D&B's 'Blueprint for Growth' Strategy

Creating a new culture that supported constant change and promoted leadership abilities was important for the success of Loren's strategy. The objective of developing a winning culture was to create a team of leaders who would succeed in the market. D&B focused on the need to develop leadership capabilities among its employees.

Loren felt that leadership development was an ongoing process. He developed a 'Leadership Action Plan,' which defined an individual's path towards leadership. The plan focused on personal development and building on leadership strengths. Each team member was asked to list his/her strengths and areas for improvement. This helped them in leveraging strengths and working on areas that needed development...

In its efforts to arrest the fall in its share price, D&B decided that for every dollar in costs reduced by implementing the "Blueprint for Growth" strategy, 60 cents would be used for reinvesting in high growth businesses, 20 cents for reengineering transaction costs and 20 cents would go to the shareholders in the form of retained earnings which helped in improving the earnings per share (EPS). D&B's EPS grew consistently between 2001 and 2004 from 1.71 to 2.98. The company's free cash flow rose from $164 million to $239 million in the same period (Refer Table III for the key financial indicators of D&B between 2001 and 2004)...