Why would I ask for such a thing? It's quite simple and it goes like this. The NBC operates in a changing, increasingly competitive environment. Our competition includes both government and private-sector organizations. Our performance (e.g., sustainability) depends on our ability to compete against other shared-services centers to keep the customers we now have and to earn the business of potential customers. How do we do that? By leveraging our competitive advantages to beat the competition.
What is a competitive advantage? Another good question and I offer another simple answer. A competitive advantage is something that an organization does better than the competition and that is meaningful to customers. Fortunately, the NBC Senior Leadership Team (SLT) has already utilized an industry best-practice called SWOT analysis to identify the potential competitive advantages that the NBC has to offer our customers both overall and within each Line of Business (LOB). SWOT is an acronym that stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. During the formulation of the NBC Strategic Plan, the SLT leveraged the SWOT analysis technique to determine the strategic direction and priorities for the NBC on the whole and for each LOB. Thus, the NBC Strategic Plan describes the path to success by first creating and then leveraging various sources of competitive advantage to deliver superior service for our customers. In essence, this is the vision of success for the NBC that our Strategic Plan describes.
Recall that the NBC Strategic Plan includes elements of both strategy and goals. The key strategies include: Customer Service Excellence, Operational Efficiency and Cost Competitiveness, and Quality Products and Services provided to our customers by our most important asset - our people. The strategic goals are:
- Achieving customer service excellence by identifying and meeting customer requirements.
- Modernizing financial and business management practices.
- Optimizing operational performance by establishing centers of excellence for the delivery of services.
- Developing and sustaining a world class organization by investing in human capital.
Actions are underway to implement more specific projects designed to move the NBC forward with this strategy, instill the desired competitive advantages, and thereby enable the NBC to set the standard for government-wide shared services. For example, expanded use of customer users groups and forums has already begun to improve dialog and understanding with customers. In addition, plans are in progress to overhaul the NBC's customer problem resolution capabilities. In addition, new financial management policies and procedures are already being established as we ready the NBC for the migration into the Interior Franchise Fund, a critical piece of our business strategy to level the playing field in comparison to the other government shared-services centers. Operating as a franchise fund provides us with additional options and incentives that are not currently available to us. This includes the ability to operate more like a private sector business by retaining a certain level of fees that can be used to invest in new systems, processes or technology. In the area of operational performance, much progress has been made in establishing a baseline of performance objectives that are included within our Service Level Agreements (SLAs) we reach with each customer. As the founder and Chairman of the Board of FedEx used to say "you can't manage what you don't measure" and the NBC is taking this aspect of performance management quite seriously. Moreover, the NBC has established a Quality Management Program and is developing detailed implementation plans for the achievement of an ISO-9001 certification. ISO-9001 is an internationally recognized program that provides direction, leadership and resources for the creation, operation, and improvement of a quality management system that focuses on the customer and enhances customer satisfaction by meeting customer requirements. We're serious about being the best quality service provider in the business. Yes, that includes all of our competition! Finally, we've also committed to updating our workforce management plans during this fiscal year, which will assist in the allocation of our scarce training resources to those employee development needs that are consistent with our strategic direction and objectives.
Even though the NBC is clearly positioned to execute on this plan and further develop our sources of competitive advantage, I would be remiss if I did not mention a few of our more challenging obstacles we face. First, our vision for operational effectiveness requires an attention to cost efficiency. In some of our Lines of Business, we have not been as efficient as we could have been with the use and configuration of technology assets. This will require some belt-tightening as we determine and implement more efficient configurations that more appropriately leverage shared technology assets in a more effective manner to achieve economies of scale. Some additional belt-tightening may be required to address some long-standing challenges and ensure that staffing levels are optimally allocated among various technology support areas and services. Finally, the feedback we received from our employees during last year's employee survey indicated we face some challenges with the training of our management team and the consistent use of management tools such as the new five (5) tier performance management system. These are all very difficult challenges that will be extremely arduous to overcome. However, you may rest assured that the NBC Senior Leadership Team is committed to addressing them and corrective actions have already begun. You can expect more communications addressing our status and plans for addressing these challenges in the future.
And so, I close this edition of the Director's Corner with a more specific call to action for NBC employees and contractors. I strongly encourage each of you to take the following actions and participate in making the NBC the best it can be:
- Download and read the NBC Strategic Plan. If you don't have time to read the entire plan, read only those sections relevant to your organization or service area(s).
- Help make the regular staff meeting for your organization more productive for all who attend by coming prepared to discuss the status of strategic initiatives or tactical problems that effect your organization or services you support. Actually ask questions to initiate discussion.
- Consider volunteering to participate as a member of one of the project teams carrying out the initiatives described in the NBC Strategic Plan.
- If you are unable to do any of the items listed above, then do this one thing. Step up your efforts to provide exemplary services for our customers. No matter what your responsibilities are, working for the NBC means that you have customers. Whether you simply redouble your efforts to provide quality services or you help to resolve a problem for a customer, we must all always remember that in the end we have to keep our customers satisfied. So, go make a customer happy!
- Offer new ways to do things better, faster and at a lower cost (or something like that which supports ongoing improvements).
Once again, I thank each and every one of you for your continued efforts on behalf of our customers. I sincerely appreciate all that you do - day in and day out - to meet the needs of our customers. You should be proud of what you have achieved, but not rest on your laurels. Your Senior Leadership Team has raised the bar of expectations with our vision of service excellence and we know you are up to the significant challenges before us. Remember, together we will succeed and our customers will too!
In closing, I offer the following quote from a highly successful business leader, Mr. Jack Welch, former CEO, General Electric Company: "An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage." I believe that this quote succinctly states what the NBC must do to be successful in our highly competitive environment. I very much look forward to working with as many NBC employees and contractors as possible to achieve our vision for service excellence.
Douglas Bourgeois
NBC Director
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