netrashetty
Netra Shetty
W.R. Berkley NYSE: WRB is a Fortune 500 company founded in 1967, and based in Greenwich, Connecticut.
It includes 35 wholly owned subsidiaries offering a variety of insurance services from reinsurance to workers comp TPAs. In 2008, W.R. Berkley's total revenue was $4.71 Billion, of which $1.62 Billion came from the company's Specialty, $1.45B from Speciality Lines, $1.21B from Regional, $622 Million from Alternative Markets, $435 Million from Reinsurance, $312 Million from insurance, and $287 Million from International Markets
2
CEO
Matthew Wayrynen
Director
Tyrone Docherty
3
Director
Ronald Andrews
Director
Lindsay Gorrill
2
Secretary
Connie Lillico
6
Finance
David Wolfin
2
Operations
James O'Byrne
A thorough understanding of what the brand represents is the key to a consistent message as the more Dyson knows about the Chinese people it is serving the more it is able to communicate messages which appeal to them. In terms of market entry and development, the fact that Dyson branches in the UK are a wholly owned subsidiary of the company in order to control quality, ( and , 1986) Dyson in the UK initially developed the market through joint ventures with suppliers and through opening its own outlets and only when quality and reputation were established, did it begin to grant local franchises to expand in the international market and internationally, Dyson is as big as some countries and is growing at a phenomenal rate. ( and , 1986, )
This framework is most typical in tiny companies and is best utilized to solve basic operations. The framework is completely centralized. The strategic manager does all major decisions and all interaction is accomplished by personal talks. It is specifically helpful for fresh business entities as it allows the founder to manage progress and success (, 1997).
Henceforth, in order to successfully graft functional structures onto a company's performance system, a strong, efficient performance core must already exist. No organization with a weak organizational structure will ever make functional structures work effectively and will only result in frustration and wasted money and that before the company undertakes a change initiative they should first take an honest look at their state of readiness. Most workers have a hard time dealing with functional structures, especially the incessant and unpredictable kind that experienced. A core competency for functional structures is their capabilities not just to tolerate change, but to actually generate and proactively manage it. If managers lack the skill, it will be difficult for functional structures to filter effectively throughout the organization. Thus, there are organizations that are implementing functional structures successfully and reaping spectacular benefits as a result which made an integral part of that business' operations and the company's core business performance system
Getting it Together: Integrating Customer Focus, Involvement, and Horizontal Management
By: Jim Clemmer
Jim Clemmer is an international keynote speaker, workshop leader, author, and president of The CLEMMER Group, a North American network of organization, team, and personal improvement consultants based in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. His other bestsellers include Firing on All Cylinders: The Service/Quality System for High-Powered Corporate Performance, and his most recent book, Growing the Distance: Timeless Principles for Personal, Career, and Family Success. His web site is http://www.clemmer.net/
If we don't change our direction we are likely to end up where we're headed.
In today's "Nanosecond Nineties", successful organizations are doing what was once considered impossible. They are increasing customer satisfaction, shortening process cycles and response times, reducing costs, and developing innovative new products and services -- all at the same time.
Not long ago, organizations could succeed by excelling at one or two of these areas. But the corporate landscape is now littered with the once mighty victims of this obsolete thinking. Today's winners are capitalizing on the changes and challenges facing all organizations by being better and faster and cheaper and newer then their less nimble competitors.
Pointed In The Wrong Direction
Transforming a traditional organization to one that's better, faster, cheaper, and newer is extremely difficult. That's because organizations have built powerful cultures, systems, and practices that are now pointed in the wrong direction. This misdirection can be found across three key areas:
* Internally-Focused -- most decisions about products, services, and organization direction are inside out. Product and service development specialists, technical experts, managers, planners, and other professionals spend most of their time inside the organization pushing products and services out to the market.
Too often the needs of the organization are put ahead of those people it's trying to "serve". As John McDonnell, Chairman and CEO of McDonnell Douglas put it, "we did not always listen to what the customer had to say before telling him what he wanted". This we-know-best approach is now finding many long time leaders out of sync with their markets. The ratings (and revenues) of many mighty corporations are plummeting. Their "loyal" (once treated as captive) customers find products and services that better reflect their changing perceptions of value.
* Functionally Managed -- individual departments work to optimize their own internal efficiency. Goals, objectives, measurements, and career paths move up and down within the narrow, functional "chimney walls". Functional managers and their employees focus on doing their own jobs or segment of the production, delivery, or support process.
Functionally managed organizations typically reduce service/quality levels while increasing cycle times and costs by; 1) fostering an "us-versus-them" approach to communications and fighting for organizational resources, 2) leaving unmanaged gaps between departments which disrupt cross-functional work processes, 3) making improvements or changes in one department which hurts the effectiveness of other departments in the process, and, 4) losing sight of customer-supplier relationships and meeting everyone's needs.
Since the 1950s, Toyota has worked tirelessly to reduce the walls and gaps between department. By the 1970s, their manufacturing methods became widely known throughout Japan as the "Toyota Production Methods". In the early 1980s, their highly successful practices migrated to North America as Just-In-Time manufacturing. Stressing the importance of managing across organizational boundaries, a Toyota executive said, "It is not enough to manage the affairs within your own division. One of the most important functions of a division manager is to improve coordination between his own division and other divisions. It you cannot handle this task, please go work for an American company".
* Management-Centered -- management's needs, goals, and perspectives are the starting point for all activities. Managers and their staff professionals are the brains and employees are the hands. Employees serve their managerial masters and do as they are told. Broad business perspectives and strategies, operational performance data, problem solving and decision making authority, and cross-functional skills are kept by management.
But the world is now moving too fast to maintain this archaic "command and control" approach that puts management at the center of the universe. Managers can no longer know enough, fast enough, about enough things, enough of the time to anticipate enough of the changes that are needed to improve the organization enough to become better and faster and cheaper and newer enough.
Partial Improvement Patches and Pieces
Recognizing the urgent need to quickly reverse direction, many organizations are implementing a variety of improvement programs and process. These include:
* Employee Involvement and Empowerment -- many training and motivational programs, as well as structural changes aim to move daily problem solving, decision making, customer satisfaction, and productivity improvement responsibilities closer to the front lines.
* Teams -- a rapidly growing employee involvement trend uses departmental, problem solving, cross-functional, project, process improvement, planning and coordinating, and self-directed workteams in many combinations and configurations.
* Customer Service -- increasingly organizations are identifying key customer groups, clarifying and ranking their expectations, working to realign the organization's systems customer around those expectations, and training employees to deal with customers more effectively.
* Process Improvement and Reengineering -- data-based tools and techniques, flowcharting, and other "mapping" approaches improve processes at micro or departmental levels. In other cases, processes are radically reengineered across vertical departments at macro or strategic levels.
* Training and Development -- many executives recognize the need for massive improvements in skill levels throughout their organizations. This is leading to major increases in technical, personal communications and effectiveness, team (leaders and members), data-based tools and techniques, process improvement and management, and coaching skill development.
* Technology -- investments in factory automation, information systems, voice and data communication systems, inventory control systems, and so on are growing rapidly as companies push for higher productivity, faster response times, and improved service/quality.
Many of the above efforts are piecemeal or implemented in isolation. For example, training and development, customer service, technology, and process reengineering are often implemented by separate departments with little or no joint planning and coordination. As a result, products or services are either better or faster or cheaper or newer, but rarely all four. That leads to a weakened competitive position. And cynicism for subsequent change programs grows throughout the organization.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is one management approach that can successfully integrate all of the above improvement efforts. But very few organizations are implementing truly total quality management. Most so-called TQM efforts are really PQM -- Partial Quality Management. That's why many studies now show that 50-70 percent of what are called TQM efforts are dying or dead. The good news is that 30-50 percent of TQM implementations (those that are truly total) are dramatically increasing customer satisfaction, shortening process cycles and response times, reducing costs and strengthening innovation. Although it's very tough to do, it can clearly be done.
The Labels Rarely Describe The Contents
The TQM/PQM problem is hardly unique. Most labels describing a number of organization change and improvement efforts have become meaningless. For example, when an executive talks about building a team-based organization, he or she may mean instilling a "teaminess" attitude. Or this might mean using temporary task forces to solve problems. Possibly the executive envisions filling their organization with employee improvement teams (similar to quality circles). Or he or she may want to develop self-directed workteams with no direct supervision. Some times "Reengineering" describes layoffs or traditional "slash and burn" cost cutting exercises. In other cases, reengineering means a change to the organization's structure. Sometimes it means installing new information technology systems. Or reengineering could be a radical revamping of the macro, strategic processes that establish how most work and customer interactions flow across the organization.
Successful change and improvement initiatives are integrated or "whole" rather then partial and piecemeal. They flow from the organization's basic reason for being, values, vision of the future, and strategies. The effort is intertwined with the organization's operating goals, systems, and measurements. These changes and improvements aren't programs bolted on the side of the organization. These approaches are tightly intertwined and connected to management systems, daily practices, and behavior.
As he continues a long string of successes in building "the new GE", CEO Jack Welch observed, "The winners of the 90s will be those who can develop a culture that allows them to move faster, communicate more clearly, and involve everyone in a focused effort to serve every more demanding customers". At Multifoods, the international food processing giant (brands include Robin Hood and Bicks), Human Resource vice president, Bob Maddocks finds that "the improvement process isn't separate from good leadership and management practices". He adds, "We want everyone involved in operating the company, focusing on customers, and improving our processes and systems. It's got to become a way of life for all of us".
Whatever labels are used, a "wholistic" or systems approach to change and improvement means reversing the inward focus, management-centredness, and vertical management found in most organizations.
It includes 35 wholly owned subsidiaries offering a variety of insurance services from reinsurance to workers comp TPAs. In 2008, W.R. Berkley's total revenue was $4.71 Billion, of which $1.62 Billion came from the company's Specialty, $1.45B from Speciality Lines, $1.21B from Regional, $622 Million from Alternative Markets, $435 Million from Reinsurance, $312 Million from insurance, and $287 Million from International Markets
2
CEO
Matthew Wayrynen
Director
Tyrone Docherty
3
Director
Ronald Andrews
Director
Lindsay Gorrill
2
Secretary
Connie Lillico
6
Finance
David Wolfin
2
Operations
James O'Byrne
A thorough understanding of what the brand represents is the key to a consistent message as the more Dyson knows about the Chinese people it is serving the more it is able to communicate messages which appeal to them. In terms of market entry and development, the fact that Dyson branches in the UK are a wholly owned subsidiary of the company in order to control quality, ( and , 1986) Dyson in the UK initially developed the market through joint ventures with suppliers and through opening its own outlets and only when quality and reputation were established, did it begin to grant local franchises to expand in the international market and internationally, Dyson is as big as some countries and is growing at a phenomenal rate. ( and , 1986, )
This framework is most typical in tiny companies and is best utilized to solve basic operations. The framework is completely centralized. The strategic manager does all major decisions and all interaction is accomplished by personal talks. It is specifically helpful for fresh business entities as it allows the founder to manage progress and success (, 1997).
Henceforth, in order to successfully graft functional structures onto a company's performance system, a strong, efficient performance core must already exist. No organization with a weak organizational structure will ever make functional structures work effectively and will only result in frustration and wasted money and that before the company undertakes a change initiative they should first take an honest look at their state of readiness. Most workers have a hard time dealing with functional structures, especially the incessant and unpredictable kind that experienced. A core competency for functional structures is their capabilities not just to tolerate change, but to actually generate and proactively manage it. If managers lack the skill, it will be difficult for functional structures to filter effectively throughout the organization. Thus, there are organizations that are implementing functional structures successfully and reaping spectacular benefits as a result which made an integral part of that business' operations and the company's core business performance system
Getting it Together: Integrating Customer Focus, Involvement, and Horizontal Management
By: Jim Clemmer
Jim Clemmer is an international keynote speaker, workshop leader, author, and president of The CLEMMER Group, a North American network of organization, team, and personal improvement consultants based in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. His other bestsellers include Firing on All Cylinders: The Service/Quality System for High-Powered Corporate Performance, and his most recent book, Growing the Distance: Timeless Principles for Personal, Career, and Family Success. His web site is http://www.clemmer.net/
If we don't change our direction we are likely to end up where we're headed.
In today's "Nanosecond Nineties", successful organizations are doing what was once considered impossible. They are increasing customer satisfaction, shortening process cycles and response times, reducing costs, and developing innovative new products and services -- all at the same time.
Not long ago, organizations could succeed by excelling at one or two of these areas. But the corporate landscape is now littered with the once mighty victims of this obsolete thinking. Today's winners are capitalizing on the changes and challenges facing all organizations by being better and faster and cheaper and newer then their less nimble competitors.
Pointed In The Wrong Direction
Transforming a traditional organization to one that's better, faster, cheaper, and newer is extremely difficult. That's because organizations have built powerful cultures, systems, and practices that are now pointed in the wrong direction. This misdirection can be found across three key areas:
* Internally-Focused -- most decisions about products, services, and organization direction are inside out. Product and service development specialists, technical experts, managers, planners, and other professionals spend most of their time inside the organization pushing products and services out to the market.
Too often the needs of the organization are put ahead of those people it's trying to "serve". As John McDonnell, Chairman and CEO of McDonnell Douglas put it, "we did not always listen to what the customer had to say before telling him what he wanted". This we-know-best approach is now finding many long time leaders out of sync with their markets. The ratings (and revenues) of many mighty corporations are plummeting. Their "loyal" (once treated as captive) customers find products and services that better reflect their changing perceptions of value.
* Functionally Managed -- individual departments work to optimize their own internal efficiency. Goals, objectives, measurements, and career paths move up and down within the narrow, functional "chimney walls". Functional managers and their employees focus on doing their own jobs or segment of the production, delivery, or support process.
Functionally managed organizations typically reduce service/quality levels while increasing cycle times and costs by; 1) fostering an "us-versus-them" approach to communications and fighting for organizational resources, 2) leaving unmanaged gaps between departments which disrupt cross-functional work processes, 3) making improvements or changes in one department which hurts the effectiveness of other departments in the process, and, 4) losing sight of customer-supplier relationships and meeting everyone's needs.
Since the 1950s, Toyota has worked tirelessly to reduce the walls and gaps between department. By the 1970s, their manufacturing methods became widely known throughout Japan as the "Toyota Production Methods". In the early 1980s, their highly successful practices migrated to North America as Just-In-Time manufacturing. Stressing the importance of managing across organizational boundaries, a Toyota executive said, "It is not enough to manage the affairs within your own division. One of the most important functions of a division manager is to improve coordination between his own division and other divisions. It you cannot handle this task, please go work for an American company".
* Management-Centered -- management's needs, goals, and perspectives are the starting point for all activities. Managers and their staff professionals are the brains and employees are the hands. Employees serve their managerial masters and do as they are told. Broad business perspectives and strategies, operational performance data, problem solving and decision making authority, and cross-functional skills are kept by management.
But the world is now moving too fast to maintain this archaic "command and control" approach that puts management at the center of the universe. Managers can no longer know enough, fast enough, about enough things, enough of the time to anticipate enough of the changes that are needed to improve the organization enough to become better and faster and cheaper and newer enough.
Partial Improvement Patches and Pieces
Recognizing the urgent need to quickly reverse direction, many organizations are implementing a variety of improvement programs and process. These include:
* Employee Involvement and Empowerment -- many training and motivational programs, as well as structural changes aim to move daily problem solving, decision making, customer satisfaction, and productivity improvement responsibilities closer to the front lines.
* Teams -- a rapidly growing employee involvement trend uses departmental, problem solving, cross-functional, project, process improvement, planning and coordinating, and self-directed workteams in many combinations and configurations.
* Customer Service -- increasingly organizations are identifying key customer groups, clarifying and ranking their expectations, working to realign the organization's systems customer around those expectations, and training employees to deal with customers more effectively.
* Process Improvement and Reengineering -- data-based tools and techniques, flowcharting, and other "mapping" approaches improve processes at micro or departmental levels. In other cases, processes are radically reengineered across vertical departments at macro or strategic levels.
* Training and Development -- many executives recognize the need for massive improvements in skill levels throughout their organizations. This is leading to major increases in technical, personal communications and effectiveness, team (leaders and members), data-based tools and techniques, process improvement and management, and coaching skill development.
* Technology -- investments in factory automation, information systems, voice and data communication systems, inventory control systems, and so on are growing rapidly as companies push for higher productivity, faster response times, and improved service/quality.
Many of the above efforts are piecemeal or implemented in isolation. For example, training and development, customer service, technology, and process reengineering are often implemented by separate departments with little or no joint planning and coordination. As a result, products or services are either better or faster or cheaper or newer, but rarely all four. That leads to a weakened competitive position. And cynicism for subsequent change programs grows throughout the organization.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is one management approach that can successfully integrate all of the above improvement efforts. But very few organizations are implementing truly total quality management. Most so-called TQM efforts are really PQM -- Partial Quality Management. That's why many studies now show that 50-70 percent of what are called TQM efforts are dying or dead. The good news is that 30-50 percent of TQM implementations (those that are truly total) are dramatically increasing customer satisfaction, shortening process cycles and response times, reducing costs and strengthening innovation. Although it's very tough to do, it can clearly be done.
The Labels Rarely Describe The Contents
The TQM/PQM problem is hardly unique. Most labels describing a number of organization change and improvement efforts have become meaningless. For example, when an executive talks about building a team-based organization, he or she may mean instilling a "teaminess" attitude. Or this might mean using temporary task forces to solve problems. Possibly the executive envisions filling their organization with employee improvement teams (similar to quality circles). Or he or she may want to develop self-directed workteams with no direct supervision. Some times "Reengineering" describes layoffs or traditional "slash and burn" cost cutting exercises. In other cases, reengineering means a change to the organization's structure. Sometimes it means installing new information technology systems. Or reengineering could be a radical revamping of the macro, strategic processes that establish how most work and customer interactions flow across the organization.
Successful change and improvement initiatives are integrated or "whole" rather then partial and piecemeal. They flow from the organization's basic reason for being, values, vision of the future, and strategies. The effort is intertwined with the organization's operating goals, systems, and measurements. These changes and improvements aren't programs bolted on the side of the organization. These approaches are tightly intertwined and connected to management systems, daily practices, and behavior.
As he continues a long string of successes in building "the new GE", CEO Jack Welch observed, "The winners of the 90s will be those who can develop a culture that allows them to move faster, communicate more clearly, and involve everyone in a focused effort to serve every more demanding customers". At Multifoods, the international food processing giant (brands include Robin Hood and Bicks), Human Resource vice president, Bob Maddocks finds that "the improvement process isn't separate from good leadership and management practices". He adds, "We want everyone involved in operating the company, focusing on customers, and improving our processes and systems. It's got to become a way of life for all of us".
Whatever labels are used, a "wholistic" or systems approach to change and improvement means reversing the inward focus, management-centredness, and vertical management found in most organizations.
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