It is nothing new that an entire organization should design its processes as transparently and with as little effort as possible. Nevertheless, many companies are a long way from achieving this. This makes workarounds, additional systems and a lack of transparency all the more significant when more than just considerable sums are at stake in a post-merger integration (PMI) project. In the new anthology "Mastering transformation projects with the Enterprise Transformation Cycle"published by Peter Steinhoff and Mario Pfannstiel, the author of the article explains Bernd EttelbrückHe explains which challenges play a central role in this - and how critical project situations can be resolved using the ETC approach. In the interview, he discusses some exciting aspects, including the relationship between departments, the cult of the hero and micromanagement; and essential success factors for projects that are all too easily overlooked.
Note from the TCI editorial team: Read also part one of the interview - Escaping the complexity trap: Post-merger integration (PMI) project as a prime example.
How hero worship and micromanagement influence all processes
Beate Greisel: Mr. Ettelbrück, when describing the current situation - before the project work with the ETC began - you describe a "cult of heroes" that prevailed in the company. What is behind this term?
Bernd Ettelbrück: "Hero worship" is the exaggerated formulation of the self-perception of management and the - mostly - manager (deliberately in his male form), which can still be found today, especially in Western countries, the USA and Europe.
If a manager has organized everything, then the classic picture prevails: the processes are defined and running, decisions are delegated. The employees know what needs to be done and are satisfied, there are substitution rules, in short: everything is running smoothly. The question then quickly arises as to whether the boss is really needed and whether he or she is a "fair-weather captain".
If, on the other hand, nothing is clear, micromanagement prevails, superiors interfere in operational business and make arbitrary decisions. Then again, employees are insecure and escalate everything upwards, there are no clear areas of responsibility - and therefore the boss's phone is constantly ringing, even when he is on vacation. Then you have "a really good manager", without whom things wouldn't work. This is believed by all senior managers, employees and, above all, the boss himself, who constantly receives feedback by phone and email that it wouldn't work without him or her. He or she is the "hero", the fire extinguisher who runs from one rescue operation to the next and forgets to organize his or her business properly.
BG: These are extreme contrasts. A question with a view to the overall organization: What role does corporate IT play in this respect?
BE: Corporate IT often follows this trend. You can see this when you look at the infrastructure diagram and the network of systems and the number of interfaces. Operational pressure leads to ever new detours and additional systems, which often satisfy individual requirements and in turn require new challenges such as interfaces and process detours. This is the case in many companies. And that's important to me - not because people don't or couldn't know better. In line with the ETC, there is a lack of strategy, goals or products and a clear process. As a result, we do what is important at the time and what is put at the top of the agenda.
Lack of transparency and excessive effort are directly related
BG: Individualized processing of customer concerns has its advantages - or so one would think. To what extent did this pose a problem for the company in the PMI project I mentioned earlier?
BE: This does not only apply to telecommunications providers. Services have to be produced, provided, servitized and billed. Every service costs money, and billing in particular is an important prerequisite for successful services. As a company, can I explain my services clearly, explain the benefits and charge a reasonable price? Sounds trivial, but it often isn't. Customized services do not follow the standard process, i.e. the product, its provision, the associated service or the type of billing are special. This costs additional manual services, manual interventions in the system - from which transparency suffers - and a lot of money. Because the people who do this have to be paid. Customers are often not prepared to pay for these additional services and they are cross-subsidized because you don't want to lose the customer. This leads to even more intransparency. This reminds me of the question you just asked - what impact does this have on IT systems?
If you offer individual services as a telco provider, this is a very complex process that needs to be carefully considered and is best outsourced to a separate organizational unit (keyword: transparency). If you calculate the expenses and compare them with the achievable turnover in competition, the returns are often unsatisfactory. Unfortunately, this is not done enough. Here, too, there are ways out and opportunities, but that is not the subject of our discussion. You asked about the nature of the problem.
Project success depends on asking the right questions
BG: What exactly the ways out and opportunities in this scenario might look like is probably beyond the scope of our discussion. So let's put the cart before the horse: How then could the ETC method ultimately help to solve these dilemmas?
BE: Here, too, the ETC method helps with the questions that I in the first part already mentioned: What do we want? How do we want to do it? What is necessary for this? Specifically: Which additional customer segments do we want to address? How do we reach them? What do they need specifically? Can we achieve this? What will it cost us? What are potential customers willing to pay? Can we do it for the price?
One specific example in our program was the provision of broadband connections (more than 500 Mbit per second) for small businesses in structurally weak areas. They in particular want to offer their customers many services online due to the long distances involved. To fulfill this wish, a single area must be connected with fiber optics. Providing this for a single company is too expensive.
What we did was to launch a campaign together with the local or cantonal or regional chamber of commerce and our marketing department to get more companies interested in a fiber optic connection. This was a great success, and within two years, fiber optic networks have been installed for over 270 million euros. What's more, the investments were secured by the purchase guarantee of many small businesses and interested private customers.
BG: I would say that is a good conclusion to this interview. Mr. Ettelbrück, thank you very much for this interesting conversation!
The interview with Bernd Ettelbrück was conducted by Beate Greisel for the TCI editorial team.
Read also part one of the interview: Escaping the complexity trap: Post-merger integration (PMI) project as a prime example.
"Mastering transformation projects with the Enterprise Transformation Cycle" - published August 2020
The Transformation Consulting International has been supporting national and international transformation projects in companies for many years. Based on this extensive wealth of experience in practical implementation, the second volume, entitled "The Enterprise Transformation Cycle", has been published after the first. "Mastering transformation projects with the Enterprise Transformation Cycle: successfully planning, implementing and completing projects" published by the renowned Springer-Verlag. As a continuation of the first volume, this one takes into account further wishes and suggestions from readers and presents concrete transformation projects and situations of action by TCI experts in their daily application of the ETC. This second volume was also edited by Mario A. Pfannstiel and Peter F.-J. Steinhoff and comprises a good 500 pages. In it you will find Numerous theoretical-conceptual contributions and case studies from practice on the "Enterprise Transformation Cycle".
(Cover image: © Shutter B | Adobe Stock)
