One of Mr. Irick’s biggest challenges was maintaining quality service in a fast and ever-changing environment on a large city bus system where all stakeholders demanded more transparency and accountability. As such, he led by his signature guiding principle of “Buses as a Business”. He advanced the basic concept-that despite not having a classic profit motive, organizations that serve the public must begin to adopt some of the principles and methods that drive success in the private sector. He inspired his team at every level to become more data-driven in their decision-making process. Providing his team with interactive, analytical tools and support usable by all levels of his management structure was a hallmark in driving positive change throughout the organization.
This automated database and query system developed is known as the Buses Business Barometer. The indicators developed cover every part of the bus service organization including customer service, safety, internal operations and maintenance and cost effectiveness. The indicators were tailored for tracking by all levels of management from top executives to mid-level and front-line supervision at garages and covering operations, maintenance, administration and customer performance metrics. Each accountable manager can query the system at any time to gauge performance of their business unit as well as online guidance for improving areas which may require attention. This automated query system is displayed as a dashboard has been continuously updated and expanded over its nine years that it has operated.
