Change management for BMW China’s business optimisation program

JR

SITUATION

The CEO of the BMW company in China who had been with the company since its founding felt that the company’s business processes did not grow in tandem with its growth over a 10 year period and that the cracks have started to appear.

For example, some suppliers were complaining that it took 6 months for them to get paid while the competitors were taking care of it in a matter of days and weeks. Staff also gave feedback that it took the company up to 3 months to get a business trip bill reimbursed. The CEO also heard similar feedback from other areas of the company’s business which touched on sourcing and finance.

The CEO therefore initiated a company-wide process optimisation program called “Journey to Excellence” or “JTE” for short. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) was hired to lead the program and the the sourcing process of the company was selected to be the pilot project.

A large project team was set-up headed by an experienced German senior manager from the sourcing department in China. He was supported in the project team by senior managers from the various finance departments as well as colleagues from the sourcing department. A large kick-off workshop was organised with the CEO and other boards members attending. Many workshops and meetings were organised by BCG and the pilot project started off with a lot of potential and expectations. Even one headcount from the company’s internal communication function was assigned to support the project full time.

However after 6 months the project started stalling for various reasons. After the initial kick-off, there was a lack of commitment from the impacted stakeholders’ leadership. The external consultancy BCG was burning through millions of RMB and therefore was on intense pressure to produce results and therefore adopted a more aggressive approach with the project team. Soon there was a high turnover in the project team, red traffic lights increased and the relationship between BCG and the project manager broke down.

That was when I joined the company in 2014 and was assigned as the change manager to the project. Change management was a new craft that I was just beginning to learn and it was a really a tough project to start with. But I gave so much to this cause and also took away much more. The sourcing project in time became the biggest success story of the entire process optimisation program which had another 7 projects after that.

TASK

  • Assigned as change manager to the sourcing process excellence. To offer urgent change management support to the project team to help it return back to a healthy project management status (green traffic lights).
  • To use existing change management definition, impacted analysis, stakeholder analysis etc and to add additional necessary planning and re-assessment steps as necessary.
  • To develop a concrete action plan identifying areas for improvements and actions and to recommend necessary change interventions to mitigate risks and manage the negative impacts.
  • To offer moral support and motivation to the project manager and his team and to serve as a pillar of strength and support.
  • To develop and implement an appropriate change communication plan hand-on with no budget.

ACTIVITIES

Planning

  • Reviewed change definition and impact assessment
  • Updated stakeholder analysis with 12 interviews
  • Updated change management plan
  • Developed a change communication plan with key messages

Stakeholder Engagement: Project Team

  • Attended all project meetings and addressed change issues.
  • Organised 1-to-1 interventions with project team members.
  • Offered motivation to project leader in program PMO meetings

Stakeholder Engagement: Impacted Leaders

Stakeholder Engagement: Impacted Managers

Stakeholder Engagement: Impacted Staff

Open Days: All Staff

Appreciation Event

Evaluation

  • Program evaluation online survey
  • 3 focus group activities for a deep dive on key issue

RESULTS

Project team

  • Project leader and team became motivated, and project team turn arounds stabilised.

Leaders

  • Impacted management heads showed confidence in the project after knowing that a proper change management plan was in place. CEO joined 2 of the launches and offered leadership visibility.

Managers

  • 91 impacted cross-functional managers were enabled with best practices and tools to lead their teams through the change.

Communication

  • Website attracted hundreds of visitors. 450 staff registered for a business game during the launch of the project. Staff “pulled” the new sourcing process handbook to compete in the business game instead of it being “pushed” to them

Launch event

  • The launch created a lot of buzz and interest. Management and staff signed up to participate in troughs. Process Masters I, 27th Oct 2014. 30 teams. Total 200 attendees.

Project

  • 30 process optimisation measures were completed, some with modifications. An appreciation event was held to celebrate the success.

Personally

  • After the sourcing project, I was tasked to offer support to 5 other process optimisation projects in varying degrees of progress. Here is an overall summary:
  • Sourcing Process Excellence (change management support for the whole project + sub-project manager for 4/20 measures)
  • HR Recruitment Excellence (change management support for the evaluation phase)
  • Finished Logistics Excellence (change management support for the evaluation phase)
  • After Sales Excellence (change management support for the evaluation phase)
  • Decision Making Excellence (change management support for the whole project + sub-project manager for a large measure called “Meeting Efficiency”)
  • Business Process Management Excellence (change management for the whole project)