Corporate Executive Board Launches Force of Ideas – A New Awards Program to Spotlight Breakthrough Solutions Among Global Companies
Ingenuity is more necessary than ever in this economic climate. To recognize and honor insightful, groundbreaking practices, the Corporate Executive Board (NASDAQ: EXBD) launched the Force of Ideas Awards in Procurement, Strategy, Internal Audit, and Corporate Finance – key drivers for corporations in today''s economic environment.
Over 50 Fortune 500 companies from around the world submitted applications for the award. A team comprised of the Corporate Executive Board''s researchers and C-Level executives from leading organizations selected Lockheed Martin, McDonald''s, Volksbank, Wells Fargo, and RTI International for their leadership in Procurement, Strategy, Audit, and Corporate Finance respectively. The work submitted by each winner is highlighted below.
| Submitted by: | Â | Lockheed Martin |
| Terrain: | Procurement | |
| Award Topic: | Supply Risk Management | |
| Practice: | "Show Me" Supplier Verification Standard | |
| Lockheed Martin reduced surprises in supply risk management by closing gaps between claims and reality – both for its suppliers and for its own staff. Lockheed Martin accomplished this by developing a "show me" standard for claim verification. This is especially critical when those claims are related to whether or not the actor will be able to complete tasks as promised. | ||
| Results: | The financial risk profile of Lockheed Martin''s supply base has been 40% lower than that of the D&B supplier index since the financial crisis began in Sept 2008. | |
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| Submitted by: | McDonald''s | |
| Terrain: | Strategy | |
| Award Topic: | Business and Product Portfolio Strategy | |
| Practice: | Growth Framework and Planning Process | |
| To improve its growth prospects, McDonald''s strategy group built a portfolio management framework illustrating the idea that "not all opportunities are created equally." This framework allowed McDonald''s to link opportunities at the business unit level to those at the enterprise level. By clearly aligning resource allocation decisions to corporate goals, McDonald''s is able to more easily prioritize opportunities and make hard decisions across the organization. | ||
| Results: | From 2004 to 2008, total global sales increased 41.1%, operating income increased 81.3%, and net income increased 89.3%. | |
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| Submitted by: | Volksbank | |
| Terrain: | Strategy | |
| Award Topic: | Business and Product Portfolio Strategy | |
| Practice: | Bottom-Up Assumption Calibration | |
| Faced with unprecedented uncertainty in the financial sector, Volksbank''s corporate strategy team developed a new approach to assumptions management that allowed them to measure the level of uncertainty for each of their strategic assumptions, thereby ensuring a more robust business portfolio. They began with a bottoms-up approach documenting the individual assumptions held by each of their senior executives. The team then used disagreement levels between the executives over each assumption as a highly credible proxy measure for uncertainty. | ||
| Results: | Using this method, the chief strategist facilitated a series of portfolio review deliberations that were highly collaborative, productive, and took less than a third of the time of a typical review. | |
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| Submitted by: | Wells Fargo | |
| Terrain: | Audit | |
| Award Topic: | Refocusing Internal Audit in a Downturn | |
| Practice: | Leveraged Assurance Process | |
| Wells Fargo Audit Services, by creating a reliable assurance process for other internal assessment groups, reduced redundant work among governance partners, expanded their risk coverage, and provided the executive team with an enterprise view of the internal control environment for each line of business. | ||
| Results: | The new approach resulted in 50% reduction in auditable units and refocused 1,600 testing hours representing 6.5% of total FTE Internal Audit requirements. | |
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| Submitted by: | RTI International | |
| Terrain: | Corporate Finance / CFO Executive Board | |
| Award Topic: | Strategic Risk Management | |
| Practice: | Key Risk Indicator Dashboard | |
| RTI uses specific qualitative and quantitative metrics to indicate and detect early signs of emerging risk vulnerabilities, their root causes, and the potential impact to the organization. | ||
| Results: | The use of these metrics allowed RTI to reject several project and business unit decisions that were not deemed to fit the overall mission and strategy of the organization. | |
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The Corporate Executive Board is currently selecting a topic for next year''s award based on pressing issues that companies in the four practice areas are facing. For more information on the award, please visit The Corporate Executive Board''s Force of Ideas awards page at www.forceofideas.com.
About the Force of Ideas Award
The Force of Ideas recognizes corporate executives, functional teams, and engaged consulting houses for the design and implementation of exemplary business ideas that:
| 1. | Â | Fundamentally redefine best demonstrated practices, functions or key business processes, and |
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| 2. | Create sustainable, measurable value for internal/external stakeholders or advance the development of professional communities. | |
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More than an award, the Force of Ideas is a dialogue that enables leading executives to elevate their trade, improve organizational performance, and groom the next generation of leaders in the field.
About Corporate Executive Board
The Corporate Executive Board (NASDAQ: EXBD) drives faster, more effective decision making among the world''s leading executives and business professionals. As the premier, network-based knowledge resource, it provides them with the authoritative and timely guidance needed to excel in their roles, take decisive action and improve company performance. Powered by a member network that spans more than 50 countries and represents more than 80% of the world''s Fortune 500 companies, the Corporate Executive Board offers the unique research insights along with an integrated suite of members-only tools and resources that enable the world''s most successful organizations to deliver superior business outcomes. Based in Washington, DC, the company employs more than 2,500 professionals in offices around the world. For more information, visit www.exbd.com.
Contacts:
Corporate Executive Board
Joni Renick, 571-303-4074
jrenick@executiveboard.com
