Brooklyn Union strategy: Re-engineering from outside in

Five years ago, the management at Brooklyn Union embarked on a long, hard look at the way the company conducted business. In effect, they stepped into their customers' shoes. Business Process Improvement (BPI) is designed to construct a lasting corporate culture that can help Brooklyn Union meet its stated goal of becoming the premier energy company in the Northeast. A major component of that culture involves a dedication to service and cost management that is as solid as their credit ratings. To date, the bottom line on BPI has been impressive: By 1995, the customer satisfaction rating, which had been hovering in the '80s, had shot up to 95%. The management commitment has come in the form of resources, and a willingness to put its money where its mouth is (rewards for performance). The employee buy-in has shown up in those outstanding ratings from customers and in the financial results. Changing the culture of any long-established entity is never easy, whether it be on the micro-level (a family, for instance) of the macro-level (a country). It involves issues of trust, and a certain leap of faith that the new approach will bring results. Communication and education are two of the keys to gaining that participation. The company was able to impress upon employees the need for change--in particular the need for them to begin thinking like customers. The paper discusses the implementation of this re-engineering strategy