PMA 2014 Conference – Overview Day 1, 25th of June

Written by Denisa Călin on June 29, 2014. Posted in News, Organisational performance

June 25^th was the first day of the 8^th edition of the Performance Management Association Conference, held at the Aarhus University, Denmark. The day was especially dedicated to performance excellence, and included several key presentations which concluded with a panel discussion, being followed by parallel sessions. The day finished off with a gala dinner, accompanied by a keynote presentation.The introductory, welcome sessions were hosted by Børge Obel, ICOA’s Centre Director, Professors Rick Edgeman and Jacob Eskildsen, from Aarhus University.

The conference started with a first keynote presentation, delivered by Director Emeritus Harry Hertz, of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. His presentation, “The challenge of being outstanding: a look back and ahead after 25 years of guiding Performance excellence in the U.S.”, approached themes like performance excellence and the Baldridge awards’ mission to improve competitiveness and performance in U.S organizations.

The following presentation was delivered by Dr. Charles Aubrey, the Vice President Emeritus of Performance Excellence – AndersonBrecon, USA. Titled “From Belts to Baldridge – a Case Study”, the presentation demonstrated Anderson Packagin’s journey in achieving organizational excellence, with reference to the Baldridge Awards.

“Relevance and responsibility: obligatory Components in Commercial Innovation” was the title of the 3^rd presentation of the day, given by Dr. Gregory Watson, Chairman at Business Excellence Solutions, Ltd., Finland. The topic addressed was innovation, with an overview of the schools of thought that have influenced the performance management domain.

The following presentation was “Impacts of Unified Communications on Work” and was delivered by Dr. Joseph Williams of the Seattle Pacific University, United States. The presentation brought insights on unified communications from Microsoft.

Professor Andy Neely, Director of Cambridge Service Alliance, Cambridge University, presented “Strategic Performance management: Past, Present and Potential”, where he raised awareness to the importance of keeping performance management simple in today’s turbulent times.

The next presentation, “The end of Performance management (as we know it) – why more self-regulation is needed and how Beyond Budgeting can help”, was delivered by Bjarte Bogsnes, Vice President Performance Management Development, Statoil, Norway. It outlined the fact that performance management is limited nowadays and needs change.

What followed was a panel discussion, where reflections of the day, up until this point, were shared by the key speakers, namely: Harry Hertz, Gregory Watson, Mark Finster, Joseph Williams, Charles Aubrey, and Bjarte Bogsnes.

After the panel discussion, the presentations shifted to parallel sessions, in 3 simultaneous tracks.

Track 1 was comprised of the following presentations:

• “Performance measurement effects on organizational responses to threats”, by Professor George Huber, of the University of Texas, USA;
• “Growth and Impact of Performance Engineering in the U.S. Government” by Dr. David Paschane, Organizational Architect with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and an Associate Research Professor with UMBC;
• “New Organisation Forms and Reorganisation in a Modern World” by Professor Børge Obel, head of the Interdisciplinary Center for Organizational Architecture at Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University;

Track 2 brought on the following presentations:

• “Accelerating a Company’s Sustainability Performance through a Safety, Health and Environmental Culture” by Cathy Hansell, President of Breakthrough Results;
• “Designing High Performance Corporate Culture” by Grant Regan, CEO at QABE Developments, Canada;
• “Measuring Organisational Strength”, delivered by Mr. Patrick Hoverstadt, of Fractal Consulting, UK;

Track 3 brought on a workshop, delivered by Christina Nüssler (Area Director and Cand.merc. in Strategy & Leadership at the Danish CfL Centre for Leadership) and Maj Schøler Fausing (Management advisor and Ph.D., Business Psychology, at the Danish CfL Centre for Leadership). The workshop, called ‘Building Blocks of High Performing Leadership’.

The day concluded with a gala and executive diner, at the art restaurant, situated in the famous ARoS art museum. The dinner brought on a special presentation delivered by Alex Atzberger, Chief of Staff at SAP AG. This last keynote presentation, dubbed “Organizational Performance in Turbulent environments: How Technology is Shaping the Future of Business and reshaping real-Time organizational Performance” summed up the discussion topics for the first day.

Tags: Performance Management, PMA 2014 Conference