PORT OF SEATTLE

MEMORANDUM

COMMISSION AGENDA –STAFF BRIEFING

Item No.

Date of Meeting

May 3, 2011

DATE: April 26, 2011

TO: Tay Yoshitani, Chief Executive Officer

FROM: Kurt Beckett, Chief of Staff

SUBJECT: Port-wide Performance Metrics Initiative Briefing

BACKGROUND:

 Metrics are a proven way to manage and improve performance. “You can’t manage what

you can’t measure,” as the old adage says. Managing and measuring performance has

never been as important as it is today.

 The hard news is that a tough global economy and competition to our core lines of

business can take jobs away from us in the coming years. The good news is that our port

and our region have true strengths that enable us to meet this challenge and even increase

jobs. To succeed with our business strategies, we must be clear about what is most

important and what is effective. By focusing on actions that make our divisions and

customers successful, the port will maintain competitive business lines, provide

consistent jobs and economic benefit to the community and improve stability for port

employees in future years.

 The port has managed and measured organizational performance in a variety of ways

over the years. More recently, in 2008 and 2009, CEO Yoshitani called for a more

visible and robust performance management process, and metrics to help track progress

towards our objectives.

 In a related action, the 2009 budget included a zero-based budgeting process that asked

divisions and departments to identify and justify each major function, define costs and

benefits, and identify metrics, if available, that could be used to measure the success or

impact of the function. In addition, through ongoing quarterly performance reports,

divisions and departments identify and track key performance indicators (KPI’s).

 This port-wide initiative builds on these earlier efforts and combines them under one

umbrella for development, tracking and coordination.