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Our core objective
​Lumus was developed on an international level as a collaborative initiative to improve business alignment and organisations' economic performance. It is in line with a global shift from organisations working in isolation, towards collaboration and alliance relationships. It is essentially about the maturity of organisations, underpinned by specific practices and processes, to work together on a highly integrated basis to deliver significantly more value.
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Our primary activity is, therefore, to improve business alignment and performance through the associated training and on-site support, should it be required. It entails a phased approach that drives internal alignment within individual organisations, as well as the alignment across partner organisations. The outcome is a significant improvement in cost, revenue, delivery and job satisfaction. As Lumus, we also provide a programme management role and the online monitoring and support systems for large-scale initiatives.
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Participating Organisations
Organisations and sectors which contributed their experience to the development of the solution-set include the following:
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The United Nations, through UNIDO, who used it to assist local government organisations to maximise local economic development that can be gained through infrastructure investment programmes,
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Ford, Daimler Chrysler and Pfizer which contributed their global sector-transformation experience and lessons learned,
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EY and PwC who contributed their experience in risk and cost management,
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Major government infrastructure owner organisations,
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Major infrastructure contractors,
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The mining, oil and gas sectors, as major infrastructure-owner and local economic development players,
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CIPS (the leading international procurement capacity development organisation),
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The Universities of Utrecht and Cape Town,
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CCI (who implemented this approach within NZ and Australia),
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Pfizer, ERM and other global consulting organisations contributed their experience in safety, environmental, sustainability, leadership development, people performance etc.
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Experience Base
While most of our experience has been within infrastructure-related organisations, we applied the same practices and approach within other sectors:
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Served as the basis of $80 Billion national infrastructure development programmes
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Infrastructure environment: Fulton Hogan, National Transport organisations, Auckland Transport, Downer, Taranaki Engineering, Transnet, Multi-nationals, Rio Tinto
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R&D Partners: EY, PwC, CCI (re Fonterra), Universities of Utrecht and Cape Town, CIPS (Procurement), Business Excellence, ERM (Safety and Environmental), CSCPM
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Government: United Nations (Industrial Development Organisation), local economic development agencies, NZ Treasury, MBIE
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Other areas: Ford, Daimler Chrysler, Pfizer, Rio Tinto, Sasol, ICT
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Alignment with: MBIE Government Procurement Capability Index, Treasury's Better Infrastructure Business Case, Maori and Local Business Development, Growing all capitals of the NZ Wellbeing Framework
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Experience base of approximately 40 000 assessments and the development plans to improve performance
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How we do this (Overview)
It is a highly collaborative and participating approach. The following is the typical process to deliver an improvement in alignment and performance:
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Training internal champions who take accountability for the diagnostic and improvement process, which is a three-day training course backed up by on-site support;
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Conducting an end-to-end review of the total construction design and delivery process (the value add process) on a highly participating basis, focusing on current bottlenecks and capacity constraint issues;
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Conducting a maturity diagnostic of the participating firms to identify individual development gaps;
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Formulating a development action plan, underpinned by a significant financial and wellbeing benefits case;
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Monitoring and supporting change across the participating teams/organisations.
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The focus is to deliver the required skills within the organisation to improve alignment and performance. The typical outcomes of this process are the following:
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People across various organisations gain insight into the overall process, challenges and improvement opportunities of the other players and how they may affect this;
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It is quick, efficient and participative, which invites ownership;
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It is a cross-organisations team-building exercise based on a shared understanding of issues and joint teams to improve performance. It also helps people to know whom to contact when they have problems;
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It is an ideal mechanism to identify low-hanging fruit and long-term improvement areas, which creates participation and momentum.
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Wellbeing a core driver
Wellbeing is the primary driver behind Lumus, especially in terms of the impact on our clients and the communities in which we work. This includes the following:
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A productivity improvement of this magnitude has a significant impact on the financial wellbeing of organisations and employees. Infrastructure delivery often runs on very tight margins, and an increase in profitability of this nature means organisations can pay better dividends and salaries;
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Wellbeing and the impact on the environment are integrated throughout the process. This includes seeking low-hanging fruit and generating a financial business case that funds an improvement in the natural and work environment;
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The shift towards more integrated business practices corresponds to people working in a much more meaningful work environment. People participate and engage on a much more active basis and it creates a better sense of belonging;
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While many organisations seek to only improve their internal alignment and performance, it can also be rolled out to sub-contractors;
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Many local governments have taken on huge loans to stimulate economic recovery through infrastructure loans, which places a burden on future generations. Driving a productivity shift of this magnitude means a substantial improvement in the country's ability to repay these loans faster and gain a significant improvement in value for money.
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