9 questions with chas moore, managing director of canada for chazey partners

© Chazey Partners Inc. 2014

A Q&A Session with Chas MooreManaging Director, Canada, Chazey Partners

“The public sector is a similar share of both the American and Canadian economies at 27% of GDP, but a significant portion of our neighbours to the South have a greater distrust of government. Canadians generally have more of an expectation that government should amalgamate and become more efficient. Easier buy-in isn’t necessarily better, though – Shared Services has proliferated up North, but we see a focus on centralization and cost reduction, and missed opportunities to improve services and sustainability” --- Chas Moore

Canada’s Wide Open Frontiers Invite Shared Services

Finding Client-focus North ofthe 49th Parallel

2 | Meet Our Practitioners - Chazey Partners - January 2014

www.chazeypartners.com

Chas MooreManaging Director, CanadaChazey PartnersE: [email protected]

In Canada, this would be the private sector. In fact, Canada contrasts the global trend where private sectorparticipation in Shared Services is typically significantly deeper than public sector. The reason is two-fold:the vast majority of large Canadian companies are branch offices of multinational companies and are likelyleveraging the Shared Services of their parent corporation. In addition, the Canadian public sector has astrong mandate to centralize and be as efficient as possible, so governments, especially at the provincial level, are hurrying to get onto the Shared Services bandwagon. This segues to the other key opportunity – improving the client-focus and service levels of existing initiatives in the federal, provincial and other parts of the public sector.

What’s the biggest opportunity in Shared Services right now?

industry to help teams innovate effective and realistic solutions for complex industries. Prior to his recent assignments he was the Interior Health Business Support Director for Corporate Initiatives leading shared services implementations involving the Canadian healthcare sector.

Prior to the formation of Interior Health, Chas was the Chief Financial Officer of one of its 18 predecessor organizations. Chas led integration and innovation initiatives for the five health authorities that operated in the Cariboo region.

He has extensive experience in project management, business case development, mentoring & coaching, and public speaking.

Chas is a Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant and has a BSc Degree in Microbiology from the University of British Columbia.

Chas has 19 years of experience in business leadership, management and Shared Services implementations. He leverages his extensive experience in the public sector and

Chas Moore started working with Chazey Partners two years ago and now heads up their operations in Canada. Bringing with him a strong grounding in healthcare, public service and industry he’s been helping organizations break the centralization/de-centralization cycle and discover a new way: Shared Services.



You manage Canada for Chazey Partners. How do you see Canada developing?

Canada is very different from the US when it comes to Shared Services. In the US, a significant portion of the population has great distrust of government initiatives, with the presumption that the goal is for government organizations to get bigger, gain more information, and interfere with citizens. In Canada, it’s nearly the other way around: the reaction to government Shared Services initiatives is generally, “Why are we not already doing this?” For example, in Canada, we prefer that municipal governments collaborate on new sports facilities and we have a single national police force that services most of the country (RCMP). If these services are decentralized, Canadian taxpayers often worry that they are paying too much. In the US, on the other hand, there can be more suspicion around who’s paying for services, a greater comfort with de-centralized services, and more emphasis on the importance of independent operations.

What’s happened as a result is that in Canada the public sector has leapt ahead with centralization –often branding it Shared Services – without needing to do a client-focus first because it already hasthe mandate. But while the US public sector has been slower in moving towards Shared Services, it’slikely to be running more leading practices precisely because it’s taken more of a client-focus andperformance framework approach to prove the concept.

This difference between Canada and the US is all the more interesting as the public sector share of theeconomy is essentially the same for both, at 27% of GDP. So, while in the past Canada’s focus has beenon cost cutting and control, today and moving forward the emphasis is on bringing in a client-focusand improved services.

I find it fascinating how the implementation of Shared Services’ tools and techniques can be “good, bad or ugly”. For example, everyone will agree that it is important to have KPIs and measure performance. Done correctly, KPIs drive continuous improvement, improve engagement of client and stakeholders, and document successful improvement (“good”). If the KPIs are measuring the wrong items, or are too cumbersome to collect, they will be ineffective (“bad”). If the KPIs are imposed on the client and used simply to justify the existence of the Shared Services Centre, they will harm the relationship (“ugly”). A leading practices Shared Services implementation is about much more than checking tasks off a checklist.

What’s been your most in-teresting lesson learned in Shared Services so far?

Most of us have heard the maxim that “change management eats strategy for breakfast”. Simply stated, if the organization is not ready for a Shared Services initiative, it will be a great challenge to succeed. You need clear and visible senior management support and communications that provide air cover in order for your ground teams to do the detailed work. It is important to assess the organization’s capacity for change. Training and employee transition planning is critical. It is so easy to underestimate the investment for the “soft” part of the implementation and this is different for every client. But when you get it right, the work is extremely worthwhile.

What’s makes a Shared Services initiative a challenge?



The main point I always try to communicate is this: Without a client-focus you have no Shared Services. Shared Services is about treating internal customers with the same respect and service that external clients expect. You might get away with treating internal clients as a cost driver in the short term, but that is not sustainable. For example, some service providers feel relief when transaction and call volumes go down – this is the thinking of “cost centers”. If you do not have a monopoly, lower volumes mean that you are going out of business. So if you’re overly focused on “less volume is better”, that’s more about centralization than Shared Services. The differentiator is the client-focus.

What’s one piece of advice you could share to maximize Shared Services’ impact?

You’ve been with Chazey for two years now, Chas. Was consulting always part of your plan?

Yes and no. Ask most accountants what their childhood dreams were and few will say it was a career in the world of debits and credits. My father was an accountant, so it was the last thing that I wanted to do. Through my post-secondary education I planned to be a doctor, but after obtaining my microbiology degree, I realized that I could not stand the sight of blood and I wasn’t inspired by the reality of dealing with a parade of minor ailments and everyday complaints. At the same time, as part of the Canadian Naval Reserves, I was about to be posted all the way across the country, to Halifax. Having just met my future wife, two things soon became apparent: I did not want to leave the West Coast, and I had no marketable skills to get a new job.

I called my father, who was the senior partner in a small accounting firm, and asked if he needed any interns for the summer. He hired me doing drudgework, which I actually enjoyed and was surprisingly good at (it came much easier than science). The accounting institute accepted my degree, but I needed to complete the equivalent of a commerce degree before I could start specialized courses. I worked full-time and went to school full-time, obtaining my Chartered Accountant designation after 3½ years.

Once qualified, I joined the public sector in Victoria, the capital of the province of British Columbia, and a government town. I supplemented my income with teaching night classes at one of the local colleges. It was part-time, consulting work – rewarding, but there was generally too much or too little work, and I was looking for something more stable to support my young family.

As my contract was ending, I heard about a CFO position that was opening up in the Cariboo, in the Interior of BC. It’s a region that defines rural – it’s where the Cariboo gold rush happened. I moved to Williams Lake, a mining/lumber town that was an eight-hour drive from Vancouver. Mainly trees and mountains in between, with a few one-industry towns along the highway. Professionally, it was a great choice to jump-start my career. You get opportunities in rural areas that just aren’t offered in the city. I was 29 years old and a CFO of a hospital of about 300 staff, where my direct reports had 30 years of work experience on me, and I was young enough to be their son. I learned a tremendous amount from them.



So, you went from a consulting role within the Ministry to managing 300 people – that must have been a bit overwhelming?

Absolutely, but if you don’t feel at least a little overwhelmed when you take on a job, you run the risk of getting bored pretty quickly. I brought strong accounting, technical and professional skills, which is what they needed at that time. The rest of the team was very experienced and acted as great mentors for me. It really helps to be passionate about your job, so you can work through the low points and put in the necessary hours. I really enjoyed being part of a small organization, where you walk in the same entrance that the patients and staff use, and the team is close-knit and connected.

However, the downside is that a small organization is a twig in the river; you cannot change the direction of the water or effect change on a significant scale. When you’re part of a larger organization, like Interior Health, which I joined later, the difference is that a bigger budget means you’re able to flex some muscle in influencing policy and driving change, which provides a different level of satisfaction.

How did your previous experience set you up for consulting practice?

When I started as a student in accounting, I was already preparing financial statements and tax returns in an accounting office. I was also paying for my education. This meant that I wanted to learn as much as possible, it was all very relevant to me, and I developed a very strong educational foundation. Six months after finishing my last course, I was teaching at that same institution.

If you are going to be a consultant, your technical skills and expertise need to bring value to your clients. But technical skills and expertise are empty without practical experience. When I joined the BC healthcare industry 15 years ago, there were 52 health authorities responsible for providing and managing care. Three years after being hired as the CFO of the Williams Lake health authority, the government consolidated the 52 into six. My hospital in Williams Lake was one of 18 entities amalgamated to create Interior Health, and I was transferred to Kelowna to manage the budget for the new entity. This was a real challenge and I gained a lot of valuable experience during the transition.



I have two. As a consultant I travel a lot, and eat out a lot. Both wreak havoc with my health so I’ve decided that this year I’m going to tackle both diet and exercise, no matter where I am. In terms of eating, I see a lot of salads with low fat dressing ahead! In terms of exercise, it’s a bit more interesting.

I’ve been studying Chito-Ryu karate for the past 6 years, and recently earned my brown belt. I always wanted to do martial arts – an accountant by day, a ninja by night – but it’s hard to find that time as an adult. I had enrolled my daughters at an early age, and used to sit on the sidelines and watch their class. When my older daughter moved up into an adult/beginner class, there was suddenly no excuse for not joining her on the mat! What was a personal surprise was the impact of joining a class as a student, with my daughters. Generally parents are involved in their kids’ sports or activities as an authority, in a coach type of role. In the karate classes I was side-by-side with my daughter, and, in fact, junior to her. That gave us a shared experience that has helped me to build a strong relationship with my daughters throughout their teenage years. In fact, my favorite aspect of karate is that I do it with my daughters.

So this year, despite my traveling schedule, I’m determined to keep up with my classes while at home and also be disciplined enough to practice my katas [form] when I find myself in a hotel room somewhere.

I eventually moved to a position in Interior Health where I effectively became an internal consultant, moving from project to project. This is where I first met Phil Searle and Grant Farrell of Chazey Partners. They opened my eyes to what Shared Services could achieve beyond centralization and cost reduction. I had experienced the never-ending cycle between centralization (“costs are too high”; “we need more control”) and decentralization (“let operations handle it themselves”; “be flexible”). I was excited about this new strategy to achieve the triple benefit of Shared Services: lower costs, higher quality, and improved compliance. One of the key reasons I joined Chazey was to help promulgate this vision across Canada.

We’ve just kicked off 2014 – what are your resolutions?


www.chazeypartners.com ,

ABOUT CHAZEY PARTNERS

Chazey Partners is a practitioners-led global management advisory business. We bring together a unique wealth of experience, empowering our clients to strive for world class excellence through Business Transformation, Shared Services & Outsourcing, Technology Enablement, Process Enhancement and Corporate Strategy Optimization. We pride ourselves in having built, operated and turned around some of the world’s most highly commended and ground-breaking Shared Services Organizations, and for implementing many highly successful multi-sourced delivery solutions. Over the last 20 years, we have delivered numerous programs globally, in the US, Canada, UK, Continental Europe, Ireland, India, Eastern Europe, South America, Singapore, Australia, China, Middle-East and Africa.

Our experience covers both Private and Public Sectors, providing expertise in a wide spectrum of business functions, including Finance, HR, IT and Procurement

Learn more about us at www.ChazeyPartners.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+

More Q&A sessions available at Chazey Partners’ website www.chazeypartners.com/resources

Phil Searle, CEO & FounderChazey Partners+1 408 402 [email protected]

David O’Sullivan, Co-Founder & PartnerChazey Partners+353 (0) 86 384 [email protected]

Grant Farrell, Managing Director, United States Chazey Partners+1 408 767 [email protected]

Esteban Carril, Managing Director, Latin AmericaChazey Partners+54 (911) 3085 [email protected]

Chas Moore, Managing Director, CanadaChazey Partners+1 855 692 6229, Ext. [email protected]

Anirvan Sen, Managing Director, Asia, Middle East and AfricaChazey Partners+31 649133170 / +65 85143766 [email protected]

Janey Jux, Head of Public Sector Practice, EMEAChazey Partners+ 44 (0) 800 644 [email protected]

Christina Exarchou, Head of HR Practice, EMEAChazey Partners+30 6944 [email protected]

Meet Our Practitioners:

Emer O’Kelly, Regional Director, Europe Chazey Partners+44 (0) 7703 647 [email protected]

Robert Towle, Regional Director, East Coast, United StatesChazey Partners+1 862 812 [email protected]

http://www.chazeypartners.com

http://www.linkedin.com/company/chazey-partners

https://twitter.com/ChazeyPartners

https://www.facebook.com/ChazeyPartnersConsultancy

https://plus.google.com/+Chazeypartners