Operational Excellence: How Leadership and Innovation Enhance Organizational

Operational excellence starts with a singular vision and a commitment to an extraordinary culture. Recently, I spoke with the director of logistics for a midwestern BlueCross BlueShield healthcare provider. The organization serves 2.1 million members.  The manager leads a team of 21, providing printing, mailing and logistics services. His print team is comprised of five people who produce 2.9 million pieces of mail annually.

Servant Leadership

The director embraces the qualities of a servant leader. He demonstrates empathy, listening, stewardship to the organization and a commitment to the growth of people.

As a manager he has pushed his team to get involved with internal departments to solve problems and share their subject matter expertise in print and mail. Educating his team about the business needs and organizational goals provides clarity and purpose in meeting customer requirements. His team is more engaged in daily work when they understand the larger business goals and impact of their work.

A culture of learning means training and development on multiple levels. As part of furthering the skills of his team, the director encourages mentoring, training, certifications and attending industry conferences. He hosts celebrations to recognize team achievements in learning and development. He shared the positive impact of a learning culture on operational success.

Ongoing Internal Awareness

As a leader, the thing he most dreads hearing is ‘I didn’t know your team did that.’ One of his missions is an ongoing commitment to educate managers across the organization of the capabilities of the operation. The operation has made several investments in the last few years to expand its capabilities and better serve more internal departments.

This operation does not have the benefit of the first right of refusal for print jobs. Brand awareness for the operation is part of everyone’s job. The team regularly conducts internal workshops and open house events to educate managers across all lines of business. Their goal is to demonstrate new capabilities and show samples to spark questions and establish credibility for future projects. In addition to printing, sharing subject matter expertise to optimize mail, reduce postage expense also helps build relationships.

Value to the Organization

Canon inkjet technology has enabled the operation to provide higher quality output and improve turnaround. The team is now producing jobs for the marketing and HR departments that were previously outsourced. Insourcing provides savings to the organization. The operation expects that winning short-run jobs and producing them successfully will lead to more insourcing.

Senior leaders are confident the operation is delivering integrity in end-to-end processing for member communications. His operation has demonstrated they can provide more control and flexibility to internal departments compared to outsource providers. The director proactively manages and updates his cost per piece for producing mail. With aggressive and consistent cost management, he is prepared to position the value of the operation from a cost, capability and flexibility perspective when compared to outsourcing.

The operation is committed to continuous improvement efforts for address hygiene. The team has significantly reduced the amount of return mail from 1.5% to .006%, well below industry averages for healthcare organizations.

Future State

The director’s approach to investments is based on strategic thinking about the potential business needs three to five years from now. His leadership team is supportive of future investments as he has a proven record in demonstrating ROI and a commitment to security and compliance throughout the operation.

His goal is to identify strong partners, with a solid roadmap for R&D. Industry trends predict overall mail volumes will continue to decline. More consumers will opt for digital communication channels over mail. He expects at some point it will make financial and strategic sense to insource the explanation of benefit (EOBs). His research and strategic planning efforts will ensure the operation is ready for this future opportunity.

Fifteen years ago, with little knowledge of mail processing, he took on responsibility for mail. He immersed himself in training, certifications and finding mentors. As a leader, he attributes the success of his team to his commitment to foster a culture built on respect and trust. He is an advocate for his team, and they are loyal and productive. Leadership style drives culture. A positive culture drives measurable results. How does your team describe your leadership style?