One of the keys to successfully implementing VBM is to have the right team to execute the methodology. This means finding people with the right kind of experience, background & knowledge, which is usually a tricky challenge impacted further by industry type, organization size and/or project scope. In addition it is important to find team members who are unbiased with a neutral perspective, uninfluenced by corporate politics and able to provide recommendations that are solely in the benefit of the company.
Even though the scenarios in which VBM is implemented dictates the personnel or resource mix, the roles within the VBM structure remain the same. The four roles of VBM are: Program Prime, SME Consultants, Implementation Leaders & Change Agents.
As noted in the article on ‘Change Management’ strategy, it is important to engage the workforce as much as possible during the different phases of the improvement process i.e. diagnostic analysis, solution framing, implementation plan and governance to help with future adoption and implementation of the new ways of working to obtain the desired value outcomes. Usage of SME consultants, implementation leaders and change agents who are internal employees will help with bringing about the desired changes and rate of adoption
Let us get into more details on the responsibilities for each of the roles.
A quick disclaimer: The roles described here are specific to the customized process improvement strategy we use in our VBM methodology and are not applicable to any other methodology.
Program Prime: This person is responsible for managing the overall performance of VBM, stakeholder management, setting team direction & strategy, improvement sign-off authorization and should be experienced enough to provide the right amount of freedom within the framework to SME Consultants, Implementation Leaders and Change Agents for them to be most productive.
SME Consultants: Ideally these should be personnel with cross functional experience and deep experience within a particular business vertical such as supply chain, marketing, operations etc. They will be responsible for in-depth analysis, identifying or creating customized solutions, working hand-in-hand with Implementation Leaders and Change Agents to finalize the action plans and sub steps associated with the solutions and converting initiative progress updates from the ‘Implementation Leaders’ into dashboards.
Implementation Leader: Ideally this is a person with PM experience, responsible for managing the over all execution of the improvement initiates, managing the change agents and reporting the progress of the improvement initiatives back to the ‘SME Consultants’.
Change Agents: These are individuals tasked with executing the sub activities within an initiative and reporting the progress to the ‘Implementation Leaders’.
In order to better understand how the roles work together, let us look at 2 common scenarios, which will also allow us to see how the personnel associated with these roles can change.
Scenario 1: This scenario is usually seen when a company wants to improve company value through process improvements but don’t have either the knowledge, resources or time to devote exclusively to this exercise or want an external outside in perspective to solve the problem. In such cases company’s typically reach out to external consultants. While we see companies exclusive use external consultants for all the roles, we strongly recommend that other than the Program Prime, the rest of the roles should also include internal resources if possible.
- ProgramPrime: External Consultant
- SME Consultants: External consultant/customer resource/combination
- Implementation Leader: Customer resources/external consultant
- Change Agents: Customer resources/external consultant
Scenario 2: Typically this scenario is seen in big corporations that have multiple regional or international offices supporting customers in different cities or countries. VBM is implemented using internal resources/consultants as an internal change process aimed at improving process value.
- Program Prime: Internal employee from corporate
- SME Consultants: Combination of internal employees from corporate and from the local region/country/city
- Implementation Leader: Local employees to the region/country/city
- Change Agents: Local employees to the region/country/city
Regardless of the scenario, it is our experience that building the VBM team with people having relevant industry experience, vertical or cross functional, and an aptitude for business is more productive than working with people having broad business experience and not the necessary industry experience. This is because people with industry experience are able easily identify inefficiencies along the value stream and are also aware of potential solutions to those issues, especially if they are industry specific, which invariable improves the quality of the improvement.
While there are nuances that are unique to most every improvement process undertaking, hopefully this article has given you a starting point and some insights that must be taken into account as you start building out your VBM team.