Breaking New Ground—Stories from Defence Construction Breaking_new_ground | Page 102

Did You Know? Steve Irwin, then DND’s Director General Infrastructure, was part of a planning session with Ross Nicholls when Ross was informed that he would be appointed President. “ That’s when Ross got the call that he was no longer acting in the position—he was the President. So DND knew before DCC!” communication with clients about the type and level of services provided, resulting in a mutual understanding of the requirements, the measures of satisfaction and the price/value proposition. Ross Nicholls explains the significance of the change: Defence Construction always tried to manage itself like the private sector— we benchmarked our productivity, for example, against the private sector even when our funding came from appropriations. Fee-for-service allowed us the flexibility to tailor our services to suit the requirements of various clients in different locations. It also allowed us to fund the development of services to meet new or developing areas, and to take control of the quality of our services—not just to do what we could with the money that we had, but also to provide the quality and the nature of services that are needed in each case. The change in our business model to fee-for-service changed our whole financial planning context. The change in management approach that went with it set the stage to improve the quality and scope of the service that we provide and it improved our relationship with our clients. It also injected a healthy private sector component to our culture, which is based on government values but now has this healthy entrepreneurial balance. Most important of all, the improved communication and accountability inherent in the model has resulted in sustained client satisfaction and sustained corporate growth—in other words, DCC is fulfilling its mandate more effectively, achieving its mission, and moving towards its vision. 92 BREAKING NEW GROUND DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA