AI & Digital Transformation

The Challenge

We partnered with a consultancy focused on business management and quickly earned the trust of a client in waste recycling. After awarding the project, the client said they wanted us because we felt like a well-coordinated team. They valued getting specialist expertise in business management and performance improvement alongside effective change management.

The client had already tried twice to introduce organization-wide ERP software to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Both attempts had failed, and the board saw the next attempt as critical to the organization’s future. They identified insufficient expertise among previous implementation partners, inadequate management attention, and difficulties aligning business functions on processes and improvement opportunities.

Our first conversations showed that supporting the technical implementation alone would be insufficient. Excellence and profitability needed more attention alongside growth, and collaboration needed to change. We discussed our observations openly with the client and agreed on the wider assignment.

• Clarify the strategyand embed it in how leaders and employees think and act, ensuring sustained implementation.
• Develop leadership cultureand help the executive board become a team that models change and actively fulfills its role as change leaders.
• Ensure a successful transition to the new IT system while operations continue, andprepare employees for the new requirements.

The Journey

At the first leadership conference, initial skepticism about unfamiliar methods gave way to openness and enthusiasm. Experiential formats helped leaders discuss their own mistakes openly. Discussions and reflection moved beyond conference tables, and people’s needs, concerns, and hopes were considered alongside strategic questions. Participants connected what needed to change with how they would work together. One participant said the approach felt different and made them believe that real change was possible this time.

Intensive coaching and senior-team development helped the client recognize that its leadership setup had become a barrier rather than a source of direction. Clarifying this required a demanding process, but the outcome felt important and liberating to those involved.

Other leaders joined change-leadership programs to strengthen their skills and tools. A learning culture gradually developed, and regular constructive feedback became more common. Learning moved from isolated events into everyday work. Useful mistakes, efficient meetings, and well-prepared decisions became regular topics of discussion.

We developed formats and concepts jointly with the client to build their ability to act independently. Middle and senior leaders became more involved in shaping the organization. Personal conversations helped messages reach employees on both an intellectual and an emotional level.

The Results

Today, an expanded management team steers the company and supports its employees in discovering their own potential: "The most important thing for our success is the team" became the new motto and the basis for trusting teamwork.Not all business challenges have been solved, but the strategic initiatives are proving successful and the company's economic situation is no longer threatening but stable, as evidenced, among other things, by a multiplication of profits. Clean prioritization of projects is having an effect, and transparency in roles and moderated coordination among subprojects are reducing efficiency and friction losses. In this way, we were able to gradually leave the big stage, in keeping with the words of the COO:"Actually, I don't like consultants, but we couldn't have done this on our own without you guys"Long live appreciative directness!