"Sustainability: Challenge or opportunity? How can Baldrige help?" Mike Browder Andy Czuchry

Agenda Just imagine if sustainability becomes an overarching success factor for technology-driven businesses in the global marketplace Performance Excellence could transform compliance into an enhanced competitive business advantage How can Baldrige help? A practical framework is suggested Continuous Improvement and Disruptive Innovations are discussed A mini case study illustrates the process: BTES Takeaway: an exercise using the framework

How Can Baldrige Help? Organizational sustainability is measured in terms of societal, environmental, and financial impacts Baldrige could help: –A Systems approach –Standardize environmental measures –Develop and standardize societal measures Could a pilot project be conducted with an eighth category a la globalization?

An Innovative Approach May Have Merit Systems Engineering and Optimal Control Theory Suggests Optimal solutions tend to ride constraint boundaries. Hence a compliance view may mask other potential benefits. Innovations may be continuous or disruptive in nature. A Conceptual Framework offered as a guide for strategically evaluating alternatives The BTES Story illustrates the framework

BTES Continuous Improvement Organizational sustainability becomes an overarching objective –Customer (societal) considerations are: Comfort, Convenience, Entertainment, & Productivity A classic strategic planning process for each of the pillars –Compliance, Financial, Reliability, Safety, & Service However when constraints are encountered issues are placed in the “parking lot”

Conceptual Framework (1/2) Innovation often stymies Strategic Planning. “Ironically, process standardization can undermine the very performance it’s meant to optimize.” Introduce sustainability as a weighted combination of financial, societal, and environmental factors. Parking lot issues require an innovation process. The framework separates strategic planning into two distinct processes: continuous improvement and positive disruptive innovations.

Conceptual Framework (2/2) Parking lot and other disruptive innovations are handled with a separate scenario planning process Idea generation becomes an artistic dimension with business and technology issues harmonized Four steps include an iterative loop: Imagine new possibilities: Storytelling is a powerful tool during this step Synthesize new models Analyze the potential sustainability payoff Conduct a Pilot Project to validate and refine your business model before deploying system wide

Illustrating the Innovation Process ( The BTES Case) Three graduate students’ innovation in 2004 The innovation created a non-linear step in key processes and in the BTES business model Connected over 10,000 customers to broadband service Now profitable six years ahead of plan

The BTES Case: Path Forward Smart grid technologies are new innovations A smart device both powers the optical network terminal and reads the customer’s meter and voltage Sends voltage and power usage data on demand Sends power outage information immediately Also controls other devices using wireless

Benefits of the Conceptual Framework Sustainability could become a strategic competitive advantage. Business leaders might change their view of compliance with regard to regulations. The sustainability challenge may become an opportunity to enhance competitiveness. The Baldrige criteria could become a positive influence.

A Sustainability Exercise for Your Organization (1/2) What does sustainability mean to your organization? Think of something that your organization would like to implement but cannot due to constraints –Financial, Legal, Technological or other limited resources Just imagine ways these constraints could be relaxed

A Sustainability Exercise for Your Organization (2/2) Pick a discontinuous change and Imagine how your future organization would be transformed –Tell a story about your transformed organization Sketch out a pilot project to refine your strategy How would your balanced score card be re- balanced to measure results for this innovation?

Summary Sustainability could become an overarching success factor for technology-driven businesses in the global marketplace The BTES case study suggests benefits from positive disruptive innovations A framework was suggested to guide organizations An exercise was started to explore sustainability innovations in your organization

Conceptual Framework Details as an Appendix

1. Strategic Plan Continuous Improvements Discontinuous Changes 2. Deploy Action Plans Continuous Improvements 3. SIPOC Current Baseline4. Results Balanced Scorecard Start 9. Plan Just Imagine Blue Sky System 11. Do Business Innovations Forecast Sustainability Outcomes 13. Act Pilot Projects Validate Assumptions 12. Check Commercialization Return on Investment 7. Introduce Sustainability Objective Function Financial Environmental Societal 5. Conduct Baldrige Assessment Major Strengths Major Opportunities for Improvement 6. Evaluate Improvement Opportunities 8. Deploy Action Plans Discontinuous Changes 10. SIPOC Innovative Business Model Figure 2: A Conceptual Framework for Assessing Sustainability Impacts NOTE:This chart is from “Achieving Organizational Sustainability: An Engineering Management Challenge or Opportunity?” by Andy Czuchry, Michael Parker and Robert Bridges. The paper was presented at the 2010 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky in June It was also published in the Conference Proceedings.

Supplier ProcessCustomer InputOutput Managerial Influence Figure 1: Supplier, Input, Process, Output, Customer NOTE:This chart is from “Achieving Organizational Sustainability: An Engineering Management Challenge or Opportunity?” by Andy Czuchry, Michael Parker and Robert Bridges. The paper was presented at the 2010 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky in June It was also published in the Conference Proceedings.

BTES Becomes Bristol Tennessee Essential Services Enters Broadband Market Non-Linear Change Broadband Also Benefits Electric Systems BTES is Bristol Tennessee Electric System BTES Smart grid? Sustainability BTES Maintains 14,000 Water Heaters Broadband, TV, Telephone TODAY Discontinuous Change in the BTES SIPOC Model (Ever Increasing Services Provided) Figure 4: Discontinuous Improvements in BTES Services NOTE:This chart is from “Achieving Organizational Sustainability: An Engineering Management Challenge or Opportunity?” by Andy Czuchry, Michael Parker and Robert Bridges. The paper was presented at the 2010 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky in June It was also published in the Conference Proceedings.