CHALLENGE
A look at the current disruptive transformation of the automotive industry shows how radically and rapidly a world can change: While the new smartphones on four wheels are busy collecting data, the number of manufacturers who are increasingly focusing on selling vehicles online is increasing. Tesla is at the forefront here, as recent studies show.
It's hard to believe, but the vehicle handovers at Tesla take place pragmatically and casually in warehouses – far away from the metropolitan areas and have been for years. Customers love the rudimentary start-up atmosphere, Tesla experts say.
Chinese car brands not only shine with intelligent electric vehicles, but also with first-class, personal service and innovative sales rooms. The "NIO House" in Berlin, for example, offers its buyers a community, cafés, libraries and even event rooms for business meetings.
Like many traditional companies in the automotive industry, the Denzel Group will face numerous challenges in the coming years. New companies and their innovative sales concepts, the switch to e-mobility and the fundamental technological change that goes with it, ongoing difficulties in the supply chains and the constantly growing demands of customers in the future are just the obvious problems.
The change in values and generations in the world of work requires a fundamental rethinking of corporate and employee management. Coming generations of employees want more and more meaningful and purpose-oriented leadership – a contemporary leadership.
MISSION
The Denzel Group has recognized all these needs and wants to proactively face these challenges.
In January 2023, Rabl & Hahn was brought in to design and conduct a two-day workshop on the topic "Welcome to the future".
While the focus on the first day was "Mobility & Future Retail", on the following day Philipp Hahn immersed himself in the topic "Leadership of the Future" with the participants.
The aim of the first part was to give the team impulses that would enable them to grow the business healthily and be prepared for the future by developing their own innovative sales concepts and anchoring them successfully and sustainably in the business.
By showing current trends and successful benchmarks, innovative ideas were developed and together we ensured that the team has all the tools to implement them successfully.
The second part dealt with innovative mindset impulses, which enable the participants in the sense of leadership to attract competent employees and to motivate existing employees to bind them sustainably in order to achieve the ambitious operating results as a performance-oriented team.
For this purpose, the proven leadership coaching from Rabl & Hahn was reduced from 8 days to one day.
Site manager 05 [Denzel Group]
"The workshop was top notch! Lots of insights and everything super tangible, as it is required in 2023 and in the 22nd century. Many insights that can be linked to the problems in everyday life. I am really looking forward to the documents and would like to do two more days."
Site manager 04 [Denzel Group]
"I am extremely grateful. I had never had a workshop like this before. I liked the comparisons with the Asian region. I look forward to a sequel."
Site manager 03 [Denzel Group]
"I've been involved for 7 years, the last conferences were vision-driven. It has always been my wish not to lose ourselves in the vision, but to receive tools for the "here and now". I learned the maximum possible in these 48 hours. I will focus more on people and leave the workshop with lots of valueable learnings. I saw you at ZPK and I was amazed at how quickly and tailor-made you "cobbled together" the content for us."
Site manager 02 [Denzel Group]
"You have the gift of taking 36 people's mindset to a new level. You helped us believe in our ambitious goal. We came as individuals and leave as a team with a big picture. The two days showed me what such an inspiration can initiate."
Site manager 01 [Denzel Group]
"Very reflective! I've been thinking a lot about myself. I have a lot of leverage and can now act. The action plan is very valuable to me. I was always at it - for two full days!"
Barbara Weiss, Head of Personnel Development and Recruiting [Denzel Group]
"With his inspiring personality, Philipp Hahn manages to initiate a change of perspective and to allow new perspectives even with experienced leaders...!
With his gift of transforming people, he has opened up a new level of consciousness in our group."
Werner Kaltenboeck, KC manager at Denzel AG
"Phillip accompanied us in 2 days from the topic "Mobility & Future Retail" to the topic "Leadership of the Future". The entire team was enthusiastic about his way of picking us up, about the content and about the tools he gave us to make the change of the future in the automotive trade more efficient. Thanks"
Using the USA and China as an example, Philipp explained the current and future influences of other nations on companies in Europe.
The Americanization of European culture, which is currently still predominant, will in all likelihood soon be replaced by influences from the Far East. China wants to have ousted the USA in all important places by 2049.
Philipp then went on to provide an in depth explanation of the major challenges the world is facing today and how they are all interconnected in complex ways.
Tackling them requires collaboration, innovation and, most importantly, leadership at all levels, from individuals and communities to governments and international corporations.
Using concrete examples and future scenarios, Philipp showed how the products are increasingly being developed by the customer. An example of this is the increasingly fluid technology and individual software in vehicles in order to anticipate services for the respective customer and to integrate them if necessary.
The ultimate goal: useful help instead of gimmicks. If desired, the customer can conveniently bring any special equipment into the vehicle, give the body a new coat of paint at the touch of a button, or adapt the passenger compartment to individual needs, or "simply be driven and relax". All of this is anticipated and implemented tailor-made for each customer.
What do we mean? We've all bought things that we didn't want in a supermarket before. The offer has created a need. It was the same with smartphones, for example: before smartphones were launched, people didn't know they needed one. Today it is difficult for us to imagine everyday life without a smartphone.
In the future, automobile manufacturers and their digital services will also want to anticipate customer needs before the customer even knows about their needs. In addition, one wants to know and solve the specific requirements of the customers and at the same time comply with the conditions and rules of each market. For the customer, this means that the automobile anticipates their wishes and is increasingly becoming a comprehensive refuge between destination and home.
In the future, customers will also be able to use their car journey to learn more, exchange ideas or simply relax. The tiresome search for a parking space is finally a thing of the past. After we get off right in front of our favorite restaurant where we have arranged to meet friends, our car of the future glides away to park “itself” and activate surveillance mode.
While we "chat" with our friends in the restaurant, our car takes over small tasks for us, such as checking tomorrow's appointment calendar or preparing a star ranking for the restaurant we have just visited and anticipating an earlier departure than planned, because the wife suffers from stomach problems and thus the warming up of the passenger compartment. No problem thanks to user transparency.
In the future, a fully comprehensive data ecosystem car and a holistic customer orientation will be in the focus. The automobile is getting to know its owner and its users better and better and offers individual solutions for everyday use.
The young generation was introduced to the participants on the basis of target group analyses, studies, surveys and behavior analyses.
Philipp showed the participants secret recipes in the form of corporate structures and start-up models, which can already show excellent work results with the young target groups for both customers and employees. GEN Z and GEN A bring new values and expectations to the world of work, demanding greater diversity, equality and inclusion, and a greater focus on purpose and social impact.
Collectively, these forces are transforming the economy and challenging businesses to adapt to a new reality of work and leadership.
In order for the participants to be ablle to anchor the impulses or what they have heard, in their own company, it is important to always plan time for self-reflection and working sessions after inspiring lectures - which we have also implemented in this case.
The first step of a change begins with the assessment of the current situation or with "making yourself aware" of existing potential.
A working session of the first part of the two-day workshop was the consideration & self-critical evaluation of various aspects of the internal processes as well as the external appearance of the Denzel Group, so that possible potentials can be raised and addressed in the next step after development and discussion.
[Philipp Hahn]
At the beginning, Philipp gave an introduction into leadership in the 21st century using the “Leadership Cycle” developed by Rabl & Hahn.
First of all: We are moving away from the leadership style of the past, where there are a few at the top who use authority as an explanation / justification. We now find leadership at all levels of the organization basing their decisions on knowledge. Knowledge and leadership are key qualities of organizations and have always been linked. The future will be dominated by organizations that understand and master the relationship between knowledge and leadership.
The leadership method was very well received by the group and they quickly agreed that it is the managers themselves who are responsible for creating their own culture: with a uniform, correct mindset, the management team lays the foundation stone together to create role models to create leadership in all other ranks.
The question for the second day was therefore which aspects are necessary in terms of management in order to attract competent employees and to motivate and retain existing ones in the long term in order to be able to actively shape the future of the Denzel Group as a high-performance team.
An insight into facts / figures on the topic of leadership shows that the gap between the external image and the self-image of managers is widening. For example, 97% of German executives think they lead well, but only 17% of employees feel well led. This underlines the clear need for action in terms of leadership in companies.
The leadership wheel developed by Rabl & Hahn provides a good overview of what is required of an outstanding leader. While ownership is of course the focus, it is also important to analyze the other components and implement them in daily activities. Managers should be familiar with the 3 types of leadership as well as the 5 principles of self-esteem and the 5 behaviors.
The Leadership Cycle already shows how complex leadership actually is. While the individual elements are considered in detail in the 8-day full version of the workshop, we will cover the most important points in a 1-day introductory workshop.
This session was about the honest self-assessment of managers. On the one hand, it was about them personally, i.e. their degree of maturity as a manager, and on the other hand, the cohesion of their teams.
Only on the basis of a realistic assessment can there be room for improvement.
Now that the participants have heard a lot and received many impulses, it is time to determine how what they “heard” could be put into practice in the future.
Practical examples on the subject of leadership that had been collected in advance were now played through using a number of role-playing games. It is important here that the participants really “feel” into the different roles – because how can you reflect on yourself if you can’t take a different perspective and see problems from the other person’s point of view?
In order for the "experienced" to not fizzle out, each participant had the opportunity to create an action plan for themselves - in a follow-up coaching with Philipp, the participants then present their work status and will be given further tips.
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