This blog is the first in a series that reveals what our core values mean to our CEO and our employees.
While most companies outline their core values, our seven core values are more than words on a website. They’re principles that guide how we operate and make decisions. They provide a strong, reliable foundation to help us rise to the challenges our clients face and create innovative solutions.
Our core values are:
- Commit to delivery excellence
- Invest in exceptional culture
- Embrace integrity and openness
- Practice responsible stewardship
- Strive to innovate
- Ignite passion for the greater good
- Live a balanced life
We started this blog series by asking our CEO, Larry English, what the core values mean to him. Then, we asked employees three questions about what Those values mean to them. Here’s what Chicago Practice Lead Bill Chamberlain had to say about his commitment to delivery excellence.
“Delivery excellence is not about perfection—it’s about continuous improvement and consistently delivering value.”
What does delivery excellence mean to you?
Great delivery is simply table stakes for our clients. If we don’t deliver upon our commitments, our clients will not achieve the results they desire.
That means we are very client-centric in our approach. We strive to fully understand and meet our client’s needs. This includes comprehending their goals, soliciting and acting upon their feedback, and always striving to exceed their expectations through unmatched experiences. We approach this from several different perspectives:
- Transparency: Be open and upfront about the work we are doing. What are the roadblocks? How do we address them together? In simple terms, we avoid surprising our clients.
- Strong Communication: Aligned with transparency is strong communication. To keep our clients informed of how things are going – good or bad – we stay in front of things and address small issues before they become large ones.
- Solicit Feedback: We continuously strive to improve and strengthen our delivery to clients. Gathering our client’s feedback on how we are doing and how we can get better is critical. It means asking tough questions about where we can do better, and then raising the bar by acting upon their responses.
- Continuous Improvement: We maintain a strong focus on how we can continuously improve and do not rest on our past successes. Our mindset is, “What have we done for you today?” and “How can we do this even better for you and other clients tomorrow?”
- Innovation: This is our differentiator. Bringing the latest trends and technologies to our clients is a clear value add. Lately, a great example has been generative AI. Helping our clients think through how they can leverage this technology to become more efficient and effective is a significant value.
One recent example of our approach to delivery excellence is how we help our clients accelerate their application development efforts. AppDev can take many forms, including AI-based code reviews, automating requirement generation, and using AI development tools to help with coding techniques.
Delivery excellence is about relentlessly pursuing great solutions for our clients. It isn’t about perfection— it’s about continuous improvement and consistently delivering value.
How do you commit to delivery excellence in your work?
In my day-to-day work, I am a big believer in accountability, consistency in my approach, and transparency to our clients and my colleagues. I want my colleagues and our clients to experience the same high level of satisfaction, and I believe that “doing what I say I am going to do” is a key component.
Let me illustrate with an example from my delivery days. We were implementing a global social collaboration platform for 5,000 employees. Faced with a complex technical challenge, our client team was at a loss. When their internal IT organization shrugged off the issue, I took it upon myself to find a solution.
Collaborating with Centric’s internal experts, we overcame the obstacle and ensured a smooth deployment. Our client was thrilled that we had gone above and beyond, even though it technically wasn’t my responsibility as a program manager to solve this technical problem.
Another broad example is how we work with clients to tailor solutions to meet their exact needs. When creating proposals, we will have deep and detailed discussions to ensure we fully understand the problem our client needs to solve. We are highly collaborative when we scope out our approach to solving the problem, what the timeline will be, and what our client will receive at the end of the project. In simple terms, we craft the approach and solution with our client so everyone is fully aligned with what the end solution will be. Our approach ties together many of the points mentioned, above including transparency, innovation, and strong communication so we can agree on expectations.
Again, delivery excellence isn’t necessarily perfection, but it’s about relentlessly pursuing solutions that will meet our clients’ needs.
How do you commit to delivery excellence in your personal life?
On reflection, I realize that I apply the same principles both at work and beyond. These principles include keeping my promises, setting clear expectations, and maintaining consistency.
Let me share a lighthearted example that my friends may find amusing. We have shared Chicago Cubs season tickets with a group of friends for about 35 years. I manage our season tickets using an Excel spreadsheet.
Over time, I’ve developed a robust workbook that handles our ticket selection process across the various pricing tiers and calculates what everyone owes. While the workbook streamlines our process, I always scrutinize it to ensure that all the changes for the new year are accurately reflected. If I slip up, I can guarantee my friends won’t hesitate to let me know. I always try and do an extra level of review to avoid this lighthearted harassment.
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