An executing strategy for results – Howwe accelerated growth for
Background and challanges
Elitfönster is Sweden’s largest producer of windows and doors with factories in the south of Sweden. They currently have about 1000 employees, out of which 80% are blue collars and 20% white collars at the HQ. Elitfönster belongs to Inwido Group, which is one of the Europe’s largest window and door manufacturer with more than 4000 employees. The company is run with strong control and they follow-up on goals as well as daily operational control including LEAN, implemented via traditional tools such as Excel, Power BI & Salesforce.
Elitfönster just completed the business plan and needed to implement it in the organization and to all the employees.
They first try to implement the business plan using the methodology 4 Disciplines of Execution but failed with the implementation and execution. They needed an executing strategy for results.
Identified initiatives and goals in Howwe to create an executing strategy for results
Increase the proactive sales to the profitable housing market
Keep the OTIF, On Time In Full, on a high level
Connect the daily operational control incl. LEAN within the factories with the company's overall Most Important Goals
Increasing the cross-functionality and ownership - succeed in getting the full power out of an organization
Get the company's leaders to go from acting reactively to proactively in their daily management and follow-up
What results have Elitfönster achieved?
Return on Investment calculated on EBIT vs Investment: x25*
Increased sales from the housing market
+1,1 % of total sales
A clear connection between the daily operational steering incl. LEAN within the factories with the company's overall most important goals
Increased EBITA
Increased revenue with +25% vs budget
Increased revenue with +109% vs last year
Jonas Hernborg, CEO at Elitfönster
What has been the key to success for Elitfönster’s executing strategy for results?
Jonas: You need to be invested in driving the execution and be a front figure for the change – it doesn’t happen by itself. Basically, you can have the best strategy but you wont get anywhere with bad execution. On the other hand, you can have an average strategy but with a great execution you will succeed.
It’s important for every person to see how they can contribute and how they fit into this to get the commitment and the power from everyone in your organization to enable them to drive the changes that you want to make. Howwe helps us to enforce the Why behind our strategy, contributing to an anchoring in the whole organization, not just on top level. Howwe brings the activities to a personal level for everyone in the organization by breaking them down to the different departments and finally down to each individual. It motivates them and give them a reason for their work and visualizes their role in the company.
Management Team Elitfönster
Strategic Initiative
Increase cross-functional collaboration to tap into the full potential of the organization
The strategic initiatives and executing strategy for results decided by the Management Team of Elitfönster is aligned into manageable activities in Howwe
Each project leader conduct weekly or biweekly acceleration meetings with the cross-functional group members
The CEO gets all the project leaders together once per month, in one hour the CEO/management team has a full overview of the strategic initiatives progress, its resources, and making sure they reach their full potential
Management Team Elitfönster
Most Important Goals
Too many goals and initiatives clutter the organization. The golden rule in Howwe for a successful executing strategy for results is to have between one and three simultaneous goals per team at a time. These are the Most Important Goals identified by the management team at Elitfönster.
Their Most Important Goals cascade through the organization and are aligned top-down where every team prioritizes their Most Important Goals that support the goals set by the team above.
Management MIG: 1
Increase % sales from housing market from 68 to 69,1 latest 2021-12-31
Management MIG: 2
Keep OTIF, On Time In Full, on 96% latest 2021-12-31
Management MIG: 3
Secure 100 % goal fulfillment of EBITA latest 2021-12-31
Examples of Most Important Goals for Production
Sales Industry Elitfönster
Key Activities
Every team in the organization defines, as part of the executing strategy for results, their Key Activities that drive growth on their Most Important Goals. These are the Key Activities defined by the Sales department.
Result of weekly activities vs historic
Measuring the activities and the impact they have on the most important goal clearly proves the acceleration of growth. Elitfönster’s sales industry achieved the following acceleration on some of their chosen activities compared to their historic results.
Booked meetings – New customer
Cross-sell call with existing customers
Number of sent offers
+ 230%
+ 190%
+ 200%
+ 230%
Booked meetings – New customer
+190%
Cross-sell call with existing customers
+200%
Number of sent offers
Examples of Key Activities for a Production Manager
Head of for example of a section in the factory
Management Team Elitfönster
Sprint – Key Activities
Sprint Key Activities helps teams to become more focused on what truly matters when it comes to the executing strategy for results. It supports leaders to unite their team around their agenda rather than the different functional or individual priorities.
Management Team Elitfönster
Sprint – Key Activities
Sprint Key Activities helps teams to become more focused on what truly matters when it comes to the executing strategy for results. It supports leaders to unite their team around their agenda rather than the different functional or individual priorities.
Management Team Elitfönster
Tips for working with Sprint Key Activities
Howwe Technologies met up with Micael Broström, Sales & Marketing Director at Elitfönster, to get his perspective on modern leadership and the benefits of working with Sprint Key Activities.
Kaizen/daily steering vs. Strategic steering with Howwe and our executing strategy for results
How to connect the daily steering (LEAN, Kaizen, etc.) within the factories with the company’s overall Most Important Goals?
Jonas Hernborg, you have an organization with both white and blue collars. How does the Howwe way of working align in the organization with daily steering, for example, Lean and 5S?
Jonas: When you’re running a production facility, there are endless operational parameters you try to optimize on a daily basis.
The primary tool is the daily steering within the LEAN framework and that’s really running your typical day-to-day stuff.
However, you can’t rely only on the day-to-day tools, you need to connect this also to where we are heading and a lot of time the behavioral change we need to do overtime – which is more on a strategic level. Howwe adds the strategic direction of where you want to go. Basically, you can say that the daily steering is the instrument panel of the car but Howwe is used as your GPS to get them going in the right direction and get the behavior of going in the right direction for the company and the people working there. They complement each other and we need both.
How does Howwe align with other reporting to the board, time, and what to report?
Jonas: One of the benefits I appreciate with Howwe is that the software makes the whole organization speak the same language. Previously, we used different measuring points and lingo in the engineering, sales, and production team, but now, there is one way of speaking about our strategic work and one way of reporting that everybody has to conform to, no matter if you’re a white or blue-collar. This has grown into a habit used in daily activities as well. It helps me as well as the overall internal communication when everybody understands and speaks the same language. Otherwise, the execution would be done differently between the different functions.
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