3 crucial steps to transform an artisan company into a learning industry

The world changes, people change, organizations evolve.

In an accelerated world, being first is important, but creating an organizational culture that allows you to learn is necessary.

I took over the company where today CEO in 2018. The road taught me winning strategies to transform a company.

Here’s what I learned.

Create a bold organizational challenge

When I arrived, the company was losing market and had an obsolete production and product system.

There was one thing that stood out: the company seemed to be assembled from separate silos, with infinite meetings where no one took things in hand.

So, we created the sense of urgency with a bold organizational challenge:

• +10% productivity
• -30% inventory
• -40% lead time.

That way we would have had a better balance, healthier finance, and better service.

Measure failures and correct

We were more productive, faster. But the data got worse.

Why? We didn’t have the right data, we didn’t measure correctly.

We began to measure better, to foster doubts, and correct the system.

Result: we learned quickly.

Without realizing it, we were learning from every single failure, and the more we failed, the more we became aware of knowing nothing.

Today this learning ability is our most important asset.

Turn the organizational challenge into personal challenges and have confidence in people

The system was not yet sustainable. I was overwhelmed and people followed my mood. I eventually realized that every single decision passed through me.

Yes, I created a challenge, we learned, but I was accounted for every decision.

So, we turned the organizational challenge into personal challenges, asking people to come out of their shells.

In return, we got more autonomous and responsible people. Now, every day more and more people are taking action.

The size of the challenge is not that important, but incredibly, the right people learn faster than you expect.

And having more and more right people is the key to success.

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