A leading global manufacturer of electronic components leveraged a strategic acquisition in Switzerland to spark a sweeping transformation, enhancing operational efficiency, deepening cross-team collaboration, and embracing a culture of continuous improvement. But this wasn’t just a business transaction. It was the launch pad for complete management evolution.
The Challenge: Navigating Complexity After Strategic Growth
Following the acquisition of a specialized R&D company, the manufacturer faced several formidable hurdles:
Disconnected Workflows: Teams across departments and locations relied on disparate methods and tools, leading to inconsistent project execution.
Lack of Standardisation: There were no formal project management processes in place. Dependencies between distributed teams often result in delays and misunderstandings.
Static Tools: Project tracking relied on Excel, which quickly became inefficient for a dynamic, rapidly changing environment.
Cultural Friction: The integration process brought together teams with vastly different experiences, workflows, and expectations.
Misaligned Priorities: Strategic goals often get lost in operational bottlenecks without clear visibility, making it difficult to measure progress or allocate resources effectively.
The critical question emerged: "How do we manage all of this?"
The Solution: Standardisation, Visual Management & Agile Practices
To overcome these challenges, the organization undertook a series of strategic steps:
Leadership Alignment through Transparency: The future General Manager facilitated risk management workshops before the acquisition, fostering early buy-in by involving the management team in strategic decision-making.
Adoption of Stage-Gate Project Management: Introduced a six-step Stage-Gate process (from proposal to ramp-up) to establish a unified language and structure for product development across divisions.
Partnering with Xuviate & Businessmap: With no formal project management system, the company implemented Businessmap, a real-time PPM platform, and engaged Xuviate for tailored Kanban Bootcamp training. This ensured a balance between robust tooling and cultural adaptation.
Structured Visual Workflows: Teams mapped workflows for long-term projects, services, and daily tasks, gaining visibility and clarity into work breakdown structures and dependencies.
Flight Levels Implementation: To bridge the gap between strategy and execution, the company introduced Klaus Leopold’s Flight Levels model:
ISO 9001 Process Integration: Businessmap enabled real-time documentation and visualization of quality management policies, helping the company pass its ISO 9001 audit with commendation.
Embedding Continuous Improvement: Retrospectives and structured feedback loops became integral to every process stage, making lessons learned and ongoing experimentation part of the organizational DNA.
The Result: Empowered Teams, Clear Strategy, Agile Execution
The results of this transformation speak volumes:
30% faster product development cycles
250% increase in divisional turnover
ISO 9001 certification with strong audit results
Agility and continuous improvement embedded across teams
Established a connection between strategic projects and execution, enhancing organisational alignment
With a clear focus on transparency, shared ownership, and structured yet adaptable workflows, the organization is now expanding its Agile practices to more divisions.
Download the complete case study to explore how this pioneering transformation unfolded — and how your organization can achieve similar results by aligning people, processes, and purpose through modern project management.
