“We’re a business in a federal environment,” said Sandra Weisman, NBC’s chief financial officer and associate director for budget and finance. “We don’t get any appropriations,” she said, alluding to fact that NBC can only pay its people if it makes money. “There is a tremendous accountability there,” she said.

With over 1,200 employees and an annual budget approaching $300 million, NBC is one of four payroll services a

"We’re a business in a federal environment. ... We don’t get any appropriations. There is a tremendous accountability in that.: Sandra Weisman, pictured with Ed Crump, both of NBC

nd one of five human-resources providers for federal agencies. NASA, the Transportation Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are among NBC’s more than 125 customers. NBC’s multitudinous other services include IT, acquisitions, asset management and drug testing. Finding success in a competitive business environment is no mean feat. “We’ve won some, we’ve lost some,” NBC director Doug Bourgeois said, referring to financial-management competitions.

One-stop shopping is NBC’s primary competitive edge. “Our strength lies in our ability to provide a full set of outsourced business management services to our customers,” Bourgeois said.

NBC uses a best-of-breed combination of private-sector and federal employees to achieve its aims. It endeavors to “focus feds on the things that feds do best and to use the private sector for the other things that they do better,” Weisman said.

NBC competes with other service centers in the federal league, but is also starting to go head-to-head with the private sector.

None of these competitions has been completed yet, Bourgeois said, but the prospect of going up against an IBM Corp. or an Accenture Ltd. has occasioned more than one pep talk at NBC.

“There’s a concern ... that [private-sector companies] have advantages that we don’t and that they’ll beat us every time as a result,” he said.

How do NBC’s leaders try to break through a mentality that the center would automatically lose against private-sector competitors?

“I just simply point out, look, we have strengths, they have strengths, and all we need to do is to leverage our competitive advantage to meet the needs of our customers in the most economical and effective way,” Bourgeois said. “If we demonstrate [NBC’s value] through the competitive process, we’ll either win or we’ll be, at minimum, in the hunt, and that’s where we are.”

According to Weisman, Bourgeois’ message is getting through: “He’s communicated what we’re up against to employees and encouraged people to think outside of the box.”

An engineer by training with an M.B.A. in finance from Tulane University, Bourgeois previously directed the development of award-winning information systems at the Patent and Trademark Office.

Prior to that, he oversaw customer-service technology at FedEx—the experience that formed the heart of his business management philosophy.

“Take care of your people first and they’ll be able to provide the high level and quality services that customers demand,” he said. “One of the major roles of a leader is to identify people’s strengths and give them the opportunity to do the job that is well-suited for those strengths.”

“Imagine a global company with millions of packages going through the system at any point in time. [FedEx officials] were able to boil down their performance from yesterday to one number, the Quality Service Index,” Bourgeois said.

It’s “extremely powerful” to have an easy-to-understand measure of quality, because it provides a reference point for continuous improvement, he said. Bourgeois likewise emphasizes performance measurements at NBC, where no service-level agreement is complete without metrics. Lots of metrics, starting with 17 for payroll processing, including on-time pay, accuracy, complaint response time and other key measures.

Bourgeois also brings out the yardage marker to measure employee job performance. “We’ve got 20 to 30 metrics that we’re all trying to measure ourselves against,” Weisman said.

NBC officials are pursuing an International Standards Organization 9000 quality-management certification, the only federal organization to make the attempt, as far as Bourgeois is aware. ISO 9000 is a set of international performance standards embodying customer focus and continual improvement.

“FedEx was the first service company to achieve an ISO registration,” Bourgeois said. “When they did that, it changed the whole mindset of the company to be dealing with quality as one of the top-of-mind concerns across the board.” Things are on track for the ISO external certification audit slated for fiscal 2008, he said.

Talent Scouting. Beyond commitment to quality and customer focus, Bourgeois’ game plan relies on a number of specific management techniques.

In filling senior leadership slots, for example, he first re-examines the position to make sure it’s still aligned with the strategic plan. If not, “we tweak the position and its responsibilities,” he said. Then he identifies the five or six most critical competencies needed for success, drawing on a list in the book First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

He wants as many qualified candidates as possible, so he calls five to 15 people he knows and encourages them to apply, advising them it’s a competitive process. “The first thing I look at in the interview process is values,” he said. He wants teammates who live the values of customer service and employee development.

“As people grow in their leadership experience,” he said, “they generally will get to a point where they understand that the way to be successful in a large organization is to help the people around you be successful through their continued growth and development [and not] worry so much about yourself.”

To ferret out those who only talk a good game, “I do experiential-based interviewing only,” he said. “Every question starts with ‘Please use an example from your past to illustrate a time when ... .’ ” Some people can’t answer such questions, he said, which is surprising given how long the technique has been around.

NBC is fairly distinctive, he said, because it consciously grooms successors for top slots. Succession management begins with identifying skill deficits in those deemed suitable for top leadership. Deficits are usually remedied through growth experiences and new assignments, but lateral movement to a new position occurred in one case, he said.

Another technique has to do with Bourgeois’ attitude toward dissent. He huddles with his senior team to hash out vision and strategy and secure commitment. But he makes a clear distinction between debate and what’s expected afterwards. “When you make that decision, I don’t want dissent at that point,” Bourgeois said. “We’ve already battled it out. Now it’s time to move on and get it done. And that’s when my attitude toward dissent changes.” He reminds those who later voice misgivings that the matter was debated and the decision, while perhaps not perfect, is final. Bourgeois instituted a cross-functional project management unit to answer what he calls the “silo challenge.”

“As the organization grew up organically throughout the years, the separate functions were not integrated,” he said. “We’re really a holding company of eight different businesses. How do you get everyone going in the same direction?”

NBC’s Solutions Coordination Office fulfills that function, coordinating among the customer, IT and other relevant units at NBC, Interior, and outside vendors. The SCO plans out the project milestones and determines the resources required to do the job.

SCO managing director Ed Crump then makes sure that project managers track to the plan. Managers report on milestones achieved and any issues that arise. When there’s a flag on the play—like getting behind schedule or staffing needs to be realigned—the SCO executive team meets weekly. There are even what Crump calls “standing meetings,” where team members come to his office for brief group meetings on a daily basis.

“Literally, it’s meant to be standing, like you don’t sit down,” Crump said. “It’s quick, but it’s a checkpoint for everybody.”

Running a business entity in government brings a measure of uncertainty.

Competitive sourcing, which provides opportunities for NBC to compete for agency contracts, was at the top of the President’s Management Agenda in 2001 but has since run into opposition from unions and lawmakers on Capitol Hill who want to trim the iniative back.

Also, NBC officials are seeking legislative changes to allow it to retain earnings for internal investment in order to better compete with government franchise funds and the private sector.

Adding to the uncertainty is the unknown extent to which the push for competitive sourcing will survive the Bush presidency.

Bourgeois describes his approach to these uncertainties as lying somewhere between planning for alternate futures and playing it by ear. Referring to his senior managers, he said, “We look at these areas that we consider high risks and we say ‘What’s in our control, what can we do?’ If we can shore up a part of the organization or a practice in order to better prepare ourselves to deal with whatever direction it ends up going, we do that.”

He will field questions from line employees about unsettled issues, but wants them to remain focused on milestones in the strategic plan.

“Our job as leaders is to keep folks focused on that which is within our control,” he said. “We need to keep that stuff away from the team because uncertainty and doubt do not lead to progress and success.”

Bourgeois sums up NBC’s approach to business this way:

“Think big, start small, then scale. Know where you’re going, develop achievable wins, have a rhythm of success and you will achieve your big-picture objectives.”