Lean, Digital Transformation & Stakeholdership - My experiences with these exciting management concepts

Good to see You again here in my blog right now. For my todays post I have chosen a subject, wich since longer impresses and drives me very much. Actually I decided to talk about this subject today because of a certain coincidence of events and activities during the last couple of days, which all somehow lead to this subject and which all have a lot to do with it. I am talking about the concept of the "stakeholdership". 

About two weeks ago in a former post (https://klausfhepp.blogspot.com/2020/07/my-experience-with-lean-as-strong-and.html) I have shared some experiences about the beginning of the introduction of Lean Management principles and concepts into our factory in Itatiba some years ago. 

Since about the same time I am reading a very interesting - but unfortunately so far only available in German language - book ("Digitale Transformation gestalten" - Geschäftsmodelle, Erfolgsfaktoren, Checklisten, Oliver Gassmann / Philipp Sutter, Hanser Verlag), which explains how companies can get started on the digital transformation of their businesses. 

And yesterday I participated in a really informative webinar ("Digitalisation - How do I get there?") perfectly organized by my great friends of STAUFEN Táktica Brasil (https://www.staufen-taktica.com.br/pt/). You can - by the way - find the full video of this webinar on their website.

But what the hell do all these events and activities have to do with "stakeholdership"? Well, better let us at first have a look at the definition of the term stakeholdership. 

Some people erroneously mean, that stakeholdership was the same as shareholdership. But this is definitely not the case. Stakeholdership is a term, which describes all parties which have an interest in a company and which can either affect or be affected by the business. The primary stakeholders in a typical corporation are its owners, investors, management, employees, customers, and suppliers. 

However, the modern theory of the idea goes beyond this original notion and includes additional stakeholders such as the public, community, government and associations.

Following my own interpretation of my role and responsability as President of Vulkan do Brasil, I am the main stakeholder within our company here in Itatiba, Sao Paulo, Brazil. This explains very well, why the focus of my exercise of functions is not just the optimisation of our short and mid term company and mainly financial results, but also the mid to long term further development and growth of our company and business, which sometimes creates conflicts between both, which have to be decided and solved by the primary stakeholders of our company, means by the owners and the CEO of our group.

In this sence I consequentially play my role as stakeholder within our brazilian company since we have started to introduce all these concepts like lean management and digital transformation to our company and also since we initiated our strategic sales expansion (Latin America, global markets) and product, processes & application development projects. 

My management team has fully accepted me in this particular role since my arrival at our company in September 2014 and is fully aware, that in all these important subjects and initiatives, which we are constantly launching and executing at Vulkan do Brasil, I am one of the developpers and drivers of our ideas and goals, but I depend massively on the identification and active contribution of all our management team colleagues and our whole organisation with regards to the realisation of all these projects and initiatives and the achievement of our goals. 

On the other side of the coin, it is my duty and responsability, to check the plausibility and feasability of all our new initiatives and projects before we get started on these and to obtain the approval and - if necessary - financial sponsorship of our CEO and owners. And another important contribution from my side is, to set up the appropriate internal organisation, provide all necessary resources, do the continuous follow up, necessary fine adjustments  and remove all major obstacles and opposition, whenever we encounter these. 

This is exactly the way, how we have started and executed until today all our great strategic initiatives and projects like the lean transformation of our factory (meanwhile: whole company), our outbreak into the Latin American industrial markets (Mexico, Central America, Caribbean and all South America), the creation and continuous further development of our DPPA (Development of Products, Processes and Applications) department, our "Brain Group" (I will present this in a future post), our active colaboration and experience sharing with our sister companies Vulkan Australia and Vulkan South Africa on the Australian and African continents and the just started development of concepts for the digital transformation of our whole Brazilian company. 

Seen from this background, You will easily agree, that all this can only be realised by a strong team of lots of experienced and highly motivated colaborators on all hierarchical levels and in all different functions of our company and with massive continuous support from the owners and the CEO of our group. 

In this sence I would like to finish my todays post with some interesting literal citations from the book "Digitale Transformation gestalten" mentioned at the beginning of this post and which I have still not finished completely to read:

"The successful achievement of the digital transformation has become a question for the survival for most companies."

"The speed of the digital transformation is much higher, than originally expected by most of the industry experts."

"The most important driver for the success of the digital transformation is the business model, which has been chosen. The traditional competition between products and companies is more and more beeing substituted by the competition of business models."

"The classical "red queen effect" describes, that companies which want to survive in a competitive business environment, have to become at least as fast with their transformation processes as their competitors."

I wonder, whether You found this interesting and whether You would like to comment upon Your own experiences which You have already made with these exciting these subjects.

Anyhow I wish You lots of fun and success during the day and hope to meet You again here in my blog upon my tomorrows post.