The client wanted to improve its ability to deliver new products to the market with strong client focus and consequently realize the business case value (sales potential).
The starting point of this assignment was to understand the root causes of inadequate sales performance. In order to do that the diagnostics project was established based on interviews with various stakeholders in the organisation. Thereafter the systemic root causes should prioritize further improvement (Kaizen) initiatives aimed at improving the delivery of the business cases sales potential.
The following action plan was developed with the client: map relevant stakeholders, develop interview plan with questions, schedule and conduct interviews, classify responses into different common themes according to frequency and impact, develop hypothesis about inadequate sales performance, summarize the key trends, suggest the solution space by specifying and prioritizing the key improvement themes into Kaizen events, prepare and run Kaizen events and summarize the conclusions.
Based on the interviewing process the following key improvement themes were identified: product specification development and validation with the customer, customer involvement strategy, project governance discipline, application of agile project delivery model, cross-functional team decision making. The three consecutive Kaizen events were designed and conducted, as the result of which the improvement actions in each of the domains were derived. The client decided to implement these on its own and monitor the sales “hit rate” (ration between the actual and predicted sales).
Key themes for the training & the team building