i&i Members – An Executive Summary

i&i Members is the Community of Practice for business improvement and innovation.

Within this private community, corporate members work together to solve common problems, share best practice, gain insight and transfer skills and knowledge. Benchmarking, knowledge sharing, networking and collaboration is enabled through face-to-face site visits, project exchanges, problem solving workshops and a private and secure online platform, available exclusively for the membership.

Members have access to quarterly Community Network Meetings that provide greater value than commercial conferences. There is a strict no-selling policy, and ongoing dialogue between members provides continuity, safety, openness, and a real opportunity to share with trusted and respected fellow members, without consultants and sales pitches.

Some of the significant tangible benefits that have been realised by the members of i&i include:

• Reduced project timescales achieved through the transfer of best practice. After gaining insight from a cross-section of members, on their approach to Rapid Improvement processes and workshops, several members in the network have implemented structured methodologies to effect change faster and engaged teams to face business challenges and develop solutions.
• Cost savings resulting from peer to peer evaluation of tools and vendors. After making comparisons of software and training solutions, members have been able to make informed decisions about their external service providers.
• Increased effectiveness of individuals resulting from accelerated learning and insight into lessons learned from the experience of others. After gaining access to learning and ideas from other companies, members have been able to utilise the network to develop their approach to Continuous Improvement and develop the capability of their experts.
• Access to cost-free resources and shared training opportunities through the Skills and Best Practice Exchange initiative. After working with other members of the network, members have engaged in shared training and facilitation opportunities and gained access to the inventory of tools and techniques developed in house.

The i&i Business Assessment Model

An organisation joining the i&i community receives a visual benchmark of its maturity in 10 categories of business improvement performance, delivered through the i&i business assessment model.

This benchmarking report identifies opportunities for learning and sharing with other members. The i&i team works with each member to prioritise networking activities and set high level objectives for one-to-one or group collaborations that enables the transfer of in-depth and wide-ranging expertise housed within the network.

These unique collaboration initiatives are championed by an executive Steering Committee, a group of regional and global programme leaders from within the membership. This committee meets quarterly to provide ongoing feedback, design the agenda for community activities, according to current issues and needs.

i&i will engage up to 50 individuals within each member organisation to register for meetings and workshops, connect with their peers, request or offer support and share resources through the i&i members website.

i&i Members has been founded upon the success and progress of the onesixsigma.com project, established in 2003. This public website, now re-launched as the knowledge resource that is www.improvementandinnovation.com, continues to provide information and independent support for thousands of organisations implementing improvement programmes globally.

Who are the Members?

AstraZeneca UK Ltd (Global) Baxter Healthcare (Europe) BP PLC (Global) Centrica PLC (UK) Credit Suisse (Global) DuPont De Nemours (EMEA) Masterlease Group (Europe) Nokia (UK) npower (UK) Roche Products Ltd (Global) Royal Bank of Scotland (UK) Royal Mail (UK) SCA Hygiene (Europe) Shell International Ltd (Global) Standard Life (UK) Starwood Hotels and Resorts (Europe) Sun Chemical Europe (Europe) TNT Express (Global) Virgin Media (UK) Vodafone UK (UK)

Joining the community

For more information, please call Sophie Smiles on +44 (0) 7889 117037 or use this form.

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Testimonials

“i&i offers a unique opportunity to professionals and companies involved in Continuous Improvement and related disciplines.

"First of all, it creates an invaluable networking opportunity between practitioners working in different industries, willing to openly share best practices; because the same members keep meeting on various occasions, the links between individuals become much stronger and the information flows much more freely.

"Secondly, it enables the participants to focus on the topics that are relevant to them in a number of different ways from online activities to specific workshops. Thanks to the diversity of industries involved, the full range of subjects can be covered, whilst the i&i team helps select additional resources for those areas where extra input is needed.

“i&i is an opportunity to gain access to and maintain an ongoing dialogue with other organisations facing the same challenges and objectives.”

BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DIRECTOR, SUN CHEMICAL

“The i&i network provides a focussed and flexible way to meet peers in the process improvement world around issues that are immediately relevant to my business. Unlike attending a conference, I have a say in the agenda and can contribute or learn at a much deeper level. As a result I am building a more sustainable network of 3rd party contacts.”

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT DIRECTOR, BP INTERNATIONAL

“The networking opportunity is fantastic. This is a terrific forum where you can meet other people in a safe environment to share failures as well as success. There aren’t many environments like that, and that makes i&i different from a standard conferences or seminars. There is a good atmosphere and a really good sense of credibility and confidentiality.”

SIX SIGMA DEPLOYMENT DIRECTOR, 3M

“Whether we know it or not, we are all leaning in the same direction! As quality professionals, our value proposition has always been much more than doing projects, training, or mentoring. We are "social architects" striving to pilot innovative new methods and thinking to better connect our business to our customers, drive efficiency across the organization, and provide true process transparency to the way we deliver products and services.

"To succeed means we always have to be in front connecting with our clients and responding to the needs of our market. We need to know what works and what doesn't. Credit Suisse is stronger because we believe that working with i&i as a community of engaged quality resources will help us be better prepared to deliver the precise level of service expected by our clients. By sharing best practices, listening to lessons learned, and challenging each other through strategic thinking and professional debate we can test ideas, challenge our assumptions, and constantly reshape the way we serve.”

HEAD OF OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE, CREDIT SUISSE

“i&i provides a unique networking opportunity. Members interact with each other in a completely open environment that enables sharing of experiences both positive and negative so that individuals can go back to their own organisations and be more effective in their improvement efforts. Where members’ needs are identified and the network expertise is limited, the i&i team proactively source experts to provide stimulating thought leadership. Every meeting we have attended has generated clear actions that we need to take in both the short and long term to speed up our own initiative.

“The motivations for SCA joining the i&i network include ongoing learning for the Black Belt and Master Black Belt community and quality (effective and relevant) benchmarking.”

OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE DEPLOYMENT LEADER, SCA HYGIENE

"i&i membership has been of real benefit to us in Royal Mail. The journey of continuous improvement is never an easy one and it helps immensely to share experiences, learning, & ideas with other companies facing similar challenges. i&i has given us great access to such companies and their approaches to business improvement. It continues to be a good mechanism for developing individual capability and it has helped to stimulate & reinvigorate our thinking. i&i is a huge enabler of both individual talent and organisational development.”

HEAD OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT & PLANNING, ROYAL MAIL

“i&i is an opportunity for Shell to participate in global collaborative activities and is a mechanism for connecting our people to the wider improvement community.”

SIX SIGMA DEPLOYMENT MANAGER, SHELL INTERNATIONAL

“i&i represents an opportunity to drive the deployment of business improvement, change and transformation in Vodafone through connectivity and dissemination of knowledge.”

HEAD OF BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT, VODAFONE UK

"Membership of i&i provides npower with the opportunity to reach out to peers in other organisations experiencing similar problems and to build sustainable relationships. The Community is made up of a good cross section of industries with members who are passionate about advancing knowledge and experience in the domain of business improvement. Events are planned and executed in a smooth unobtrusive way that makes everyone feel at ease to be open and honest and share both the good and the bad. Progress with our programme has been significant over the last 12 months and this has been largely due to the connections we have been able to make through the community and learning we have been able to share. As the community matures the offering that i&i can provide continues to strengthen with the concept of the skills exchange being something that will be of terrific value to all of the membership in 2010."

DATA AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT CAPABILITY MANAGER, NPOWER