The Hackett Group’s 21st Best Practices Conference Focuses on “Accelerating Global Growth”

Highlights included Presentations by Dow, Fidelity, Kohler, Disney, Thomson Reuters, Verizon, and others; Plus Insights from Hackett’s New World-Class Performance Research

ATLANTA & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In today’s business environment, globalization has become a driving force and source for generating growth. How companies are responding to the increased opportunities and complexity of a global economy was the focus of The Hackett Group's 2011 North American Best Practices Conference, “Accelerating Global Growth,” at the InterContinental Hotel in Atlanta May 11-12.

“The 2011 Best Practices Conference featured an array of companies that have effectively addressed the challenges of a global business platform, while still addressing the operating variations required in established and emerging markets”

The Hackett Group (NASDAQ: HCKT), a global strategic business advisory and operations improvement consulting firm, is a leader in best practice advisory, business benchmarking, and transformation consulting services including strategy and operations, working capital management, and globalization advice.

This year’s Best Practices Conference brought together speakers from nearly two dozen of the world’s most successful companies, including CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, and leaders in procurement, human resources, and global business services from Dow, Fidelity, Kohler, The Walt Disney Company, Thomson Reuters, and others. Denver Broncos Quarterback and Heisman Trophy Winner Tim Tebow was also a featured special guest speaker at the conference.

The invitation-only event, which was attended by over 200 senior-level executives from the world’s most respected brands, also featured Hackett insights into the development of world-class transformation strategies and performance levers for Global 1000 companies. Hackett leadership offered previews of the company’s latest research detailing the cross-functional performance of world-class and typical companies in terms of spending, staffing, economic return, and other key efficiency and effectiveness metrics.

At the conference, The Hackett Group also offered a live demonstration of The Hackett Performance Exchange^™, a new automated measurement system designed to accelerate companies’ journeys to world-class performance. The Hackett Group Performance Exchange is a breakthrough performance intelligence solution that automatically extracts data from ERP systems and benchmarks results to produce actionable insights - faster and at a fraction of the cost and effort involved in building a custom solution.

“Economies around the world have become more integrated, and increasingly the flow of ideas, capital and goods is transcending borders. Globalization has become a driving economic force and a key source for generating growth,” explained The Hackett Group Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Ted Fernandez. “This increasingly competitive global marketplace has reduced the interval between seeing an opportunity and making the operational changes necessary to respond effectively to it. As a result, organizations have transformed their operating models and performance management capabilities to anticipate and adjust rapidly to the demands of global business.

“The 2011 Best Practices Conference featured an array of companies that have effectively addressed the challenges of a global business platform, while still addressing the operating variations required in established and emerging markets,” explained Mr. Fernandez. “Our goal was to prompt thought-provoking and engaging conversations, and enable attendees to come away with new ideas and approaches to implement and specific recommendations for accelerating growth within their organizations while also maintaining a globally competitive cost structure.”

The following executives presented at the conference:

Air Products, Wayne Mitchell, VP Global Business Support Services

Multifunctional Shared Services: How Air Products transformed its end-to-end, global transactional processes

Alcoa, Christie Breves, Chief Procurement Officer

Driving value from the supply chain through global processes, technology

Covidien, Stephen Rondeau, VP Global HR Business Processes & Systems Management

A Fresh Start: Covidien’s change management evolution

Cummins, Bruce Carver, VP Cummins Business Services & CIO

The Service-Oriented CIO: The evolving role of IT

Dow, David E. Kepler, EVP Business Services, Chief Sustainability Officer & CIO

Globalization: A driving force, source for growth and perceived threat

Fidelity, Brian Johnson, EVP HR

Facing Uncertainty: How Fidelity leveraged its culture to enable growth

Hasbro, Denise Clark, CIO

Partnership for Profit: Building the IT vision at Hasbro

HP, Michael Bordoni, VP Finance Strategy & Transformation

Delivery Excellence: HP’s journey to world-class finance performance

Kohler, Jeffrey P. Cheney, SVP Finance & CFO

Global vs. Local: How Kohler got the balance right

Pitney Bowes, Jeff Jacobson, GM & VP Finance Global Accounting Operations

From Single to Multifunction: How Pitney Bowes expanded its global support services

Solo Cup, George Chappelle, COO

Integrated Business Planning: Moving finance from “reporting” numbers to “making” numbers

The Walt Disney Company, Rick Wertsching, VP Sourcing and Procurement, Disney Theme Parks & Resorts

The Disney Way: Delivering the goods for a high-impact customer experience

Thomson Reuters, Carl Tobiasen, SVP & GM of Global Business Services

Thomson Reuters, Pradeep Lankapalli, VP GBS Operations

Going Global: How Thomson Reuters established and optimized its global business services structure

Unilever, John Transier, VP Finance for Enterprise Support

Micro Business vs. Multinational: How Unilever supports its varied customer base

Unisys, Peter Mares, VP Finance Operations

Going Global: How Unisys moved from multinational to global operations

Verizon, Connia Nelson, SVP HR

Verizon’s Journey: Employee engagement in a changing world

More information on The Hackett Group’s 21th Best Practices Conference is available online at: http://www.thehackettgroup.com/events/bestpractices2011/

About The Hackett Group, Inc.

The Hackett Group (NASDAQ: HCKT), a global strategic business advisory and operations improvement consulting firm, is a leader in best practice advisory, business benchmarking, and transformation consulting services including strategy and operations, working capital management, and globalization advice.

Utilizing best practices and implementation insights from more than 5,000 benchmarking engagements, executives use The Hackett Group's empirically-based approach to quickly define and implement initiatives to enable world-class performance. Through its REL group, The Hackett Group offers working capital solutions focused on delivering significant cash flow improvements. Through its Archstone Consulting group, The Hackett Group offers Strategy & Operations consulting services in the Consumer and Industrial Products, Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing and Financial Services industry sectors. Through its Hackett Technology Solutions group, The Hackett Group offers business application consulting services that help maximize returns on IT investments. The Hackett Group has completed benchmark studies with 2,700 major corporations and government agencies, including 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials, 73% of the Fortune 100, 73% of the DAX 30 and 50% of the FTSE 100.

More information on The Hackett Group is available: by phone at [phone]; by e-mail at [e-mail].