A Blueprint for Success

“We quickly realized that the acquisition and retention of top talent would play a critical role in our ability to execute on the Blueprint for Growth,” says Lynn Jones, Leader, Talent Acquisition and Development, who has been a member of the D&B team for 16 years. “As a result, we have focused our training and development on leveraging best practices that are application-oriented, that are relevant to our markets and that incorporate a coaching model to drive sustainable performance. We have, for instance, a 12-week new hire immersion program for our sales team members that is truly comprehensive.”

The Blueprint for Growth is the roadmap for how D&B will achieve its publicly-stated aspiration of being the most trusted source of commercial insight so its customers can “decide with confidence.” The blueprint consists of four focus areas: The Brand, a Financially Flexible Business Model, a Winning Culture and D&B's proprietary DUNSRight quality process. These are considered powerful competitive advantages to drive revenue and grow the business.

In 2006, D&B signed a long term lease for a new building in Stabler Corporate Park , which is about 75 miles from its headquarters in Short Hills, NJ. “There was consideration to move the Lehigh Valley offices elsewhere, but the commitment to the Lehigh Valley was strong and the economic incentives for staying were important to the decision,” says Jones. “The Lehigh Valley office is our largest location with 700+ employees, and it serves as a major training facility, all made possible, in part, by the Governor's Action Team. We are lucky to have Northampton Community College as a training partner since their resources such as the Learning Connection coursework support our need to instill leadership behaviors for long-term success.”

A Grant to Keep High-Quality Jobs in PA

D&B has been able to expand its training and development capabilities with the Pennsylvania Customized Job Training Grant (CJT) through a process of re-engineering that eliminates duplicative processes, simplifies organizational design and reduces the complexity of the organization. “The skills and abilities of our Pennsylvania workforce are more directly applicable to specific results,” explains Jones. The $1 million grant, administered by Northampton's CJT program run by Michele Pappalardo , director, Business Training Resources and acting director, CBI [spell out?], supports the company's Blueprint for Growth in Pennsylvania. “We are using the grant to help implement strategic programs in support of our Winning Culture,” says Jeffrey S. Titchenal, a senior learning consultant. “There are four significant areas where we seek to demonstrate key leadership behaviors important to our growth.” They are:

•  Driving the future of the business;
•  Establishing superior relationships;
•  Demonstrating a passion to win;
•  Creating a high-performing team.

A Winning Culture

“Winning Culture is a critical component of the company's Blueprint for Growth strategy and is about transforming D&B into a culture focused on winning in the marketplace,” says Titchenal. “We measure that success through surveys, financial results, increased talent retention and feedback on performance appraisals. Winning Culture focuses on creating a team of great leaders.  We emphasize leadership improvement for one reason:  we believe that superb leadership leads to superb execution which leads to superb results for our shareholders.” 

The foundation of our Winning Culture is D&B's Leadership Model, the tool that defines the culture and focuses on creating a team of great leaders.  It helps create a culture of great leadership as the expected norm and instills that culture across D&B.  “People are our company's most critical asset; having great team members who are leaders of our Values, Principles, and Strategy at all levels in the company are key to our success,” says Titchenal.

“We are investing in reengineering our business processes, expanding our customer service capabilities through our Voice of the Customer training and increasing the knowledge of our associates to understand and use our products better to enhance the customer experience,” says Jones. “The CJT grant allows us to invest in our associates, the key to our long term success.”

“The exciting aspect of the grant is that it goes beyond a traditional training focus on sales,” says Jones. “There are many cross-functionalities in areas such as finance, fulfillment, technology, human resources and R&D. The Center Valley location is a representative cross-section of the entire organization.”

About D&B

D&B (NYSE:DNB) is the world's leading source of commercial information and insight, enabling companies to Decide with Confidence ® for 165 years.  D&B's global commercial database contains more than 110 million business records.  The database is enhanced by D&B's proprietary DUNSRight ® Quality Process, which transforms the enormous amount of data D&B collects daily into decision-ready insight.  Through the D&B Worldwide Network – an unrivaled alliance of D&B and leading business information providers around the world – customers gain access to the world's largest and highest quality global commercial business information database. 

D&B partners with many of the world's largest and most successful enterprises as well as mid-size companies and entrepreneurial start-ups.  Customers use D&B Risk Management Solutions TM to mitigate credit risk, increase cash flow and drive increased profitability; D&B Sales & Marketing Solutions TM to increase revenue from new and existing customers; D&B E-Business Solutions TM to convert prospects into clients faster by enabling business professionals to research companies, executives and industries; and D&B Supply Management Solutions TM to generate ongoing savings through supplier consolidation, and to protect their businesses from supply chain disruption and serious financial, operational and regulatory risk.  For more information, please visit www.dnb.com .

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