DreamVast Market Update - May 2009

From Deanne’s Desk               

GEC No thanks, or thanks?

Like a number of small business owners in my circle, I've elected not to participate in the Global Economic Crisis.  Somehow it seems like a job for those much better qualified than me - the bankers of Wall Street used to their $10Million annual bonuses for instance.  Instead I'm enjoying the renaissance of back-to-basics business and the practise of gratitude for all the blessings in our everyday lives.  Practising gratitude is an easy piece to incorporate into your day - just find 3 things you are grateful you have (eg. warm clothes; a job), experienced (a gorgeous sunset; a great outcome at work), shared (dinner with friends; a story with your kids), saw (something that made you laugh), felt (needed; loved; respected) - anything that gives you a warm, good-to-be-alive feeling.  Try if for a week and let me know how you go.

Run Melbourne - 28 June 2009

As part of my refocus on what's good in life I've decided to run 10km (I must be insane!!) in the Run Melbourne event on 28 June 2009 raising money for BERRY STREET (www.berrystreet.org.au) in the process.  As regular readers will know, I do weekly volunteer work with women in domestic violence and other life challenges.  Often we refer these women and their children to Berry Street - a group that never turns someone in need away. I invite you to sponsor me and thank you for giving to make the life of a child that little bit brighter.  To sponsor me please go to: 

http://runmelbourne.everydayhero.com.au/deanne_tindale

alternatively, if you live in Melbourne come and join the fun.  Go on, you know you want to!

15% DreamVast discount to IQPC - Optimising Improvement 23 - 26 June 2009

For those of you who haven't registered for this years IQPC Optimising Improvement summit being held at the Sofitel Wentworth Sydney from 23 to 26 June 2009, we invite you to take up a 15% discount by noting yourself as a DreamVast contact when you register for the event.  Never has there been a more important time to find out what programs are working, what innovations are working and why, and what you need to do to be the very best in the BT space in Australia.  You may just get one great idea that makes a difference to your company and your career in the coming year and that's definately worth knowing.   I look forward to seeing you all there.

Turning Heads

Greg Curcio another ex of GE has recently taken up the position of Commercial Operations Manager at Origin Energy.  Greg's role is split between vendor management and business transformation - a great role for a great talent. 

Jeremy Hards, a 23 year veteran of Qantas, starts his role as BI Manager Eastern for BIS next month.  We are excited for both Jeremy and BIS and think it's a great fit. 

Otto Wiener, ex of Chubb started this month in his role as Field Force Efficiency Manager for Hasties Services. 

Congratulations to our candidates and friends on their great new roles.

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Program Gossip

The word on the streets my friends is.... ugly.  With the end of financial year fast approaching, the big bosses responsible for delivering returns to shareholders are slashing and burning and BT programs are suffering.  In the past month:

• GE has suffered another round of cuts with people exiting from both Melbourne and Sydney sites
• AXA Australia let 120 staff go from the PMO (mostly Melbourne based)
• ANZ let 27 staff go from the OTS group responsible for transformation in sourcing (this is a group set up just 4 months ago!)
• Qantas is letting go 500 staff by EOFY with some 100 - 150 to come from Engineering, severly impacting their BT program
• Mining and Finance BT practitioners in particular are calling me in numbers not seen in years concerned about the viability of their various programs

There are one or two far sighted organisations who are putting in the groundwork now for when the market turns.  They will of course have higher productivity than their competitors and we look forward to supporting their inevitable growth in the future.  If you are in one of those organisations PLEASE let me know as the rest of the market is dying to hear some good news stories.

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Market Health

Reflecting the blood-in-the-street news in many BT programs across the country, our market survey this month shows a marked reduction in program health.  In response to our question:

Since the financial crisis, is the BT program at your organisation looking:

• Healthy?      33% agreed
• Sick?           53% agreed
• Unchanged? 13% agreed

Whilst the number of respondents is small we recognise this is a pretty accurate reflection of the anecdotal evidence we are getting from candidates and clients about their thoughts on market health.  This is also borne out by the increased numbers of BT practitioners at all levels calling me to find out "what's out there" jobwise.  The truth is - it's tight; the tightest I've seen it since I began recruiting in the BT space a decade ago.  The quadruple whammy is coming from:

• Program funds are being cut in unprecedented numbers resulting in wholesale loss of BT roles in the market
• Practitioners already employed are staying put - even in roles they don't enjoy - rather than risking their chances of unemployment
• What roles are being considered by employers are being funded for a short term contract rather than a full-time headcount
• The sustained losses over the last 6 months has meant a hugh number of very well qualified practitioners are now on the market and they are willing to cut their financial expectations in order to secure employment of any kind.

So when does it end?

The latest government communications suggest the Australian recession is likely to be over earlier than first expected.  That's good news for everyone.  Compound this more positive business outlook with a new, financial year and in our opinion the blood-letting should slow in the medium term.  We have no crystal ball, however, there will always be companies looking for top talent.  As far as possible, make sure you are one of them.

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Thought Leadership

Each month DreamVast brings you the thoughts, rants and raves, or insights of some of the country's most successful BT leaders.  This month we are proud to introduce Terry Brookshaw who is the Manager of Purchasing Excellence at the Dow Chemical Company's Global Purchasing Expertise Center in Michigan, USA.  Terry is another Australian who has taken his BT expertise to the world, having established himself as both an MBB and Program Leader at Dow Australia before its US parent promoted him to his global role.  Please practise your Voice of Customer and add your comments on Terry's article at the end of this piece.

Where does Lean Six Sigma TQM fit in the current economic downturn?

In the face of the current global recession, cash flow and earnings have become the critical issue for commercial operations. In recent years, in an effort to improve performance, many companies adopted improvement initiatives like lean manufacturing, Six Sigma or Total Quality Management (TQM). Some business executives, who implemented or were considering implementation of these methodologies however, question the return on investment and contribution to cash flow and earnings.

It seems though from a recent study in June 2008 in North America by software giant Epicor¹, that 63% of professionals in supply chain and manufacturing, in response to the economic downturn, have adopted or are considering adopting continuous improvement methodologies for improving and streamlining business, manufacturing and supply chain operations. The top three management strategies adopted from the study are lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and TQM. While many of the manufacturers in the study are simply trying to survive with use of these management strategies, some insist and anticipate that they will be able to capitalize on the downturn through a business model that realizes significant cost reduction on a per unit cost basis.

A further study by the Aberdeen Group² reporting on a benchmarking survey, found that 86% of the 115 respondents are moderately or severely impacted by the economy in 2009. The top three pressures identified from the respondent companies were; customer fulfillment, need to increase revenue and rising supply chain operating costs. Interestingly the study asserts that the top three pressures were interrelated. Companies with above average supply chain performance, had an average of 93% accuracy in fulfilling orders and more likely to be conducting cost optimization analysis within the order to delivery process. Six sigma pundits would recognise and comment that a 93% performance represents a performance of 2.97 sigma given a 1.5 long-term shift of the process. That represents for those who have above average performance from the study to have around 66,800 defects per million opportunities. The optimization analysis and action is clearly a high priority for not only the above average leaders but arguably should be also for the laggards. Apart from the cost implications, the negative impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty is also an issue.

So where should business transformation and continuous improvement initiatives fit in the current economic climate? A transformational corporate initiative like lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and TQM must commence with some fundamental good business practices. These practices start with three levels of strategy: corporate, strategic business unit (SBU) and competitive. The competitive strategy level is where organisational strategy and lean manufacturing and/or Six Sigma must align, because this level is where the tools are applied. Some company executives however take a very narrow view of continuous improvement and only consider the competitive level. It is clear that even companies with apparently successful continuous improvement programs are not immune from general market conditions or poor business strategy decisions. While the need for lean, Six Sigma and TQM has never been greater, the wherewithal and willingness of companies to implement new or continue to support existing programs is still being challenged.

While many companies, even committed ones are struggling today to survive, what is it that will cause them to stay with their business transformation programs or even start one? Perhaps the results cited above will help with those decisions along with some cost optimization analysis.

Random Jottings 

In light of the tough employment market out there, this month I thought the best advice I could share with our community is practical tools and techniques to enhance your chances of interview and ultimately employment.  Some or all of these ideas may be familiar to you but none-the-less a timely reminder is often all that is needed.

Resume

First off, let me give you the recruiters version of what a resume should look like.  In essence, keep it short and sweet.  Four pages maximum is ideal.  Starting from your most current role include:

• Year of employment
• Employer Company name - include a one liner descriptor of what the company does if the company name is unfamiliar to corporate Australia
• Your title
• Your achievements - bullet point them giving quantitative data where possible (eg. reduced department spend by $x or y%)
• Your personal details - including a one liner regarding interests (always a good interview opener)
• A personal statement - what you believe you offer a prospective employer or your positioning statement

Impact Statement

If I have represented you already you'll be familiar with my recommendation to develp an Impact Statement as an adjunct to your resume.  The Impact Statement should be a short synopsis of what you have delivered through BT projects/programs.  It is your proof, on paper, of your experience as a BT practitioner and underlines your suitability for a role.  My preferred Impact Statement is a one page table (word doc or XL spreadsheet) outlining:

• Program/Project name and descriptor
• Stakeholders - shows level of your interface and influence
• Your role - PM, GB, BB, MBB, Project Director, Lead etc
• Method/Tools utilised - 6 Sigma, Lean, Project Management
• Impact - $; %; increases/decreases in FTE's, customer satisfaction, product innovations etc
• Comment - anything you think needs to be noted

When a potential employer has your Impact Statement in front of them they are very quickly able to identify the sorts of dollars you have delivered to a program and the interview often starts with a discussion of something you are very comfortable reviewing - what you've achieved project, by project.

SAO

If you do get stuck in an interview answering behavioural event questions - a favourite often used by HR professionals is "tell me about a time when things went wrong and how you handled it" - is to remember one of my favourite biscuits - the SAO.  Situation - Action - Outcome.

Start with a brief of the Situation you were in.  For example: "I had a middle manager who didn't want to know about the BT program from Head Office".

Action - then tell them what you did to rectify the situation.  For example, "I sat down with the manager and explained how I could help him reduce his business pressures using techniques I had already proven in other parts of the business.  At first he threw small projects to fix and I delivered on every one of them.  We worked together on the last two or three projects and included his direct reports in the project team".

Outcome - explain what was the end result.  For example, "Over a 6 month period we increased his business productivity by 20% and he became my most vocal supporter".

It's cliche because it's what the employers want to hear.  They don't want to pay you six figures to come on board and add to their woes; they want to pay you six figures to take a load off their plate.  Giving them confidence that you  can deliver on their investment is one of the most important pieces you have to achieve in each part of the interview process.

Six Best Friends

The Six Best Friends I ever knew where What? and Where? and When? and How? and Why? and Who?  Use these friends to distinctly work out, for yourself:

• What? - what job do you want? what does it look like? what do you want to do more of and less of? what else could you do if you didn't do that? what is the one thing you've dreamt of doing but haven't?
• Where? - where do you want to work? do you want to do the job in the town you're in? interstate? overseas? where would you like to/be prepared to go? where might that lead?
• When? - when do you want to start? how much time can you take financially, emotionally and career wise before you want/have to take a role? when makes sense?
• How? - how can I get that role? how have others got a similar role? how can tools, the internet and networks help? how could you make something really different happen?
• Why? - why do I want this role? why is this important to me? why isn't it?
• Who? - who can help me get there? who do I know? network network network - who is in it? and who is in my other network? who can I turn to for advice?

The Six Best Friends are great places to start thinking on paper.  Keep going with your answers until you come to a true, authentic plan about what you want, where, when, how and why and who is going to help you get there.  A clear direction is half the battle.  Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and magically the path appears under your footsteps.

There are a wide range of techniques to use depending on your level of experience and comfort in the employment market.  If you have your own ideas of what's worked or not please share your pearls of wisdom by commenting on this website - you never can tell when your one good deed is going to come back to you times three.

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DreamVast Salary Survey

We invite you to take the DreamVast Salary Checker (either as a client telling us what you pay; or as a candidate telling us what you earn.  You will need to login or  register first, and each month we will compare our salary data with your VOC salary data.   Should make for some interesting reading!  When you complete the DreamVast Salary Checker you get a complete copy of the current DreamVast Salary Survey so if you want to know if you are being over or under-paid register here.

Your Turn

Thanks for taking the time to read this DreamVast Market Update.  We would love to receive your comments – happy, sad, moans and groans, bouquets or briquettes.  All will help us to be better and serve you more effectively.  Please register here and let us know your thoughts.   Alternatively, email or call me on 03 9443 0545 or 0413448822. 

Cheers

Deanne Tindale