Canadian Business named Optimus SBR to the 32nd annual Growth List! This list is the definitive ranking of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies, and we are honoured to be included for an eighth consecutive year. The Growth List is produced by Canada’s premier business and current affairs media brands and ranks Canadian businesses on five-year revenue growth (2014-2019).
“It is an honour for Optimus SBR to once again be included on the Growth List,” says Kevin Gauci, Chief Executive Officer and Founder. “This achievement is another reflection of the resolve our employees and organization demonstrate in good times and in challenging times.”
“The companies on the 2020 Growth List are really exceptional. Their stories are a masterclass in how to survive when the economy throws a curveball. Despite turbulence, the 2020 Growth List companies showed resilience, spirit and, most importantly, empathy and strong leadership,” says Susan Grimbly, Growth List Editor. “As we celebrate over 30 years of the Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies program, it’s encouraging to see that the heart of Canada’s entrepreneurial community beats strong, even in tough times.”
For over 30 years, the Growth List ranking of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies (formerly the Growth 500) has been Canada’s most respected and influential ranking of entrepreneurial achievement. Originally developed by PROFIT and now published in a special Growth List print issue of Canadian Business and online at GrowthList.ca and CanadianBusiness.com, the Growth List ranks Canadian companies on five-year. For more information on the ranking, visit online at Growth 500.ca and CanadianBusiness.com.
For more information, you can contact us anytime through our contact form or by emailing us at info@optimussbr.com.
The way customers bank is constantly evolving, but 2020 has seen one of the most dramatic shifts in customer behaviour that global Financial Institutions have ever experienced.
The impacts of COVID-19 have caused Financial Institutions to witness the rapid acceleration and adoption of their digital channels. While this shift is welcomed by the industry, it has nonetheless occurred faster than anticipated. These behavioural changes represent a unique opportunity for Financial Institutions globally to re-evaluate and re-position their product offerings in a manner that drives desired behaviours from their customers. Understanding customer behaviour is mission critical to effective product management. The goal of effective product management is to ensure that products remain relevant, competitive, and profitable in the current environment. This is where Product Optimization comes into play.
Product Optimization uses customer behaviour insights to assess product alignment to strategy and identify opportunities that will drive rapid bottom line impact. It also enhances service delivery and operational controls and is driven by three main levers:
The role of the Product Manager has never been more important and more difficult. With changing patterns of customer behaviour, existing product offerings may no longer be reflective of current customer needs. Product Optimization is designed to support Product Managers in their efforts to understand customer behaviour and tailor products to meet the current and future needs of your customers.
Product Optimization helps ensure that your product offering meets the needs of your customers in a cost-effective manner while remaining aligned to your Bank’s strategic objectives. Whether it be setting-up products to drive and sustain digital adoption, increasing revenue, reducing customer attrition, increasing your share of wallet, or a combination of these, Product Optimization can assist in achieving your goals. Any changes to your current product offering will not only have a lasting impact on how customers view your ability to meet their needs, but also must be considered in the broader context of the customer’s profitability, inclusive of cost-to-serve, to ensure sustainability.
If you are looking to optimize your products, consider the following key learnings:
We cannot stress this one enough – without being able to understand customer behaviour changes and the reasons for their engagement (or lack thereof) with your products, you cannot ensure that you’re actively promoting and selling the “right” products. Understanding who your customers are, their transactional patterns, what your relative performance is in your segment, and what additional key metrics should be tracked on a go-forward basis is essential to managing your products.
The data collected through the Product Optimization review can also support the development of additional MIS and reporting including Customer Profitability analyses, over-the-counter migration tracking, and Retail branch network reporting.
It’s not enough to make tweaks to existing products and follow in the steps of competitors. If you’re not focused on the optimization of products, you could be missing out on a competitive advantage or leaving dollars on the table.
With the increasing rate of change in financial services, institutions are facing challenges from the market as well as competition from both traditional competitors and emerging fintech companies who have the flexibility and agility to make larger scale changes in a rapid manner.
3. There’s no “wrong” time to engage in Product Optimization.
Optimization efforts can be focused in any of the following aspects or combinations thereof:
Effective product management is no longer a nice to have, it’s key to driving the success of your business in this changing environment. Whether you’ve already started your Product Optimization journey or don’t know where to begin, we can support your team with everything from strategy through to sustainment of changes and help ensure that your products and their delivery reflect customer needs.
Our Product Optimization service offering is designed to supplement the capacity of resource constrained product management teams. We work alongside and directly with your Product Teams in order to enhance capabilities and ensure sustainment well after our team is gone. Our experience with these engagements is that they quickly pay for themselves and provide sustainable long-term benefits with a lasting impact on the bottom-line of our clients.
Optimus SBR is an independently owned management consulting firm that works with organizations across North America to get done what isn’t. Our Financial Services Group provides strategic advisory services, process improvement services, risk management services, and project management support to leading Financial Institutions, insurers, asset managers, and pension funds in North America. We have more than 35 years of industry experience in Retail Banking, Wholesale Banking, Institutional Banking, Small Business Banking, Corporate Services and Insurance.
If you’re interested in learning more, give us a call, or send us a note.
Carolyn Kingaby, Practice Leader, Financial Services
Carolyn.Kingaby@optimussbr.com
416.649.9219
Peter Snelling, Senior Vice President, Business Development
Peter.Snelling@optimussbr.com
416.649.9128
Adam Parsons, Senior Manager, Financial Services
Adam.Parsons@optimussbr.com
416.649.6047
How do you solve a problem like corporate travel in the era of COVID-19? This is the question leaders have been grappling with since the early days of the pandemic. As opportunities for corporate travel gradually open around the world, and airlines move to reduce social distancing measures, organizations need to reassess how they re-launch critical corporate travel activities. This includes updating their understanding of the business case for travel, developing new travel policies that emphasize employee safety, and determining how to optimize travel expense in a dramatically altered supplier landscape. These are challenges that existed before the global shutdown, however they have been further complicated because of it. So, where does one begin?
While almost every sector of the economy has experienced dramatic effects of the pandemic, few have been hit as hard as the travel sector. COVID-19 brought business travel to a halt. As of March, 95% of all North American corporate travel had been cancelled or suspended, resulting in $27.6 billion in lost monthly revenues across the supply chain.[1] While strict travel restrictions are expected to ease over the coming months, suppressed levels of demand are anticipated to continue for the majority of 2021, at only 50% of 2019 volumes.[2]
In response, the travel supply chain has ramped up its focus on traveller health, safety, and education. However, corporate travel remains difficult for most organizations to contemplate. People, and the organizations they work for, have trouble gauging the risks associated with travel, to the point where approximately 60% of people would be unwilling to travel in any capacity over the next 3-6 months, according to a recent survey.[3]
It is not just that people don’t want to travel. COVID-19 has triggered an evolution on how we work and that people may not need to travel as much as they used to as corporate norms change. At this point, however it is anybody’s guess as to how permanent changes in corporate travel cultures will be. Google, Facebook, Microsoft and many other organizations outside of the tech sector have gone virtual in a way few would have imagined a few months ago. Many have extended work from home policies for most staff into 2021, which is also because of virtual meeting technologies that have reduced the need for travel.
While we expect corporate travel in North America to rebound, the ultimate question is when. What we do know however, is that corporate travel will not look or feel the same as it did before, and this new normal will reverberate for years to come.
Just as travel suppliers are implementing new processes and protocols to rebuild demand, leaders need to rebuild the foundational policies that will guide future travel activities. How? By bringing the corporate travel conversation into the boardroom. Corporate travel has probably never had the attention it deserves, but that needs to change.
For organizations just starting the conversation around the future of corporate travel, or those yet to embark, there are a few important areas to consider in preparing for a different future:
1. Reconsidering the Business Case for Travel
The business case for travel will need to evolve substantially in most organizations, through a renewed emphasis on demand management and understanding what goes into it and adapting it to our current reality:
From assessing the value of travel, to the selection of the suppliers’ employees travel with, organizations will need to manage future travel demand by updating their business case and supporting policies to consider the key areas above, all while being more rigorous and considerate of the employee. Implementing policy revisions that reflect these concerns will require discussions and collaboration between the right internal (senior leadership, procurement leads, and travel managers) and external (travel management companies, consultants, and travel suppliers) stakeholders.
2. Compliance Under New Parameters
Once organizational guidelines around travel have been established, monitoring and enforcing them effectively becomes paramount. COVID-19 has raised the stakes for employee safety, and as such, a thoughtful approach to travel compliance has become even more essential. Enhanced pre-trip and post-trip compliance measures and the approach to managing unauthorized spending or out-of-policy bookings are just some of the key areas that will need to be adapted to fit a new set of travel guidelines. For those employees who are uncomfortable or unable or travel, organizations should identify and promote alterative solutions (e.g., virtual/hybrid meeting options) to accommodate them.
On the bright side, there are likely to be many benefits from all this effort on compliance: greater management of risk, controls, cost containment, as well as enhanced traveller safety and employee satisfaction.
3. Protecting your People
As employees adjust to a different future, accepting new or revised corporate travel guidelines may be a gradual process. Organizational leaders should plan to effectively manage a diverse set of preferences that employees will possess once corporate travel activities resume. Evidence suggests that before travelling, employees will want greater control over where they go and who they travel with. Destinations with greater access to healthcare and reputable travel brands with more rigorous safety protocols are expected to be the top drivers of acceptance.[4]
Once travelling, organizations should ensure that their people have all the necessary tools and public health resources available to them to help with physical and mental health, such as ‘on demand’ virtual healthcare.[5] Open communication forums for travellers to ask questions and provide comments – whether mid-trip or upon their return – are another way organizations can keep employees engaged and satisfied.
4. Travel Sourcing for a Different Future
Relationships between organizations and travel suppliers will be more important than ever, as new and existing partnerships may need to be re-evaluated for ‘fit’.[5] Organizations will need to reassess their existing standards for preferred travel suppliers and consider creating a ‘checklist’ to assess suppliers against these new standards. For example, the current environment may lend itself to an employee or company preference for higher-end suppliers, whose services go the extra mile to ensure enhanced levels of cleanliness and traveller comfort. Once preferred suppliers are reselected, organizations should then devise and deploy strategies that will direct travellers to them.
In addition, preferred travel supplier contracts, and how they are developed, should evolve in the new environment. Organizations may look to create additional flexibility in their supplier contracts based on new expectations. For instance, organizations may choose to limit risk exposure on minimum volume thresholds that may have existed previously. Overall, organizations will need to find new ways to balance the cost of upholding a higher standard of care, and the need for greater contractual flexibility for the safety and well-being of their employees.
COVID-19 has changed the game for corporate travel. For organizations that have treated it as a cost centre to be managed and little more, the level and nature of decisions have changed, and it has become a mission-critical question for organizations who rely on travel to sell and deliver business. While information and directions are changing almost daily, leaders can start taking a critical look at what travel will look like in a post-COVID world. These conversations need to begin now so that organizations can be prepared to start solving a problem like corporate travel in the era of COVID-19.
Optimus SBR is an implementation-focused firm which supports a variety of clients across the broader travel supply chain from direct travel clients, to travel management companies and meetings & events companies. Our engagements focus on adding value to client organizations through solutions that are practical and implementable, allowing for the continuous generation of value, optimal operations, and high impact results. We offer a full range of strategy, operations, travel, and events and meetings consulting services, to help clients overcome challenges, and assess opportunities in a balanced and thoughtful manner, in support of reaching your economic and non-economic goals. Our work focuses on four core categories including; Strategy and Operations, Travel and Events Policy, Air/Hotel Sourcing and Program Management, and Outsourced and In-sourced Travel Services.
If you found this helpful, give us a call, or send us a note.
Brad Ferguson, SVP, Industries and Government Practice
Brad.Ferguson@optimusssbr.com
416.649.9184
James Lowe, Director
James.Lowe@optimussbr.com
[1] Global Business Travel Association, 2020 Coronavirus Poll, April 2020
[2] Business Travel News, April 2020
[3] Traveling and Entertainment in 2020 Amid COVID-19, TheVacationer.com, May 2020
[4] SAP Concur: Global Business Traveler Report 2020
[5] Ultimate Guide to When Travel Returns, Travel and Transport Inc., 2020
For the second consecutive year, Optimus SBR is thrilled and honoured to be named on the 2020 list of Best Workplaces in Professional Services, and as one of this year’s Best Workplaces™ in Canada. This year, we’ve also been named to the inaugural list of Best Workplaces in Ontario.
The news of our placement on the lists of Best Workplace and the Top 50 Best Workplaces in Canada comes at a time when the world is in crisis. We are humbled to be recognized once again and will continue to focus on and grow our culture in order to continue to be one of Canada’s Best Workplaces.
Throughout the crisis, our mantra has been “working together, while staying apart”. Our culture is one of the cornerstones of our business, and now more than ever we are laser focused on keeping our culture at the forefront. During this time, even though we are apart, we want to ensure our team feels connected, supported, and encouraged. The happiness and engagement of our people is a direct correlation to our success. “We see ourselves as part of one large family and that is what makes us a great workplace. Our team of incredible people continue to believe in our vision of building a different kind of consulting firm, and has helped make us one of the Best Workplaces in Canada,” shares Kevin Gauci, CEO.
The Great Place to Work® Institute compiles the Best Workplace lists by gaining direct feedback from employees from the hundreds of organizations that are surveyed.
Best Workplace Professional Services
To be eligible for the Professional Services list, organizations must be Great Place to Work Certified™ in the past year, work primarily in the Professional Services Industry, and offer customized, knowledge-based services to clients.
Best Workplace in Ontario
To be eligible for this list, organizations must be Great Place to Work Certified™ in the past year, be headquartered in Ontario, and have at least 10 employees working in the province that participated in our Trust Index employee survey. Great Place to Work determined the best based on the overall Trust Index score from these employees.
Best Workplaces™ in Canada
The competition process for Best Workplaces Canada is based on two criteria: two-thirds of the total score comes from confidential employee survey results and the remaining one-third comes from an in-depth review of the organization’s culture. This offers a rigorous representation of the organization from an employee perspective, and an overall portrait of the workplace culture. Together, they provide crucial data relative to five trust-building dimensions: credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie.
This year’s list received over 400 registrations and over 80,000 employees participated in the 2020 “Best Workplaces™ in Canada” survey, rolling out to impact over 300,000 Canadian employees.
For more information please visit www.greatplacetowork.ca.
As the world grapples with the impacts of COVID-19, financial institutions are being challenged unlike ever before. In this rapidly shifting operating environment, we’ve seen these institutions take swift action to support government programs, address client needs, and create an effective remote employee workforce. Addressing these needs required urgent and dramatic changes that will have long-lasting impacts.
As the dust has now begun to settle, and the requirement for urgent action lessens, there is a growing need for financial institutions to take a step back and undertake a review of the processes and related controls implemented in recent months. The aim is to ensure control gaps in recently implemented processes are identified and mitigated in the ‘new normal’ business as usual environment.
The financial services industry has experienced a significant magnitude of change that has occurred in a very short period of time. Three key driving factors of change stand out.
1. Enabling Government Relief Programs
As part of massive government intervention, several programs have been created to help support people and businesses in need. And for a number of these programs, the government has used the banking system as the approval and distribution network for this support. Banks were pushed to react rapidly as government programs were announced. Seemingly, and in some cases quite literally overnight, processes and technology enablers related to application, approval, distribution, monitoring and reporting were developed and implemented.
While the greatest possible care and diligence was taken to support these changes, they were quickly put in place and there is an opportunity to revisit the processes and related controls, and address additional risks that may not have been initially identified. Fraudulent applications, need for government reporting, and capital monitoring are just a few of the changes that are important examples.
2. A Swift Response to Addressing Client Needs
Alongside government intervention, financial institutions have been aggressively developing solutions to assist clients in these unprecedented times. Amidst organization-wide responses, we have seen two primary focus areas. Unsurprisingly, the first has been the easing of client’s financial commitments through payment deferrals on credit products. The second lies within the realm of providing substantially enhanced digital access to services.
In addressing these important needs, many new processes have been put in place across dozens of products and services. In a rush to better serve clients in a time of physical distancing, new digital access services have been established with record speed. While there is no question due diligence was taken during implementation, it is now time to revisit the policies, procedures, risk assessments, and control frameworks to assure management that risks are effectively mitigated.
3. Ensuring an Effective and Compliant Remote Workforce
The third big change in response to COVID-19 is the shift to Working From Home (WFH) for most employees. Prior to COVID-19, WFH was certainly an option for many employees, however there stood a long-held belief that certain categories of internal employees in financial institutions must perform their roles on premises. COVID-19 changed the status quo.
Previously held views around leadership, risk, compliance, culture, and access, that may have restricted WFH in the past, have now been turned upside down as entire on-site groups shifted to WFH overnight. In fact, despite the novelty and disruption, many have reported measurable improvements in productivity and there are signs over the long term, employees are going to want to increase the amount of time they spend working from home. With this significant shift in how and where people work, new controls need to be considered, and existing processes augmented to ensure the WFH workplace remains compliant and productive.
There is no question that well thought out processes and controls play a significant role in mitigating and managing risk. In the normal course of our work with North American financial institutions, we spend a lot of time assessing, developing, and enhancing process and control frameworks. This work is often related to processes and controls that were developed with great thought over long periods of time. However, in our experience, we consistently see:
In the business environment created by COVID-19, financial institutions have undertaken tremendous efforts to support their clients and employees. We do recognize that sound, ‘in the moment’, approaches to risk mitigation and control frameworks have been created along the way to secure the viability of our financial system. In fact, we believe that much can be learned from the lighter touch controls and monitoring that have proven effective.
However, as we look forward, there is a critical need for a serious second look at the processes and the preventative and detective controls put in place, as well as a review of the monitoring processes employed to ensure that the new and enhanced processes are effective and sustainable.
So, do the processes and controls implemented amid the demands of the COVID-19 crisis effectively mitigate risk? We recommend asking three key questions to determine the answer:
COVID-19 has thrust a massive amount of change onto financial institutions. The impacts have highlighted the cracks in business continuity planning, have accelerated digitization by years, and transformed remote working. With these changes, financial institutions are facing an increasingly complex risk environment and we believe the current crisis will act as a catalyst for regulators and financial institutions in reevaluating processes, controls, monitoring and oversight.
Optimus SBR is an implementation-focused firm that specializes in cross-functional experience in process redesign, controls, organizational alignment, strategy development, and project management. With over 150 consultants in our Financial Services Practice we bring deep experience across all sectors of the financial services industry. Our responsive, execution-focused approach is valued by North America’s largest banks, insurers, asset managers and pension funds.
If you found this helpful, give us a call, or send us a note.
Carolyn Kingaby, Senior Vice President and Practice Lead
Carolyn.Kingaby@optimussbr.com
416.649.9219
Peter Snelling, Senior Vice President
Peter.Snelling@optimussbr.com
416.649.9128
Bill Carrigan, Director
Bill.Carrigan@optimussbr.com
416.276.2635
Public Works. Public Health. Transit. Emergency Services. Parks and Recreation. Housing. Economic Development. The list goes on. For many citizens, municipalities are where the rubber meets the road – figuratively and literally – more frequently than with any other level of government. Municipal services matter, and not just the ones that people see. The ones that keep things humming behind the scenes matter too. And never has that been more apparent than during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the pre-COVID era, municipalities had to balance the delivery of basic services with fiscal constraints arising from a limited range of revenue tools. And they had to do this while keeping an eye towards the future to support the needs, growth, and prosperity of their local communities. The right mix, level, and organization of services is different for every municipality, and striking that balance means stepping back and taking a strategic view. In the province of Ontario, for example, the Government has announced the Audit and Accountability Fund (AAF) and the Municipal Modernization Program which provide funding for Ontario municipalities to do just that. Many municipalities have already taken advantage of this funding and finished their review, some are ongoing, while others are just beginning the process. However, this exercise can be valuable for any municipality across Canada that is looking to modernize, reduce costs, or improve efficiency and effectiveness.
No matter where a municipality is in this review process, COVID-19 has changed the game. Municipalities are now grappling with emergency management, increasing demand for evolving essential services, rapid transitioning to digital service models, and supporting staff, communities, and businesses to stay safe and prepare for the recovery. Meanwhile, revenue is deferred and declining. In the process, many municipalities have demonstrated tremendous innovation and leadership. We have seen municipalities across Canada connect, engage, and support their citizens and communities in new ways as the pandemic impacts almost every facet of public life.
It will be important to both take stock of and make stick these positive changes in a post-COVID world. The pandemic has also put a spotlight on weaknesses that may have come as a surprise to many municipalities. It will be important to improve the things that did not work well during the pandemic to prepare for the new reality and long road to recovery in the “pandemic economy”.[1] The country will be travelling a bumpy road down the other side of the curve as it readies itself for potential subsequent spikes and waves of pandemic activity. Going forward it will be critical for all municipalities to reevaluate their priorities and reimagine what they do. Municipalities must be prepared to pivot their organizations while providing leadership during a period of great uncertainty.
Service delivery reviews must also benefit from the lessons municipalities have learned through months of responding to COVID-19. At Optimus SBR, we have been fortunate to work with a range of small and large municipalities on service delivery reviews before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and we have learned some important lessons along the way. Below we outline some considerations for municipalities as they proceed with a review, whether they are just entering the process or implementing changes coming out of one.
For municipalities about to embark on a service delivery review, there are a few important things to keep in mind:
1. Be Clear and Ambitious
What are you trying to achieve? The Government of Ontario has said municipalities can undertake different types of reviews, including “line-by-line” (read: cost reduction) and “effectiveness and efficiency” (read: doing things better) reviews, among others. Given this, you will want to be clear with the province, your Council, stakeholders, and the public on just what exactly this service delivery review is about. Objectives need to be clear, expectations need to be set, and tradeoffs will need to be made.
When setting these objectives, take stock of what has been possible during the pandemic and don’t be afraid to be ambitious. We have seen rapid change in several aspects of municipal operations and things that might have seemed impossible or out of reach before the pandemic may be more achievable in our post-COVID reality.
2. Prioritize Areas of Focus
Focus your efforts. Municipalities will likely find that they get more value out of a deeper and more focused review – concentrating on areas with the biggest impact, performance issues, resource intensity, and scope for improvement – than one that is broad but shallow. This will allow for a more thorough analysis and a clearer path forward where a broader review may only result in superficial change. When picking priorities, it will be important to consider how perceptions and expectations of essential services have changed during COVID-19, as well as whether some service models cracked under the pressure of the pandemic.
3. Communicate and Engage
COVID-19 has resulted in heightened anxiety levels for staff, stakeholders, and citizens who are looking for leadership, information, and reassurance. We have seen increased visibility of our municipal leaders during the pandemic as well as the rapid adoption of virtual tools and platforms for communication and engagement. These developments can and should be used to support Service Delivery Reviews to ensure that interested groups have a voice in making changes even in an era of physical distancing.
So principles of good engagement apply more strongly than ever. Get people’s input before ideas are fully (or even half) baked. Buy-in is stronger when people see their input shape changes, and as ever, the front-line and service recipients will typically know things that management does not. Taking advantage of this knowledge will be even more critical given that so much has happened in such as a short time.
4. Capitalize on Broader Organizational Benefits
While these reviews are a great way to identify improvements and prioritize opportunities, they also bring other benefits. Some municipal organizations have struggled to maintain employee engagement during the pandemic and Service Delivery Reviews provide an opportunity to engage teams and make workplace cultures more resilient to change and focused on continuous improvement. They can also help build internal capacity to improve services and act as a window for high performers and future leaders to shine.
For the municipal reviews that started and finished before the pandemic or were interrupted mid-stream, the state of the world and thus priorities have changed. While you likely have several opportunities to move forward with and want to benefit from all the work done for the review, you may be unsure how to move forward in this new environment. Here are a few ways to think about pivoting on implementation given the new realities of COVID:
1. Pause to Reassess Priorities and Incorporate Lessons Learned
It is important to pause and reassess whether the transformation priorities you set pre-COVID are still relevant, consider how your organization and operating models have changed, and how the needs of your citizens and communities have evolved. This does not mean starting from scratch, but it does mean making sure you are prioritizing things that will help respond to COVID pressure and make innovations and improvements from the last few months stick.
2. Making Progress on Implementation During COVID
Getting moving on quick wins, especially ones that respond to pressures and challenges related to COVID, will help build trust and credibility with stakeholders and build positive momentum that will be invaluable as you tackle the larger, more complex strategic initiatives.
At the same time, it is easy to underestimate how much effort it will take to get things done – transformation cannot be done off the side of someone’s desk. We have seen massive redeployment of resources to respond to COVID and it will be critical that, as “business as usual” activities resume, transformation efforts are supported with the right resources – people, tools, and technology – along with the project management capacity to ensure things keep moving on time and budget.
Finally – we can’t say it enough – communication and engagement will continue to be essential during COVID to build understanding and support as well as ensure ongoing connectedness as transformation activities move forward.
3. Investing Scarce Resources to Achieve Clear Outcomes
COVID-19 is having large financial impacts on municipalities and more pressure is expected as we move into recovery mode. In an environment of fiscal uncertainty, it is critical to be clear about investment requirements and ensure they are tied to meaningful outcomes, whether they are service improvements, savings or both. To enable investment, needs must be clearly communicated and tied to tangible and measurable impacts to demonstrate return on those hard-earned taxpayer dollars.
As municipalities continue to respond to the pandemic and prepare for our new post-COVID reality it will be essential to pause, reassess, and pivot. The province’s funding for service delivery reviews is a unique opportunity to do just that and can be helpful no matter where a municipality is on its modernization journey.
Optimus SBR is an implementation-focused firm that specializes in turning policy into action. Our Municipal Practice, part of our broader Industries and Government Practice, has conducted a range of engagements for municipalities covering frontline and back-office services, transportation and transit, social services, public works, emergency services, public health, long-term care, community and economic development, and numerous others.
If you found this helpful, give us a call, or send us a note.
Brad Ferguson, SVP, Industries and Government Practice
Brad.Ferguson@optimusssbr.com
416.649.9184
David Lynch, Principal
David.Lynch@optimussbr.com
Michelle Lenarduzzi, Senior Manager
Michelle.Lenarduzzi@optimussbr.com
[1] For an accessible and helpful overview of what this could look like, see Gans, Joshua (2020). Economics in the Age of COVID-19. Cambridge: MIT Press. Open access version available at https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/economics-age-covid-19.
At Optimus SBR, putting people first is part of our DNA. We are committed to the health and well-being of our clients, employees, and community. Following the guidelines set out by all levels of the Canadian government, last week we transitioned our Toronto office to virtual. As a dynamic and nimble organization, we’ve made a swift transition, and are dedicated to working with our clients to see them through these uncertain times. While there’s no doubt that challenges lie ahead, by continuing to prioritize people, we are confident in our ability to keep delivering game-changing results for our clients… even if it’s from the kitchen table! Our business was built working with organizations through tough challenges, and now is no exception.
In a time like this, we’d like to take a moment to thank the first responders and healthcare professionals looking after the health and well-being of our communities. Thank you to the doctors, nurses, administrative and cleaning personnel, researchers, and all others in the healthcare field for your hard work and commitment. We’d also like to express deep appreciation for all the individuals working to ensure there is little disruption in our food supply, infrastructure, security, and other essential services. We salute your efforts!
If there’s one thing for sure, it’s that we’re all in this together. We encourage everyone to practice social distancing, and do their part to flatten the curve.
We are excited to announce we placed No. 168 on the inaugural Report on Business ranking of Canada’s Top Growing Companies for 2019. This marks our second growth award in 2019, having been ranked to the Growth 500 earlier this month for the seventh consecutive year. The list of Canada’s Top Growing Companies aims to celebrate entrepreneurial achievement by identifying and amplifying the success of growth-minded, independent businesses in Canada.
Canada’s Top Growing Companies ranked Canadian companies based on three-years of revenue growth. Optimus SBR earned its spot on the list of Top Growing Companies with three-year growth of 212%! “This is such an honour for everyone at Optimus SBR and we are very proud of this achievement,” says Kevin Gauci, CEO Optimus SBR.
“We created Canada’s Top Growing Companies program because we believe there is much Report on Business readers can learn from the successes of the country’s best entrepreneurs,” says Derek DeCloet, Editor of Report on Business and Executive Editor at The Globe and Mail. “We’re excited to be telling their stories.”
“The 400 companies on the inaugural Report on Business ranking of Canada’s Top Growing Companies ranking demonstrate ambition, innovation and tremendous business acumen,” says Phillip Crawley, Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail. “Their contributions to the economy help to make Canada a better place, and warrant commendation.”
The full list of 2019 winners, and accompanying editorial coverage, is published in the October issue of Report on Business magazine—out now—and online at tgam.ca/TopGrowing.
The Globe and Mail is Canada’s foremost news media company, leading the national discussion and causing policy change through brave and independent journalism since 1844. With the award-winning coverage of business, politics and national affairs, The Globe and Mail newspaper reaches 6.6 million readers every week. The Report on Business magazine reaches 1.8 million readers in print and digital every issue. Their investment in innovative data science means that as the world continues to change, so does The Globe. The Globe and Mail is owned by Woodbridge, the investment arm of the Thomson family.
For more information, you can contact us anytime through our contact form or by emailing us at info@optimussbr.com.
On September 12th, 2019, Canadian Business and Maclean’s magazine released the list of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies and ranked Optimus SBR No. 273 on the Growth 500. Produced by Canada’s premier business and current affairs media brands, the Growth 500 ranks Canadian businesses on five-year revenue growth. This is the seventh year that Optimus SBR has ranked on the Growth 500, exemplifying our mantra of Intelligent Growth, Culture Obsessed.
“Optimus SBR is honoured to be named as one of Canada’s fastest-growing companies again this year,” says CEO Kevin Gauci. “We have an incredible dynamic team of entrepreneurial thinkers with a passion for growing both our business as well as our clients’, and this achievement reflects the talent and hard work of our firm. Thank you to everyone at Optimus SBR for once again helping us achieve this honour.”
“The companies on the 2019 Growth 500 are truly remarkable. Demonstrating foresight, innovation and smart management, their stories serve as a primer for how to build a successful entrepreneurial business today,” says Beth Fraser, Growth 500 program manager. “As we celebrate over 30 years of the Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies program, it’s encouraging to see that entrepreneurship is healthier than ever in this country.”
For over 30 years, the Growth 500 has been Canada’s most respectable and influential ranking of entrepreneurial achievement. Ranking Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies by five-year revenue growth, the Growth 500 profiles the country’s most successful growing businesses. The Growth 500 is produced by Canadian Business. Winners are profiled in a special Growth 500 print issue of Canadian Business (packaged with the October issue of Maclean’s magazine) and online at Growth500.ca and CanadianBusiness.com. Founded in 1928, Canadian Business is the longest-serving and most-trusted business publication in the country. It is the country’s premier media brand for executives and senior business leaders.
For more information, you can contact us anytime through our contact form or by emailing us at info@optimussbr.com.
At Optimus SBR, we regularly keep an eye on public sector developments. In March, we discussed Ontario’s changing health care landscape, Ontario Health Teams (OHTs), and how organizations can respond. Since then, there have been several new developments which matter a lot for health and social system organizations.
First, the Premier’s Council on Improving Healthcare and Ending Hallway Medicine issued its second and final report, “A Healthy Ontario: Building a Sustainable Health Care System.”[1] While it comprises a set of recommendations and is not yet a policy, it gives some hints on the government’s direction, including potential changes to privacy and home care legislation, a focus on virtual care, and continued strong emphasis on the role of primary care in a more integrated health system. OHTs are clearly central to the thinking of the Council as well.
Second, following a flurry of activity leading up to the May 15th deadline to undertake the OHT Self-Assessment, the Ministry of Health (MOH) found over 150 Self-Assessment Forms (SAFs) on its proverbial front step, an overwhelming response. Finally, on July 18th, Minister Elliott and Deputy Angus announced via webinar the results of the process, through which 31 groups have been invited to proceed to the Full Application stage of the OHT process. Since then, a series of webinars have been made available to prospective groups on a wide variety of topics related to OHTs and the Full Application.
Why does all this matter? Because organizations need to figure out what a single fiscal and clinical accountability structure looks like for their patients and themselves in an OHT world, and how to work with others to get there. The MOH has made some significant decisions. As a result, for many organizations now, it’s decision time.
As mentioned, the OHT process started with the SAFs. For reference, we have reproduced the MOH’s diagram from the OHT guidance document below:[2]
Figure 1: The Ontario Health Team Designation Process
Source: Ministry of Health
Now that the MOH has completed its validation process for the 150-plus SAFs received, it has sorted the groups into ones that will:
During the webinar, the Minister alluded to another category not initially included – those that are “Innovative Models”. These SAF submissions outlined regional or provincial approaches that the MOH saw as worth exploring further for an OHT-driven health system.
There is still a long road ahead – Full Applications are due October 9th, and Ontario Health Team Candidates will be announced in the (presumably late) fall. There will also be a second round of self-assessments, with SAFs that will be due on December 4, 2019.[3]
Clearly, it’s a process meant to drive innovation and spread growth of good things currently happening in the system. When asked how many of the Full Application group would become Candidates, Deputy Angus said she hoped “they all will”, suggesting it is about reaching a standard, rather than a competition per se, as some have interpreted it. The long-term vision appears to be one where most providers in most communities will say “We are all OHTs now.” Naturally, organizations will want to control or at least influence their own destiny. But not everyone can lead.
It is also important to remember that for the successful Candidates, the real work starts from the fall onwards through “Year One”, for which the MOH has set a series of expectations, the most important of which is the group’s readiness to “receive an integrated funding envelope and enter into an Ontario Health Team accountability agreement”.[4] The MOH has also indicated that it may become a matchmaker of sorts, by asking groups to collaborate with additional providers and resubmit a joint SAF.
So, if you are one of the 31 groups that has been selected for Full Application, then well done! Less than 1 in 5 of the groups submitting SAFs made it to this stage. And if you are currently one of the 43 “In Development”, you are still in good company. For those that are now “In Discovery” – roughly 70 or more of you – or if you were not part of the Self-Assessment process at all, then you will likely have somewhat different decisions to make.
Going forward, it will be important to keep the momentum going, make decisions, and plan carefully. In Figure 2 below, we have sketched the paths available to prospective OHT groups. While organizations – even those invited with their partners to the Full Application process – can always pause or stop their participation, the general assumption here is that organizations will move forward. Partnerships can change too. In the meantime, we have sketched the pathways in terms of participation in the SAF process and the outcome of the MOH’s validation process.
Figure 2: Pathways for Organizations Considering Ontario Health Team Designation
The next step for organizations in this group is pretty straightforward: develop and submit the Full Application by October 9th, 2019. With summer vacations and an inevitably busy September, this doesn’t leave much time. We think you may need to:
1. Reconfirm Commitment in the Group: The SAF process happened quickly – your organization may have gone from first learning about OHTs to making commitments about them in a matter of weeks. Your Board or others’ might even view this early success with some trepidation. So, now that you are taking a step closer to OHT designation status, you will likely want to reconfirm the level of commitment among the organizations in the group.
Putting together an OHT can be challenging, and you don’t want partners getting cold feet in early October, so there are some questions to consider: Is the level of trust great enough to overcome the challenges ahead, or is a more formal arrangement needed? Do you have a good track record of working together, or was the SAF process a bit of trial by fire? In short, is the commitment there in the group to proceed?
2. Build Out Decision-Making Processes Further: With more time to prepare for the Full Application than the SAF, and commitments to the MOH escalating, Boards may demand more involvement and clarity in decision making. Reaching consensus or agreeing on how decisions will be made can be challenging, but challenges not dealt with now will only surface or cause strained relationships and halt progress later. Ask yourself, for the Full Application and the longer term, how will decisions get made quickly and effectively? You will likely need to set up some of these processes, or at the very least agree on working understandings quickly.
3. Design How You Will Design Year 1 Programs, With the Patient at the Centre: No, that’s not a typo. You will need to design what your Year 1 programs will look like, but you’ll also need to design how you will design them. You’ll need to think about how you can improve care for your population of choice, and what is in and out of scope for Year 1. But after that, use design sprints and an iterative program and function design (e.g., intake and referral, care delivery, hand-offs) to tackle the biggest challenges, and create solutions that transform care. This will help you identify patients, gauge impact, and hit the ground running when you scale up. And patients need to be kept at the centre and involved in the design – how will they play a part in the experimentation that happens?
4. Divide and Conquer on Other Areas: This group will also encounter the thorny questions first: governance, funding allocation from a common envelope, contract and volume management, and how to best use or combine available back office functions. You will likely need separate work streams working in parallel with the Year 1 programs work to move this all forward. Treat it like a project, with appropriate project management support, to keep it on track. Additionally, there may be work internal to your organization required to meet OHT requirements – such as addressing any pressing financial or operating challenges that limit your ability to invest resources in redesigning care.
5. Develop the Full Application: A robust application will take work, as it will be much longer than the SAF; while many aspects build on the SAF, others require significant system redesign efforts. Some of the elements that may require a bit more work than others include creating detailed plans for:
For these aspects and others, the MOH is looking for specifics and evidence that what you propose locally will be effective and perhaps scalable to the rest of the province.
This group, as the MOH puts it, has “a bit more work” to do before the Full Application. This may mean a few tweaks or may be more involved. In any event, we think the next steps for this group are:
1. Listen and Reflect: It’s important to understand where your group needs to improve. Once you have feedback from the MOH on your SAF submission, take time to reflect honestly:
2. Develop your Relationships: The self-assessment process helped organizations build stronger relationships with other providers in their communities and consider new working relationships. In our work, we continually see how good relationships facilitate more collaborative care planning. Yet we are often surprised to see health service providers in the same area that have never met before. The MOH may want the group to expand (as the OHT Guidance Document says: “Note: Where appropriate, groups may be asked to collaborate with additional providers to re-submit a joint Self-Assessment.”). Your group may need to work with other organizations beyond those initially envisioned.
3. Address Readiness Gaps: Core to the work required to move from In Development to Full Application is achieving the level of readiness required to proceed to Full Application. Leverage what you heard while listening and reflecting, and prioritize the most important gaps to be addressed. This may include identifying new partners to broaden the care continuum represented by partners, engaging your community and patients/clients to assist with co-design efforts, increasing your understanding of Year 1 target patient/client populations, improving organizational finances and operations, and/or creating digital health capabilities.
A new category emerged from the SAF process when the MOH indicated that several groups had presented innovative models that would be considered. These models went beyond some of the original concepts around OHTs, and include support models that are provincial or cover broader regions than typical OHT geographies. The MOH will be working directly with these groups to further explore their potential role in an OHT-based health system. Organizations focused on providing care for special populations or providing specialized services with broader catchment areas will have more flexible options. While not necessarily needing to join an OHT, they will need to relate and work well within an OHT-based health system.
The next steps for these groups is less formally defined, but we would suggest:
1. Define/Refine Your Vision and Scope: Ensure the vision for the innovative model is clear, and that participating parties agree with what the model seeks to achieve. Similarly, refine the proposed innovative model scope to an approach compatible with service delivery across multiple OHT geographies and the proposed role of Ontario Health.
2. Segment Design Efforts by Function: As you begin designing the model, identify the enabling functions required beyond direct service delivery. Should the model have centralized intake and referral? Does it require care coordination/navigation? How will information be shared between model partners and with OHTs delivering less specialized care to the same patients/clients? Once all required functions have been determined, identify design dependencies – does Function A need to be designed before Function B? Consider grouping similar functions (or functions that require similar skills to design) together into work streams.
3. Design Your Model in Sprints: Take an iterative approach to design that allows several work streams to proceed concurrently. This involves prototyping initial functional designs, testing the design, then refining and iterating repeatedly until the base functions and associated services, roles and responsibilities have been defined.
As Figure 2 suggests, the options for organizations in this group can go in a number of different directions. As we suggest for groups In Development, take time to listen, reflect, and develop relationships. With one exception, the options for a group that is In Discovery and for organizations that did not participate in the first round of SAF submissions are the same. We’ve outlined some pros, cons and next steps for the options below.
Table 1: Options for Groups In Discovery or Organizations that Did Not Participate in First Round
Option | Pros | Cons | Next Steps |
---|---|---|---|
Work Towards Invitation to Full Application (assumes a SAF was submitted) | • Ability to control OHT design and priority initiatives and target populations | • Significant work is likely needed to move from In Discovery to Full Application invitation | • Identify gaps and model components to be addressed or strengthened • Consider reaching out to the MOH for feedback • Ask OHTs proceeding to Full Application to share SAF to learn from their proposed approaches |
Join a Group In Development or Developing Full Application | • Requires fewer resources than forging ahead with present group | • Less control and influence in the way the OHT is designed | • Identify the proposed OHTs who you share the most patients/clients with and discuss the opportunity and timing for joining |
No previous submission: Submit 2nd Round SAF (December 4, 2019) | • Greater control over how your organization partners with others to become a potential OHT | • With over 150 SAFs submitted to date, finding partners not already participating in an OHT in your geographical location may be difficult | • Identify potential OHT partners and begin SAF process early to allow time to develop relationships and design a thoughtful OHT approach |
Await MOH Matchmaking Process | • Opportunity to wait, watch, and learn from others going through the process • Effort not required at this stage | • Likely less control over the organization’s destiny and role later on | • N/A |
So far, however, the process is pushing local health service providers to talk more, plan with other providers that aren’t the “usual suspects”, and think big about ways to improve care. That’s some progress towards integration and innovation. In the meantime, the road ahead may be a bit bumpy.Given that OHTs are new and appear to have a lot of freedom to chart their direction, they require a leap of faith. Change is coming quickly, many elements of the big picture and the details still need to be worked out, and there isn’t a lot of time to prepare.
Optimus SBR is an implementation-focused firm that specializes in turning policy into action. Our team has significant experience working with major health care stakeholders, including the MOH, hospitals, LHINs, home and community care, and community health service providers. We partner to create new models of care, facilitate decision making, assist with implementation and integration efforts, and develop proposals for government approval. With our real world health care integration experience, we help organizations get done what isn’t.
We have a wide range of service offerings and can support your OHT development in a number of ways, including:
If you found this helpful, give us a call, or send us a note.
Brad Ferguson, SVP, Industries and Government Practice
Brad.Ferguson@optimusssbr.com
416.649.9184
David Lynch, Principal
David.Lynch@optimussbr.com
Jason Huehn, Senior Manager
Jason.Huehn@optimussbr.com
Nathan Duyck, Manager
Nathan.Duyck@optimussbr.com
[1] Premier’s Council on Improving Healthcare and Ending Hallway Medicine (2019). A Healthy Ontario: Building a Sustainable Health Care System. Toronto: Queen’s Printer. [online: web] URL: https://files.ontario.ca/moh-healthy-ontario-building-sustainable-health-care-en-2019-06-25.pdf.
[2] Ministry of Health (2019). Ontario Health Teams: Guidance for Health Care Providers and Organizations. Toronto: Queen’s Printer. [online: web] URL: http://health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/connectedcare/oht/docs/guidance_doc_en.pdf, p. 12.
[3] Ministry of Health and Ministry of Long-Term Care (2019). Become an Ontario Health Team. Accessed July 24, 2019. [online: web] URL: http://health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/connectedcare/oht/#readiness.
[4] Ibid., p. 10.
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