Towards Performance Excellence

Jacques Kemp: “Towards Performance Excellence”

Jacques Kemp became CEO of ING Insurance Asia/Pacific in 2003, which placed him in charge of 20 companies in 12 different countries. Leading these companies was difficult because each business unit used different strategies, methodologies, and even different terminologies within their individual business unit. Kemp’s vision was to unify and standardize ING Insurance Asia/Pacific. This would not be an easy task since each business unit managed themselves with their approaches.

The major issue that Kemp identified was the “management of management.” Kemp recognized that a lot of energy and efficiency were being wasted, and a lot of potential synergies were simply not realized because the individual business unit manager and the regional office could not understand each other well (Schotter pg. 2). ING Asia/Pacific dealt with many different business units that each had their own standards for diversity, performance metrics, customer centricity, procurement, living the brand, IT security, shared services, cost reduction plans, pension plans, and compliance. Kemp needed to invent a way to have each business unit work towards the same goals and have the same set of standards.

In order to unify the business units Kemp created his own management philosophy and concept called “Towards Performance Excellence.” TPE detailed and organized everything ING Asia/Pacific needed to execute its strategy effectively (Schotter pg 3). Kemp stated that, “TPE is a total process, which organizes (from a high to a detailed level) all the things that a company needs to get done while executing its strategy in an aligned and effective way.” Towards Performance Excellence divided ING’s business process into six core categories: portfolio, marketing, organizational, operational, reputation, and financial. By dividing this management concept into six categories, this allowed for managers of each business unit to implement this process...