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Navy Chief Using Business Tools to Modernize
REUTERS ONLINE 15 JUNE 02
By Andrea Shalal-Esa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vernon
Clark is not prone to strong emotions. But he is passionate about
running the Navy, with its $100 billion annual budget and workforce
of 800,000, like a Fortune 500 business, and says the stakes could
not be higher.
"In my business, second place is a terminal disease," says Clark,
a 33-year veteran of the Navy who holds a master's in business
administration from the University of Arkansas and expects his
top officers to read one business book a month.
Small wonder then that Clark is implementing business strategies
and tools long used by top U.S. corporations like FedEx Corp.,
including efforts to keep the Navy focused on its central mission:
being ready to fight and win a war.
Terms like "alignment" may sound like jargon to outsiders, but
Clark has made it a household word in the Navy by making it one
of his five top priorities, along with manpower, current readiness,
future readiness and quality of service.
"Our goal is to make the Pacific and Atlantic fleets as unified
as possible in their equipment, manning and training," he told
Navy staff. "We are striving toward the day when we are one fleet,
uniform, inter-operable and supremely combat ready."
As part of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's overall effort
to modernize the U.S. military, Clark has pioneered use of a Web-based
survey that has already been completed by 600 people in the Atlantic
and Pacific headquarters of the Navy commands that deliver combat-ready
ships to the Navy.
The survey, designed by Boston-based business consultant George
Labovitz, allows top Navy officers for the first time to measure
how well the myriad parts of the service, which has ships, aircraft
carriers and submarines scattered literally all over the world,
are "aligned" -- or working together.
It also gives civilians and military people in the Navy, a traditionally
hierarchical institution, a rare opportunity to tell their bosses
what they really think.
Labovitz, who spent five years as an Air Force pilot, notes the
outreach to the individual sailor is "quite remarkable in a traditional
military culture based on 'jump and I'll tell you how high.'"
In addition to over 100 multiple choice questions touching on
everything from customer service, training, cost-cutting and the
effectiveness of managers, the questionnaire also asked open-ended
questions like, "In order to better accomplish our mission, what
should we immediately stop doing?"
The Navy is also adopting more business-oriented strategies for
logistics, purchasing and acquisitions.
BATTLE GROUPS NEXT TO GET QUESTIONNAIRE
Clark said he was "really pleased" with the results of the pilot,
and has authorized the survey to be sent this summer to some 20,000
pilots, sailors and other personnel deployed in two battle groups
on "standy ready" to join the war in Afghanistan.
Eventually, the Web-based measuring tool could be adopted throughout
the Navy, officials said.
"This is something we have wanted to do for years, decades,"
said Capt. Frank Thorp, special assistant to Clark.
He said the pilot study completed in April showed the Atlantic
and Pacific fleets did well coordinating their efforts, although
some areas needed improvements, including improved communication
between the two commands.
"If you produce widgets, it's easy to measure your outcome. But
we don't produce widgets and it's hard to measure the mission,
so this really helped out," he said.
Vice Adm. Timothy LaFleur, commander of the Naval Surface Force,
said the survey results will help ensure that everyone under his
command "is pulling on the same oar."
"The more aligned we are, the better we can perform. If we're
not aligned, we simply can't get our job done quickly, efficiently
and right," he said, noting that he is responsible for military
personnel and civilians spread out in far-flung locations including
Norfolk, Virginia; San Diego, California; Honolulu, Hawaii; and
Japan.
LaFleur said if the results of the survey helped him cut costs
by even one percent, the savings would be huge -- potentially
big enough to let the Navy buy an additional ship.
"It's tremendously important," he said.
The survey, transmitted and completed online, allows managers
to obtain nearly instantaneous and extremely detailed accounts
of how their employees view morale, readiness and impediments
to greater efficiency. The data can be broken down by gender,
rank and location at the touch of a button, or mouse.
Labovitz, who has helped many top U.S. corporations like FedEx,
Proctor & Gamble and NexTel adopt similar surveys, says getting
all employees focused on a single mission can really pay off in
productivity, retention and customer satisfaction -- all of which
can pay dividends in terms of profit.
For instance, FedEx tripled its on-time delivery rate for packages
to 3 million packages a day from 1 million, he said.
At the Navy, Clark says his focus on alignment has already made
a huge difference in slowing the Navy's 30-percent turnover rate,
a major factor in terms of cost and training.
"Is it working? Absolutely," Clark said.
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