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View from the Top -
Part 2 | Part
1
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COMPANY FILE
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Southern provides train services
in south London and between central London and the south
coast, through East and West Sussex and Surrey, and
parts of Kent and Hampshire. Last year it carried 120
million passengers.
When Southern took over its current
franchise from Connex in 2001, it inherited an under-performing
business. Over the past six years, Southern has made
the transition into a more efficient and well-regarded
railway. In the last two Passenger Focus National Passenger
surveys, it achieved an overall satisfaction score of
82.5% against a regional average of 78.5% and a national
average of 80%.
Southern’s main business driver is
to ‘think like a passenger’. All employees are encouraged
to put themselves in the customers’ shoes and think
about how their actions affect the service customers
receive.
In practical terms, Southern has
invested in new rolling stock, station improvements
and depot modernisation. It has spent over £900 million
on new Electrostar and Turbostar trains, and has just
completed a £115 million modernisation programme at
maintenance depots across its network. Its 3,500 staff
manage 160 stations and operate and maintain a fleet
of 300 new and refurbished trains.
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Q: HOW HAS THE NEW SYSTEM FITTED IN WITH YOUR CORPORATE
OBJECTIVES?
A: Our corporate vision is ‘think like a passenger’ and
this is supported by five clear business objectives which
cover providing a safe and secure service; train performance;
customer satisfaction; employee development; and to make a
fair profit.
It is very important to us not only to have a series of KPIs
and performance criteria but that they all fit within and
contribute to these objectives. We now have a clear vision
and objectives for the business, and the KPIs and balanced
scorecard show how well we are performing against these objectives.
We have one main corporate balanced scorecard and managers
have the capability for sub-analysis so they can drill down
to see more detail. For instance you can view train performance
during the last period, look at trends over time, drill down
further for the performance by route or see how peak performance
compares against off-peak performance.
The danger was that we did not want to change all our managers
into business analysts. We want them to use it as an information
tool so they can understand the business better and make more
informed decisions.
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Conspectus 2008
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Copyright © 2008
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