DC Bulletin

Change with measurable Impact

DC

Issue No. 5 | March 2012 | www.dcvision.cz

BULLETIN

5

Pulling, not pushing now also applies to services and offices! n introduction to our new A partner – Value Coaching tep TRUTNOV is ranked amongst S Europe’s business elite Dear Readers, a number of companies have already started implementing Lean thinking principles in their manufacturing processes. The more enlightened ones are well aware that industrial engineering methods cannot be implemented by “standard-setters”, but that it is necessary to employ true Lean leaders and Lean coaches, who are able to change the way people think and consequently develop an effective corporate culture that is founded on Lean values. When some managers were first introduced to our new concept of Lean services, they often lamented, “If only our office personnel adhered to these principles.” Have you ever been in a situation when you did

not receive certain information in time or when an important document was left lying on a table for several days? What some manufacturing sector supervisors and managers would give for those few extra days when they are battling to meet a completion deadline for an order! If you want to maintain your organisational operations at a level equal to that of European and global leaders, you must optimise all of your processes, thinking and management across the board. Our Lean services concept was developed on the basis of scientifically proven processes and data collected from more than 700 European companies over the course of 2011. What can we look forward to next time?

We are already able to measure the influence that the status of corporate culture and changes to it have on a company’s economic results, as it is not subsidies from the EU, but rather a corporate culture managed according to customer and employee values that will be the primary long-term driving force behind competitive strength.

Regardless of European subsidies, everything continues!

Libor Witassek DC VISION Managing Partner and Chairman of the Board of Allied Consultants Europe

Moving towards Lean A customised Lean approach in services is of key importance for success. The information provided below consists of more general recommendations based on our experience with implemented Lean services in all types of service organisations throughout Europe. We differentiate between three different phases as follows:

Phase 1 – Basic stability is established.

Phase 2 – Improvements are attained through people.

Phase 3 – Focus is placed on culture and its ongoing improvement.

The way forward – Lean as a response to future challenges

Phase 1

Lean Tools

Ace Lean Services

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The main problem lies in the fact that an organisation cannot simply select one of the abovementioned areas and focus solely on it. In order to ensure success, it becomes necessary to improve all three dimensions concurrently. Resources present yet another problem. Not only is it consistently becoming harder to obtain financial resources, it is also difficult to find the right individuals. Many people expect that this problem will intensify even more throughout all of Europe over the next ten to twenty years, primarily due to the changes in demographic development. If we want to face these challenges successfully, we must focus on the structured methodology that provides solutions to these different aspects.

Specifically, this consists of dual strategy concept, which addresses not only growth, but also increased effectiveness and concurrently with Lean Management it is a methodology that focuses especially on the above-mentioned areas. It is of course possible to use other methods, but the implementation of the Lean principle has a long and proven history, although this is not the only reason behind Lean’s ever-growing popularity within the service sector.

We therefore recommend that companies use the Lean principles when addressing the specific areas mentioned above.

Lean Management

Lean Thinking

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In the spring of 2011, DC VISION participated in a research project involving over 700 European organisations from various sectors, including financial services, ICT, transport, the retail sector, public services and healthcare, to name but a few. The research addressed development on the rapidly growing markets and was focused on the accompanying challenges. The main objective of the research was to obtain a clear view of what the European service sector is planning for the future with regard to organisation. The results of this research show that much greater demands are currently being placed on companies particularly in the following areas: – improving the services that are offered (quality); – increasing productivity and decreasing expenses (cost); and – addressing a consistently increasing demand for new services (innovation).

Lean applied in a manufacturing environment has a number of significant differences when compared to Lean applied in the service sector, specifically: – Services include less routine processes as compared to manufacturing and therefore the customer is often a participant in the service sector processes.

– The organisation of services satisfies actual demand, whereas manufacturing companies often produce a surplus that is stored.

– Within the service sector, the process flow is usually invisible, whereas within manufacturing it is visible.

– The quality of outputs in the service sector is, as a rule, intangible. It is based on customer impressions and expectations.

Outputs in the manufacturing sector are more quantifiable, as the price/value develops according to a product’s technical parameters.

– The majority of service organisations have only a very short experience level with regard to measuring productivity and the associated standards. Manufacturing companies use both tools on a regular basis.

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At the same time as Lean was experiencing a boom period in the manufacturing sector, the global economy began to be dominated by globalisation and the outsourcing of production processes to countries with lower costs. As a result, over the course of the past twenty to thirty years, Europe has seen a fairly dramatic change, with services becoming the primary sector (70% of Europe’s GDP) and the manufacturing sector going through a slump and becoming the secondary sector (25% of GDP). The manufacturing sector thus gave way to services and consequently Lean assumed the lead position in the new leading sector as a method that will guarantee high quality services at a lower cost.

Lean in manufacturing vs. Lean in services

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Pulling, not pushing now also applies to services and offices!

“The manufacturing sector gave way to services and consequently Lean assumed the lead position in the new leading sector as a method that will guarantee high quality services at a lower cost.”

Each phase requires different methods and tools, on which special focus must be placed in order to attain a level that will make it possible to proceed to the next phase.

Implementing Lean does not therefore mean simply using Lean tools, such as Value Stream Mapping, 5S standardisation and Root Cause Analysis. We noted that focusing purely on Lean tools often led to short-term results and any attempts to attain consistent improvement and to maintain the results that had already been achieved frequently resulted in failure. For this reason, Lean also provides solutions to issues associated with human resources and corporate culture, specifically through integrating both hard as well as soft techniques that make it possible to attain operational excellence. The approach used by DC VISION and its conception of Lean Services thus incorporates another two supporting segments in the pyramid: Lean thinking and Lean management, both of which help not only to attain operational excellence but also to maintain it over the long-term.

Libor Witassek DC VISION Managing Partner and Chairman of the Board of Allied Consultants Europe

Can you recall the last time that you worked as a part of a team in which the enthusiasm could be sensed in the air? When you felt that the organisation was truly interested in your growth and development? Where everything possible – and some things impossible – was done in order to ensure an excellent customer experience? When everyone pulled on the same rope? You can be almost certain that that company was extremely productive overall.

A team of four senior consultants from the “DC Vision Premium Value Services” competency centre are certified holders of an international Cultural Transformation Tools (CTT) licence. The purpose of CTT is to provide support to leaders and managers who are in the process of building highly productive companies through helping to establish a value-based corporate culture that calls out to customers, retaining talented employees and increasing the overall involvement of the entire team. At DC VISION we use CTT to measure the commercial productivity of corporate culture and values in the eyes of both customers as well as employees. We currently offer various tools in addition to the services of experienced consultants. The CTT licensing workshop took place in Prague on 15–16 December 2010 under the leadership of coach Chris Monk from Great Britain. As a result, DC VISION, together with its Value Coaching Polish partners, currently offers the largest team of certified consultants of the Barrett Values Centre in Central and Eastern Europe.

An introduction to our new partner – Value Coaching

“Measuring matters! We change that which cannot be measured to be measurable.”

Libor Witassek, DC VISION Managing Partner and Chairman of the Board of Allied Consultants Europe

Friends and partners of DC VISION, please allow us to introduce ourselves. Like DC VISION, Value Coaching is a company focused on change management. We focus primarily on creating higher value for our clients. Our headquarters are located in Warsaw and we are active throughout Poland and abroad. Value Coaching is specifically what we implement. We provide our services using a mix of coaching, consulting and workshops, combined with effective tools that help to support personal and organisational changes. We know how to actively motivate people to create value and attain measurable results. As we see people

services is similar to that of DC VISION and the general offering of the other ACE partners. Nevertheless, we know that we can still learn something from them and from their approach. Likewise, we believe that, as partners, we can bring new and valuable knowledge and skills to them. We look forward to an even stronger partnership in the future, to taking advantage of all of the synergetic potential in our markets, and to a shared approach to our clients.

change, we develop and grow with them.

Our consulting management consist of three shareholders: Leszek Zdrodowski, CEO and Educational Psychologist; Michal Bukowski, educator and the head of Lean Leadership; and Leif Christiansen, a former banker from Denmark who has lived in Poland for over twelve years.

Our developing team currently consists of ten consultants and coaches and two independent employees. The services we offer are divided into the following five areas: change management, operational perfection, sales results, great customer experience, and human resource development. Our offer of products and

Leif Christiansen DC VISION Partner leif.christiansen@valuecoaching.pl

please meet...

Jaroslav Frank

Libor Friedel

Senior consultant and a new member of DC VISION’s team of lecturers

Senior consultant and a new member of DC VISION’s team of lecturers

J aroslav has a single-field degree in psychology from the Philosophical Faculty of the Palacký University in Olomouc.

He has had his own practice in the field of industrial and organisational psychology since 1996.

Active on the lecturing circuit for over fifteen years, he lectures on the subjects of managerial skills, soft skills, Lean manufacturing and sales skills.

He is an expert adviser in the field of implementing autonomous teams, process management, customer orientation and human resource development.

Jaroslav is also a specialist with regard to creating competency models for human resource development in companies and the development of key employee competencies.

He implements assessment centres and development centres and participates in the psychodiagnostic methods that are used to select key employees and all levels of managerial employees.

In his free time, he enjoys hiking and photography.

L ibor is a graduate of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Brno University of Technology (1987).

He obtained his MBA degree from Sheffield Hallam University (2000).

Libor has fifteen years of experience as a lecturer, consultant and facilitator.

He specialises in strategic management, BSC, benchmarking, knowledge management, intellectual capital, leadership and personal development.

He has a Certificate in Training and Development awarded by the Institute of Personnel and Development in London.

Libor has experience in managing both SMEs as well as organisations in an academic environment.

I n 2009 and 2010, he was a member of the European Cluster Policy Group He is an evaluator for the National Quality Award of the Czech Republic and a member of the Czech Society for Quality.

Other experience includes acting as an innovation consultant for the IMP3rove project to improve the productivity of innovation management.

Libor has English communication skills.

H e enjoys spending his free time with his family. His favourite pastimes include gardening, reading, and photography. He also likes audio programmes and literature dealing with success and personal development.

Ing. Petr Hlaváček Transnational professional fellowship in LEAN methodology At the start of 2011, DC VISION consultant Petr Hlaváček participated in a transnational fellowship at the offices of our Dutch partner – Rijnconsult B. V. The fellowship was part of the Leonardo da Vinci Programme mobility project entitled “Lean – Lean manufacturing tools for small and medium-sized enterprises”. The cross-border mobility involved placement at Rijnconsult, a Netherlands-based training and consultancy organisation, which specialises in change management, work productivity improvement (LEAN), and human resource development. The main objectives and benefits of the project include the acquisition of experience, skills and knowledge and familiarity with the practical methodologies associated with the development and implementation of Lean processes in companies. The project also aims to familiarise participants with the tools available for implementing Lean Production theories in corporate practice, to provide them with an opportunity to visit various companies and institutions that are involved in the aforementioned areas in the Netherlands, to obtain a perspective of the tasks performed

This project was completed with the financial support of the European Union. the contents of this communication ARE SOLELY THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE AUTHOR. This communication does not represent the opinion of the European Commission and the European Commission bears no responsibility for the use of the information in this Communication.

by a Lean Production project manager through the use of “job shadowing”, and to learn how to use the tools available for communicating the changes associated with the implementation of Lean principles in corporate practice.

“I found this transnational fellowship to be beneficial not only from the perspective of obtaining new job experience and skills. It provided me with an opportunity to explore Amsterdam and the surrounding area. I met the families of Rijnconsult’s consultants. I visited the various places of interest and even found the time to visit the local stadium for a match played by the Ajax Amsterdam football team.”

“15 pieces of well-intended managerial advice based on 15 years of experience” DC VISION is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary. The fact that a company is young is no excuse for acting irresponsibly or stupidly, just as the fact that a company is old does not guarantee wisdom. There are irresponsible old companies and stupid start-ups. We are well aware of the fact that we still have much to learn. Our employees and our company have grown together with our clients, all of whom we value greatly, and we can sense that they respect us – not only in the Czech Republic, but also in the around fifteen other countries in which we are active. Please allow us to share some of the experience we have gained thus far.

On the occasion of our fifteenth anniversary, we have prepared fifteen pieces of advice that will contribute to the successful development of companies and other organisations.

1. In these economically turbulent times,

5. Managers and the company’s leaders

think for the long-term, but plan for the short-term.

must serve as an example of how to act according to certain values or, put otherwise, “actions speak louder than words”.

9. Create an environment in which your

objective of doing business. The main goal is to realise a mission, to satisfy the needs of your employees, your customers and the general public. This will bring the money in as a secondary benefit.

6. Differences amongst the members

employees are able to develop smart ideas.

3. Managers and management in general define specific values that subsequently govern the life of the entire organisation. If the CEO position is assumed by an individual who has values that are not the same as those of the rest of the company, the entire company will ultimately be changed.

7. When recruiting a new employee,

4. There needs to be less corporate

for your employees, an education that motivates smart individuals to continue

2. Money and profit are not the primary

bureaucracy and more shared values.

of the management team serve as an advantage. A management team without women has only one eye. A team without different cultures is colour blind.

always take into account that he or she might one day be your company’s CEO. Even when hiring a cleaner, hire only the individual who wants to be the best cleaner in the world.

8. Invest only in high-quality education

with the research and development that is the result of smart ideas.

10. When preparing your offer of goods and services, always consider them primarily through the eyes of your customers. Let your customers create the product or the service that you are offering.

11. In sales it is not important what and how much you have to sell, but rather how you can help your customer.

12. A team must be managed through pulling, not by pushing. Listen to and communicate with your employees. Their opinions are often more important than yours.

13. Anything that you want to manage must be measured and the results of the measurements must be made graphic on a regular basis.

14. If you feel that you are the best in your field, it is high time for you to change something or to improve yourself.

15. Initiate and implement only those changes that bring measureable results… let‘s change with measurable impact!

Libor Witassek DC VISION Managing Partner and Chairman of the Board of Allied Consultants Europe

COACHING IS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR DEVELOPING HUMAN POTENTIAL AND FOR MOTIVATION.

Informal summer get-together of DC VISION consultants Twenty-five internal and external consultants as well as other DC VISION employees got together at the Těrlicko Dam on the first weekend in September. We took advantage of this informal environment to improve our interpersonal relationships while barbecuing and in front of a open campfire listening to guitars and singing innumerable Czech classics. Our traditional pétanque match was held on the next day for all of the evening’s survivors. After a demanding battle, Jaroslav Frank came out the victor and we, the defeated, still need much training to improve before a rematch.

But that is normal for us.

Exclamation mark or question mark?

How can today’s successful companies be characterised?

Nowadays successful companies are looking for new opportunities. They are looking for ways in which to decrease costs and increase the added value provided to customers. Let us ask ourselves how this can be achieved. One way is to order people to accomplish it. You can demand that they save and search out the new markets that the company needs. However, this method has many limitations. If we want to develop a company’s potential, it is necessary to develop the natural potential that exists within the company’s people.

Coaching is an effective tool for developing human potential and for motivation.

Coaching is an extremely effective tool for managing people and teams. In a company, it usually leads to a significant change in corporate culture. People support problem solutions that they have identified themselves, or at least participated in identifying, to a much higher degree. The most fundamental difference between directing people and coaching them is that when applying the latter method, commands and prohibitions are translated into the appropriate questions. EXCLAMATION MARKS (!!!) are replaced with QUESTION MARKS (???). What questions will you ask? How will you develop human potential? How will you motivate employees? What results do you expect?

Tomáš Gřešek Senior Consultant tomas.gresek@dcvision.cz

Interesting observations made by our consultants The last participant arrived fifteen minutes after the start of the training session. He sat down and started listening, but, after a few minutes, he suddenly stood up and began to make a quick exit. He said, “I was supposed to attend time management training.” The other participants responded with a smile on their face and commented, “They will surely give you a warm welcome.”

It should be noted that this entertaining moment occurred at a time when there were two different training sessions going on at the same hotel at the same time.

The director’s assistant came to me this morning and said, “More people registered for today’s session than for the last one.” She went on to say that they had heard that the lecturer is a certain blonde who rides a motorbike and always has a smile on her face.

Today’s managers do not wish to read anything complex, one-half of a standard sheet of paper is the most that they want. In today’s stressful environment, when managers and executive officers attend training sessions they want to find out facts and new information. However, experiential methods, coaching and learning though games also make an impact. It seems that even Comenius was right back in his day.

Introducing our new protected marks DC VISION is also an innovator and here are our two new innovative services:

Sport Leadership Program

Lean Leadership

Step TRUTNOV is ranked amongst Europe’s business elite At DC VISION everything that we do, we do in order to be the best at it.

That is why we like to work with clients who adhere to Thomas Bata’s motto – “Don’t imitate, be in the lead.”

The Trutnov-based joint-stock company Step TRUTNOV, a manufacturer of biomass boilers, was successful in the European Business Awards (EBA) competition. It was placed amongst the top ten companies in the category of companies with a turnover of up to 25 million euro in the competition that took place in London at the end of September 2011. The EBA Awards are presented to companies for inspirational, innovative and responsible business activities. A broad range of European companies are included without regard to their specific field of business. Step TRUTNOV manufactures boilers that use biomass, for example, they can burn an entire bale of straw without the necessity to unbundle it.

This unique characteristic makes it possible to burn other types

of biomass as well, such as hay, flax and others. “We completed a very interesting order in England this year. We manufactured a boiler with 1 MW output for the JB Adams Farm in Bockleton that will be used to burn Miscanthus sinensis, which is also known as Chinese silver grass. The boiler is constructed to not only produce heat, but also has parameters that are high enough to use the ORC system for generating electric energy,” according to Libor Pavlíček. In addition to biomass boilers, Step TRUTNOV also manufactures pressure vessels, cisterns, exchangers, storage tanks and many other products for use in the energy and chemical industries. Over thirty percent of the company’s products are exported, primarily to Slovakia, England, Russia, the Ukraine and Greece. Step TRUTNOV is a 100% Czech owned company that currently employs 60 people as well as external workers. In 2010, the company attained a sales level of 100 million Czech crowns.

Last year, the company forecast that it would see an increase in sales as compared to 2010 and invested over 20 million crowns into expanding its manufacturing capacity, adding social facilities for its employees and the acquisition of new technology.

Organisational agility refers to the ability of a company to quickly change and adapt in response to changes in the market.

A high degree of organisational agility helps companies respond successfully to new competitors, new and changing industrial technologies, and any sudden changes in market conditions.

About the study ACE performs research in Europe on a regular basis. The study on organisational agility is based on information obtained from more than 500 companies.

The 6 dimensions of the ACE agility index 1. Leadership & management – Management style and the way it is adapted to your strategy, the force and speed of decision making, the clarity of communication and the level to which it is credible all influence your organisation’s appetite for agility.

2. Innovation – The level to which an organisation has implemented a systematic approach to sharing knowledge of market trends and the consistent generation of new ideas, as well as the level to which an organisation uses internal and external networks to share ideas all have influence on the organisation’s ability to adapt to changing customer needs and technological development.

3. Strategy – The manner in which your strategy develops, the way in which it balances rational and intuitive inputs, how

it supports internal dialogue, and how clear your strategic aim is, all contribute towards the creation of agile thinking and ambition.

4. Culture – The manner in which the collective values, opinions and behaviour of your employees influence how agile your organisation can be. This culture is influenced by your economic policy and the approach applied in such areas as the transparency and openness of information and also by how you recognise and appreciate your employees and their successful responses to market changes.

5. Learning and change – The degree to which an organisation shares its vision, the desire it has for change and its ability to promote change, and the way in which it reflects upon the results of previous decisions all influence the level of its organisational agility.

6. Structure – The solidity and resistance of operations and processes, together with the degree to which managers have clearly delegated decision-making powers, help to determine your ability to react to problems in the market.

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS? Do you want a subsidy, or would you prefer a successful company?

Measure your agility using the ACE agility index Ace has developed a tool that can measure a company’s level of organisational agility.

This will help you to determine how agile your organisation should be in order for it to operate successfully within its specific market environment. For the purposes of this research, ACE has focused on the internal human aspects of organisational agility and has defined six dimensions that are used to determine the level of agility that exists in an organisation.

Agility index This agility measuring index was developed and is calculated by the ACE HR team. It separates respondents into six dimensions according to their agility score, which ranges from 1 (low agility) to 6 (high agility).

Leadership & Management

Structure

Learning & Change

Innovation

Agility

Strategy

Culture

In conclusion, an exercise to help develop potential Move one circle so that there are five circles in the row and five in the column. Send your solution to dagmar.palzerova@dcvision.cz by the end of May 2012. We will draw one of the correct responses and the winner will receive a valuable book. The correct solution will be printed in the next issue.

Subsidy advisor vs. Managerial consultant www.youtube.com/user/DCVISIONCZ

You will find a total of five differences.☺

ACE and Prague 2011 Our international consulting group – Allied Consultants Europe (ACE) – organised a Connect Event for forty senior ACE consultants from ten EU countries, which was held in Prague on 22 to 24 May 2011.

The objective of the two-day event was to provide a forum where experiences in the field of change management could be shared amongst international groups active in HR Leadership, Sales Excellence and Operational Excellence, which should consequently further strengthen our clients’ competitiveness. The agenda also included a training session for our consultants entitled “The Art of Selling without Selling”, which was led by Joe and Kate, two British coaches from Impact Factory, a company that provides training and coaching services to the world’s leading consultancy firms.

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info@dcvision.cz tel +420 257 940 061 | +421 907 071 734 fax +420 553 654 816

Change with measurable Impact Hybernská Centrum, Hybernská 24 | 110 00 Prague 1 | Czech Republic Krnovská 58 | 746 01 Opava | Czech Republic Galvaniho 7/D | 821 04 Bratislava | Slovakia