Michelle Robinson, Vice President and General Manager of Early Development North America, Covance
I couldn’t help but notice that there were subtle themes of conversion, confession, and salvation that ran through the conference this week. Wait! Did I attend a fundamentalist tent rally? No, but what I learned is that taking a good hard look at the way your company treats customers can be as revealing as a religious experience.
Of all the track presentations I participated in during the action-packed two days, the Covance story had the most profound effect on me. Part of that effect was caused by the rich and dynamic content shared. But just as impactful was the poise, passion and humor in which Michelle told their story. As she skillfully related the journey she embarked upon several years early, this thought struck me; at one level the journey to a higher standard is a company story, but in the end, it’s deeply personal.
Michelle began her story with the admission that when she was hired and truly understood what is they wanted her to do, she was reluctant to embrace the task. After all, she was an experienced GE certified six sigma black belt with an MBA armed to the teeth for serious business. Now they wanted her to help the company live out its values? Puleeeeese! But after seeing the result of the work the teams produced, she is now a true NPS convert and has taken the spirit and methodology into her new role as a business unit VP. (She took minute to pause and give credit to one of the key players in the Covance story, Laurie White. She shared sad and sobering news from which she was still in shock. Just the weekend before, the pioneer of creating a client focused culture on her team had suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. Her contribution and spirit accounted for much of the team’s success and would be deeply missed). Truly personal.
It’s difficult to summarize the in-depth work this team did in three short years, so I encourage you to look through the entire presentation for details. In short, Covance is a drug development company for big pharmaceutical clients. They have long cycles and deal in big numbers. It’s a high stakes game for all involved. Clients measure them on Speed and Quality. A missed deadline may mean a client doesn’t go to market in time and is beat by the competition. Not good for creating loyalty.
With that as a back drop, they set about creating a culture that would engender client loyalty through service excellence. Their program, called Signature ClientService took their lead from a book written by Jim Clemmens and Barry Sheehy called ‘Firing on All Cylinders’. It had 3 key components:
- People – everyone from the chief bottle washer (yes, they have those on the team!) to the scientists, doctors, technicians and account managers had to understand their line of sight to the customer and what they contribute. They had to create a compelling environment in which people could do their best work.
- Process – using Process Improvement and Six Sigma methods, tools were available for everyone to use.
- Signature ClientService – Enhanced service that is fostered through understanding and exceeding customer expectations, supportable processes that make it easy to do business and a robust measurement system.
What was critical to making this all happen? Again, it’s personal. It takes individual leadership commitment and trust. It takes employees engaged in the rigor and fun of doing things different for the right reasons. It also takes transparency and accountability.
Standards and measurements are rigorous and leaders encouraged and rewarded to hold to them. An example of this is that teams were encouraged to escalate issues through the CAIR process (Corrective Action Issue Resolution) which Michelle’s team facilitated. Every week this list is reviewed during a meeting for if and how well the issue was resolved. Leaders are measured not on how few issues were escalated but how MANY were. My favorite measure they use is the Do/Say ratio. Did the team do what they said they would do in the time they said they would do it? All of these measurements are to encourage truth in reporting and create an environment excellence is valued, not perfection.
Results conclusively show this strategy works. The operating units with the highest CAIR numbers also consistently have the highest operating margins and NP scores. On top of all of this, employees are encouraged to participate in improvement efforts and create ways of wowing the customers in their roles, improving their everyday work environment. Accountability is also expected at the highest levels. While in her role, Michelle attended every Board of Director report to give them a status on how the company was doing with their client relationships.
The program continues to live on vibrantly at Convance, a testament to efforts of all employees to win the hearts and minds of their clients. In the process, I suspect they have created a culture of which they are proud. Is the journey to a higher standard personal? I think so.
