Heinz has received the Oliver Wight Class A Milestone Award for its Integrated Business Management programme; the programme has delivered performance metrics of up to 99 percent across the entire northern and eastern European operation.

What began as a localised programme to improve the predictability of its European operation, quickly became Heinz's global strategy for business improvement - the Heinz Business Management (HBM) programme - and with the help of specialist consultants Oliver Wight, Heinz has achieved world class performance for its northern and eastern European operation inside 15 months. Some benefits came almost as the programme began - establishing 'one set of numbers' allowed Heinz to identify a gap in its forecast revenues and the resultant sales and marketing campaign delivered a return of five percent direct to the bottom line.

The northern and eastern European is the first Heinz region to receive a Class A Milestone Award (for 'Capable Integrated Business Management') but HBM business leader, Gerard de Bruijn, says the benefits are widespread throughout the organisation: "Even though the Oliver Wight programme began as a local project, it has now become the established way of working for the entire company."

The Oliver Wight programme extends the principles of Sales and Operations Planning throughout the Heinz organisation - new product development, financial, forecasting and strategic alignment. Heinz now has a 24-month horizon for its new product development (NPD) strategy with between 20 and 30 high-end NPDS in progress every year - products are introduced according to a structured launch programme with robust financial projections, and rigorous consumer and retailer testing. Meanwhile, its business review process ensures that individual objectives and activities are linked right through to the corporate strategic plan, with slick monthly reviews carried out at all levels of the organisation allowing the company to respond quickly and effectively to change.

The original objective of predictability in the European business has also been achieved, with improved customer service, and enhanced consumer and business relations as a result - customer service now averages 99 percent with supply and financial accuracy showing just two percent volatility and demand accuracy just five percent.

'Class A' is Oliver Wight's industry-recognised standard for business excellence, only awarded to those companies able to sustain performance metrics of at least 95 percent. Receiving the Award from Oliver Wight EAME president Andrew Purton, de Bruijn said teamwork and inspirational leadership have been fundamental to the success of the programme: "Heinz management gave the HBM team carte blanche. The biggest challenge was to keep people on board and it involved a lot of communication to the whole company; I had a fantastic group of people to work with and that was vital - this award is recognition of their continued hard work."

As other Heinz regions achieve Class A Milestone Awards for their integrated business management programmes, de Bruijn is leading his region to Class A performance for advanced strategic planning, which he expects to achieve early in the New Year.