True to the motto “what got you here won’t bring you there”, something radically different had to happen under increasing pressure to achieve the necessary success. As in many companies, the problem at tk steel was not a lack of knowledge or a lack of clarity about what needed to be done. The fields of action were clear for a long time: green steel had to be produced, e-mobility and lightweight construction for the automotive industry had to be driven forward, sales and production management had to be brought up to scratch – and much more. Everything has been clear for a long time! So the challenge was not what to do, but the doing itself. Why is that the case? Have we forgotten how to do things sensibly? Or have we made this ability worse through approaches such as “agility”? The answer is more complex than a simple cause-and-effect chain. One thing is certain:
The answer is more complex than a simple cause-and-effect chain. One thing is certain:
- Megatrends such as the rapid increase in technology, climate change with all its regulatory and demand structure changes, the continuing globalization despite some national efforts and the ever shorter life cycle of products and services are driving the issues that need to be implemented in all companies, both in terms of numbers and networking across the various divisions.
- The consequence: more and more topics have to be brought onto the proverbial street in ever shorter cycles, involving more and more players (departments/divisions).
- The reality: Management structures and mechanisms with large-scale projects, pronounced divisional thinking that degenerates into well-known silo phenomena, the unwillingness to be transparent and the desire to play it safe so as not to be blamed or look “stupid” afterwards do not help to meet the requirements or the need from above.
- The claim to become more “agile” based on these findings actually makes things worse in many places: attitude, mindset and structures remain the same, clothed in additional, great-sounding methods and structures, “tribes” and “squads” that work in “sprints” and the like. The effect: more administrative overhead without any real added value. The result is classic management in an agile shell. There is still no real focus on results and progress, but an input orientation with classic planning and control that weakens implementation and robs speed.
- And so these phenomena also presented themselves at tk steel in March 2020: in addition to a catastrophic earnings situation, a mixture of inhibiting tradition, a far more complex organization than necessary, the usual divisional and expert silos, a dwindling belief in the future made the need to turn the corner more urgent than ever before. The pressure to change was enormous.
Progress
