Case Story YIT
Tough goals require tough measures.
Two years ago the management group at YIT´s division Facility Management faced a huge challenge. The goal was to increase the turnover from 360 million to one billion SEK in three years - with organic growth and sustained profit. To succeed the management group introduced a result focused working method.
The limit was set in autumn of 2006 when the management group of the division was gathered to decide the guidelines for the future. Everyone had an expressed wish to speed up the growth. During two intensive days the business area managers analyzed the present situation. What did the business look like, what had they performed - and above all - what would it take to take the result to a higher level? Göran Solig, management consultant at Qeep, was present at the meeting.
-For us it was right to take in external expertise, says division manager Klas Johansson. The division was relatively new within the company group and the employees came from different companies and organizational cultures. I had started as business area manager at the technical management division six months earlier.
Everyone agreed on the overall and long term goal - to have a turnover of one billion in the year 2010. But nobody knew how to reach the goal.
Asking sharp questions.
Qeep challenges its client to be extremely result focused. The management consultants don't hesitate to question old truths or to ask sharp questions. Step by step they handle everything that stands in the way of better results.
- Since Qeep became involved in the company we have done several important breakthroughs, says Klas Johansson. We increased the number of incoming orders with 40 % during 2007. And the agreement stock - which is an important measure for us - increased with 50 million. We used to sell about 20 agreements per year. During 2007 we sold over 100.
YIT Facility Management is specialized in all type of technical management. Among the clients you can find property-holders, construction companies, hospitals, colleges, offices and industries all over Sweden.
During 2007 the division increased the turnover with about 30% and at the same time the operating result improved with 25%. The results are impressive - especially considering that one business area lost a business deal worth 50 million in the beginning of 2007, otherwise the division had increased the turnover with 43% that year.
The success also led to that the division recruited 90 new employees during that year.
-Our new working method suits people that want to reach extraordinary results. Our meetings are more focused, we don´t waste time on irrelevant discussions. I´m more straight forward and ask more critical related questions.
Precise expressions and expressed demands
Klas Johansson says that he has become more direct towards his co-worker. Vague formulations have been replaced by precise expressions and expressed demands.
-The year working with Qeep developed me as a leader. I´m more sharp today. In theory it is rather simple to achieve change. It´s just about setting clear goals, follow up the result, steer towards wished results and create energy through regular meetings, he says and smiles. In reality it hasn't been that easy. The transformations have not been without conflicts. Some employees felt that the consultants from Qeep were too hard.
-At first there was a lot of slamming door. But the confrontations have made them sharper. Not least in the teams that have had the biggest success.
Individual result plans
From the autumn of 2006 until the first quarter of 2008 Klas Johansson and his closest co-worker met with Göran Solig and three other consultants from Qeep every week. To reach the goal all employees needed to understand what was required from them and acting according to these requirements.
-In big parts of the organization we had introduced individual result planes that we followed up every week, says Klas Johansson. Our result meetings follow a certain routine. We always start with good news, where we blow our own trumpet and talk about how good we are. It was difficult to get acceptance of this part in our Swedish technical culture. Then we do two minutes of result reporting per person.
Each and every one reports their own results during the week - both progress and deviations, if any.
-We also present how we plan to handle the deviations, both positive and negative. In the beginning many thought this was hard. The individual responsibility becomes very obvious. Now we are used to weekly result meetings. We know that it works.
A shift of paradigm
Pierre Holman, manager of the business unit Public management, describe the changed way of working as a shift of paradigm.
-Just having meetings every week was a change for us. The management group used to meet once a month. Above all we have a more obvious result focus. Qeep introduced the method Critical Factors for Result. We can identify what´s missing and what we have to do to reach our goals. It makes it easier to reach results.
During 2007 the business unit increased the turnover with 60% and at the same time the operating result increased with 66%. According to Qeep´s consultant Göran Solig it is an exceptional result:
-A common paradigm and an established truth within company management is that it is not possible to grow with retained or increased margin. This proves the opposite.
- 2007 was a remarkable year for Public management, says Pierre Holman. We have questioned and provoked each other, but we have also reach goals that we hardly thought possible a year ago. My management group is more pepped up today. We know what we have to do and make better - and faster - decisions.
Result driven coaching
Pierre Holman says that his business unit will increase the result with more than 40% this year. It will take result driven coaching to succeed.
-To coach others to success is the most important - and the most difficult - thing that I have learned from Qeep. It doesn't work to give lectures. I don't tell my employees what they are going to do. Instead I often ask what they plan to do to reach their goals.
Public management has several big hospitals as customers. Sven Wester, who during 2007 was branch manager at the University Hospital of Karolinska, says that Qeep has made everybody look up and think forward.
-Looking at myself I can see that I was stuck in old patterns. We were working towards a reasonable budget, like we always have done. Qeep´s method, to aim towards very high goals, forces us to rethink and act completely different. Personally I have developed enormously. I soon turn 65 and have always liked to work, but I have never had so much fun as I have now.
Result meetings every week
Sven Wester took his department on the same journey as he had been on. Together they set up goals, defined critical factors for result, decided what they wanted to change and introduced result meetings every week. Already in the last quarter of 2006 the turnover of the department had solidly increased.
- Everybody presented their results every week - even our technicians, project leaders and administrators - and both my staff and I got a kick out of it. This contributed to an increase of the turnover with 7 million during 2007.
Qeep finished their project at YIT in the beginning of 2008, but within the division the journey towards a turnover of one billion SEK continues on. Klas Johansson is convinced that they will succeed.
- We see big opportunities in the energy sector and we have built an enormous competence in the organization. I believe that we even can exceed our goal. Today the process works.