The National Workforce Assistance Collaborative builds the capacity of the service providers working with small and mid-sized companies in order to help businesses adopt high-performance work practices, become more competitive, and ultimately advance the well-being of their employees. The Collaborative was created through a cooperative agreement grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to the National Alliance of Business. Current partners on the project include the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, the Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy at The Pennsylvania State University, the Maryland Center for Quality and Productivity, and the National Labor-Management Association. The Collaborative provides assistance in four areas: employee training, labor-management relations, work restructuring, and workplace literacy. For more information, contact the National Alliance of Business, phone: 800/787-2848; fax: 202/289-2875; e-mail: INFO@NAB.COM.
Development and printing of this publication was funded under Grant Number F-4357-3-00-80-60 by the U.S. Department of labor. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the official policy of the U.S. Department of Labor.
1997 National Alliance of Business
All Rights Reserved.
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Phone: 800/787-7788
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E-mail: INFO@NAB.COM
This publication was written by Stephen Mitchell, National Alliance of Business. The study team -- Terri Bergman, Scott Cheney, Steve Mitchell, Gertrude Scott, and Peggy Siegel -- collaborated in conducting and writing the case studies on which this publication is based. Eunice Askov, The Pennsylvania State University, also assisted in preparing one of the case studies. Andrew Wolman assisted in condensing the original case study reports for use in this publication. Terri Bergman edited the publication.
The National Workforce Assistance Collaborative would like to thank our primary contacts at each site who invited us into their organizations and allowed us to learn from them:
_ Michael Galiazzo, Baltimore Center for Port-Related Industries
_ Bruce Herman, Garment Industry Development Corporation
_ John Hoops, formerly with the Bay State Skills Corporation (BSSC)
_ Birgit Kohls, Right Place Program (RPP)
_ Donald MacMaster, Alpena Community College
_ Jim Martin, Philadelphia Area Labor-Management Committee (PALM)
_ Arley Mead, Harford Duracool, LLC
_ Robert Meyer, Work in Northeast Ohio Council (WINOC)
_ Stephen Noble, Right Place Program (RPP)
_ George Sutherland, Cleveland Advanced Manufacturing Program/Great Lakes Manufacturing Technology Center (CAMP/GLMTC)
_ Tom Tuttle, Maryland Center for Quality and Productivity (MCQP)
Thanks also to the people who reviewed drafts of this publication:
_ Terri Bergman, consultant
_ Lynne Fry, U.S. Department of Labor
_ Peggy Siegel, National Alliance of Business
_ Suzanne Teegarden, Corporation for Business, Work, and Learning
_ Ken Voytek, National Alliance of Business
This publication could not have been completed without their help.
Finally, thanks go to Denise Hall, Marvin Harden, and Rosalyn Johnson for their graphics and production assistance.
Introduction............................................................................................................1
Context...................................................................................................................3
Methodology...........................................................................................................6
Models of Service Delivery.....................................................................................8
Lessons Learned.....................................................................................................11
Integrated Services: Case Studies............................................................................26
Bay State Skills Corporation .............................................................................28
Northeast Ohio's Comeback: Some Contributing Partners..................................43
Right Place Program..........................................................................................60
Baltimore Center for Port-Related Industries.....................................................73
Garment Industry Development Corporation ....................................................87
Harford Systems, Duracool Division..................................................................102
Content-Specific Services: Case Studies..................................................................115
Alpena Community College...............................................................................116
Maryland Center for Quality and Productivity....................................................123
Philadelphia Area Labor-Management Committee..............................................134
Appendices
National Workforce Assistance Collaborative Advisory Groups
National Workforce Assistance Collaborative Products and Services
This guide is for individuals and organizations in a position to facilitate change in small and mid-sized companies. This includes business and labor leaders in small and mid-sized companies, as well as the numerous organizations that provide business services to small and mid-sized firms: community colleges, universities, trade and professional associations, labor unions, manufacturing extension programs, literacy and training programs, labor-management associations, private industry councils, non-profit organizations, and private consulting firms. In particular, this guide is for those leaders and service providers who recognize that improving companies' productivity requires assistance in multiple areas, and demand that service providers deliver comprehensive and well-integrated technical assistance.
In order to stay competitive, most businesses are engaged in some form of change. For many companies, staying profitable involves adopting new technologies, restructuring work processes, and upgrading employees' knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as redefining the relationship between employers and employees.
Change is difficult. Companies often need outside assistance to help them make the workplace and workforce changes needed to compete in a global economy. This is particularly true of the small and mid-sized companies that play such a critical role in our economy. With their perennial shortages of time, money, personnel, or know-how, successful change is difficult.
Educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and private consulting firms can help companies make needed changes. These and other service providers can facilitate a company's change effort by helping companies select the technologies most appropriate for their businesses, assisting in the redesign of work processes and employer-employee structures, and upgrading employees' basic and technical skills. Facilitating comprehensive, integrated change in small and mid-sized firms -- change that encompasses both the workplace and the workforce -- is complex and demanding. This publication draws on case studies of programs established to provide such assistance in order to identify lessons for others who wish to improve the quality of their services and facilitate change in small and mid-sized firms.
Delivering Integrated Services is divided into eight sections:
The National Workforce Assistance Collaborative (NWAC) was established in the fall of 1993 by the U.S. Department of Labor through a cooperative agreement with the National Alliance of Business and its partners. It was created to help small and mid-sized businesses adopt high performance work practices, become more competitive, and ultimately, create and retain high-skill, high-wage jobs for American workers. The Collaborative meets this objective by preparing service and information providers (e.g., community colleges, manufacturing centers and programs, training and literacy providers) to better meet the needs of businesses in four areas: employee training, labor-management relations, work restructuring, and workplace literacy.
In its first year, the Collaborative conducted a needs analysis of both small and mid-sized businesses and service providers. That needs analysis included
Extensive discussions with the Collaborative's five advisory bodies (advisory board and four advisory councils, one in each of the four substantive areas represented by the Collaborative);
A series of focus groups with employers, employees, and service providers (six service provider focus groups, seven business focus groups, and five employee focus groups in ten different cities); and
Situational analyses of the service delivery system in each of the four substantive areas covered by the Collaborative: employee training, labor-management relations, work restructuring, and workplace literacy.
A number of key points emerged from the needs analysis:
The adoption of high performance work practices requires an integrated change effort. Change is a fact of life. To remain competitive in today's global economy, many companies are adopting new technologies; restructuring work processes; upgrading employees' knowledge, skills, and abilities; and redefining the roles of both labor and management. All of these changes are interrelated. New machines frequently require new work processes if they are to be fully utilized. New work processes can lead to changes in the locus of decision making and a redefinition of both labor's and management's roles. And training in a variety of skills, including basic reading, writing, and mathematics, is almost always necessary to put any other changes into place successfully.
Many change efforts fail because they isolate changes in technology from changes in the workplace and changes in the skills needed to do the work. Successful change requires managing the relationship between these elements and demands a comprehensive and well-integrated change effort.
Effective change management is the key to making the transition to a high performance work organization. There is a dramatic contrast between companies that embrace the changes that characterize a high performance workplace, and companies that struggle to fit these changes into an organization grounded in a more traditional management style. The difference between the two types of companies is in how they prepare for and manage the change process.
A few business leaders are proactive -- they have a positive vision for their companies as high performance workplaces and they set out on a carefully planned journey to make that vision a reality. Some business leaders have a vision, but lack a plan to make that vision a reality. Employees in these organizations typically express frustration that their leaders do not "walk the talk." Other business leaders operate in a reactive manner, implementing changes in response to continually emerging crises with no plan or vision of the cumulative effect of these changes on the productivity of their firms.
Change can be facilitated if companies make good use of service providers and other available resources. Many of the tactics and techniques for becoming high performance work organizations are best observed in large companies with resources for long-term investments. There are, however, alternative strategies and resources that can help small and mid-sized firms, and others with limited resources, make the transition to high performance workplaces. Some important resources are
Local community colleges. Practically all community colleges have business and industry divisions or similar units that provide technical assistance assessing business skill needs, designing and offering responsive training programs, and counseling employees on their personal career plans. These divisions have staff with expertise in analyzing companies skill training needs and assessing individual employees aptitudes, interests, and skill levels using professionally-recognized testing and assessment instruments. They can also help design customized curricula and arrange for training courses to be delivered at the employer s worksite.
Trade associations and labor unions. Many trade associations and labor unions have experience predicting the future of their industries, as well as future skill needs. This information can be extremely helpful for identifying and classifying business skill needs. In addition, some trade associations and unions provide training programs directly to their members.
Government agencies. The federal, and many state and local governments, actively support workplace and workforce development as a foundation for economic prosperity. Programs supported by the Department of Labor, Commerce Department, Education Department, and Small Business Administration are a potential source of resources to support a business's change effort.
Other non-profit organizations. There are a variety of other non-profit organizations that can serve as valuable resources as employers and employees work to create high performance workplaces. Chambers of commerce, manufacturing extension programs, literacy volunteers, and others dedicated to adult education and workforce and economic development may each serve as a important resource.
The service provider networks are not organized to deliver comprehensive, integrated services. The situational analyses revealed that none of the four areas covered by the Collaborative provides a coordinated delivery system. Most service providers working with companies have expertise in one area and deliver a particular set of services. However, companies have issues requiring multiple services to solve, demanding providers that can deliver comprehensive and well-integrated technical assistance. Addressing companies' array of issues requires understanding the totality of a company's change effort. For many service providers, this requires crossing traditional boundaries and developing new approaches to delivering services to business. Few providers have a clear idea how to best begin this task.
The increased availability of comprehensive, well-integrated technical assistance could enhance the competitiveness of small and mid-sized firms. The Collaborative's needs analysis indicated that supplying these services represented a significant business opportunity for willing service providers. These findings led the Collaborative to initiate research on the service providers' role in providing comprehensive, integrated services to small and mid-sized firms. The objectives of this research were to
Identify and present viable models for delivering comprehensive, integrated services to small and mid-sized firms; and
Provide guidance on how to develop a program providing comprehensive, well-integrated technical assistance to small and mid-sized companies.
There are many exemplary service providers delivering comprehensive, well-integrated services to facilitate the transformation of small and mid-sized businesses to high performance work organizations. The Collaborative asked members of its advisory board and four advisory councils (employee training, labor-management relations, work restructuring, and workplace literacy) to identify exemplary service providers.
Collaborative staff then conducted case studies of a sample of the programs on this list. A research team visited each site, reviewed secondary material, and talked to program managers, delivery staff, and clients. Each case study looked at 1) the history of the organization and how the nature of its services changed over time; 2) the approach the organization took in working with clients; and 3) the structures, processes, and skills necessary for the organization's success. Based on this information, a member of the research team prepared a summary description of the program.
The cases included:
Alpena Community College upgrades the skills of the workforce in order to bring economic development to rural and isolated northeastern Michigan. It develops customized training to meet the specific needs of the companies it serves, and has been able to effectively coordinate the delivery of workplace literacy and technical training programs. Its curricula reflect the real-world demands of the workplace even in programs for traditional students.
Baltimore Center for Port-Related Industries brings all of Baltimore port's public and private enterprises and its union locals into an association focused on making Baltimore's the highest quality port on the eastern seaboard. The Center provides basic skills, technical, and quality-related training to the longshoremen, and quality consulting services to the port's public and private enterprises.
Bay State Skills Corporation (BSSC) is a quasi-public organization created to fund industry-driven training services. Since its initial creation, BSSC has expanded its mission to include assistance in work restructuring, and had begun to build connections between its workforce development and workplace innovation efforts.
New York's Garment Industry Development Corporation (GIDC) provides skill upgrade training to sewing machine operators and other garment industry workers; restructuring assistance to retailers, manufacturers, and contractors; and marketing services to manufacturers.
Harford Systems, Duracool Division, the winner of a 1993 U.S. Senate Productivity Award in Maryland, shows how the delivery of integrated services can be orchestrated by a company as part of its strategic plan. Duracool engaged experts in labor-management relations, work restructuring, and training at the point where each was necessary to implement the company's improvement plan.
The Maryland Center for Quality and Productivity (MCQP) was originally established to help improve the competitiveness of the Maryland economy by encouraging management practices stimulating improved productivity, quality of working life, and labor-management cooperation. The Center has since evolved and now focuses on total quality as a means of achieving its goals. MCQP's comprehensive approach to total quality helps its clients build the ownership and commitment critical for both short-term and sustained results.
Philadelphia Area Labor-Management Committee (PALM), originally established to deal with plant closings and the loss of jobs, has evolved to become the Delaware Valley's resource for labor-management cooperation. PALM's strategy results in cooperative efforts that improve the skills and productivity of workers and management, stimulate regional economic development, and strengthen existing industries.
Right Place Program (RPP) is the economic development arm of the Grand Rapids chamber of commerce. Its customer-driven programs have pushed the envelope of community economic development.
Work in Northeast Ohio Council (WINOC), with expertise in labor-management relations and work restructuring, and the Cleveland Advanced Manufacturing Program/Great Lakes Manufacturing Technology Center (CAMP/GLMTC), with expertise in manufacturing technology, demonstrate how integrated services can result from a strategic alliance between partners.
The case studies were conducted between Fall, 1994 and Fall, 1995. The first drafts of the cases were written between Spring, 1995 and Spring 1996. Collaborative staff reviewed the case studies to identify recurring themes reflecting common experiences across the sites. These themes were then used to determine the "lessons learned" from the programs.
These organizations face the constant change that confronts every organization in today's economy. To capture any changes in the case sites that occurred while this publication was being written, case study updates were prepared in April 1997. Several of the sites went through significant transitions since their original case study: the Baltimore Center for Port-Related Industries has been reconstituted as Port-Wide Total Quality; BSSC and the Industrial Services Program merged to become the Corporation for Business, Work, and Learning; and Duracool Division's management bought the company from Harford Systems and formed Harford Duracool, LLC. None of these transitions invalidate the reasons these sites were chosen as models of integrated service delivery. Indeed, the updates indicate that the elements that contributed to each site's success are the same elements that enable to take advantage of the opportunities present in change.
There is no one best way to organize for and deliver integrated services to small and mid-sized companies. The different approaches taken in the individual cases present a range of alternatives for service providers interested in developing their own programs. Specific models of service delivery begin to emerge from two strategic decisions: client grouping and integration capacity.
Integrated services are delivered to some targeted customer group. The primary criteria for customer targeting is the focus of this strategic decision. Three different criteria can be observed in the case studies:
Region. Three of the programs target their services to specific geographic regions. Bay State Skills Corporation (BSSC) was created by the Massachusetts legislature to provide services in that state. The alliance between Work in Northeast Ohio (WINOC) and the Cleveland Advanced Manufacturing Program/Great Lakes Manufacturing Technology Center (CAMP/GLMTC) emerged from a regional effort to promote economic development. The Right Place Program (RPP) began as the economic development arm of the chamber of commerce in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Industry. Two of the case studies target specific industries. The Baltimore Center for Port-Related Industries focuses on making Baltimore's the highest quality port on the eastern seaboard. New York's Garment Industry Development Corporation (GIDC) provides a variety of services within the garment industry. (CAMP/GLMTC, considered by itself, is more appropriately classified as targeting the manufacturing industry.)
Company. One of the case studies focuses on a company-orchestrated change effort. Harford Systems, Duracool Division engaged diverse experts at the point where each was necessary to implement the company's improvement plan.
It is important to recognize client grouping can be approached at multiple levels. While GIDC's services are concentrated in the New York City area, its primary focus is on the garment industry. Similarly, RPP's programs emphasize manufacturing, but its primary focus is on the economic development of the Grand Rapids region. Individual companies, their employees, or potetnial employees are the ultimate target of every program. The primary criteria for targeting a customer group is an imperative for the delivery of services. It is the requirement that follows the phrase, "Deliver services to..." It helps define the program's "primacy of purpose." That purpose should be the ultimate guide in the development and evaluation of alternative products and services.
The delivery of integrated services at the company level requires the ability to meet multiple needs. This is a difficult challenge. Strategically, service providers need to decide what they will do and what they will not do.(1) A program's strategy is influenced by its capacity, i.e., its breadth (extent to which the staff's technical skills enable the program to deliver a range of services), depth (ability to innovate and tailor services to fit the needs of a particular environment), and reach (number of clients a service provider can handle at the same time). The programs studied used different strategies to achieve the capacity to address a company's problems.
Competency focus. Most service providers elect to focus on a relatively few speciality areas; as a consequence, few providers can meet all the needs of their business clients. For many providers, focusing on a single competency is a sound business strategy.
Three of the case studies were chosen as exemplars of best practice in a given area: Alpena Community College in workplace literacy, Maryland Center for Quality and Productivity in work restructuring, and Philadelphia Area Labor-Management Committee in labor-management relations. (WINOC, by itself, may be considered as exemplifying a competency focus n labor-management relations.) Each of these programs maintains a competency focus.
These programs in specific content areas offer an important lesson: they demonstrate the impossibility of isolating service to a single content area. Since the market is likely to respond more favorably to a service provider that can meet a range of needs, it is sometimes necessary for service providers to increase their capacity by forming alliances with other providers.
For example, providers of total quality consulting services -- such as MCQP -- rarely possess expertise in literacy issues. However, total quality cannot be effectively implemented unless all employees possess sufficient verbal and math skills to profit from the training and to utilize basic group problem-solving techniques. Therefore it would make sense for total quality service providers to develop partnerships with literacy providers in order to offer a more complete service to clients (e.g., MCQP refers clients to literacy services available from local community colleges, as appropriate).
Integrated services. Programs that elect to offer integrated services, i.e., to address an array of company needs, are confronted with the classic business "make" or "buy" decision. In this case, "make" refers to those services that will be delivered through in-house people, while "buy" refers to those services that will be delivered through affiliations with partners. The two ends of the continuum are
Full service provider. A full service provider provides a full range of services using in-house staff. The Baltimore Center for Port Related Industries and the Garment Industry Development Center are the closest among our cases to being full service providers.
Full service broker. A full service broker provides a full range of services through alliances with external providers. These alliances may be in the form of referrals or contracted services. The Right Place Program, Bay State Skills Corporation, and CAMP/GLMTC are each full service brokers. Harford-Duracool is a pure broker, selecting service providers to meet its needs.
Private sector companies have found that alliances and partnerships with other firms, even competitors, are wise strategic choices in today's competitive environment. This same lesson applies to service providers: alliances and partnerships are a good way to offer integrated services to business clients.
The specific model of service delivery in a program is determined by strategic decisions related to client grouping (region, industry, or company) and integration capacity (competency focus, full service provider, or full service broker). The following table captures the possible models emerging from these decisions.
|
Client Grouping Integration Capacity |
Region |
Industry Company |
|
Competency Focus |
Alpena Community College, Philadelphia Area Labor-Management Committee, Maryland Center for Quality and Productivity, Work in Northeast Ohio Council |
|
|
Full Service Provider |
Baltimore Center for Port-Related Industries, Garment Industry Development Corporation |
|
|
Full Service Broker |
Right Place Program, Bay State Skills Corporation |
Cleveland Advanced Manufacturing Program/Great Lakes Manufacturing Technology Center Harford Systems Duracool Division |
_ Understand the community/company
_ Exercise proactive leadership
_ Maintain a customer focus
_ Seek alliance with kindred spirits
_ Pursue small victories
_ Do not ignore process
_ Diversify champions and funding sources
_ Be focused but flexible
_ Take time to reflect
Individually and collectively, these programs offer valuable lessons to service providers on delivering integrated services. The following "lessons learned" capture the common experiences from the case study sites. Awareness of these lessons can help other service providers develop their own effective integrated service programs. Each lesson includes illustrations from the cases demonstrating different ways the lessons can be implemented.
Programs operate within a community; success requires understanding that community. Some program leaders are very explicit about this. For example, the people at RPP were quick to point out some unique aspects of Grand Rapids that contribute to that program's success: politically, Grand Rapids is very conservative, and local institutions tend to be private-sector driven. Community leaders, once they commit to supporting a program, do not meddle in an initiative's operation. Since 60 percent of the companies in Grand Rapids are privately owned, it is possible for RPP to reach the majority of the region's business owners. The size of Grand Rapids allows the RPP to identify and take advantage of the providers and resources in the region.
Programs that did not explicitly acknowledge the importance of understanding the community had leaders who were well-connected to the community, and understood the community's history and politics. The Collaborative's studies suggest that this knowledge plays a critical role in determining program success.
The influence of the community does not always require an explicit understanding or use of political contacts. Businesses and industries regard Alpena Community College as a partner in their efforts. In Alpena, as in other rural areas, delivering on promises is critical, because these promises are made to friends, neighbors, and associates. Because ACC is local, always there, and accountable, the relationship between the college and the area's businesses is a positive one.
Individual companies are the ultimate target of an integrated change effort. Harford-Duracool demonstrates that the importance of understanding community applies at the firm level as well. Understanding Harford-Duracool -- its history and its current situation -- was critical to the development of a change plan. As with any organization, Harford-Duracool had to overcome resistance to change. In the early stages of the change effort, employees used to years of autocratic management were skeptical and mistrusted management. In order to succeed, Harford-Duracool's change effort had to generate employee commitment. A history of unprofitability also hindered change. The poor financial situation was a barrier to investing in new systems or technology. Harford-Duracool's new president had to first stop the hemorrhage of "red ink" before he could begin the process of modernizing the company's processes.
Strong leadership is critical to any program's success. Three aspects of leadership are paramount:
Create a vision. Successful programs have a compelling purpose. Leadership is exercised by people who communicate and motivate others and provide a vision for the future. The most effective vision offers a positive image of a future in which crisis has been replaced by prosperity. The vision also outlines, in broad strokes, how this future will come to be. These broad strokes leading to the future capture the purpose of the service program.
In the Baltimore port center, leadership was exercised by people who could communicate a vision for the port and pull all of the necessary people and resources together to make that vision a reality. Their vision is to make Baltimore the number one port on the east coast. Total quality, and the customer orientation underlying quality, is the strategy for making this vision a reality.
In Harford-Duracool, the new president provided consistent, visionary leadership. He began a systematic, deliberate process to lay the foundation for sustained performance and profitability. Similarly, PALM's vision of stable labor-management relations as a pillar for economic development provides a clear and consistent focus to its programs and activities.
Change is a "wrenching" undertaking, destabilizing, and discomforting. Making a vision a reality requires a comprehensive approach and the willingness to take risks. It even requires a "leap of faith." Leaders must demonstrate a heavy dose of courage -- the willingness to take risks, and to behave, think, and act differently. Each of these programs demonstrated a willingness to confront biases and traditions "head on," and push for change.
Exercise political savvy. A program's success depends, in part, upon a leader's ability to obtain and sustain support for the initiative. This requires political savvy. For example, key members of MCQP's first advisory board had significant political clout. This influence was instrumental in attaining the preliminary funding from the university, at the center's inception, that guaranteed the center's survival. One of GIDC's greatest strength is its tri-partite base (labor, industry, and government). While this partnership is not always easy, it is durable. The program can weather temporary declines in support from one partner.
The program's vision can play an important role in obtaining political support. PALM's vision of stable labor-management relations as a pillar for economic development provides it a unique "market niche" -- no other economic development agency concentrates on this relationship. PALM's leadership, taking advantage of its extensive stakeholder network, has used this vision to forge collaborations between business, labor, and government in select program areas.
Build trust and commitment. Leaders cannot run programs by themselves. Effective leaders generate commitment to the program -- from employees, stakeholders, and customers. They create a team. It is one thing to bring people together and call them a team; it is quite another to have each person commit himself or herself to the endeavor. The leadership challenge is to obtain honest commitment: if you do not have it, the program will not work.
Change efforts must emphasize substance over form. This means that leaders must set the example, deliver what they promise, model the behavior they expect from their partners, and hold each other accountable for results. Arley Mead, president of Harford-Duracool, exemplifies this aspect of leadership. He listened to the employee "experts," coached the management team, gained the trust of everyone, and most importantly, demonstrated high levels of personal integrity. When Mead said he would do something, he did it. When he asked someone to do something, he followed up to make sure it was done. It was through such personal acts that he demonstrated his leadership and gained the trust of his partners.
The Baltimore center is a team effort. All of the major stakeholders feel vested in the program. The team concept has been communicated to everyone; from the lowest worker to the top of the organization, everyone must be part of the team. This has helped to generate communication, trust, and a willingness to work together to solve problems. Center staff are particularly proud of the commitment of both labor and management to the port project. This commitment is grounded in the union's realization that it has to be efficient to retain jobs, and management's recognition that it has to be competitive to survive.
We are accustomed to thinking of top management as the leaders of an organization. It is true that the presidents and other top managers exercised leadership in each of the programs we studied. But more importantly, their success as leaders -- their ability to communicate a vision, obtain political support, and build trust and commitment -- enabled additional leaders to emerge from each stakeholder group.
Many organizations, in an effort to become more customer-focused, are concentrating on the quality of their products and services. Quality, however, is defined by the customer. Being customer focused requires an on-going process for identifying customer segments, determining customer expectations, and delivering programs and services that meet these expectations.
Clearly define your target market. The visions for the programs studied were not marketing or business plans. Rather, each vision was the starting point for developing more detailed operational plans. In all cases, these operational plans started by clearly identifying the program's target customers.
Already established parameters may help define a program's customers. These parameters may relate to the vision. For example, the Baltimore port center's vision of Baltimore as the number one port of the east coast delineates the companies and workers in the port as the primary customers. GIDC's vision is also industry specific. Therefore, it tailors its programs and services to meet the needs of its garment industry clientele. Funding constraints may also help identify customers. RPP is first and foremost a business-originated and business-led service entity. This strong tie to the business community means that RPP is ultimately responsible to these businesses.
Other programs use different criteria to select target markets. For example, PALM identified seven institutions with very visible labor-management climates as potential customers. In order to achieve significant change in its client companies, MCQP targets CEOs. Many of MCQP's information and learning services are designed to maximize contact with CEOs and lay the groundwork for future business opportunities.
Having a clear target market is prerequisite to achieving a customer focus. Once you know who your customers are, you can work on identifying the customer requirements your programs must meet.
Partner with your customers. Successful programs work hard at developing customer loyalty. They collaborate with customers in determining the customers' needs and objectives. Business involvement ensures the business relevance of providers' products and services. For example, BSSC is successful because it responds to and confirms real business needs. It recognizes that you can't sell training to people, or business assistance to companies; they have to be willing to buy these things. BSSC takes the time to listen to the companies about their needs. It practices the art of saying "yes." BSSC helps its partners accomplish what they want to accomplish.
Customer involvement strategies can be arrayed on a continuum. One side of the continuum is demand-centered -- these strategies bring together the people and organizations to whom services will be delivered, i.e., they define the market needs and seek out service providers capable of addressing those needs. Product-centered strategies occupy the other end of the continuum. These strategies pull together educational institutions, consultants, and others with the expertise required to service the program's customers. Product-centered strategies risk the danger of selling services that the partners have the capacity to deliver, but that may not be needed in the market. The middle portion of the continuum contains partnerships that deliver service packages developed in response to customer input. The degree to which services were designed in response to customer needs and based on customer input, as well as the ability to customize the offerings to meet the needs of individual clients, determines a program's relative position in the middle of the continuum.
Demand Centered Product Centered
Harford-Duracool is the pure demand-centered strategy. The company's transformation illustrates the evolutionary nature of change. Harford-Duracool drew upon a variety of service providers, matching the providers' expertise to key tasks in the company's strategic change effort. In the initiation phase, the company needed to provide a clear sense of direction and build trust. The vehicle used for these two purposes was the development of a gainsharing program. In phase two, the company needed to improve competitiveness. This was done through the implementation of total quality management. Duracool used the service providers' ideas, but acted as the translator and implementation designer. The process was management -- not consultant -- led. BSSC's emphasis on the formation of learning consortia also makes it a customer partnership, as are RPP's continuous improvement user groups.
Cross and Smith (1995)(2) argue that the best programs are able to create a series of bonds with customers. These bonds include
Awareness bonds serve as an information source to businesses. Meetings, newsletters, seminars, technical assistance hot lines, and advertisements are some of the mechanisms these programs use to educate and inform businesses about economic trends and company success stories.
Identity and relationship bonds allow providers to stay in touch with customer needs. Small and mid-sized businesses want to work with service providers who are interested and involved in their companies and understand their needs. They want service providers who will listen to them before offering solutions. They are looking for you to fit comfortably into their company cultures. "Good chemistry" between a provider and a small business owner is essential, since the owner often is the business. Sustaining a solid understanding of customer needs requires continuous use of multiple methods of data collection. Each of the programs in this study used both formal methods (e.g. surveys) and informal methods (e.g. visits and phone calls) to stay in touch with its customers.
Community bonds create a place for companies to belong. Membership, advisory panels, and member committees are some of the mechanisms providers in this study use to create community bonds with customers. Organizing consortia is another important strategy for developing community bonds, particularly when serving small companies.(3) For example, RPP grounds its programs in consortia, enabling it to partner with companies, identify priorities, and design appropriate solutions. When creating community bonds, BSSC looks for significant willingness on the part of an industry to work with and be involved in BSSC's initiatives. BSSC has found that people only care about what they pay for or commit time to. Therefore, BSSC requires such contributions from its industry partners.
Advocacy bonds let customers become your salespeople. RPP's use of local client firms as presenters at its conferences is a good illustration of advocacy bonds. It is not uncommon for a presentation to lead to the formation of a continuous improvement user group, one of RPP's core services. A different form of advocacy is evident in BSSC. By pulling together a group of companies in an industry, BSSC is able to get educational institutions to develop training and assistance programs the companies define. When BSSC's customers approach a college as a network of 40 companies, they are generally able to get courses designed specifically to meet their needs.
Deliver customer-focused programs and services. Programs should address customer needs and satisfy customer requirements. A customer focus should be evident in both program content and delivery.
Content. Success requires that service providers have the ability to customize their services to address each customer's unique business context. Program content should be tailored to each business; providers should not try to fit company needs into their off-the-shelf package of services. For example, the world class manufacturing model used in RPP's Performance Place allows companies to customize training to fit their specific needs. Companies work with RPP consultants to develop an organizational learning plan tailored to their needs.
All classes in Alpena Community College's workplace literacy services are customized to meet the specific basic skills needs of the workers and are delivered on site at the workplace. ACC often uses materials from the workplace in instruction, teaching, for example, math skills using a particular workplace tool or instrument.
A critical lesson emerging from the training program for the longshoremen's locals in Baltimore is that training is the second step; the first step is establishing a relationship between the instructors and the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) members, by building trust and educating instructors about the work the union members do. Port employees told curriculum developers what the workers do, how they do it, and why they do it that way. This knowledge allowed the instructors to develop job specific materials and an applied curriculum. With the workers' support and commitment, the instructors could then use this curriculum to help the workers implement new work processes and adopt new technologies.
Delivery. Customer satisfaction and delight result from the service that surrounds delivery. "Delightful" service includes such activities as accessible telephone service, rapid quotes, rapid response to design changes, expert delivery, and customer-friendly billing systems. Service delivery should be tailored to meet customers' individual requirements (e.g., operating structures and schedules). GIDC's brochures, for example, are produced in Spanish and Chinese, as well as in English. BSSC serves as an interface between the companies and educational institutions it works with and the government bureaucracy. BSSC realizes that "facilitating the process" is one of the biggest services it can provide its partners. From the view of its business and education partners, BSSC is a non-bureaucratic, "agile" organization. It handles the paperwork. It pays out money quickly. BSSC knows that as the "exception" to programs burdened by red tape, it looks very good.
It takes trained, customer-focused, empowered employees to deliver services that result in customer delight. This means that the ability to attract and retain knowledgeable and committed staff is critical to any program's success. Each of the programs studied paid significant attention to attracting and retaining the right staff. For example, from its beginning, PALM has sought staff with backgrounds in training and economic development, not traditional labor-management relations. It has been successful in attracting young, aggressive staff, committed to PALM's vision.
Harford-Duracool provides a final lesson for service providers. It is vital for any organization that the leadership of the organization be viewed as the "drivers" of change. This role should not be abdicated to outside change agents. Duracool effectively listened to the advice of outside change agents, but translated their messages into Duracool language for deployment throughout the organization. In working with companies, service providers should adopt a strategy that keeps the organization in control of its change process, and allows the company to internalize the knowledge and skills the consultants provide within the company itself.
The delivery of integrated services at the company level requires most service providers to form alliances with other providers. Partnerships can be difficult. Organizations developing strategic alliances or partnerships must understand each other's products and services sufficiently to know when to call the other and how to integrate their services. Incongruent expectations and turf battles illustrate the types of issues which, if not addressed up-front, can doom a partnership.
Whereas Dundalk Community College is organized by functions, the Baltimore port center operates by process -- a natural mismatch. For example, the college wants to know what classrooms the center will need when it is creating its master schedule, while the Center prefers a just-in-time approach, scheduling classes when the client is ready to learn. By creating alliances, the center also moves away from the traditional geographical boundary issues constraining many community colleges (the port is in Baltimore City, while Dundalk Community College is in Baltimore County). These differences are a challenge to the partnership between the center and the college. Similarly, RPP ran into difficulty in its partnership with the Mid-Lakes Manufacturing Technology Center (MMTC). The MMTC model assumes a staff of engineers and field agents. RPP's ability to operate as a virtual service provider provides an alternative model that requires MMTC to adopt new methods of coordination.
Specific competencies enable different service providers to play particular roles in a program partnership. These specific competencies also limit the roles each partner can play. Sensitivity to differences in competencies is both a key to successful partnership and a source of conflicts over turf. For example, some providers are sensitive to their place in the service chain. One community college executive remarked that he wanted his program to begin doing more organizational assessments, as opposed to traditional training assessments. The reason: he realized that the "upstream" partner will be dominant, and he didn't want the college to always be the one that was called in after-the-fact. GIDC insists that the consultants it hires train its staff, so that GIDC won't need the consultants again (it has also "grown" its own staff in order to get the right skills at the right price).
Strategic alliances are typically formalized by a partnership agreement or a memorandum of understanding among the parties describing how they will work together. The arrangement must address financial issues -- how billing will be conducted, what rates will be charged, and what "markups" will be permitted. Few of the programs we investigated had formal partnership agreements. The rigorous planning that typifies the best strategic alliances in the private sector has not yet permeated the service provider community -- but it's coming. RPP has clearly defined partnership agreements with the consultants who operate out of its learning center, the Performance Place. The NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnerships program has sponsored a series of workshops for its centers on developing strategic partnership agreements.
All of the programs studied recognize that "nothing succeeds like success." Although each of the programs is guided by a grand vision, they were all careful to create small victories. This care is exhibited in both program development and their work with individual companies.
Develop the right programs. There is value in taking programs one small step at a time. It is impossible to start everything at once. Effective programs begin in areas where they can have a proven success. GIDC, for example, is willing to start small, learn from its mistakes, and then consider ways to expand its reach. It looks for hands-on programs that can have visible successes. These successes are then held up as exemplars, and used to convince other firms to try the new strategies as well. When it oversteps its reach, as with its first Quick Response plan, it steps back and rethinks the issue (in this case, scaling down the plan and approaching quick response by solving problems shop by shop).
RPP also has been very careful to keep its ambitions in check and ensure it can deliver on its promises. Its initial emphasis on traditional economic development activities was designed to build an initial reputation for delivering on its goals and visions. RPP staff agree that building a strong level of trust is absolutely essential to success. And delivering on promises is a critical element in establishing trust.
For many programs, this incremental approach allows the staff to learn by doing. The Baltimore port center's programs, for example, evolved over time; they were not the result of a carefully laid out plan. The Center director said that, "people would ask me what is next, and I would say, `I don't know.' It was the first time for me too." Similarly, GIDC has found companies that are willing to take risks and has recruited them into its cause. GIDC does not expect to "save" the garment industry overnight. It plans to keep on learning, program by program and firm by firm, and then expand its initiatives.
The key to developing the right programs in this manner is recognizing and taking advantage of the opportunities for expansion. Alpena Community College is using the knowledge and skills it has gained working with adult students at job sites to change its curriculum for traditional college-age students, to better reflect real-world problems and problem-solving techniques. Its instructors have taken their experiences in the workplace and have used them to shape the curriculum of regular college classes for traditional students. ACC's workplace literacy classes also build worker demand for more classes. The literacy classes are beginning to serve as "feeder" programs to ACC's degree programs as well as to other workplace training. For example, the math instructor is using laptop computers to teach job-specific math skills; this instruction will also serve as a bridge to further training in CAD.
Help companies with the problems they identify. The trust built through a deliberate process is also important in individual company change efforts. Even though Harford-Duracool was unprofitable, the new president did not embark on a "slash and burn" effort to create short-term profitability. Through a systematic, deliberate process, he directed a change effort one initiative at a time.
The need for small victories in a company change effort has direct implications for service providers. All of the programs studied experience a common tension that emerges from customer demands for services that address immediate, but short-term needs, and the recognition that the transformation to a high-performance workplace is a long-term change effort requiring an array of services delivered over time. Small companies are likely to seek external assistance from and develop a trusting relationship with providers with whom they have worked successfully in the past. These companies may initially be interested in working on small projects, where they can quickly see the results. Helping these companies solve their initial problems, and building a good relationship, can often lead to other engagements.
Program development efforts and company change processes that strive for a quick fix are unlikely to achieve sustained results. Building trust, commitment, understanding, and consensus takes time and requires attention to process. Thus, staff at the Baltimore port center believe it is the quality process, not a program, that is the key to the port's success. The quality process in the port started with a leadership group. That group helped communicate that the Port of Baltimore wants to be a world-class port, and wants businesses to use its facilities. Once that vision was established, participants in the quality process moved on to address issues affecting several groups within the port, e.g., auto handling. It is the quality process that generates commitment from diverse groups to act on a common agenda.
At Harford-Duracool, success was achieved through full partner involvement and employee empowerment, coupled with rewards and recognition for participation. Involvement ensured that the change effort was, to a great degree, designed by employees. Many people in the company participated in deciding how the organization would change. Their ideas were encouraged and they were accepted. Achieving true consensus on key decisions required education, discussion, and patience. However, when consensus was achieved, implementation proceeded very rapidly and commitment was very high. This created a feeling among employees that "this is our company now." Similarly, at the program level, involving management and labor in its programs has enabled PALM to generate credibility with both groups.
An effective process will answer the question "what's in it for me?" Individual employees involved in a company change effort want more money for improved performance. The longshoremen in the Port of Baltimore paid attention to their union leader when he said the choice was to learn new skills or lose their jobs. At Harford-Duracool, employee ownership of the change process was solidified by the gainsharing system and pay for suggestions. Companies working with service providers, and key program stakeholders, should have a clear sense of the performance improvement they can expect from working with that provider. Leaders of effective case study programs were able to clearly define the challenge of change and articulate its implications for potential partners and/or customers.
An effective process requires a set of structures and activities to create and sustain business networks, work with a cadre of service providers, link providers to business clients, and facilitate problem-solving and communication, as appropriate. It also requires good facilitators to manage those structures and activities. The consistent use of a problem solving process in which PALM staff serve as conveners and facilitators is a key aspect in all of PALM's programs. RPP staff are not content experts, they are facilitators. PALM's and RPP's success demonstrate what can be accomplished by attending to process.
Funding is always a problem for any service provider; it takes resources to create and sustain a program. Successful sites aggressively seek support from a variety of funding sources. Almost every program studied benefitted from outside funding to support its start-up (e.g., initial support from a Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service grant helped PALM to get up and running). The goal after start-up is to become self sustaining as quickly as possible, while providing affordable and cost-effective services to small and mid-sized companies.
Each of the case study programs is proficient at identifying and applying for public funding to subsidize costs. GIDC has worked hard to find ways to finance its programs. It knows where there are state and local dollars to help fund the changes the garment industry needs to make. It makes government funding of garment industry programs feasible by serving as the conduit between government and the numerous small manufacturers and contractors in the industry. By serving as a "packager" combining services to a number of small companies, GIDC is able to create a project big enough to receive government funding. (Sponsoring "training consortia" also reduces costs by enabling smaller companies to share costs among themselves.)
BSSC is very innovative in its use of funding. It uses its general state appropriation to leverage funds from other state and federal government entities. It uses government funds as a carrot to get companies to contribute their own funds. And it uses both public and private funds to encourage contributions from foundations. WINOC and CAMP/GLMTC use their foundation funds strategically, to develop new products and services.
Each case study program also charges for its products and services (although the form of charge varies from fees based on a sliding scale to fee-for-service contracts). According to Renold Thompson, WINOC's part-time chair: "If you start giving away the services, people lose respect."
Integrating services is difficult and time consuming. The path is full of missteps and new opportunities. The best programs have an ability to learn from failure, to change course when original plans do not go as expected. They practice "informed opportunism," taking advantage of unanticipated effects and emerging opportunities by viewing them all through the lens of the vision driving the program. These organizations have remained true to their original missions, yet they have expanded their initial services to meet customer needs and take advantage of new business opportunities. In so doing, they have continually enhanced their organizational capability and expertise.
Some case study sites remain focused on their core competencies, but within the larger context of meeting their customer's more comprehensive work restructuring and systemic change needs. For example, WINOC focuses on building collaborative labor management practices, but in the larger organizational context of quality and cultural change. CAMP/GLMTC focuses on helping companies deal with technical innovation, but has incorporated human resource development into its work. Other programs have enhanced their capabilities by exercising flexibility in other ways. The Baltimore port center identified new funding opportunities (e.g., a national literacy grant), modified programs on-the-fly (e.g., integrating quality and technical training in the union local 953 training), and customized programs to fit the needs of individual companies (e.g., port-wide quality consulting).
The case studies provide some concrete guidelines for enhancing program capabilities:
Build on program activities. Most service providers have a core competency that determines the first services offered by the program. In many cases, this core service represents a specific methodology or approach to working with a client. Additional services evolve from this core competency as new customer needs emerge or new provider partners are brought on board.
RPP defined its core competency as facilitation. It is able to bring companies together and facilitate their discussions. RPP relies on others (its virtual consultants) to provide technical content to its services. The port project began with a core expertise in curriculum development and training, and expanded services as opportunities emerged.
WINOC and CAMP/GLMTC developed a formal needs assessment as a critical improvement tool. Not only does a formal assessment help companies to identify priorities and the connections among them, it also highlights opportunities where service providers can offer to conduct subsequent work. The use of a consistent, structured core methodology has helped MCQP maintain a clear understanding of what it is the center can do. This has strengthened MCQP's ability to develop new services and customize services for its clients.
Other program activities may also serve as a source of business opportunities. Informational and networking meetings sponsored by WINOC and CAMP/GLMTC have become important means to an end rather than ends in themselves; they now pave the way for follow-on business.
Access a variety of sources to inform practice. A prerequisite to practicing informed opportunism is the capacity to access a variety of networks for ideas and business opportunities. MCQP has been able to draw on the experiences of 1) best practice obtained from administering the U.S. Senate Productivity Award, 2) the nuts and bolts of change based on its technical assistance to companies in need, and 3) cutting edge research and practice garnered from university and professional contacts. PALM staff freely "network, borrow, and steal" to find the right methods and tools to solve the specific problems confronting their clients.
WINOC and CAMP/GLMTC have made an effort to stay in tune and in touch with area leaders. They employ multiple sensing mechanisms -- by placing local leaders on their respective boards, seeking the leaders' input on critical issues, convening regular meetings to address the leaders' priority issues, and maintaining informal communication linkages with these leaders. The best organizations are able to translate the information garnered from these diverse sources into state-of-the-art services meeting their clients' emerging needs.
Avoid categorization. Effective programs strive to avoid program definitions that limit their offerings. Whenever possible, BSSC's workforce development programs eliminate eligibility restrictions for training, prepare people for a wide variety of emerging occupations, and offer instruction at a range of training levels, with programs lasting anywhere from 20 weeks to 20 months. BSSC is also trying to break down the distinctions between its business improvement and its training efforts. People's and companies' workforce and workplace needs do not divide up into neat little categories. Neither should the programs that address these needs. Programs that can break through categorization stand the best chance of providing integrated services to their company customers.
Seize the moment. Crisis breeds opportunity. The majority of the programs studied were forged in crisis. The trigger to the programs' formations may vary; the Port and RPP were started in response to regional or industry-specific economic downturns, BSSC responded to a mismatch of employee skills to business needs, PALM and WINOC were answers to labor-management conflict, while Harford-Duracool begun its journey after a change in company ownership. In each case, some crisis created a need for the programs. Bob Meyer's (WINOC) observation holds true for most of these programs: "We were in the right place at the right time." The programs continued success suggests that each has kept its ability to "seize the moment."
Each of the case study organizations has a vision of what it should be, but recognizes that realizing that vision requires a long-term commitment. Many of the programs started small, with the goal of addressing a defined business need. Some programs have encountered unanticipated obstacles, and have been redesigned "in flight" to better achieve their goals. Each program has grown over time to encompass more companies and a broader range of services. The basic lesson: "keep plugging away."
Many of the prior lessons learned reflect experience in creating and starting a program. If organizations are successful, in time they confront a different set of challenges, challenges related to growth and sustaining the organization's integrity. As funders' interests change, key leadership positions turn over, critical stakeholders' philosophies shift, and the organization deals with the pains of growth, it needs to take time to reflect on its progress and ensure the continued relevance of and support for its vision and mission.
Many organizations rely on a strategic planning process as a mechanism for reassessing and expanding their missions. (CAMP/GLMTC, for example, reviewed its strategic plan, altered its own work concept, and reorganized and integrated its services to support the renewed vision.) For other organizations, changes in leadership, termination of program funding, new contracts, or other events provide an opportunity for strategic reflection.
Each of the case study programs faces the danger of creating a collection of training and business assistance projects, rather than a coherent package of offerings that address the full needs of its customer base or a well-formed system for delivering services. (This is one of the drawbacks of the lesson of "starting small.") Provider organizations have to look closely at their service packages (the array of services they offer) and their organization designs (the structures and processes they use to deliver services) to determine if these services and designs will enable the organizations to realize their visions.
Cultivate your customer base. Organizations must both sustain their existing bases of support and also reach out to customer groups that are a part of their vision, but whose needs they are not yet meeting. Both are a challenge. The Baltimore port center's leadership board was instrumental in the formation of the center. However, the center has not been able to keep the leadership board fully involved in center activities. Continued success requires that the center find a mechanism for sustaining the involvement of the leadership group in a meaningful way. In addition, while total quality is the linch pin of the center program, the upper management of many port companies does not understand total quality. Further, the center has been unable to get a significant number of managers to participate in the total quality efforts, particularly within individual companies. The center hopes that the formation of labor-management problem-solving teams at the work site will provide a vehicle for exposing more managers to the benefits of total quality.
While GIDC is helping manufacturers to better market their garments both at home and abroad, it is finding it difficult to market its own services. There are many individuals in the garment industry who know nothing about GIDC or its activities. In general, GIDC communicates firm by firm, and individual by individual. It needs the support of its partners if it is to become well known throughout the industry.
To date, RPP customers have been small manufacturing companies. It has no programs targeted at large companies or companies in the service industry, yet each of these groups is an important stakeholder in RPP. RPP is studying whether it would be advantageous to develop services targeted at these other groups.
Find the best structure. Some organizations can look at the design of their organization and say it represents the best way for the organization to realize its vision. MCQP's status as a part of the University of Maryland's Business School has been instrumental in its ability to successfully practice informed opportunism. The legitimacy associated with this affiliation, and the access it affords to networks of business experts and practitioners, are critical to the identification of new business opportunities. Other organizations have to question the viability of their current structures. The relationship between the Baltimore port center and its community college partner has been problematic. The center has to determine whether it should become a formal part of the community college or explore alternative arrangements.
BSSC's rapid expansion has created separate project-based silos; it needs to find a way to integrate the activities of its operation. Moreover, despite it's growth, BSSC will always be too small to meet all of Massachusetts' workforce and workplace development needs. To be successful on a large scale, BSSC must think beyond its own organization. It needs to develop two networks, one consisting of providers that can deliver the comprehensive array of services Massachusetts employees and employers need, the other a system of company networks that will enable BSSC to reach the state's small and mid-sized companies in a cost-effective manner.
Similarly, RPP has developed an array of learning services and products to enhance firm competitiveness. One of it's challenges is to coordinate and align the design and delivery of these services into a comprehensive, integrated service package for its member companies.
Cultivate funding. Ultimately, an organization's vision must be tested against the reality of the market: Can the organization fund its activities? Many organizations are finding that funders philosophies of giving are changing. Many foundations, for example, are no longer interested in providing general operating funds; their giving is more project focused. Organizations seeking funding have to change accordingly. The need to diversify funding sources is an important element for success.
WINOC's traditional revenue streams -- membership/corporate contributions, public programs, state grants, and foundation grants -- have either decreased or remained level since 1991-93. In contrast, its fees for services have become increasingly important as a revenue source. (But pricing services in order to keep solvent is a difficult task. MCQP was forced to restructure when the center lost money and used all of its cash reserves.) The search for diversified funding is also pushing WINOC to align with other organizations, such as CAMP/GLMTC.
Evaluate results. As the competition for funding increases, potential funders are asking for evidence of benefits accruing from organizations' services. Most organizations think that they are doing a good job and providing quality services that have tangible benefits for their clients, but they don't have the time (or the money) to evaluate their efforts. They defend what they do, rather than focusing on improvement strategies. Few have any way to measure, coordinate, and align their different stakeholders' impressions of what constitutes success. These organizations need measurement systems to provide information on service benefits and outcomes. This information would also enable them to market their services more effectively, as well as engage in the continuous improvement of their programs and services.
Delivering integrated services is difficult, but not impossible. Service providers seeking to better meet the needs of small and mid-sized companies will greatly benefit from the insights these case studies afford. Providing such services represents an important business opportunity for willing service providers, and broader access to such services will enhance the competitiveness of small and mid-sized firms.
_ BCPRI: Baltimore Center for Port Related Industries
_ BSSC: Bay State Skills Corporation
_ CAMP/GLMTC: Cleveland Advanced Manufacturing Program/Great Lakes Manufacturing Technology Center
_ GIDC: Garment Industry Development Corporation
_ HD: Harford Systems, Duracool Division
_ RPP: Right Place Program
_ WINOC: Work in Northeast Ohio Council
Successful change requires managing the relationship between changes in technology, from changes in the workplace, and changes in the skills needed to do the work. It demands providers who can deliver comprehensive and well-integrated technical assistance. This is a difficult challenge. For many service providers, it requires crossing traditional boundaries and developing new approaches to delivering services to business. The different approaches taken in the case studies in this section present a range of alternatives for service providers interested in developing their own programs to deliver comprehensive, integrated services.
The programs in this section used different strategies to achieve the capacity to address a broad range of company problems. One of the key strategic decisions is defining a targeted customer group. Three different criteria for customer targeting can be observed in the case studies:
Region. Three of the programs target their services to specific geographic regions:
Bay State Skills Corporation (BSSC) was a quasi-public organization created to fund industry-driven training services. Since its initial creation, BSSC had expanded its mission to include assistance in work restructuring, and had begun to build connections between its workforce development and workplace innovation efforts.
Work in Northeast Ohio Council (WINOC), with expertise in labor-management relations and work restructuring, and the Cleveland Advanced Manufacturing Program/Great Lakes Manufacturing Technology Center (CAMP/GLMTC), with expertise in manufacturing technology, demonstrate how integrated services can result from a strategic alliance between partners.
Right Place Program (RPP) is the economic development arm of the Grand Rapids chamber of commerce. Its customer-driven programs have pushed the envelope of community economic development.
Industry. Two of the case studies represent industry-targeted initiatives:
Baltimore Center for Port-Related Industries brings all of Baltimore Port's public and private enterprises and its union locals into an association focused on making Baltimore's the highest quality port on the eastern seaboard. The center provides basic skills, technical, and quality-related training to the longshoremen, and quality consulting services to the port's public and private enterprises.
New York's Garment Industry Development Corporation (GIDC) provides skill upgrade training to sewing machine operators and other garment industry workers; restructuring assistance to retailers, manufacturers, and contractors; and marketing services to manufacturers.
Company. One of the case studies focuses on a company-orchestrated change effort:
Harford Systems, Duracool Division, the winner of a 1993 U.S. Senate Productivity Award in Maryland, shows how the delivery of integrated services can be orchestrated by a company as part of its strategic plan. Duracool engaged experts in labor-management relations, work restructuring, and training at the point where each was necessary to implement the company's improvement plan.
All of the case studies are written in the present tense based on what we observed at the time of the original site visit (between Fall, 1994 and Fall, 1995). To capture any changes in the case sites that occurred between when the case studies were conducted and the preparation of this publication, case study updates were prepared in April 1997. The updates, presented at the end of each case study, capture the current status of the organization.
_ Coalition building between companies and existing educational providers
_ Fund leveraging
_ Program development incubator
Bay State Skills Corporation (BSSC) is a quasi-public corporation which serves as Massachusetts' workforce and workplace research and development arm, and promotes economic development in the state by building closer working relationships between the state's educational system and the private sector. When it was established by the Massachusetts legislature, BSSC focused on filling the "skill gaps" left in local economies by the mismatch between school offerings and the jobs available from industry. Today, BSSC has expanded its mission to include helping industry to create new jobs, preparing the current and future workforce to access those jobs, and removing barriers to employment experienced by those traditionally outside of the labor force.
BSSC focuses its activities on both workforce development and workplace innovation. It supported industry-linked workforce development activities for a number of segments of the workforce: those still within the K-12 education system, those making the transition from school to work, entry-level workers, dislocated workers and welfare recipients, and incumbent workers. Its workplace innovation efforts helped industry or geographically based groups of companies to adopt new technologies and/or workplace practices, and access high-quality training.
BSSC organizes its services to meet the needs of two sets of customers: individuals, for its workforce development efforts; and companies, mostly small and mid-sized manufacturers, for its workplace innovation efforts. BSSC does not provide workforce or workplace services directly to individuals or companies. Instead, it functions as an idea shop, partnership molder, technical assistance provider, and information and funding source supporting the provision of services to individuals and companies. It provides its services through the state's existing education and training providers, striving to influence the way they design and deliver their programs.
BSSC's current budget is just under $12 million. The Corporation's funding comes from several sources: a general state appropriation, targeted state and national grants, and foundations. For BSSC's workforce training programs, the business sector contributes a match, though this may be in-kind goods and services instead of a cash payment. BSSC is very strategic in its use of money, using funds it receives from one source to leverage those from another.
BSSC sees itself as a development incubator for the state of Massachusetts. It realizes that it will never have enough money to meet all of the workforce and workplace assistance needs of the state. However, it can operate small pilot projects as research and demonstration efforts that inform the larger workforce and workplace programs in the state.
_ Workforce development
_ Workplace innovation
BSSC divides the work it does into two broad categories: workforce development and workplace innovation. These two program areas, it feels, provide a powerful assistance package for increasing the state's productive capacity. To stay abreast of the state's workforce and workplace needs, the Corporation conducts both formal and informal focus groups, occasionally administers surveys, and takes advantage of "ad hoc" opportunities to hear from its customers.
Workforce development. All BSSC workforce development projects are operated as partnerships between the business community and the education sector. As part of these partnerships, the business community contributes some resources to the education or training efforts. More importantly, though, it provides direction. This ensures that the education and training services will meet business' needs. It also builds the long-term capacity of the education sector to meet business' needs. Most of BSSC's workforce development programs can be divided into three groups: industry cluster training, training for welfare recipients, and school-based services.
Industry cluster training. BSSC's industry cluster training programs prepare individuals for occupations in the core industries deemed essential to the regional economy's growth and wealth, occupations ranging from entry level to advanced, technical, managerial, or professional. (Most of BSSC's industry cluster programs provide academic and skill preparation for employment in emerging technology-based industries, including biomedical manufacturing, biotechnology, export services, health care, manufacturing, and environmental technology services.) These training programs are designed for individuals with close associations to the workforce, including those who are currently working, those who have only recently been dislocated, and those well-poised to enter the workplace. An average industry cluster program class has fifteen to twenty people and costs $35,000 to $85,000, with the cost-per-participant averaging from $2,000 to $3,200. Both class size and the frequency with which classes are offered are determined by the participating industry's needs.
BSSC helped to sponsor a Computer Software Fellowship Program which retrains dislocated electronic hardware professionals and managers for equivalent level positions in the software industry. Corporate partners from the software industry serve on a steering committee to set curriculum priorities, screen and select trainees, and provide paid internships. This program, which combines classroom education with on-site work experience, has an 80 percent placement rate and a 75 percent salary replacement rate.
Industry cluster training programs require close partnerships between education and industry. For these programs, industry representatives identify a skills gap and then work in collaboration with educators to help the educators design and deliver appropriate training programs. In most cases, the industry matches BSSC's funding dollar for dollar, though some of the industry's match may be in-kind materials or time. Companies involved in the projects may serve on advisory councils and/or provide training equipment, supervised internships, and job placement assistance. Grants are made to the schools, rather than to the businesses, in order to build the schools' capacity to continue to deliver industry-relevant training. By requiring business-education partnerships for the industry cluster programs, BSSC guarantees program quality and ensures that the programs prepare trainees for real jobs that are in current demand.
BSSC's involvement in these industry cluster programs is intensive, but short-term. BSSC staff help bring the business and education partners together, attend meetings of program advisory boards, and provide technical assistance throughout the time of financial support for the program. The Corporation tells its education and industry partners, at program inception, that it will stop participating after a program's been operating for five years. In most cases, the programs become self supporting after only two or three years, and the Corporation is able to pull out early.
Welfare recipient training. BSSC has been a part of Massachusetts' welfare-to-work program since 1983. Its MassJOBS (welfare-to-work) program provides instruction in study skills, work habits, basic skills, and life management, in addition to skill training for entry-level jobs. Though BSSC's MassJOBS has supported training in day care, most of its programs are technology related, including health, mental health, and mental retardation; biotechnology; legal, medical, and dental office skills; dental and ophthalmic assisting; and surgical and ultra sound technician. As was the case with its industry cluster training, BSSC builds a strong private sector component into the MassJOBS program. Employer partners provide internships, donate equipment, and offer tours and lectures. BSSC requires a 20 percent match from the private sector, but actually receives matches averaging 83 percent.
School-based services. BSSC operates a number of programs for building the skills of those still in the K-12 education system through its Center for Youth Development and Education. These include programs ranging from career preparation and social services for middle and high school students, through teachers' professional development, to business/education partnerships introducing new technologies into public education.
Other training-related services. In keeping with the research and development part of its mission, BSSC operates a few workforce development programs that fall outside of the three areas of industry cluster, welfare, and school-based. Two examples are:
Bay State Center for Women, Work, and Family -- helps women to build their skills and enter the workforce, and provides information to employers regarding the needs of women and families in the workplace.
MassREB Net -- provides technical assistance to Massachusetts' Regional Employment Boards (REB) through an electronic network containing descriptions of programs, notices of meetings, and state and federal updates on workforce development issues. REB Net also enables the REBs to communicate among themselves to share information and ideas.
Workplace innovation. BSSC has a variety of demonstration programs and projects underway to promote the competitiveness, growth, and workforce development of both industries and firms. These projects link firms with public and private service providers offering assistance on issues of technology, business systems, and skills. There are four main streams to BSSC's workplace innovation programs: the Massachusetts Manufacturing Partnership, the New England Suppliers Institute, manufacturing networks, and the Bay State Center for Applied Technology.
Massachusetts Manufacturing Partnership. The Massachusetts Manufacturing Partnership (MMP) was established in March 1993 to address the needs of Massachusetts' 10,000 manufacturing firms -- 80 percent of which have fewer than 50 employees. It is funded by the Technology Reinvestment Project (a joint effort of the U.S. Departments of Defense, Commerce, and Energy; the National Science Foundation; and National Aeronautics and Space Administration) at a level of $30 million over a three-year period.
The MMP has a regional-state structure. There are five regional centers, each with its own regional director and its own Board of Directors. These regional centers, along with a network of field agents, are coordinated through a state director and staff at BSSC. This regional-state structure allows each region to tailor services for its manufacturers, while still ensuring the cohesiveness of service delivery, economies of scale, equal access, and consistency in service quality that comes with a state-wide system.
The MMP is designed to leverage existing resources for manufacturers, develop new resources for manufacturing information and expertise, and serve as a catalyst for change. The MMP's economic development services include strategic planning, financial consulting and support, small business consulting, and export assistance. Industrial services include needs assessments and assistance implementing such production technologies as CAD/CAM, CNC, concurrent engineering, just-in-time delivery methods, advanced materials, and automated processes. The MMP will also provide assistance with such management methods as team-based production, compliance with quality standards, workforce training, and market research.
New England Suppliers Institute. The New England Suppliers Institute (NESI) is BSSC's only project extending beyond the borders of Massachusetts. Started in late 1992, NESI is a partnership of industry, government, and education to improve the competitiveness of smaller New England manufacturers and to strengthen the New England manufacturing base. Through NESI, original equipment manufacturers, supplier firms, government, and education institutions work together to help small and mid-sized manufacturing supplier firms implement improvements in operations, skills, and technology to meet their customers' needs. To accomplish this end, NESI helps identify and support efficient access to the education, training, and technical services that companies need to achieve success in quality business relationships, continuous improvement, supplier certification, and development of company-wide workforce and management skills. NESI is a three-year project with an estimated total budget of nearly $5,000,000. To reach this funding level, BSSC has sought support from a variety of organizations -- including the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the U.S. Air Force -- using funding from one source to leverage funding from another.
Manufacturing networks. BSSC targets a lot of its workplace innovation efforts at company consortia, companies grouped together geographically and/or by industry. BSSC recognized that the economic growth of the state's small and mid-sized companies could be enhanced by pooling their interests to leverage such things as education and training resources, marketing "presence," and access to financial markets. By supporting industry networks, BSSC attempts to bring many of the benefits of size enjoyed by large companies to these small to mid-sized firms. BSSC is involved with a number of manufacturing networks. The Corporation's work with the National Tooling and Machining Association and the Berkshire Plastics Network are highlighted below.
National Tooling and Machining Association Modernization Program. With a grant from the Department of Labor, BSSC began working with the Western Massachusetts Chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association in 1993, though the chapter itself has been active since 1970. BSSC has helped the chapter move away from a narrow focus on supporting traditional apprenticeship programs, to a focus on both a broader range of training efforts and several modernization efforts. BSSC's primary contributions to these efforts is as a funder, information source, and broker. BSSC is good at finding the right resources for the job, linking NTMA and member companies up with the right college, training provider, or consultant. Where appropriate services don't yet exist, BSSC works with customers and providers to make sure they are developed.
The Western Massachusetts NTMA chapter has initiated two non-traditional apprenticeship programs. Its Mech-Tech program, an 8,000 hour, four-year apprenticeship training program, has apprentices rotating among companies every three to six months, rather than working with a single company during the four years. The NTMA chapter is also operating a 960 hour, 24-week program that prepares dislocated workers from related industries to become entry-level machinists. While BSSC has no official role with these two programs, it is a visible presence at many chapter meetings, offering advice and technical assistance.
With BSSC's help, the NTMA chapter initiated a series of skills upgrading courses, held at a variety of school and company sites, and offered to NTMA members at a discount. Worker skill courses have included basic and advanced CNC machining, computer aided design, shop math, blueprint reading, cost estimating, and computer literacy. Courses to support modernization have included total quality techniques, problem solving, just-in-time production techniques, and statistical methods. Management classes in total quality management, continuous improvement, leadership, industry networking, marketing, and technology have also been offered.
BSSC has helped NTMA companies engage in a number of modernization projects, including lead time reduction, set-up time reduction, facilities layout and planning, continuous improvement techniques, manufacturing technology, process planning, marketing assistance, and quality standards. One modernization program involves helping NTMA companies to adopt the "Kaizen" process. An NTMA member, Danaher Corporation, has been using Kaizen as a way to continuously improve its work operations. With BSSC's support, Danaher invites teams from other NTMA companies to participate in its Kaizen efforts in order to learn how the process works. Then, if a company is interested in pursuing Kaizen further, Danaher's Kaizen expert helps that company conduct its own Kaizen effort.
Berkshire Plastics Network. The Berkshire Plastics Network (BPN) was formed in 1986 to promote the region's plastics industry. This network of almost 40 independent plastics companies conducts joint marketing efforts and occasionally shares work among members. More recently, BPN members have begun to work together on continuing education, apprenticeship, and school-to-work programs.
_ Massachusetts High Performance Learning Consortium: A network of 12 high technology firms working together to improve the quality and reduce the cost of their workforce development efforts. Funded with a one-year grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, the consortium defines members' workplace literacy, technical, and high performance skills needs; inventories existing skill development resources, both internal and external to themselves; and determines whether (and how) they can improve the quality of their human resource development efforts while lowering related expenditures.
_ ISO 9000 Collaborative: A partnership with the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) to help small companies gain ISO 9000 certification. Working with small groups of six to eight firms, BSSC and AIM provide nine full-day training sessions over a 12-month period. In addition to the group sessions, each company has two visits from an expert "coach" who first prepares a confidential initial assessment report, and later simulates a third-party audit.
_ Precision Metal Forming Network: A network of small metal forming firms sharing resources and knowledge and working together toward ISO 9000 certification.
_ Marine Sciences and Technology Network: A network of marine-related firms promoting defense diversification, technology transfer, and access to new markets.
_ MassTAC: Textile and Apparel Network: A network of textile and apparel companies using BSSC funds to support staffing and some initial development activities.
_ Environmental Technologies Development Network: A network of leading edge environmental manufacturers and researchers exploring the collaborative development and commercialization of new technologies to clean up hazardous waste sites.
BSSC began working with BPN in 1992, when it offered to help the network improve its ability to communicate among members. Over the course of the communications project, BPN changed its mind about what it needed and BSSC fully supported the network's new direction. In the end, BPN used its BSSC grant to analyze its needs, buy new communications equipment, and train network members to use the new equipment.
From this initial effort with BPN, BSSC's involvement has expanded into continuing education. BSSC helped BPN work with the Berkshire Community College and the local Regional Employment Board to develop a training program targeted at both plastics workers and dislocated workers who might enter the plastics industry. Courses included computers, plastics technology, CAD/CAM, product estimating, and blueprint reading.
Bay State Center for Applied Technology. BSSC's newest workplace innovation program is the Bay State Center for Applied Technology. The center is designed to enhance Massachusetts' industrial competitiveness by helping small and mid-sized companies adopt practical and affordable state-of-the-art business and manufacturing practices. To accomplish its mission, the center maintains a network of experienced manufacturing consultants that can help companies at a subsidized rate. In order to leverage resources and market strength, the center helps firms collaborate in manufacturing networks around such topics as market development, workforce development, quality systems, and technology transfer. The center also provides hands-on workshops in effective shop techniques, manufacturing software for smaller firms, and design of new work systems for productivity and quality.
The following results are illustrative of BSSC's success:
BSSC has grown from a $2.5 million to a $12 million corporation in just over two-and-a-half years.
BSSC's training programs have been very successful, with an average placement rate of 80 percent. Its industry cluster programs have an average placement rate of over 90 percent, while the placement rate for BSSC's MassJOBS program is over 70 percent.
One company in the NTMA modernization program implementing Kaizen has reduced the total number of machines needed to produce a part, reduced set-up time by more than 80 percent, and changed an eight-week work-in-process cycle to just-in-time production scheduling.
Between 30 and 36 people took the training offered through the Plastics Industry Consortia; 26 of them were placed within 90 days after program completion.
Massachusetts has a diverse economy, with strength in traditional manufacturing, health care, high technology, and financial services. It is the home, in all of these sectors, to 1) a large number of world-class firms with the size, sophistication, and productivity to compete both nationally and internationally, and 2) a large number of small to mid-sized firms, in both traditional and emerging industries. It is also home to an extraordinary collection of institutions of higher learning, many of national and international repute, which draw students and researchers to the area. These institutions incubate a steady stream of start-up companies in new technologies, some of which (Digital Equipment Corporation, WANG) have grown to employ thousands of people. The focus of BSSC's initiatives has tracked the ups and downs of Massachusetts' economy.
From the mid-1970s to about 1990, the Massachusetts economy was remarkably robust, outpacing those in many other parts of the United States. This strong performance was the result of radical changes in the composition of the economy: traditional manufacturing industries were being supplanted by more knowledge- and technology-based industries. BSSC was created in July 1981 by the Massachusetts State Legislature in response to a 1978 study suggesting that the state was not meeting the economy's demand for skilled individuals who could work in emerging high technology industries.
_ Encourage and facilitate the formation of cooperative relationships among business and industry, labor, government, and education to develop and expand skills training programs consistent with employment needs.
_ Provide grants-in-aid to education and training institutions, to be matched with private sector financial support, to fund skills training programs in growth occupational areas.
_ Collect and disseminate information on present and future employment needs, as well as the availability of skills training and education in these areas.
_ Conduct conferences and studies that would increase communication and information on employment needs in the commonwealth.
BSSC was founded on the premise that workforce development was an integral part of economic development. The Corporation recognized that the greatest assets of the Massachusetts economy were the skills and knowledge of its workforce, and that these were intimately connected to the excellence of the educational institutions in the state. A referendum placing a cap on property taxes had left education administrators ill prepared to gear up to respond to the skills mismatch. In this environment, BSSC concentrated not just on creating new skill training programs, but on inducing the educational sector, particularly vocational schools and colleges, to prepare workers for the state's new, high-technology occupations.
All of BSSC's training programs were designed first and foremost to meet industry needs. BSSC's training programs focused on bringing industry specialists together with education faculty to design appropriate education and training programs. Over the years, the Corporation has been involved in entry level (and pre-entry level) training, employee upgrade training, retraining, and advanced-level college and university education. It has offered industry-responsive training in a wide range of areas, including waste water treatment, computers, communications, biotechnology, electronics, and robotics.
BSSC developed a number of first-time, start-up programs for such occupations as electronic assembler, field service technician, scientific lab technician, waste water treatment operator, and software applicator. Often, upgrading the skills of the existing workforce meant inducing some of the state's renowned private universities to develop new graduate-level degree programs in fields such as biotechnology or artificial intelligence. For several years, the BSSC funded summer institutes designed to update faculty knowledge and skills in high technology fields by exposing them to current industry practices. Realizing that educators and program developers were hampered by a lack of comprehensive information on industries in emerging technologies, BSSC also researched and published guides on such industries as biotechnology, environmental technology, and software development.
BSSC also recognized that meeting the state's skill needs meant providing training to those already employed. It has supported programs to retrain existing personnel after a company retooled, and it has lent assistance to expanding companies by introducing new workforces to established production techniques.
As the success of the BSSC "public/private partnership" approach to education and skills training came to be recognized, Massachusetts expanded the model to bring those usually outside of the labor force into the state's economy. At various times, BSSC has provided assistance to mentally retarded individuals, Job Training Partnership Act participants, welfare recipients, displaced homemakers, and dislocated workers. These BSSC programs were part of the state's efforts to decrease welfare and unemployment costs, expand the tax base, and promote employment and economic activity.
In the early 1990s, Massachusetts followed the nation into recession, with double digit unemployment, plant closings, and massive lay-offs. The effects were felt across the economy, in traditional manufacturing and knowledge-based and service industries alike. In response, BSSC began to focus its efforts on meeting the needs of dislocated workers. However, it retained its emphasis on preparing individuals for high-technology occupations. Massachusetts' new, emerging industries, BSSC hoped, would provide the workers with more stable, high-wage jobs.
When the state adopted economic development policies focused on encouraging the development of "industry clusters" as a means to promoting industrial modernization, increasing worker retraining, and fostering the growth of small to mid-sized businesses, BSSC
also expanded its services to include more direct technical assistance to individual companies and industries. This new realm of work for BSSC has included helping companies adopt new technologies, undertake quality improvement and quality assurance programs, build networks, and form marketing cooperatives.
In recent years, BSSC has undertaken some new education and training initiatives to assist students in the K-12 system. BSSC sponsored summer computer camps, and is now involved in efforts to improve math, science, and geography instruction, as well as to build linkages between school and work.
Both BSSC's renewed interest in K-12 education and its foray into direct business assistance are natural outgrowths of its focus on promoting economic development by building coalitions between the education and business sectors. BSSC has recognized that upgrading workforce skills requires attention to individuals' early education experiences. It has also recognized that improving the vitality of the Massachusetts economy requires more than skill upgrading efforts, it requires efforts to improve company work structures, processes, and practices. By adding workplace innovation efforts to its existing workforce development programs, BSSC is now positioned to provide comprehensive developmental assistance to Massachusetts' businesses.
The Corporation falls under the Executive Office of Economic Affairs in the state budget process, but enjoys the freedom of action of a private, non-profit corporation. The Corporation maintains its own administrative, fiscal, and personnel capacities, independent of the state. BSSC is governed by an 18-member Board of Directors, made up of individuals from business and industry, skills training, government, education, and labor. Through this board, BSSC has access to the staff, information, and policy decisions of a wide variety of state entities: Department of Employment and Training, Department of Public Welfare, State Department of Education, Board of Regents of Higher Education, and Secretary of Economic Affairs. The board also provides BSSC with access to corporate executives in many of the state's growth industries: high technology, biotechnology, computer software, engineering, hea