Case Study Steel

Management Audit: Large Steel Manufacturer with Global Footprint.

Management audit is used for the evaluation of the upper and top management levels. It is a useful tool for companies wanting to get a clearer picture of what is really going on within their organization.

Organizations with diverse, inclusive leadership teams consistently attract the best talent, deliver superior customer experiences, and outperform the competition.

Our task:

We became involved when our long established client was appointed President for one of the divisions of one of the world’s largest manufacturer of special steel.

The Division had not been profitable for a long-time, there was a lack of investment and a loss of key talent. Rumours about whether it was to be sold, or closed, had for years adversely affected the performance. It was a tired, disillusioned organisation –  an organisation that had lost its drive and faith in its own future. We needed to assess the viability of a turnaround.

Methodology:

Initially we evaluated how the company had developed, how the strategy for the future had been defined and what the present organization looked like.

We interviewed, in depth, over 40 managers and key personnel across all department including the divisional management team, Sales & Marketing, R&D, Operations and Production.

We asked them about their background and education, their professional experience, their current responsibilities and their career aspirations.

Based on these interviews and 360 feedback, we analysed the competence and the potential of each person relative to their current role and the strategy of the company. We actively sought their criticisms and suggestions for improvement as well encouraging them to articulate a vision for the future of the firm. We remained alert for similar feedback from multiple sources.

Our conclusions:

The biggest issue was the structure of the organisation itself.

Some key people were not in the right roles.

There was a lack of energy and forward thinking – it had lost hope.

Our recommendations:

Reorganisation of the leadership structure to align with the strategic organisational requirements.

Introduction of forward thinking and inclusive company culture.

Results:

As a trusted adviser we worked with them throughout the implementation of our recommendations.

We restructured to appoint the right people into key roles including a new site manager who was promoted internally.

After 6 months we began to see significant improvements and after a year the profit had improved to 8%.

Profitability is now at a stable level of 16% – that is a remarkably high figure within this industry and it is still on upward trajectory.

Our client has now moved on to even bigger challenges. Working with us, there is now a new President in post and because we understand the DNA of the organization we remain trusted advisors.

During next 12 months we will complete a Review Audit of the division to recommend any additional fine tuning.

Peter Strandberg
Partner, Sweden