IEEE Business Administration 

IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional association.  The Business Administration (BA) group provides financial, marketing, administrative and operational services for the IEEE.  BA departments include Member and Customer Service, Corporate Activities, Finance, Sales & Marketing and Facilities.  BA has assumed a leadership role in quality and process management at IEEE.  The group has deployed project/process management and provides leadership within the IEEE for customer focused, continuous improvement. 

Challenge 

Although many good initiatives had been undertaken, BA management decided to step back and conduct an overall assessment of the department’ operations to assess its progress and achieve recognition for its accomplishments. The Baldrige Performance Excellence Criteria was selected as the assessment tool and, to gain external feedback for improvement, BA would apply for the New Jersey Governor’s Award for Performance Excellence.   

BA selected DeBaylo Associates to assist in this effort for its expertise in: 

            à Preparing an Effective Application for Recognition

            à Baldrige Criteria and Framework Implementation  

Approach 

DeBaylo Associates was engaged to assist in developing an application and preparing for the mandatory site visit, including training the management team and key department members in the Performance Excellence Criteria.  A project plan was developed that spanned about 10 months to allow for this knowledge transfer and to not interfere with normal operations. DeBaylo Associates conducted its “How to Write an Effective Application” course which provided the management team with an understanding of the Baldrige process and the Performance Excellence Criteria.  Teams were chartered to prepare process descriptions and business results in accordance with the Criteria.  DeBaylo Associates provided coaching for each team in support of their work; conducting periodic reviews and giving feedback as needed.  A smaller writing team was responsible for integrating the teams’ drafts into a cohesive application.  Finally, a training session was held to prepare the subject matter experts for the site visit team of examiners. 

Results 

More than 50 department members were involved in the assessment process and preparing input to the application.  This broad based learning provided a foundation-level understanding of the Baldrige management system and provided the staff with a better understanding of all the departmental processes.  The feedback report provided valuable output of the process.  The Strengths identified reaffirmed the progress that had been made.  The Opportunities for Improvement identified provided guidance for further action.  One such action has led to the development and deployment of a Balanced Scorecard measurement system, which has become a benchmark in the trade association industry.