Private performance improvements

Bottom-line performance improvement is the key to value creation for a private equity investor. Even before doing due diligence for a potential acquisition, private equity practitioners establish hypotheses on how to create value. They will usually focus on three factors organic growth potential, portfolio streamlining/add-on acquisitions, and cost improvement. 

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) is a private, voluntary, not-for-profit organization that serves as a gatekeeper for health care quality and safety. Currently, more than 19,000 health care organizations in the United States and many other countries are JCAHO accredited. Since its earliest inceptions almost 50 years ago, JCAHO has striven to establish health care standards and performance measures. The mission of JCAHO is to continuously improve the safety and quality of care provided to the public through the provision of health care accreditation and related services that support performance improvement in health care organizations. 

The DOE states that horizontal well installation costs have steadily decreased in recent years due to technical improvements and increased experience of drilling companies (D168585, p. 10). Most horizontal wells are installed at private industry sites, so performance information and cost data are not commonly available (D22909O, p. 2). 

Regarding laboratory certification for private laboratories, the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) state the conditions that all laboratories must meet to be certified to perform testing on human specimens under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (57 FR 7139, Feb. 28,1992). The requirements do not apply to any... 

What is ISO 14001 Among other things, it is a framework for managing the environmental aspects of your business. It is a voluntary consensus, private-sector standard that can be used by any company, any size, anywhere in the world. ISO 14001 is not required it is strictly voluntary. It does not establish performance standards or require you to reach zero pollution in your operation. But it does require a company to commit to continuous improvement of its EMS. 

Professional feedback comes in many forms a performance evaluation, comments after work performed, or peer reviews. This type of feedback is positive in that it can highlight your strengths and identify areas that need improvement. You learn and grow from professional feedback, assuming you can assimilate the information without being defensive. The information given is nonemotional it is a simple statement of what the reviewer sees in your abilities. Professional feedback is given in private to prevent embarrassment of the subject. One last aspect of professional feedback is that it relates only to your work-related activities. 

On the opposite end of the feedback spectrum is a personal attack. A personal attack is negative and destructive. The only positives that may be gained from this type of feedback are to know the attacker s stance and improve your conflict management skills by diffusing the situation. The information given in a personal attack is based on emotion, personality, and communication style rather than any performance-related issue. There may or may not be facts present in the attack, which may be perpetrated in public or in private. 

Meyer, Stephanie is a Principal of Stratos, a Canadian-based sustainability consultancy. She works with a wide range of private and public sector clients to improve their sustainability performance through enhanced performance measurement, management and reporting practices. She was project head for Stratos s 2001 and 2003 benchmark surveys of corporate sustainabiity reporting in Canada Stepping Forward and Beyond Confidence. 

The World Development Report 2004 reviews traditional approaches to public service delivery and discusses how they have often failed the poor. Whether in health, education, or infrastructure, supply-side subsidy strategies to fund inputs—such as staff costs, equipment, and buildings used in delivery—have not improved the access to quality services among the poor. An important question remains for developing countries and the international development community on how to deliver and target public subsidies in ways that promote efficiency and innovation, increase accountability for performance, and leverage public resources with private participation and financing. 

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