprise Risk Management: Proof or Promise?

There is overwhelming consensus among financial services executives that the current risk environment has become significantly more complex, dynamic, and difficult to navigate. Some new mandates are expensive and cut into margins and profitability, so there is a real motivation to not only comply but to more effectively manage the response and cost.

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New Article

AMN Healthcare: Providers Re-engineering Healthcare for Greater Efficiency

With healthcare reimbursement becoming tighter and patients expecting more from their providers, hospitals and other health systems are seeking ways to change processes and become more efficient.

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"Guidon has an excellent training module which our staff felt was very focused on practical application of performance improvement tools; it showed our team how to use the tools in their everyday work."

Developing an Integrated Continuous Improvement Team after Multiple Bank Acquisitions

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Client: A multi-national bank with over 20,000 employees – Most integrated in via acquisition
Industry: Financial Services
Service: Cultural assimilation in a merger and acquisition environment (Continuous Improvement Team Breakthrough)

Challenge:

• Multiple acquisitions had driven growth but resulted in a lack of standardization in business processes
• Performance management metrics were not well understood and were not linked to the customer requirements
• Employees lacked empowerment to impact results
• Organization had no strategy for business process improvement

Solutions:

• Executive level consensus to establish a culture of continuous improvement
• Chartered an internal continuous improvement team to provide leadership to the initiative
• Established Lean Six Sigma as the standard methodology/approach for continuous improvement
• Developed enterprise-wide communication and implementation plans for the initiative

Results:

• Financial benefits were easy to quantify
• Overall annual return was greater than 7 times the investment with some projects yielding returns in excess of 25 times the investment
• Trained improvement team with established methodology to support future improvement opportunities
• Business units reported higher employee engagement, involvement, and empowerment

A large financial organization headquartered in the Midwest was actually a loose confederation of sites, with over 20,000 employees around the globe. Most of its business processes varied by location and site, with little standardization or control. The company was correctly focused on bottom line sales and financial performance. However, they did not understand the critical link to the underlying business processes that drive sales and financial metrics, and ended up struggling to impact results. The company’s growth strategy of constant acquisitions and mergers complicated the picture. Most employees felt disconnected from the customer.

The organization came to realize that it needed a consistent, standard approach to improvement, and decided it could best drive a culture of continuous improvement (CI) by creating a centralized team to guide and champion improvement efforts across the business.

The executive team served as the sponsor and steering committee for the creation of the team, and a small group of individuals (called the Stand Up Team) was assigned the task of establishing a complete continuous improvement program for the company. The Stand Up Team took on the challenge of:

• Evaluating and selecting the best improvement approach for the company
• Assessing the maturity level of the organization for CI
• Creating the organization structure & scorecard linked to goals
• Identifying required resources and skills
• Recruiting and hiring of qualified resources
• Creating a training plan for individuals on the team
• Creating team, project, and individual scorecards and measures of success
• Determining project selection criteria and approach
• Identifying and selecting project management tools and approaches

The Stand Up Team also created a communication plan that was used to inform, prepare and update the entire company about the culture and intent of the continuous improvement efforts. The Executive Steering Committee also created an infrastructure to support and sustain the continuous improvement initiative that included activities of recognition, reward, and review.

The company ended up creating a corporate-level Continuous Improvement Team (CIT) that was capable of providing all the necessary support to the Operating Business Units. The kick-off of the CIT took several months, but its influence and impact grew over the next few years. Overall annual return was greater than 7 times the investment, with some projects yielding returns in excess of 25 times. Business units reported higher employee engagement, involvement, and empowerment, which helped support ongoing improvement opportunities.

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Related Links

Guidon Business Process Management Services
Financial Services Industry Solutions

Contact Guidon

Contact us or call us at 1.866.986.4414 or 480.986.4414 (for international callers) for more information regarding how a Guidon solution can help your organization.

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