NewsProcess Excellence Awards 2008: Venturehaus hosts the Awards Ceremony, as ABN AMRO picks up the Financial Services prizes London, 21st April 2008 The annual Process Excellence Awards were recently celebrated at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre in London. With the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey providing the breathtaking backdrop to the evening, the ceremony was always going to be impressive, and the award winners were understandably delighted with their achievements. Venturehaus was proud to be the sponsor of the gala evening and of the Award for Best Operational Excellence Project in Financial Services. This annual event includes awards for process excellence achievements across a number of categories and sectors, including Best Innovative Project and the prestigious Best Improvement Programme, to name but a few. Alan Noble, Managing Director of Venturehaus, was the Master of Ceremonies and took great satisfaction in seeing the wide variety of industries and sectors that were represented on the star-studded stage throughout the evening: "It’s an honour to be able to present these awards to such deserving recipients. Process Excellence isn’t a one-time, one-result initiative, it takes dedicated passionate people to be able to turn a good company into a great one, and I’m delighted to be first to congratulate them." Most satisfying for Alan, of course, was that Venturehaus’ client ABN AMRO picked up the Honorary Mention in the Best Operational Excellence Project in Financial Services category, narrowly missing out on the top honour to HSBC India. The Honorary Mention award was received by Afolayan Ayoola Taylor, ABN AMRO’s Head of Business Process Improvement, and Tessa de Flines, from the Business Process Improvement Centre of Excellence. Tessa remarks, "It is an honour for ABN AMRO to have received an award for the Personal Loans project. It demonstrates the hard work that has gone into delivering benefits to our customers and to the business. The project team truly deserve this recognition for driving best practice change in their organisation." And finally congratulations to HSBC India as Winners of Venturehaus’ award for Best Operational Excellence Project in Financial Services. Accepting the award on behalf of his team for their "Project Quick Collect", Kundan Sinha, HSBC India’s Vice President of Six Sigma, summarised the whole meaning of these awards when he told us "It’s indeed a pleasure for the HSBC team to be given an opportunity to share the findings and success stories of our projects. It’s a great motivator for all of us after winning this award and it feels like a great achievement." Venturehaus selected as Professional Services participants at SIBOS 2008 London, 6th March 2008 Venturehaus has been selected by the organisers of SWIFT’s industry-leading  SIBOS
exhibition to
attend as one of only a handful of professional services providers
to the Financial Services industry. Carol James, PR & Marketing Manager for Venturehaus, reports that “SIBOS is the industry’s most exclusive event. Participant access for solution providers is allocated by a strict pre-qualification process, rather than the usual “first-come first-served” basis. We are delighted that we have been chosen, in view of the competition to be accepted.” SIBOS is the Financial Services industry’s premier event. It is the only event that covers all sectors of the financial community, and therefore attracts in excess of 7,000 end-user participants every year. For more information about Venturehaus’ involvement with SIBOS please contact carol.james@venturehaus.comFebruary Operational Excellence Board debates whether it is possible to achieve Operational Excellence, sound risk management, and regulatory compliance at the same time London, 21st February 2008 The popular view is that Operational Excellence, risk management and regulatory compliance are, to an extent, mutually exclusive. The objectives behind each prevent the others being achieved…except by luck, don’t they? In an increasingly volatile world of regulatory revolution, sub-prime turbulence and the spectre of bank rescue through sovereign investments or more direct forms of state intervention, this topical meeting of the Operational Excellence Board produced intriguing observations on how to deliver on all three targets simultaneously without running the risk of compromising the requirements of any of them. read
moreDates announced for 2008 Operational Excellence Board Meetings London, 21st January 2008 Venturehaus is delighted to announce the forward calendar of meetings for the 2008 Operational Excellence Board:
Personal invitations are extended to senior executives who have an interest in Six Sigma and Lean and in sharing best practice in these and other Process Improvement methods on a completely confidential basis with their industry peers. If you would like to be considered to join the Board, please contact carol.james@venturehaus.com for
further information.Venturehaus appoints new head of PR, Marketing & Client Business Development London, 9th January 2008 Venturehaus has appointed Carol James to head its Marketing and PR department, focusing on client business development and strengthening its position as the market’s leading specialist for Operational Excellence in Financial Services. Carol will also be responsible for managing Venturehaus’ Operational Excellence Board and the company’s other market-leading events. Previously Carol was Head of Production and Business Development for six sigma IQ, a subsidiary of IQPC, Europe’s largest B2B research and conference provider. For three years, she was responsible for the research, organisation and execution of the two largest US-European annual process quality conferences: The Six Sigma Summit in London and Miami, and the Lean Six Sigma Summit in Amsterdam and Las Vegas. Carol comments, “I am delighted to be joining Venturehaus at this incredibly exciting time, not just for the company but for Operational Excellence itself as it continues to gain momentum across Europe. Having worked alongside Venturehaus at the European Summits for so long, I’m well aware of this company’s impeccable reputation and am very pleased to become part of the team.” Alan Noble, Managing Director at Venturehaus said, “We are extremely pleased to welcome Carol to Venturehaus. She brings a very high level of professionalism to our market-facing activities and will help us to deliver the values of Operational Excellence to the wider Financial Services community.” For more information, contact carol.james@venturehaus.com November Operational Excellence Board gives unparalleled insights into form versus substance in operational change London, 21st November 2007 The need to focus on tangible results to engage all levels of staff is of crucial importance to change management programmes within Financial Services, and yet there are hard lessons to learn and crucial pitfalls to avoid when evaluating the merits of form versus substance. For this reason, the November meeting of the Operational Excellence Board produced extremely lively debate, well led by our guest speaker Bruce Reekie, Head of Business Transformation at the Royal Bank of Scotland. The motions for debate were varied and topical. When addressing whether the majority of Service and Process Improvement activity is targeted at resolving internal requirements instead of improving the customer experience, it was generally agreed that this does in fact appear to be the truth in many cases – however, despite not being ideal, internal improvement does provide a good launching pad and can certainly help to gain the senior level support needed to take the initiative further into the customer domain. Secondly, the board discussed whether a lack of end-to-end process understanding and management represents a reckless disregard for our fiduciary responsibilities to manage risk at least as well as we manage commercial opportunities. The Board agreed with this motion directionally but also conceded that there was huge variability between organisations. Success and consistency in managing risk is of course THE hot topic in the current markets and the subject now of almost obsessive attention. We shall therefore pursue this theme even further when the Board meets again on 20th February 2008. Alan Noble, Chairman, Operational Excellence Board Nov 2007 Operational Excellence Board launches in Scotland London, 4th June 2007 Venturehaus announces the official launch of the Operational Excellence Board in Scotland in response to considerable demand for an extension into Scotland of the forum which has been running very successfully in London for the last 3 years. Venturehaus announced today the official launch of the very successful Operational Excellence Board in Scotland, with the assistance of several major Scottish financial institutions. The Operational Excellence Board is a self-selected private forum of business improvement leaders from companies operating in different UK and European financial and other service industry sectors. Historically, it has focused on Financial Services and the current membership in this sector includes approximately 100 individuals from over 45 organisations, and is growing constantly. The inaugural meeting will be held at AEGON Scottish Equitable in Edinburgh on Wednesday 4th July 2007. During the morning, an Executive Briefing will be run by Venturehaus to introduce executives and senior managers with an interest in Process Improvement to a variety of methods and techniques which enable a business rapidly to improve its operational and service performance. This interactive session will be delivered around one of Venturehaus’ unique Financial Services business process role-play games, promising to make the event fun as well as instructive. Following the Briefing, the Scotland Board will hold its first meeting in the afternoon around discussion topics such as “leading people through change” and “being bold – the need to take calculated risks”. Announcing the launch and the inaugural meeting, Alan Noble, Chairman of the Operational Excellence Board and Managing Director at Venturehaus, said: “I should first of all like to thank all of our friends, contacts and clients in Scotland for making this happen. Further thanks go in particular to AEGON Scottish Equitable for offering to host the first event next month in their Edinburgh facilities. Expansion and growth are always exciting, but it is all the more satisfying to have been asked to do this in Scotland as frequently as we have. I look forward to the Board becoming as successful there as it has been in London since we started in 2004”. Six Sigma Excellence Awards 2007: Venturehaus sweeps the board as four clients make the final London, 5th May 2007 Last week, the annual Six Sigma Excellence awards took place at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre, hosted by John Simpson, the acclaimed BBC World Affairs Editor. This annual event includes award presentations for continuous improvement across a number of categories and sectors. This year witnessed the introduction of an exciting new category for Best Continuous Improvement Project in the Public Sector, marking the new appetite for improving productivity within this sector. This award attracted submissions from leading organisations around the country, competing for recognition of their achievements in delivering service improvements to their customers. The panel of independent judges produced a short-list of four finalists (Newco, DWP, Exeter College and Cornwall County Council) from which first and runner-up were selected. Fighting off the stiff competition; Newco, a commercial arm of Newham Borough Council emerged victorious whilst the Department of Work and Pensions was the well deserved runner up. Both businesses were delighted with the results but only one business, Venturehaus, could claim to be the commercial partner in the projects of all four finalists. This impressive position confirmed the reputation of Venturehaus, as the leading provider of Lean and Six Sigma Training and consulting within Government Services. Venturehaus Awards swept up by Barclays London, 3rd May 2007 Barclays Wealth achieved a clean sweep of the Financial Services Operational Excellence Awards, sponsored by Venturehaus, at a dinner and ceremony hosted by John Simpson, BBC World Affairs Editor, on Wednesday night. The Six Sigma IQ Awards are in their fifth year, attracting submissions from leading international companies across all industries, who compete for recognition of their achievements in Operational and Service Excellence. Barclays Wealth’s success this year will strengthen their reputation for improving client service, at a time when competition across the industry is fierce. The Financial Services award is in its second year and is sponsored by Venturehaus, the company that advises and trains many of the world’s leading Banks in Operational Excellence. The Barclays Wealth victory was a proud moment for Venturehaus, who were responsible for advising on and initiating the service improvement programme in 2004. However, it is a testament to the Wealth team’s dedication and perseverance that their programme has gone from strength to strength, setting benchmark standards for Operational Excellence in the Financial Sector. Operational Excellence Board: New Broad Street House London, February 2007 With a break from tradition, the Operational Excellence Board met for a breakfast meeting for its February’07 gathering. Following on from the interactive session lead by Phil Anderson of Ashridge Business School at the last Board, those gathered received the consolidated feedback on “What is Operational Excellence and what does good look like in a financial services organisation?” From this the key characteristics of Operational Excellence, Customer Intimacy and Product Leadership companies were further outlined. The second half of the meeting concentrated on the topical question of: “Who is currently doing what in the market? Is Six Sigma just too hard and therefore on its last legs in Financial Services?” Continuing the trend of active participation and mutual sharing the group shared the following:
The next meeting will be held on the afternoon of Thursday 24th May 2007. I would like to thank Leilani Plougmann of Morgan Stanley for offering to host this at their Canary Wharf offices. Alan Noble, Chairman, Operational Excellence Board For more information about the Operational Excellence Board, please click here
Venturehaus, Europe’s leading specialist for Lean and Six Sigma in the Financial and Government Services industry, announces the appointment of Kevin Corrigan as Manager – Lean and Ian Roden as Manager – Financial Services. London, 1st November 2006 Kevin joins us from a Department of Trade and Industry funded initiative where he delivered operational best practice in an office environment whilst Ian joins us from Barclays Bank, where he was responsible for leading Six Sigma projects across Business Banking. Kevin’s track record demonstrates his strong relationship building and experience, developing and leveraging positive working relationships at all levels to drive forward and support sustainable change programmes. Kevin has led numerous initiatives and programmes in process innovation, including over 50 Lean Interventions reducing operational costs, improving competitiveness and reducing waste in transactional business operations. Ian’s banking career started with the Woolwich Plc top graduate programme. Initially employed as a Project Manager, he held a number of roles across Communications, Operations and Product Management. A move to service improvement for International and Private Bank saw responsibility for critical engineering work streams and operational reviews gaining him proven stakeholder management. The last three years he’s been employed as a Senior Operational Excellence Manager for Barclays Business Banking from whom he joins us. Upon joining, Kevin commented: “I have great respect for what Venturehaus represent and am delighted to join their team. I am confident that my own experience and approach will greatly assist our clients in their future change programs”. Ian added: “I’m looking forward to sharing with Venturehaus clients the practical and commercial benefits of Lean Six Sigma and other Operational Excellence approaches that I’ve experienced to date. It’s a dynamic business and I’m really excited by the challenge.” Venturehaus, Europe’s leading specialist for Lean and Six Sigma in the Financial Services industry, announces the appointment of Guy Noble as Director – Financial Services, and Region Head for Middle East and Africa. London, 1st October 2006 Effective 1st October 2006, Guy Noble is appointed Director – Financial Services, and Region Head for the Middle East and Africa for Venturehaus. He joins from LloydsTSB Bank, where in addition to managing the Group’s Six Sigma Process Improvement Programme, he was also responsible for the Operations and Operational Risk functions within the Consumer Bank. Announcing the appointment, Alan Noble, Managing Director of Venturehaus, said “Despite popular belief, Guy and I are not personally related, although we do share similar backgrounds and approaches! Guy has a very distinguished 20-year career in retail and corporate banking in both front and back office environments. He brings with him a comprehensive understanding of the financial services marketplace, the demands of its customers and the organisational imperative to respond competitively. I am delighted that he has chosen to join us at this very exciting time for Venturehaus, as we continue to enhance our leading position in business improvement services for the financial services sector.” Guy started his business career in retail banking with National Westminster Bank in front line customer service and lending roles and was also a certified trainer in the Learning and Development functions. Following relationship and operational management positions in commercial finance with Barclays Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland, he was part of the start-up team for GE’s Commercial Finance business. After progressing through Black Belt, Master Black Belt and Quality Director roles at GE across Europe, Guy joined General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) as Project Director responsible for the design and implementation of strategic continuous improvement plans and infrastructure and the establishment of two new trading entities in Poland and Germany. He then took up the position at LloydsTSB from which he now joins Venturehaus. Upon joining, Guy commented: “I am very much looking forward to sharing with Venturehaus’ clients the practical and commercial benefits of introducing Lean Six Sigma and other Operational Excellence approaches which I have experienced in many organisations. Venturehaus is well established as the leading provider in Europe and I hope to contribute further to this as well as to expand our presence into the Middle East and Africa” HSBC wins Venturehaus Award for Best Six Sigma Project in Financial Services London, 2nd May 2006 At the European Six Sigma Summit, held in London on 25/26th April 2006, Venturehaus sponsored the inaugural six sigma IQ Excellence Award for Best Six Sigma Project in Financial Services. New for 2006, this award attracted a large number of high quality entries from both Europe and the Rest of the World (outside the USA). The judges had a tricky job evaluating all of the entries and had to select the 4 finalists prior to the awards ceremony. The finalists chosen for the award were Barclays Wealth Management (Project Title: Decrease Stock Transfers Cycle Time); CheckFree (Pre-Contract Estimation Project); HSBC (Trade Services Project); and Lloyds TSB (Online Service Processing Project). The awards ceremony was held during a well-attended gala dinner on the first evening of the Summit. Announcing the award winners, Alan Noble, Managing Director of Venturehaus, said: "Venturehaus is very proud to have initiated and sponsored this award, which celebrates the best achievements in the field in which we specialise, namely financial services. Those of us who work in this area will recognise that the application of Six Sigma in these businesses requires a different approach, and this award recognises those who have been successful in making it work in these particular environments." In a close-run contest, Honorary Mention went to CheckFree for their Pre-Contract Estimation project, but the 2006 six sigma IQ Excellence Award for Best Six Sigma Project in Financial Services was won by HSBC for the international Trade Services deployment project. Congratulating the winners on their achievements, Alan Noble also announced that Venturehaus will be sponsoring the Award for the next 3 years and looked forward to a similarly high number and standard of entries in the future. Venturehaus launches Government Services Practice 10th April 2006 Venturehaus, Europe’s leading Lean and Six Sigma specialists in Financial Services, has today announced the official launch of its Government Services Practice. Venturehaus Government Services will bring Six Sigma, Lean and other Operational Best Practices from the Financial Services industry to the Public Sector. Venturehaus Government Services operates in the field of service and process improvement in Public Sector operations, specialising in the implementation and application of Six Sigma and Lean methods and tools. Six Sigma and Lean are recognised across all industries as the leading methodologies for optimising productivity and service quality through accelerated Business Process Improvement. Venturehaus GS will also bring best practice methods from industry in the field of process management techniques, service and process measurement and service level reporting. To download a copy of this Press Release, please click here (PDF, 16 KB)
Operational Excellence Board meets in March hosted by Bank of America London, 21st March 2006 Citibank and Bank of America presented two excellent, but quite different, sessions to a very full meeting of the Board in London at probably one the best of these events so far. The conclusion from both presentations is that operational best practice is achieved through management of data and fact rather than assumption and gut-feel, and that the focus needs to be on the results achieved much more than on the methodologies used. Operational Excellence is about rigour and discipline: about understanding WHY you are running an improvement programme and addressing those requirements because that will determine HOW and WHAT you are going to do. Venturehaus launches Lean Training & Deployment London, 1st February 2006 Venturehaus has announced today the official launch of a new set of services within its Design for Operational Excellence™ training and deployment programmes. As the leading specialists for Financial Services in Europe, Venturehaus has been developing and delivering acclaimed industry-specific training, advisory and support services in both Six Sigma and Lean for many years. Now the firm has created a brand new set of training programmes for Lean around its renowned and unique business process role-play simulation games. |
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