digitization & portfolio –
workshop series for a customer who wants
to remain anonymous
CHALLENGE
How manufacturers and suppliers in the automotive industry can master the change caused by Industry 4.0.
The automotive industry is in the midst of a gigantic transformation. The smartphone on four wheels, a digital car manufactured in an agile, digitized production process is suddenly within reach.
One of the first chain disruptions associated with this is the lowering of the entry hurdle to the mobility market with the electric motor. This creates new competitors (BYD, NIO, XPENG) at a previously unknown frequency.
These new competitors are fast, flexible and very focused, often starting from scratch and using state-of-the-art technologies such as skateboard platforms and agile production methods.
The classic suppliers are also facing a crucial test, because the fast market, digitization and software-based business models are turning the approaches of the OEMs upside down.
They rely less and less on the support of external partners and want more control over supply and internal competence development. There is hardly an OEM that is not increasingly shifting development competencies in-house.
Another disruptive powder keg is the shift of power to the customer. With a gigantic customer potential of well over 200 million customers, China is becoming the most important sales market. The car factories of the future are therefore in Asia. Further challenges are autonomous driving, service-oriented business models and putting the car on an uncompromising diet: from resource conservation to climate-positive automobiles.
Our customer, who would like to remain anonymous, proactively faces these challenges and relies on the experience and competence of Rabl & Hahn as part of a workshop series on the subject of "digitization & portfolio".
MISSION
Rabl & Hahn supported the customer in 2022 in developing their own power of innovation as a motor in the change process.
As part of a workshop series with all-day workshops on the topic of "future portfolio", Rabl & Hahn made selected departments of the customer fit for digitization and requirements for the future portfolio.
The workshop series provided a protected space for all participants to use Rabl & Hahn's expert knowledge to illuminate the current status, to develop new ideas and to learn methods in order to independently design innovations and successfully pitch them to stakeholders and customers.
STRATEGY & PREPARATION
An evaluation of the degree of digital maturity and the innovative ability of individual departments served as the basis for the workshop concept.
Various areas of digitization were considered:
- Organization: Is there an organization for digitization in the department?
- What is the vision for the digitization of the department / business field?
- What strategy / specific implementation proposal is there for the future situation?
- Customer and user experience:
How do we collect feedback from our customers and how do we implement it?
- Data: What data do we have and how do we use it?
- Products/Services: What does our digital portfolio look like?
- Which sales/business models including product innovations and digitization are available?
Interview Top Management/Sponsor: Vision/ Mission/ Goals & Expectations
Prior consultation and obtaining management and sponsor requirements ensures that the final results meet their requirements.
Survey departments and internal customers: expectations
An internal survey was initiated to ensure that both customer requests and the needs of the very different areas are met.
WORKSHOP 01
The aim of the first workshop is a uniform view of the relevant need for change and the requirements of “top management and customers to us”.
Furthermore, a "Big Picture" as well as our "Missions" and "Departmental Strategies" for the achievement of goals were developed.
Day 1 of the workshop series began with a key note from Philipp Hahn, in which he gave the team a rich outside-in perspective on current developments, but also future solutions from other companies and industries.
Then the expectations of the top management and the customers were presented and the initiative and roadmap for the year presented.
After this basis was created, the content was developed in working sessions: the development of a vision, missions and strategies for the individual departments and their implementation in all relevant processes and procedures.
Mandate, responsibilities, tasks, delimitation of tasks were regulated transparently.
The highlight results of the first workshop were now deeply enriched customer needs, which were filled in user persona templates. With the help of a stakeholder map, the participants recognized at a glance the needs of the customers as well as those of the parent company, which represents the bottleneck for components and products.
At the end of the first workshop, the departments have a holistic picture of their own mission and vision, the increased needs within the company and from outside, and also the current developments in the disruptive business world.
WORKSHOPS 02 AND 03
The aim of the second and third workshops was to provide the team with a toolkit for successful digital transformation in order to know and understand customers and the competition, to develop business-oriented and customer-centric solutions, and to successfully design and argue product ideas and lead to decisions be able.
In addition to tools and contacts for well-founded customer, market and competitor analyses, the participants primarily take away new tools, how they can give their product ideas maximum chances of success with optimally structured pitches and promising communication and negotiation techniques, as well as the "visibility" of their activities in the organization can increase.
Data-supported decision-making and entrepreneurial action: Let's assume you want to market a new product. Instead of relying on "good luck" and experience, you can use a data-driven strategy to establish the product profitably in the market. Almost all successful decisions are now based on hypotheses about customer needs, on which the new value proposition is based. In order to reduce the uncertainty in product decisions, a hypothesis-based, iterative and data-supported approach is therefore essential.
But how do you make sure you don't get lost and make a balanced decision?
Using clear examples, the participants were taught the advantages and use of data for decision-making.
A big lessons learned by the group: Even if there is little data in one area, there are countless ways to get data via portals on the Internet.
Business Case: The participants went through a business case scenario to show whether an investment or project is worthwhile for a company and what economic benefits it could bring.
Together they examined the profitable target groups, the costs, the benefits, the time required and the possible risks associated with the planned project.
Successful pitching: Finally, the participants had the opportunity to present their freshly created pitch decks to a tough jury. The jury took different perspectives on this.
The pitch document was optimized with the aim of being neither a text desert nor a glossy brochure, but rather conveying real knowledge about the product with crisp figures, data and facts about the market, competition and monetization.
Further contents of the workshop:
- VUCA world
- Strategies of other competitors, whose work and innovation models act tactically, create advantages
- Situation and problem description (simple, complicated, complex, chaotic)
- Blue Ocean vs. Red Ocean Strategy (company-created markets with few competitors)
- Digital disruption of other companies that use opportunities and customer proximity to their advantage
- Create customer experiences
- Ecosystems of other companies
- Successful organizations put their people first
- Successful organizations sometimes deliberately break the rules of the game and system boundaries.