News
Tuesday 01. June 2010
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| New Approaches |
| WirtschaftsWoche determined the best consulting specialists for medium-sized companies in five different disciplines. What problems the consultants were faced with at their clients; how they set up their projects, and the results they obtained. |
| By Hans-Jürgen Klesse "Don't go to the first that comes along!", that's what the home page of DAB Bank says, the direct banking subsidiary of HypoVereinsbank. "Go to the first and best!" The advertising slogan takes a risk: It appeals to the customers' readiness for change – and that can also backfire. In the Internet era, the customer knows after three mouse clicks who will pay the highest interest and who will charge the lowest fees. And, at worst, with a fourth click, the customer might just make the change. Detecting such migration trends early, counteracting them and thus increasing customer loyalty is important for the survival not only of the DAB Bank. But how is it done? The right answer to this question was one of the five victorious projects in the Best-of-Consulting competition by WirtschaftsWoche. The competition was about determining the best specialists among the German consultancies. Keeping customers "Close customer relations and customer loyalty are of central importance for the DAB Bank; due to changed market conditions, however, they are put to a tough test", says Bernhard Braunmüller, partner at Esprit Consulting. "Formerly well-functioning instruments for increasing customer loyalty had to be replaced by new approaches", adds Thomas Hamele, head of Customer Management at DAB Bank. The challenge for consultants was to optimize instruments which prevent the migration of customers or increase customer ties. Objective of the project: High customer loyalty was to be maintained and migration tendencies with regular customers were to be detected early to be able to counteract. "Thanks to the consulting project, we now have an early warning system with precisely specified threshold values", says DAB banker Hamele. The software raises the alarm if, for example, nothing happens on an account, or if only money is drawn from it. "We can thus identify early on any customer relations that are at risk." Then, a consultant can seek a talk and find out why the customer is dissatisfied, or the consultant can make new offers. Creating perspectives The order was set up more broadly for the top of the class in the discipline of competitive strategy: The assignment of Helbling Corporate Finance had the objective of making the Gust. Alberts Group strong for the future. The company produces metal products such as fittings for fences and gates. Customers of the European market leader are DIY stores and specialty stores; its staff of about 400 people realize sales of about € 100 million. The family-owned business had a problematic situation due to the tough price competition between DIY stores and specialty stores; and that situation was even aggravated by the financial crisis. "Our sales were stagnant, earnings were unsatisfactory", says Dietrich Alberts, the managing sole shareholder. The consultants' primary task was to show starting points for improvements. "A second step involved the implementation of potentials for improved earnings and cost reduction", says Frank Stubbe, managing director at Helbling. In parallel, less liquidity was to be tied up and a better controlling and reporting system to be established. The decisions resulted in a major retread. The product range was streamlined; prices were adjusted; costs reduced through new supplier contracts. Liquidity and earnings have improved; financing is secured: "The overall result was that the sales threshold at which we are generating profits is nearly one third lower than before", says general manager Alberts. Pipeline for talents The order from Audi to Promerit, the consultancy specializing in talent management, was concerned about securing junior staff: Audi aims at the market leadership in the premium car segment which cannot be achieved without specialized skilled workers and engineers. According to a study by Wirtschafts-Woche with Universum, Audi is already the most popular employer for engineers and graduates in business management (WirtschaftsWoche 18/2010). "That will not be sufficient with the increasing lack of skilled workers", says Michael Groß, responsible at Audi for personnel marketing. "We will not always be able to cover our demand through classical recruiting approaches." It is true that Audi is well-known among engineers; however, some target groups are still difficult to reach even for Audi. "This is why Audi decided to establish a talent relationship management system which actively counteracts personnel bottlenecks", explains Kai Anderson, partner at Promerit. The new system is to identify interesting candidates early on, and establish a relationship with them. When a particular demand becomes apparent, the possible specialists are known and can be contacted fast. "Such own talent pipeline makes Audi more independent of the availability on the labor market and of external service providers", says Anderson. To fill the pipeline, target groups were identified in personnel demand. For example, a newly created Talent Relationship Manager checks in which social networks the target group is heavily represented or which fairs and conventions it will visit. "Thus, if necessary, we can make an interesting offer at very short notice", says Groß. A pilot program is currently running with two target groups in which Audi recorded already its first successes. Better IT system The best consulting project in the discipline of IT strategy seems – at first glance – like the introduction of a classical SAP software for bookkeeping, controlling, sales, purchasing, production, warehousing, and personnel management. However, the contract for Intargia Managementberatung with the medium-sized company Brita went further. The company is the worldwide leader in water filters for commercial and private applications. In 2009, a workforce of about 960 realized sales of € 282.8 million. Not all areas were able to keep pace with its fast growth. Especially in IT, there was great demand to catch up. At the same time, corporate management had formulated ambitious goals: high growth, especially in Asia and the U.S.A., as well as the development of new business areas for professional applications. "The existing systems for data exchange with our customers – the specialized trade, brand name household appliance sellers and international trading companies – as well as for the support of internal processes were foreseeably no longer sufficient", says Frank Nittka, member of the Brita board of management. "There was also no common process understanding within the overall organization", says Intargia partner Christian Schauß. First, consultants therefore had to define an across-the-board IT strategy for all areas. A system for resource application planning was derived from it. Meanwhile, the new strategy stands; all business processes are precisely defined. "Brita is working more efficiently in all areas; networking with customers and suppliers is much better than before", Nittka praises. Retreaded supply chain The problems at Krone were also typical for a market leader having outgrown the structures of a family-owned business. The project by Kerkhoff Consulting for optimization of the supply chain was the winner in this category. The owner-managed Maschinenfabrik Bernard Krone is part of the Krone Group with sales of € 870 millions. Krone builds harvester vehicles. Due to the high speed of innovation and the expansion to self-propelled harvester machines, ever more parts came from suppliers: "The existing supply chain management was no longer able to handle these increased requirements", says Gerd Kerkhoff, founder and head of the purchasing specialists. There was friction especially between purchasing and supplier management: "Coordination and communications had to be improved", says Bernard Krone, chairman of the board. Partly, responsibilities were not clearly laid down; documentation was lacking, as well as the control of buying processes. Krone: "The supply chain was overall too unstable; and product quality suffered in some cases." The purchasing department has meanwhile been newly organized; there are electronic interfaces to suppliers. Internal process costs decreased significantly as a result, but the product quality increased: "That provides us with a long-term competitive advantage and safeguards our future viability", Krone is pleased. How the Best-of-Consulting winners were selected The competition organized by WirtschaftsWoche wants to provide transparency in the major consulting disciplines. Called upon to participate were consultancies which are predominantly active for medium-sized clients. Candidates could apply with a particularly successful reference project in the five categories of competitive strategy, marketing and sales, personnel management, supply chain management and IT strategy. "In a first step, the consultancies and their submitted projects were analyzed on the basis of qualitative and quantitative criteria", says Bianka Knoblach, study manager at the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Management und Beratung in Bonn (Scientific Company for Management and Consulting). The research company founded by Dietmar Fink, professor at the University for Applied Studies Bonn- Rhein-Sieg, had been engaged by WirtschaftsWoche with regard to the concept and implementation of the competition. Knoblach: "The applicants had to describe their project in detail and name three contacts from the company they consulted. We then used an online evaluation form to interview these contacts in terms of their assessment of the success of the project." High-caliber jurors Candidates and projects were selected on that basis and submitted to the technical advisory council for a selection of the finalists. The council comprises five renowned professors: Ann-Kristin Achleitner, TU (Technical University) Munich (Competitive Strategy); Manfred Bruhn, University of Basel (Marketing and Sales); Ruth Stock-Homburg, TU Darmstadt (Personnel Management); Christopher Jahns, European Business School (Supply Chain Strategy); and Elgar Fleisch, University of Zurich (IT Strategy). For their category, the council members selected three finalists, based on the creativity of the selected approach, the challenge or demand of the project, its scope, as well as the track of its success. From that group of finalists, a jury then determined the winners. The jury included: Eva Manger-Wiemann, member of the management board of the meta consultancy Cardea from Zurich; Dietmar Fink; Michael Mirow, professor at the Institute for Technology and Management at the TU Berlin; Tom Sommerlatte, until 1997 chief of consultants at Arthur D. Little; as well as Roland Tichy, editor in chief at WirtschaftsWoche. |
