PORT OF SEATTLE
MEMORANDUM
COMMISSION AGENDA -STAFF BRIEFING

Item No.
Date of Meeting
DATE:

April 26, 2011

TO:

Tay Yoshitani, Chief Executive Officer

FROM:

Kurt Beckett, Chief of Staff

SUBJECT:

Port-wide Performance Metrics Initiative Briefing

7b
May 3, 2011

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.

COMMISSION AGENDA
Tay Yoshitani, Chief Executive Officer
April 27, 2011
Page 2 of 2
BRIEFING OUTLINE:


PowerPoint overview of:
-

Initiative development
Metrics SharePoint site tour
2011 next steps