What do you mean by not having a global agenda?

No, we didn't have a global strategy that included tactics and specific strategies for everyone, like operations focusing on BD, until 2014. That was the first time. When I came in, it was the first time they had done that. It took a few years to bridge the cultural differences and shift from a regional mindset to a global team perspective. By 2018, the focus was on management direction. We wanted to sit in a room and look at the same thing, rather than being in a board meeting arguing about what a KPI means or not understanding how to compare regions like mainland Europe with North America. Everyone was providing different KPIs, and while one region was loss-making, another was generating most of our revenue. This sparked an interest in digging deeper to understand what was happening in each region. That was the idea.

How does this happen?

This often happens because business developers are selling overly optimistic pictures of contracts. At that time, Patrick Kelleher was involved. Business developers were focused on sales, with their KPIs and bonuses tied to bringing in contracts. This led us to revise the reward and recognition for business development and the process of developing new business. Previously, business developers would sign off once the contract was signed. Now, they are part of the team building the solution and continue until we receive more sign-offs on the business case analysis (BCA). The BCA now has a more rigid review process that includes both business development and operations, preventing sales from selling and operations scrambling to make it happen, which was causing us to lose money.