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Case-Study

Create empowerment.
Create leaders.

WIKA is a renowned specialist in the field of measurement technology.

In the context of digitalization, increasing internationalization and changing market needs, WIKA knew significant strategic developments needed to be made to assure an equally successful future for their 10,200 employees worldwide.

Their goal: to transform the EMEA & India Sales organisation from a product centric to a customer centric approach.

Overview

WIKA began their transformation process in spring 2020, in the middle of the Corona crisis. With the new EVP Andreas Keiger and his positive experience from previous projects with 2Leadership, we conceived a road map to tackle the transformation in 3 distinct phases.

Phase 1: To create alignment of the senior leadership team across the region behind the new direction and to prepare them to lead the transformation in their teams.

Phase 2: To engage the organization by cascading the process to the next level of leaders across the region. Key stakeholders from the other business areas outside of Sales were included at this point to ensure their alignment and buyin to the new customer centric approach.

Phase 3: To manage long-term efforts by enabling all leaders to drive and embed the transformation across their teams.

With this approach WIKA is enabling their leaders to manage the potential risk of uncertainty and unrest in their teams, to focus attention on the constant progress being made towards the new direction, and to minimize the negative impact on operational performance.

I was a bit skeptical at the beginning how 2Leadership can support and guide us ‘practically’ in this transformation process.

Following the workshops we had I can say it was a GREAT decision to have 2Leadership on board since it’s brought us to the next level as a team and has given us real practical tools to use to make this transformation successful.

— Tino Reppe – General Manager MENAT

Approach

Getting the senior team onboard first:

Making sure that the senior leadership team were all onboard to work with us from the outset ensures the necessary energy and enthusiasm for the long journey ahead.

Integrating key stakeholders into the process:

Transformation doesn’t happen in a cocoon. By integrating key stakeholders from business areas beyond the immediate team they become part of the journey and supporters of the process.

Preparing the senior leaders for the ‘big bang’ kick-off:

We believe leaders must be able to lead their transformation themselves. So we work with them individually and as a team from day 1 to ensure that they know exactly what they need to do and more importantly how to go about it.

Building close connections with the whole senior team:

Only a close relationship with the sponsor is not enough. We build strong relationships with the entire leadership team and ensure that everyone feels supported during the transformation process.

Result

After only 9 short months of leading their transformation process, and despite the added complexity of doing so during a global pandemic, the Sales EMEA & India senior leadership team have made great progress.

They are fully aligned as one team, which has ensured that progress towards the new ways of working is visible and tangible across the whole region.

As a great team, they have engaged their key stakeholders from other business areas and so have secured the necessary support to ensure long-term success.

Their unified, structured and pragmatic approach has helped to convince the once critical voices. Through their determined and participative leadership approach they have not only won support for the transformation. They have also succeeded in becoming a role model within their organisation for how to lead and make transformation happen.

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Conclusion

Every organization must continuously evolve from its current state to a future state in order to remain relevant and successful in a world that is constantly changing. Commercial organizations who need to transform, cannot afford to put operations on hold. Leaders must simultaneously manage the external reality of operations and the internal reality of transformation.

Often such efforts are likened to the metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a butterfly, however, this does not truly reflect reality. Remaining fully operational does not allow for an organisation to build a cocoon or to disconnect from reality to focus on the inner transformation. Nor can it remain hidden during the process while it gets its ‘new form’ in place.

In reality it is much more akin to the metamorphosis from a tadpole to a frog, which must transform while growing, eating and being hunted.

This reality necessitates strong leaders, who create the conditions for the new ways of working to spread and grow within the organisation. Leaders who have the mindset, skillset and tools to lead the transformation process while managing daily operations and steady progress towards the future state.

Written by:
Rainer Müller,
Partner

“As an analytically-oriented engineer, I like to deploy a systematic approach to both strategic and operational activities.

So give me a call and let’s explore how we can turn your transformation ideas into a structured approach.”

You can reach me on +49 172 2359 764 or at r.mueller@2leadership.eu

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