KeySource Group - GSA MOBIS - DuPont Project

Sample Project C:
Strategic Assessment • Federal Market Fitness

KeySource Project Synopsis: Conduct an in-depth Strategic Assessment of a Corporation’s market fitness for Government services work. With annual revenue exceeding $20 billion and over fifty thousand employees, the Client is one of the top 100 largest industrial / service companies in the country. Our contract called for a corporate-wide evaluation, as well as a vertical assessment of the company’s capability and capacity from corporate executive management through the multi-billion dollar Safety, Protection and Resources business groups.

Dollar Amount of Contract: $170,228

Project Duration: 7 months

Strategic Market & Organizational Fitness Project
SIN 874-1: Consulting Services
SIN 874-2:Facilitation Services
SIN 874-3: Survey Services
SIN 874-7: Program Integration and Project Management

Project Description

The KeySource Group was retained in May 2004 by the Client to conduct a strategic market assessment of the U.S. Federal market and the corporation’s organizational fitness to provide services to that market. The project’s scope included an assessment across the corporation’s five Business Groups and included:

An assessment of the market needs of three primary federal agencies:

U.S. Department of Energy
U.S. Department of Defense
NASA

A 360-degree organizational evaluation of DuPont’s capability and capacity:

Executive Leadership and Management
Organizational Design
Services and Operations
Sales & Marketing
Human Capital Investment and Management
Infrastructure Support

The development of specific organizational strategies and tactics, both internal and external, to develop and bring to bear “Best in Class” critical competencies
Financial and Organizational Business Modeling designed to ensure efficiency and economy of resources

Accounting and Operational Controls

In the 24 years before founding the KeySource Group, our program manager for the Project had previously developed organizations with budget authorities totaling more than $9 billon in the U.S. defense, energy, and environmental markets. Given the scale and complexity of the Client's organization, this experience was especially valuable in ensuring that the KeySource Group maintained rigorous accounting and operational controls throughout the project.

As is our practice, the contract was conducted under the KeySource Project Management system, PRIME©, with a single point of contact identified and supported by a team of subject matter experts tailored to enhance efficiency and provide value-added service. (874-7) This projectized approach included a detailed strategic plan, a comprehensive communications plan, an implementation schedule, and integrated project scheduling to define critical milestones, measure performance and assure the quality our deliverable as well as online and multi-media tools (874-7)

Technical Skills

Central to the successful accomplishment of the project were well-honed Consultation, Facilitation and Surveying skills. Strategic, business and action planning, systems alignment, high performance work evaluation, leadership systems, performance measures and indicators, process and productivity improvement, organizational assessments, program audits, and evaluations: all were required in assessing both the organizational design and the operations and services offered by the Client. (874-1)

Consulting services		Strategic Assessment Project
Strategic, Business and Action Planning		Conducted a strategic organization and market assessment of the U.S. Federal market and the Client Corporation's organizational fitness.
Systems Alignment		Recommended alignment strategies of functional systems: ES&H, procurement, legal, labor relations, quality management, IT and e-commerce, finance, risk management and security management, HR and contracts
Cycle Time Analysis		Assessed and developed time-to-marked cycle of services.
High Performance Work		evaluated applicability of state of the art engineering
Leadership Systems		Assessed organizational leadership at the Corporate, Business Group and Sub-business Unit level
Performance Measure and Indicators		Developed, monitored and scored Six level-one Performance Measure; 42 level-two measures
Process and Productivity Improvement		Refined service delivery process to DOE sites
Organizational Assessments		Conducted corporate-wide organizational assessment of company with thousands of employees
Program Audits, and Evaluations		Evaluated six corporate subsystems: Executive Leadership & Management Organizational Design, Operations and services, Sales & Marketing, Human Capital Investment, Infrastructure Support

One example was the assessment of the company’s infrastructure support: specifically the alignment of eleven functional areas: ES&H, procurement, legal, labor relations, quality management, it and e-commerce, finance, risk management and security clearance management, human resources and contracts. (874-1)

SIN 874-2: Facilitation Services		Strategic Assessment Project
Problem Solving techniques		Demonstrated definition and resolution of institutional barriers
Draft The Permanent Record		Captured first draft of meeting notes
Defining and Refining The Agenda		Developed and submitted for client approval, overarching project agenda and subsequent agendas while facilitating
Logistical Meeting/Conference support When Performing Technical Facilitation.		Arranged and coordinated meetings with the Under Secretary of Energy, logistical support for conference at active DOE site
Recording discussions content and focusing decision-making		Synopsized meeting discussions and crystallize into crisp go / no-go decision points
Debriefing and over all meeting planning		Conducted immediate and formalized debriefings of meetings held
Convening and leading large and small group briefings and discussions		Conducted 32 small group meetings
Preparing Draft and Final Reports For Dissemination		Prepared and submitted 72 page final presentation and five page executive summary

To accomplish this subset of the project, the KeySource Group surveyed selected portions of the internal workforce, facilitated self-assessments and then developed organizational solutions. (874-2) The surveys, which required sampling and question development, database management and analysis of the results, focused on extracting performance data and defining perceptions of the Client's capability and capacity among both internal and external respondents. (874-3)

Quality Assurance and Performance Measurements

To ensure that our deliverables met and exceeded the requirements set by our client, KeySource established both quantitative and qualitative measures:

Delivery of an actionable strategic assessment
Adherence to pre-defined contract scope, schedule and budget
The presentation of conclusions and recommendations by a firm milestone
Set the standard for quality and thoroughness in the Client's Executive Management driven staff initiatives