Ensuring strategy implementation through competence management in blue-collar industries
19 December 2014 — The full potential of competence management is not often exploited when seeing it as only being relevant for knowledge-intensive work and for people in managerial positions. In this article, we argue that managing the competences of blue collar workers is crucial for many service and manufacturing companies to ensure effective strategy implementation and sufficient operational performance.
Your supply chain can benefit from a practical implementation of the "China Plus One" strategy
12 November 2024 — Due to EU-China tit-for-tat tariffs and Trump's second term, companies seek supply chain alternatives. However, many doubt viability, worry about repercussions and struggle to achieve cost-saving. Pragmatic analysis and risk mitigations with a dynamic roadmap can maximize value capture.
Using systematic bolt-on acquisitions to drive growth
21 June 2011 — Companies seeking growth often balance between growing through organic business development, and inorganic growth through mergers and acquisitions. Organic development is slow, as it takes time to develop and launch new products and technologies, a new business line or broader geographic presence. Programmatic “bolt-on” acquisitions provide an alternative value creation path with manageable risk.
Managing complex programs – standardize and decentralize for efficiency and agility
28 March 2016 — In complex projects and programs, the choice of operating model (structure, processes and tools) is a key driver of success and execution efficiency. This article presents the evolution of a particularly complex technology program from a top-heavy organization to an agile “divisional” (self-contained) structure.
New opportunities and value creation through corporate environmentalism
21 March 2022 — Finnish companies increasingly prioritize reducing GHG emissions, but corporate environmentalism encompasses broader opportunities. This article breaks this subject down into its components and explores value-creation opportunities for investors, consumers, shareholders, employees, and society.
Leveraging professional financial management practices to drive small and medium-sized company growth
5 April 2012 — Growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is crucial for the Finnish economy, but based on earlier research, there are only few companies who have actually grown to revenues of 200-500M€, and practically no companies have grown to above 1000M€ of revenue during the past 20 years. One of the reasons we have found is that the finance function of a normal SME does not support its growth journey well enough, leaving one important value creation lever under-utilized.
Succession planning in the context of a family business and why you need outside help
13 January 2016 — The subject of family owned business is important globally, and in particular in the Middle East, where it is further exacerbated by the fact that many of these types of businesses are first or second generation family-owned companies.
Ensuring the value creation of your growing ICT investments through continuous portfolio management
21 June 2011 — The importance of information and communication technology is increasing in all companies. Still, many companies are not monitoring value creation of ICT investments. In this article we describe why the importance and difficulty of ICT portfolio management has increased and what kinds of actions are needed to ensure the value creation of ICT investments.