Tag: Business Analysis

The BA Practice Lead Handbook 2 – Why Business Analysis? What’s in it for me?

Written by Kathleen B. Hass, PMP on January 15, 2013. Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on The BA Practice Lead Handbook 2 – Why Business Analysis? What’s in it for me?

In the previous article, we discussed the reasons Business Analysis is emerging as a critical business practice for the 21st century. But we sometimes have difficulty explaining the value of Business Analysis; driving an understanding of the WIIFM (What’s in it for me?). So let’s examine what a real BA is, one who is enterprise and strategically focused and who executes strategy, advances enterprise capabilities, and delivers innovative products and services….and what it means for everyone, including:

What’s in it for the CIO?
What’s in it for the Business Manager?
What’s in it for the Technologists?
What’s in it for the Project Manager?

The Value of the Business Analyst

The most important tool in the Business Analysts’ arsenal is the Business Case. The life of every important change initiative begins and ends with a Business Case. Unless a change initiative (project) results in business benefits in terms of value to the customer and/or wealth to the bottom line, it is a failed venture – even if it is delivered on time and on budget. It is in the Business Case that the expected costs and business benefits are outlined. Without it, you are engaged in steering a rudderless vessel. Yet, in far too many projects, a Business Case does not exist. If it does exist, it is often unconvincing and used only to get funding for a project. The value of the Business Analyst is realized through execution and management of the Business Case, and the role of the BA changes subtly throughout the life of the project.

The Enterprise Analyst. Developing what is often referred to as a “brilliant Business Case” is essentially and R&D, creative endeavor. The effort requires adequate time, a skilled facilitator (the Enterprise BA), a strategic focus, and creative expert resources. The effort is driven by the Business Analyst. The Business Case is owned by the Business Analyst; that is to say the Business Analyst authors and maintains the Business Case in collaboration with business and technology thought leaders.

The Project Analyst. Once a project has been approved based on the Business Case, the Business Analyst transitions from the role of Enterprise Analyst to a Project Analyst. Typically, the Business Case is no longer used, since the project is approved, resourced, and funded. However, as the BA elicits detailed business requirements and the solution design emerges, she continues to validate the expected costs and benefits, updates the Business Case and alerts decision makers if the original assumptions and projections are at risk, and recommends a course correction. This validation/update cycle is essential to keep the Business Case alive, and to keep everyone’s focus on the business benefits. Remember, the Business Case is developed when we know the least about the endeavor, so it is no longer valid unless updated as more is learned.

The Business Realization Analyst. After a new solution is deployed, the BA serves as a Business Realization Manager, measuring the value of the new solution, and making improvements and adjustments to the solution or how it is used if the value does not measure up to the original benefit projections.

Business Analysis: What’s in it for the CIO

Why does a CIO care about Business Analysis? What’s in it for him/her? Consider some insight from the Gartner Group, Northwestern University, and DiamondCluster International survey of 130 senior IT executives:

51% Percentage of CIOs with no process to evaluate IT investment against business strategy
68%    Percentage of CIOs who don’t compare actual IT project benefits to original targets
74%    Percentage of CIOs who don’t track financial metrics after making an investment
80%    Percentage of CIOs who say lack of financial skills makes quantifying IT benefits difficult

This revealing study, together with the fact that only 37% of IT projects are successful, costing the economy billions of dollars (see article #1 in this series), make for a very challenging situation for CIOs. And their peers in the boardroom are increasingly demanding return on their IT investments. CEOs have a stunning awareness that many of their very costly IT projects, whether for technology infrastructure upgrades, to implement a new improved business process, or to deploy a new product or service, fail to achieve expected value. Furthermore, they are frustrated and unclear about how to fix the problem.

If the onslaught of Business Analysis practices promise to produce convincing Business Cases, CIOs can finally predict, deliver, and demonstrate real value. All too often Business Cases relying on traditional ROI measures, are often unrealistically high, knowingly or unknowingly low, or simply unconvincing. BAs need to reverse this trend, producing brilliant Business Cases that are convincing and accurate.

So, here is your elevator speech to your CIO: “Many enlightened CIOs are placing their bets on implementation of a world class Business Analysis Practice to finally predict, produce, deliver, and measure expected business benefits.”

Business Analysis: What’s in it for the Business Manager

One strategy used by executives is to put a mid- to senior-level manager in charge of expensive project investments for a department or line of business. So not only is the CIO being held accountable for driving value to the customer and wealth to the bottom line, front line management is also on the hook.
So, here is your elevator speech to your business partner: “Adequate time spent up front on the business case will ensure we develop an innovative solution, and predict, produce, deliver, and measure expected business benefits.”

Business Analysis: What’s in it for the Technologists?

Similarly, CIOs put a mid- to senior-level IT manager in charge of the technology for expensive IT project investments. So not only is the CIO being held accountable for driving value to the customer and wealth to the bottom line, front line IT management is also on the hook.
Assuming the BA partners with the business manager and lead technologist who are on point when creating the Business Case, they will be invaluable in helping keep the focus on the business benefits.

So, here is your elevator speech to your lead technologist: “An experienced BA assigned throughout the project will ensure we develop an innovative solution, and predict, produce, deliver, and measure expected business benefits.”

Business Analysis: What’s in it for the Project Manager

And then there is the project manager (PM). Whether there is a convincing Business Case or not, the PM is expected to drive forward, delivering the solution on time and on budget. The PM cares about cost, but only project cost as opposed to the total cost of ownership of the new solution. PMs generally don’t focus on the cost to operate or maintain the new solution, only on the build or acquisition costs. As a result, project success to PMSs is often determined by measures other than business value.

The BA keeps the focus on the business value expected from the new solution. The BA collaborates with the PM to conduct trade-off analysis and make the tough project decisions. The BA also had her ear to the ground to determine if business needs are changing that might impact the current project objectives.
So, here is your elevator speech to your PM: “It has been estimated that a PM increases the probability of project success by 400% with an exceptional BA on the project.” (BA Benchmark Study, AG Consulting 2008)

Putting it all Together

So what does this mean for the Business Analyst?

If your project does not have a Business Case, pull together a small but mighty team of experts and facilitate them through the development of key Business Case elements. You will need experts who can predict trends, think outside the box, see the big picture, deal with complexity, and help create a strong team. Then, present the Business Case to the business executive and lead technologist who have the most ownership in the success of the project, and ask them if it describes what they are looking for from the project outcomes.

What’s in it for the BA? This will get you noticed as an elite BA, one who is focusing on business value as opposed to requirements management. Look for more about building a convincing Business Case in future articles in this series.

So what does this mean for the BA Practice Lead?

As Practice Lead/BA Manager, your primary focus should be on the capability of your BA team to build brilliant Business Cases. Develop a standard agenda for conducting a Business Case workshop. Insist that your BAs build and maintain Business Cases for all critical projects.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.

Business Analysis: Art or Science?

Written by Greg Kulander on January 15, 2013. Posted in Articles.

This is the first of a four-part series exploring whether ‘business analysis’ is an art or a science.

“Is Business Analysis art or science?”

I am no Albert Einstein. I’m not Richard Feinman, Carl Sagan or any other great scientific mind.

Likewise, I’m no Andy Warhol, Vincent van Gogh or Pablo Picasso.

But I am a Business Analyst. So, am I practicing a science or an art?

I first became a Business Analyst over 10 years ago. After several years as a sales rep in another industry, I found myself at a career crossroads that led me to enroll in the Masters of MIS program at a local University. I was not sure exactly what I was looking for, but I knew I wanted to move my career in a more technical direction and this was the way I chose to do it. Two years later at graduation, I understood a little bit about programming, databases, systems design, and project management and had a deeper set of business skills. The only problem was – what do I do now?

Fortunately I had developed a relationship with someone who became a trusted friend and mentor who suggested I consider becoming a Business Analyst. She thought it might be right for me with my sales background mixed with my newly minted technical perspective.

I got my first Business Analysis job at a bank and worked mostly on projects building web-based tax payment systems. I was one of the first BAs hired. It seemed like a good place, but I was unsure how to approach my new role. What was the ‘science’ of my new profession? How could I apply my new training and knowledge in a workable way?

My supervisor introduced me to one of the “Big 4” consulting firm methodologies, and suggested I take a look and try to figure out what BAs did there. These intimidating six 3-ring binders were full of concepts I was not familiar with and more project deliverables that I could have ever imagined. However, I found one template that looked like it was built to hold business requirements and another built to hold system specifications, so I tried them out. Although foreign at first, I had found a framework where I could communicate a story in a way that both business and technical people understood. With each project, we tweaked these templates to suit our needs, found a couple of others and kept using them. The business and IT responded positively to them!

I was then introduced to the Capability Maturity Model. Developed by Carnegie Mellon University, the CMM defines five levels of “predictability, effectiveness, and control of an organization’s software development processes…,” and it covers all phases of software development. There are many valuable components within CMM, but the one that always stuck with me was a simple principle – If you find something that works, repeat it. Our teams developed repeatable processes and we became more predictable, reliable, and better able to deliver on time. The science of business analysis was working for me.

Later on, I was asked to take a six-month assignment doing nothing but reading government RFPs, extracting a potential project scope, and delivering the information to colleagues in such a way that we could develop estimates needed as a foundation for a bid. SMEs avoided me, as they had their day jobs and had no interest in reviewing something that would likely never come to pass, so I had to find some way to make it easy for them. The ‘science’ of business analysis was no longer working for me!

I began to rely heavily on modeling skills. I built numerous context diagrams, process flow charts, swim lanes and whatever model would work best to help development, infrastructure, operations and other teams quickly assess whether this project was right for us. The pictures told the story! I was finding the ‘art’ side of business analysis now.

Continuing with the ‘art of business analysis,’ I found myself preparing for a requirements elicitation session for an expected 10-12 attendees. I was confident, having done my homework and felt ready to get the job done. However, as the attendees arrived, it appeared everyone had chosen to bring a friend, and the attendance grew to 30 people, all clustered in two separate groups around the room. I came to learn that one group made home office policy decisions, while the other group served the field offices. Bottom line: They frequently did not see eye-to-eye.

As I worked through my agenda, it became helpful to reach out to each of the participants and get their thoughts on the table. As people began to realize they were being heard, and that their opinion would matter, bonds of trust began to form as the two teams found common ground in the project. The “art” of facilitation brought alignment to the teams.

Throughout my career, I’ve had to use a mix of skills from the disciplines of art and science. Each project is different. Some are best served with lots of documentation and heavy process, while others require more creativity and stronger relationships. In this series, we’ll discuss the mix of skills from the worlds of art and science, and show you how you can use skills from both areas to make yourself a stronger Business Analyst.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.

Business Analysis is Dead, Long Live Business Analysis

Written by Kupe Kupersmith on January 8, 2013. Posted in Articles.

The start of a new year is a good time to reflect. I have been thinking about where business analysis has come and where is it headed. During my thought process I came to the conclusion that business analysis is officially dead or at least on a respirator. I have been involved in the BA space since the turn of the century (with it being 2013 that’s not as long as it sounds, but it sounds so much better than the mid 90’s). The profession has transformed dramatically in the last 17 years. When I broke into the field a trend was taking off where companies had roles dedicated to business analysis work and titles like Business Analyst, Systems Analyst or the more common Business Systems Analyst. These titles were found primarily in IT organizations and companies started seriously thinking about how to train people that performed the sole role of business analysis. There are many reasons that sparked this trend.

In the United States one reason was the interpretation of governmental regulations. Many project teams implemented a strict process in how they elicited, documented, and communicated requirements. Another reason was due to companies around the world implementing large ERP systems. Having people specialize in business analysis work was necessary due to the amount of process, data, and functional analysis that was needed. Reports were saying the biggest cause of project failure was due to poor requirements. How teams were developing software almost required a team of BA specialists to be more efficient. At this time some key vendors created curriculum and training for the role. In 2003 the IIBA emerged to help have a common definition of the profession and to certify people as business analysis professionals. There are more reasons, but you get the picture.

Since a role was emerging there were serious, passionate discussions about the various levels of business analysis professionals and what does a business analysis career path look like? The largest debate was do BAs grow up to be PMs or something else. You are probably thinking, “I just had a conversation about that last week!” You are not alone. These conversations are still happening year after year. There is a lot of talk now about BA career paths and what makes a good junior BA, a good intermediate BA, and a good senior BA. This discussion and need primarily comes from IT groups and more specifically related to project work. To some extent this is necessary. There has to be some entry point, some launching point, and this is the space where most people start to learn their BA skills. But, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Is business analysis really dead then? No…not at all. Although, it is dead as we knew it. The larger impact of business analysis is needed now more than ever before. The question I pondered regarding the future of business analysis was is business analysis a profession that someone aspires to have and continue through a career or is it a skill that you can continue to work on and use in any career. My answer is business analysis is shifting away from a career someone has to the value of business analysis activities regardless of one’s role, title or job function. If we are to grow the awareness and impact business analysis has on companies focusing on junior, intermediate, and senior BAs is a disservice. It is time to expand the horizons.

There are two major trends happening today driving this shift. The first is IT project teams are building software differently. Even though I wrote a blog about agile being a fad, Agile is a Fad; agile practices are not a fad at all. After a conversation with a vice president of a large IT group this thought of the shift really hit me. He said he no longer hires Business Analysts. After a little digging he meant he does not hire someone that wants their role to only be a Business Analyst. He needs people that can be flexible and play the roles needed by their team or teams. The scale is tipping away from BAs solely doing business analysis work within project teams. More companies are realizing everyone needs to perform business analysis to some extent on the team. Everyone needs the BA mindset because business analysis is not done in a black box or a vacuum. Business analysis is a true team sport.

The second trend is traditional BAs are growing up and out of IT project teams using their skills in other roles and being successful. More business analysis professionals are moving into more strategy roles like enterprise or strategic BAs, business architecture, management consulting, and managing lines of business in large and small companies. This is where individuals and companies really see the value of business analysis. Look around…business analysis work is happening all around you.

These trends are very positive. Think of them as an opportunity. On project teams you will get to use other skills you have and try new things. You can help coach and mentor other team members to embrace the business analysis mindset. For your future the end is not a senior BA. That is just the beginning. Think of the BA skills you have, and continue to build upon, as tools you will use in any position. Positions like CIO, manager of a business area, and the owner or employee of any business. These trends show that business analysis skills are not only for people with the Business Analyst title. They are important to everyone. Long live business analysis.

All the best,
Kupe

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.

BA Practice Lead Handbook 1 – Why is Business Analysis taking the World by Storm?

Written by Kathleen B. Hass, PMP on December 11, 2012. Posted in Articles.

The articles in this series are focused on individual Business Analysts and their managers.

Global and Local Challenges

Businesses are faced with unprecedented challenges.

The Integrated Economy

Everyone is feeling the effects of the global integrated economy, and Business Analysts (BAs) are no exception. Many jobs are becoming commoditized, by that I mean they can be performed by internal resources, contractors, or even outsourced resources located anywhere across the globe. Global wage scales have made U.S. employees too expensive to perform standard, repetitive tasks. Many U.S. jobs are gone and not coming back. For these reasons, basic BA tasks are often outsourced or performed by contractors.

Information Technology

IT applications have also impacted U.S. jobs by automating repetitive activities, often increasing the quality and predictability of outcomes. In addition, many IT applications have fundamentally changed the way we live, work, and play. The repetitive BA tasks are now being automated through the use of integrated requirements management tools, thus freeing the BA for higher-level activities.

Social Media and Hyper-Connectivity

Social media has connected us all in obvious and subtle ways, some of which we don’t yet fully understand. As we saw across the Middle East, people are using social media to bring about major changes to social and political systems. BAs are using social media to enhance collaboration among key stakeholders.

Innovation vs. Business as Usual

The call to action for today’s businesses is ‘innovate or evaporate’. For businesses to be competitive, they must be first to market with innovative, leading-edge products and services. It is no longer enough for BAs to ask their business partners what they want or need. BAs must learn to foster creativity and innovation during their requirements sessions.

Business Value Realization

Businesses cannot afford to waste project investments or precious resource time unless there are significant business benefits in terms of value to the customer and wealth to the bottom line. Enterprise BAs understand the business, their value proposition, and focus on value throughout the project.

37% Project Success Rate

With business success riding on innovation and first-to-market speed, we must be able to deliver on project commitments However, according to the CHAOS Report 2011 by the Standish Group, business change initiatives that rely heavily on IT are only 37% successful, as measured by on time, on budget, and with the full scope of functions and features. What is the cost of the other 63%, the failed and challenged projects? According to Roger Sessions, the cost is USD 1.22 trillion/year in the US, and USD 500 billion/month Worldwide. So project success equates to global competitiveness and financial stability.

“If we could solve the problem of IT failure, the US could increase GDP by USD 1 trillion/yr. “
Roger Sessions, Simple Architectures for Complex Enterprises

Complexity

All of these forces are influenced by the enormous level of complexity that exists at all levels, globally, nationally, locally, and within projects. With complexity comes dynamic, unpredictable, adaptive change. Since projects are complex adaptive systems operating within a complex environment, typical plan-based project practices are ineffective when attempting to bring about speed and innovation.

Enter Business Analysis: Changing the way we do Projects

So what does all this have to do with Business Analysis? The root cause of our dismal project performance is twofold: gaps in Enterprise Business Analysis and Complex Project Management. Both of these disciplines are emerging to address our 21st century challenges. Complex Project Management will be addressed in future articles. In this article we define the need for and the elements of Enterprise Business Analysis.

What is Enterprise Business Analysis?

Enterprise Business Analysis focuses on strategy, enterprise capabilities, and innovative products and services. It is very different from what we think of as Requirements Analysis, or typical Business Analysis defining and managing requirements. Enterprise Business Analysis demands different BA practices, those that are more mature and focused on adaptive change and innovation. Higher BA maturity levels are directly correlated to more effective business alignment of projects, higher quality business solutions, increased customer satisfaction, increased creativity and innovation, and an increase in the business benefits that result from implementation of new business solutions. Consider the following BA Practice Maturity Model.

Most of us think of Business Analysis as the capabilities needed to successfully manage requirements at Level 2, the project level. To succeed at this level, a basic BA Framework needs to be in place, containing all the elements listed above for Level 2. And remember, we are only successful 37% of the time at project execution. And we don’t even measure business benefits. Enterprise Business Analysis involves capabilities at Levels 3 and 4. The BA practices required for each level are described in more detail below.

Putting it all Together

What does this mean for the Business Analyst?

Traditional BA note-taking jobs are being outsourced, and are not coming back. BA tools are growing up, and typical BA tasks are being automated and commoditized. BAs will no longer be “documenters”. BAs will focus on strategy and innovation vs. business as usual; leadership vs. requirements management.

How are we doing transitioning to Enterprise Business Analysts? Unfortunately companies can’t find the BAs they need. According to Tom Friedman, author of That Used to be Us, companies are looking for critical thinking, the ability to:

Adapt, invent, and re-invent
Collaborate, create, and innovate
Leverage complexity to compete

So, work with your organizations to adopt a mature tool that supports the BA of the future. Become expert at collaboration, creativity, innovation, and value realization. Then, you will truly be a vital asset to your organization.

What does this mean for the BA Practice Lead?

For the BA manager, the implications are pretty obvious. Take these steps immediately to begin to build your BA team of the future.

1. Make it a priority to acquire and implement an integrated requirements management tool with a knowledge repository. Sophisticated BA tools are finally available. They provide support in so many ways:

- Educate your BAs on leading BA practices
- Prompt BAs on the questions to ask
- Forward engineer BA deliverables into commonly used desktop tools
- Keep all BA artifacts up to date and in sync so they are accurate and can be reused
- Free your BAs from being buried in documentation creation and maintenance

2. Build an Enterprise BA corps consisting of individuals who possess higher-level thinking capabilities. Look for BAs who:

- Thrive when dealing with ambiguity and complexity
- Build strong, high-performing teams
- Ignite creativity and innovation
- Experiment, learns, experiments more
- Predict trends
- Think outside the box
- See the big picture
- Have credibility and influence

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.

The Kaizen Business Analyst

Written by Jarett Hailes on March 5, 2012. Posted in Articles.

As Business Analysts, we are often focused on helping our stakeholders improve their processes and operations. We have worked to understand their current state, identify requirements, and engage others to help deliver innovative solutions that set up our customers for success. Most Business Analysts I’ve met get a great deal of satisfaction in finding ways to help people or companies do their jobs more effectively. Sometimes we become so outwardly focused that it can be easy to forget that it is important to take the time to work on improving our own processes. By finding ways to make our own practices better, we can increase the value we deliver to our organizations and stakeholders.

When looking to improve ourselves professionally, we can identify and try to implement changes big and small. Big, sweeping changes are often the most difficult to achieve, regardless of whether you are a 10,000-person organization or a single individual. Big changes are met with fear, doubt, inertia, laziness, and many other barriers. Our initial enthusiasm can dwindle if we don’t start to see immediate results, and in the end we consciously or unconsciously decide to abandon the change. This is why so many of us fail our New Year’s resolutions; often they are big visionary statements that involve a large amount of change.

Instead of trying to make big changes, we can focus on implementing a personal development process that allows us to improve our services continually with small but meaningful changes. The Japanese term Kaizen means ‘continuous improvement,’ and methodologies have been developed to implement Kaizen in small, incremental, and purposeful steps to yield dramatic changes over time. Kaizen has been used in lean manufacturing methods at companies such as Toyota, Intel, and Lockheed Martin. While this methodology has been used mainly in manufacturing, it is focused on helping individuals and small teams become as efficient and effective as possible at the job they do.

Some of the main principles of a Kaizen approach to continuous improvement are:

Think of ways to make something happen, as opposed to reasons why something can’t be done.
Do not seek perfection; start change right away and build on that change over time.
When something doesn’t work as expected, take the time to understand the root causes of why things went wrong.
When faced with hardship, take the wisdom gained and look to apply it to your next task.
Measure your successes and failures so you can actually tell if you are improving.

This approach not only works for teams, but also for individuals. We can use the principles of Kaizen to ensure that we are always finding ways to make our work better, which in turn improves the lives of our customers. Here are some steps to becoming a Kaizen Business Analyst:

Develop your mindset: when you first arrive at work, take 30 seconds to remind yourself that today is an opportunity to find ways to do your work better. Review what you will be doing today and your plan to get things done.
Document your performance: while you are working, take the time to quickly jot down how long things take you to get done. For tasks that are part of a bigger multi-day goal (for example, having requirements reviewed), build a very simple spreadsheet or leverage your organization’s timesheet to track your total time on an activity. Aside from time spent on a task, find other relevant measures given the type of work you do; for example, how many rounds of review are required prior to requirements being signed off? Think of the relevant performance measures for your analysis activities and track them over time.
Reflect on your activities: at the end of the day, take a quick review of the work you did and reflect on what went well and what didn’t go as ideal. Make some quick notes and associate them with the relevant tasks they belong to. For areas that didn’t go as well, write down one to two things that could have been done differently that would have improved the outcome. Take a look at your tasks for the next day, and with your history of ideas for improvement in hand, identify what you will try differently tomorrow. If you have identified ways that you could improve but need outside assistance to make them happen, plan who you will connect with to help get the ball rolling on implementing those changes.
Experiment with new ideas: find interesting things that you think will help improve the quality or efficiency of your work and try them out. Whether it’s a new elicitation technique, a new conflict resolution approach for those two stakeholders who don’t get along, or a simplified model for your complicated business processes that you can share with executives, find an opportunity to test out your ideas. Make sure you record the results and compare them, both in terms of time spent and whether the desired outcome occurred.
Share with others: this gives you a chance to contribute to the development of other Business Analysts while learning new ways to improve yourself. If you have a Community of Practice or a Centre of Excellence at your organization, there are usually opportunities for such collaboration. If your organization does not have such groups, start meeting with your peers informally; I’ve found BAs often like to talk shop and swap ideas over lunch every week or two. If you are the lone Business Analyst at your organization, find a local IIBA chapter or other Business Analyst community in your area to meet with colleagues. Various online Business Analyst communities have active forums that give you a chance to learn and share as well.

Having big goals can be an incredible motivator to help us achieve our potential and become successful. Sometimes it can be so easy to visualize what we want to accomplish that we attempt to make huge changes in order to reach our goal as fast as possible. However, as an old Chinese proverb reminds us, “It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.” Having a Kaizen approach to becoming a better Business Analyst gives us an opportunity to make small but purposeful changes each day that will make us key to our organization’s success and future.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.

Jarett Hailes is President of Larimar Consulting Inc. and a Certified Business Analysis Professional. Over the past ten years, Jarett has worked in a wide variety of industries as a Management Consultant, Business Analyst and Project Manager. Jarett’s passion is to help organizations realize the potential of their staff through efficient processes and an open culture that encourages and rewards innovation at all levels.