November 20, 1996
Founded in 1965 as a small nuclear electronic shop, Canberra suffered the complexities of a multinational business in this industry and was shut down thereafter. Resurrected in the early 90's and committed to fully exploiting advances in Information Technology, Canberra competes in the commercial manufacturing of radiation detection and analysis instrumentation. With subsidiaries in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Central Europe, France, Germany , Great Britain, Netherlands, and Russia, and representatives in over 51 countries, Canberra has clearly established itself as a multinational. With clients like the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), the U.S. Department of Energy, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), Nuclear Electric (UK), PAKS (Hungary), NUCLECO (Italy), West Valley Nuclear Services (US), Kozloduy (Bulgaria), BNFL (UK), several Russian Power Generator, and others; and partner's like Martin Marietta, Scientific Ecology Group, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory among others, Canberra has risen from the ashes with a spectacular performance. In addition, Canberra is the only nuclear instrument supplier whose systems are certified to the complete ISO9001 quality standards. Canberra is today the world leader in its industry.
Canberra is divided in 7 divisions, with 14 subsidiaries, and is made up of two different businesses - Packard Instruments which serves the nuclear medicine markets and Canberra Nuclear which produces nuclear measurement components and customized industrial applications for the research laboratory and power generation industries. Canberra Industries' competes in the following sectors: basic research, the life sciences, clinical and pharmaceutical research, nuclear energy, environmental safety, environmental restoration and waste management, and biotechnology. Nowadays, Canberra counts over 1000 employees in the 6 continents.
Canberra has created an environment where the communication among stakeholders is fostered. Effective communications go in three directions: top-down, bottom-up, and horizontally. Communications play an important role in breaking down functional silos, identifying changes in the market, and disseminating organizational innovation. This philosophy is particularly evident in two aspects: its use of groupware, and its communication with on employees. From its resurrection in the early 1990's Canberra has been reliant in the use of groupware, particularly Lotus Notes, for collaborative work through its subsidiaries and divisions. Realizing the strict requirements of its industry, and the precision needed from its products, the possibility of error due to handoffs from one division to another was unacceptable. A global database containing requirements, regulations, designs, features, etc. was put in place to allow every step in the product cycle to access the complete information on the product. Unfortunately, information on this subject was very hard to find.
The other interesting aspect about Canberra is its communication with employees. Canberra has a diverse and dedicated workforce that has been the key to its growth. This commitment and dedication from employees is the result of the communication existent between and across all levels of the company, perhaps better demonstrated by this passage:
"Emery Olcott, president and CEO of Canberra Industries,
Inc., has built a culture of trust, commitment, and credibility by directly
communicating in person with employees. When Canberra went through its
only downsizing, employees were brought together and told the why, what,
who, when, and how. After a devastating flood that seriously damaged the
company's facilities, employees were told of Canberra's major options,
including moving out of state or relocating to a different part of the
city, and how it would affect them. By taking them into his confidence
openly and honestly, Olcott reinforces his vision, shares successes and
failures, and demonstrates the regard in which he holds them. He believes
this approach has resulted in the dedication of management and employees
to relentlessly meeting their customers' needs."
Canberra has also established a number of employee development programs aimed at augmenting and disseminating the knowledge base of the company . A number of its training courses have been awarded Certification Maintenance (CM) points by the American Board of Industrial Hygiene, and several courses have been approved by the American Academy of Health Physics to receive continuing education credits. Canberra has taken this development a step forward and now offers the courses to customers and interested parties.
Canberra's communication policies and philosophy leveraged with the IT enablers like groupware and common databases have helped propel the company to the leadership position it now holds.
Additional information can be found at http://www.canberra.com/