2. Identify Business Objectives

The second step of our 5 step process focuses on linking the overall business objectives and desired business results with the design of the physical environment. This step of the process will answer the following questions:

• "How can we prove that the work environment will stimulate productivity?" 
  
• "How do we isolate the workplace redesign effect on improving productivity from other factors such as salary levels, or who the boss is?" 
  
• "The reengineering movement of the 1990's made all kinds of claims of productivity increases. Yet, reengineering has failed to deliver the promised profit increases. How can we avoid those pitfalls with workplace design?"

To answer these questions,  PdK Consulting has developed a powerful 5 step methodology. In the first step, (Workplace Performance Diagnostic), PdK Consulting interviews top management and uses a customized version of "The Balanced Scorecard", to identify WHICH workgroup(s) are critical to corporate success, and HOW they relate to the overall corporate goals and strategies.

In the second step of the process, Identification of Business Objectives, PdK Consulting goes into a much more detailed analysis leading to the identification of several hundred specific Business Objectives and Performance Drivers for the workgroup(s) that will stimulate the creation of new processes for continual improvement, the development of new workplace designs, and the employment of new technologies - all leading to increased performance and profits.

Accounting methods only provide a partial view of corporate performance. 

The process followed during the Identification of Business Objectives is adapted from the powerful "Balanced Scorecard." tool designed by Norton & Kaplan to measure corporate performance. Norton and Kaplan observed that total performance measurement must contain four perspectives:

1. Financial perspective: measured by return on investment & economic value-added (EVA)
   
2. Customer perspective: measured by satisfaction, retention, market, and account share
   
3. Internal Processes perspective: measured by quality, response time, cost, new introduction
   
4. Learning & Growth perspective: measured by employee satisfaction and Information Systems availability

PdK Consulting has further refined the Balanced Scorecard through the principle of "disaggregation". Into three dimensions:

1. objectives that are strategic in nature, 
2. objectives that are workplace driven, and 
3. objectives that support the individual worker.

Balanced Scorecard Development

PdK Consulting leads key members of the chosen workgroup(s) in the identification of the specific outcomes or results that characterize the workgroup Business Objectives for each of the Balanced Scorecard perspectives (Financial, Customer, Internal Process, Learning & Growth) and of the three performance dimensions (strategic, workplace, workers).

The 4 perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard and the 3 performance dimensions of the disaggregation principle result in the identification of 12 classes of objectives. Within each workgroup, team members further identifies the leading indicators that are the key performance drivers contributing to the occurrence of each outcome of each of the four perspective and the three performance dimensions.

A clear understanding of the performance drivers will enable PdK Consulting and the team members to develop new processes for continual effectiveness improvement and new workspace alternatives that support these new processes. It will also enable management to employ the technologies that enable the various workgroups to harmoniously and effectively contribute to the workgroup business results.

For each of the chosen workgroups, a Design Session augmented with individual interviews with key selected individuals will expand the Balanced Scorecard model developed with senior management during the 1st Step: "Workplace Performance Diagnostic". The purpose of these sessions is to identify specific performance drivers for the workgroup which cause the Balanced Scorecard's outcomes to be met. For each potential outcome, each team member will identify four or five essential measures (performance drivers) and establish probable causal effects to the outcomes of the Balanced Scorecard.

PdK collects the resulting outcomes and drivers from each team member. With 15 to 20 participants each contributing 2 or 3 objectives and 4 or 5 drivers of each objective, the resulting aggregates table might contain as many as 400 objectives and 1,200 performance drivers. PdK analyzes this data by checking for redundancy, testing the causality of drivers to objectives, and other data analysis tasks. The reduced table typically will contain 40 to 60 objectives and 150 to 200 performance drivers.

This table will: 

• Guide the process of establishing the Baseline Performance Measurement of Step 3. 


• Provide a clear understanding of the performance drivers that will achieve the desired productivity improvements. 


• Enable the development of new processes for continual effectiveness improvements in workplace productivity. 


• Enable development of new workspace alternatives supporting these new processes. 


• Identify new technologies which can be employed to enable the workgroups to contribute effectively to the desired business results.

These results are the foundation for Step 4 of the PdK Consulting process where specific action plans and designs are developed to stimulate the identified productivity improvements

The "Identify Business Objectives" service is typically completed in 3 to 6 weeks depending on the number of distinct workgroup involved.

PdK's fee for the Identify Business Objectives module ranges from $25,000 to $50,000 depending on the number of distinct workgroups involved.

All PdK Consulting fees are offered with unconditional money back guarantee. PdK will refund your fees if you are not satisfied with PdK's performance for any reason.

Balanced Scorecard