Fred Jewell, Executive Director at Jabian Consulting, moderated an expert panel hosted by the TAG BPM Society.
Atlanta, Georgia – September 19, 2011 – The Business Process Management Society of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) invited Jabian director Fred Jewell to moderate a panel discussion on the tips and pitfalls of driving process improvement across organizational silos. Fellow executives from Turner Broadcasting, The Coca-Cola Company, Cox Communications, and UPS joined Jewell on the panel.
Jewell says the topic is an area where executives in all industries could benefit from one another’s experience. “Successfully implementing process improvement initiatives across an organization that comprises various cultures, leadership structures, and incentives is a large-scale challenge,” he says, “and a situation where we should learn from those who have done it well.”
In addition to Jewell, the panel included Paige Lillard, Vice President of Business Excellence with Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.; Todd Craighead, Manager of Innovation Systems at The Coca-Cola Company; Kim Henderson, Senior Director of Quality of Technology at Cox Communications; and Linda McCain, Manager, Process Center of Excellence for the UPS Program Management Group. In a lively discussion with attendees, they pointed out commonalities among their experiences as well as specific approaches that worked with their corporate structures and cultures.
The importance of taking culture into account came up several times during the discussion. “Clearly, understanding what it takes to drive change from a cultural perspective is critical,” says Jewell. “For some, it’s relationships and trust; for others, it’s data and facts. Leveraging those biases will smooth the path ahead of any process improvement initiative.”
Jewell brings a wealth of experience from over two decades in the consulting industry, where he has established a track record for helping companies make their strategic initiatives stick. He has held key positions in IT transformation and change management, IT delivery, quality management, IT outsourcing, and software process improvement.
The TAG BPM Society’s mission is to provide a leadership forum focused on helping companies build a process improvement culture that will improve their competitiveness.