#TheStrategicProcess #Application

(Mr.David Bertrán from Kuadrotek (right) and Mr. José Carlos Álvarez Tobar from Weidmüller (left) signing the cooperation contract)

Let me come here with one practical application of #TheStrategicProcess that can help us to better understand how these processes are working in real life.

Company: Weidmüller Interface GmbH & Co. KG with head quarters located in Detmold (Germany) and Global Application Centre (GAC) for renewable energy located at Weidmüller, S.A. in Barcelona (Spain).

Case: the company strategy defined the development of the renewable energy (especially photovoltaic) as worldwide key market and set high level targets for the next years.

Status: the company started the activities in the photovoltaic segment five years ago in Spain with the booming of the market in this country, acquiring the company rapidly a high level of know how especially in combiner boxes and monitoring systems. The production of combiner boxes was adequate for the Spanish and South European countries but not for the worldwide market. It was necessary to find the right process to produce 10 times more units of combiner boxes with a high quality performance adequate to the Japanese market and this all in six months.

Solution: the company defined a working team for #TheStrategicProcess revising all the processes steps from the definition, design and development of combiner boxes till the production based on external suppliers with semi automatic processes. It was necessary at the end to modify conveniently the company structure, introducing two main changes: first one was the figure of "Operations" covering Purchasing, MRP (Material Replenishment Planner), Production and Quality. Second one was the figure of "Industrialization" a figure working between the GAC (Design and Development) and the "Operations".

This was necessary to pass from a semi automatic production to a high automatic production in order to cover the mass production planned for the future. In addition, the Quality Process was strongly documented and defined with three inspection levels in order to improve quality ratios and adequate it to the demanding Japanese market.

This complex process involved the Division AS / OEM in Germany, people from Operations Germany and big part of the Management in Weidmüller, S.A. (Barcelona).

Between couples of different solution the company selected the cooperation with a high qualified partner for the mass production. Finally was selected the company Kuadrotek (Grupo Elektra) where the company installed in strongly cooperation with the partner two high automatic production lines capable to manufacturing combiner boxes with and without monitoring systems.

The exceptional team working spirit, the communication between all people implicated in the process, the good relationship with the partner selected and especially the passion for doing #TheStrategicProcess coming to real life were the main factors for the success.

(Partial view of one of the assembly lines for monitoring combiner boxes at Kuadrotek)

#TheStrategicProcess (II) #Mission

The company, or rather senior management, have already defined the Vision or the end point where we want to go in a period of time. It outlines what the organization wants to be in the long term view. This will be taken into account which is the Mission of the company, that is, who we are and what we really do. The Mission defines the fundamental purpose of the company and answer to three important questions:

1.) What does the company do?
2.) Whom does the company work for?
3.) How does the company do it?

Vision and Mission are pretty close and we will illustrate it with a simple example. A father asks his son who will soon enter in a college: "What do you really want to study?"  His son replies with his Vision: "Dad, I want to study and become an engineer". Right first seems an ambitious goal. The son adds: "Besides I plan to get a degree in three years instead of five". Vision becomes an almost unreachable goal also because the father says to his son: " I think you are wrong in your approach because I have to remind you that you are wearing five straight years without passing the mathematics, that means, you fail the basics. You have no idea about  maths (your Mission is wrong) and you want to make an engineering career without knowing mathematics. And also in three years seems a difficult challenge to overcome. Don't you agree? 

Unattainable Vision and wrong Mission clearly leads to failure. Why we exist as a company, which is what we really do and what our customers are willing to pay? Which are the differentiators for our customers for choosing us and not the competition? All these questions must be answered to understand and clearly define what our Mission as a company is. Following some examples about Vision and Mission:

Chevron
Mission Statement
At the heart of The Chevron Way is our Vision to be the global energy company most admired for its people, partnership and performance.

The Dow Chemical Company
Mission Statement
To constantly improve what is essential to human progress by mastering science and technology.

Ford Motor Company
Mission Statement
We are a global family with a proud heritage passionately committed to providing personal mobility for people around the world.

But we insist, the defined  strategy has to be very consistent in the things that make us different from our competitors. From our differences we have to obtain competitive advantages so that the defined strategy becomes the most appropriate way to achieve the ambitious Vision we have established. Doing so we entering in the interesting world of #TheStrategicProcess

#TheStrategicProcess (II) #Vision

I'll start with a quote I discovered in the "Execution Premium", book written by Kaplan and Norton. It says: 

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest way to victory. Tactics without strategy is the previous noise before defeat". 

The Strategy and the Operations (Tactics) are different things and must be managed differently. Both are essential and so, for a success in the #StrategicProcess development we have to integrate both. We commented in another occasion that the Strategy is the path between where we are and the point we want to reach. To analyse where we are, there are a number of tools that will be introduced in my blog. 

More difficult for many senior managers are to define the point we want to reach. It is not easy to talk about the future, but we must do it to set and choose the most suitable way to reach the defined end point. Therefore top management must have a Vision, a long-term goal which is ambitious but feasible to do in the defined time. 

Yes, this is important because a strategy is defined for a given time, which means, the strategies are born, developed and ends up being replaced with one that will try to be better than the last one. In the world of enterprises, companies and businesses it is not worth to say "I have a dream" accept we have to complete it with "I have a dream. In five years we will be ......” 

The long-term goal (Vision) must be ambitious as we have already noted. This is to improve our starting point. I like to represent the #StrategicProcess as a ladder where the starting point is at the beginning of it from where we have a limited view of our environment. The point of arrival, long-term goal (Vision) is located at the top of the stairs where you can access to wonderful views of our environment. 

Each of the steps up will be a part of the #StrategicProcess to be developed. The higher up we can be the more ambitious our Vision will be, but it is clear that we must measure the great effort we have to do for not stopping in the middle of our journey which would cause an unstable situation. Conclusion: an ambitious Vision yes, but achievable to reach and perform at the set time.

#TheStrategicProcess (II) #StrategicAnalysis

When we see the need of a change in the strategy of the company because the business doesn't work well or because we want to give another approach, we will proceed for a Strategic Analysis which must answer two main questions: why and for what? Do I need to redefine my strategy and why I want do it? Is it necessary? What am I going to get from this change and big effort? 

Before beginning #TheStrategicProcess development (#SPd) all questions senior managers ask themselves are few. In the process of decision-making ask yourself: what is really what you want to achieve, who has to join in, how to do the process, when to do it, where you must intervene and especially how much the strategic process will cost you?

Nevertheless, as discussed in another publication, nine out of ten companies fail to define and implement  #TheStrategicProcess. A #SPd is a complex process that requires the efforts of the entire organization. But the entire organization cannot be permanently involved in the definition and development of  #TheStrategicProcess. 

#TheStrategicProcess would be infeasible because the company must continue with the daily activities. The business should continue during the strategic process which can be longer than desired. Not everyone can participate in the process permanently but all effort, understanding and dedication of everyone is going to be asked to carry out the process. 

There are many reasons why a Strategy can fail. We will enter more in detail in next publications. The General Management must be implicated from the beginning till end of #TheStrategicProcess, means from the first debates about why is necessary to initiate the process till the end of the Strategy implementation. The Budget must be also include the necessary costs to affront #TheStrategicProcess with enough resources.

Perhaps here is one of the key points for the success of  #TheStrategicProcess. How do we combine our day to day business with a strategic process that speaks about new challenges for the future? Present and future must be perfect combined to achieve the short term targets with the long term targets. How do we engage people while boosting our daily activity in the difficult times we are living today? This is the exciting challenge we have with this new blog.

#TheStrategicProcess (renewed version)

THE STRATEGIC PROCESS

(renewed version)

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#TheStrategicProcess

Post by: José Carlos Álvarez Tobar follow me on Tweeter @jcalvareztobar