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“Over
the past few years, we have implemented a three-pronged
strategy for accelerating our growth through acquisitions
and alliances, new product innovation, and global expansion.
To support this important effort we are transforming
how
we work - a crucial step in the process of fulfilling
our aspiration of becoming a truly great company characterized
by making significant contributions to society and by high
performance achievement. There are two equally important
elements of this transformation. One addresses individuals
and the other focuses on how we work together in teams.
“Turning
first to our actions to foster individual growth, we have
developed three core initiatives. In the first, we have
turned the performance evaluation process upside down in
pursuit of a performance-oriented culture that is rooted
in the values of our enterprise. First, we encourage all
our associates to think of themselves as owners of the business,
and we define personal development as a contract between
BD and each associate. BD provides the tools, training and
environment for individuals to use as resources to enhance
their technical and managerial competence. Performance evaluation
is no longer only a matter of managers giving feedback to
associates. Transformed evaluation is owned and operated
by each individual, aided by an Internet-enabled self-evaluation
tool that facilitates 360-degree performance evaluation
by peers, subordinates and managers. An important dimension
is how well individuals achieved the goals they established
for themselves. It is equally important to assess the way
these goals were achieved. We focus on achievement and are
always seeking to better live our values.
“The
second element in individual transformation encourages ownership
behavior. More than 13,000 BD associates around the world
own more than 9.5 million shares of stock, ranking them
as one of our top four shareholders. We believe that if
you are an owner, you will act like one. Share ownership
keeps every individual focused on results and customer service.
“Formal
management development is a third area of individual transformation.
This is an area in which we have under-invested. Beginning
in 2000, however, we are committed to creating BD University
as a permanent, virtual institution for development within
the company. BD University will be part of a development
process owned and operated by BD leaders with the help of
our internal human resource development professionals. BD
University will better define how we make decisions, how
we address real problems on behalf of customers and how
we manage our enterprise within the BD value system.
“The
second overarching dimension of transformation within BD
is our work together in teams and as a team. These initiatives
come together under the banner of our ‘One Company’ philosophy.
The power of individual talent is multiplied when we organize
ourselves around common processes and purposes. Under Clateo
Castellini’s leadership, we have sought to become stronger
by removing boundaries and intensifying our focus on mission-critical
initiatives. For example, as he said in his letter, we now
have three large business groupings and have eliminated
many formal divisional and organizational structures that
tended to add cost and complexity. We have also begun a
number of initiatives aimed at driving both top-line growth
as well as productivity, and it is these I want to highlight
for you now.
”Perhaps
the most visible of our One Company initiatives is our implementation
of a global enterprise-wide resource
planning system. ‘Genesis,’ our name for this effort, is
enabling us to transform every work system within BD. This
is a challenging task, but it will result in a quantum improvement
in all our business processes.
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