Inventive competence development for a successful transformation of the MM Group IT

MM GROUP’S AMBITIOUS GROWTH TARGETS 

 In order to meet the increasing demand for more sustainable packaging, the MM Group, a European market leader for cardboard and paper packaging, has set ambitious future growth targets. Aiming to increase its market share with innovative product solutions in both its cardboard and paper and packaging divisions (MM Board & Paper and MM Packaging), the company relies on a combination of organic and inorganic growth opportunities. 

The different market requirements demand a constant balance between local customer orientation and operational standardization across production and sales sites spread over four continents. High energy and raw material costs are also pushing the packaging manufacturer to use new technologies to support efficiency and drive automation in operations.

Shaping MM Group IT to scale

As a key part of realizing these growth ambitions, Information Management (IM), the MM Group’s IT organization, defined a new IT strategy and IT operating model. This defined the team’s future as focused on customer orientation, efficiency and scaling in service delivery, technology leadership, and aligning Group IM as an equal partner with the company’s two core divisions. Achieving this vision meant a transformation of the IM organization that would include defining and elaborating new role concepts, which reflect previously defined core competencies as well as changing expectations. While some organizational roles in IT infrastructure operations were to be taken over by external service providers, the IM team still required new roles, with particular emphasis placed on strategic IT managers such as an Enterprise Architect, Service Integration Manager, and Vendor Manager. 

To accomplish this transformation, Group IM wanted to find the best possible fit for the new roles among its existing employees. In addition, role changes were to be accompanied by extensive communication measures as part of enabling employees in their new positions in a timely manner. All of this fit into the MM Group’s long-term goal of closing the gap between existing competencies and those required for the future by providing employees with prospects for further professional development.

Enabling MM Group IT with inventive competence development

With a short timeframe until the go-live of the transformed IM organization, the MM Group partnered with Capgemini Invent to implement a proven modular approach for Inventive Competence Development that enabled the flexibility needed to realize the company’s vision for the future.

The first step was to conduct a skills analysis of all employees through in-depth interviews with their managers. In doing so, the MM Group and Capgemini Invent established the team’s existing competencies as a starting point for assigning employees to new roles within the transforming IM organization. The project team also defined key competencies for new roles, ensuring comparability of existing and required competencies. An initial proposal of the role assignment was discussed during employee appraisals and then finalized.

Enabling the IM organization’s employees with different competence profiles as effectively as possible in their new roles was essential to the overall competence development initiative. To this end, the MM Group and Capgemini Invent developed a comprehensive pool of internally- and externally-offered training measures, including courses in live and online formats, and individually tailored a development plan for each employee.

With this done, the new IM organization could go live successfully and the MM Group could put the development plans into action immediately afterwards with the help of Capgemini Invent’s training coordination support.

Communication is key throughout the entire project

The project team’s approach to Inventive Competence Development ensures that throughout the transformation period, both the MM Group’s objectives and approach to competence analysis and employee empowerment are made transparent across all levels and units of the organization. This is achieved with a comprehensive communication plan coordinated with management, elaborated communication materials aligned with transformation milestones, and Capgemini Invent’s best practices.

By involving direct managers in the skills evaluation, the MM Group can assess employees based on comprehensive knowledge of their history and capabilities before the results are objectified and put into perspective with Capgemini Invent’s support.

Thanks to this holistic approach of Inventive Competence Development and the intense cooperation with the IM project team, the first positive effects were achieved immediately after the go-live and then enhanced in the months that followed. These included:

• Strategic fit: The derivation of future roles and required competencies based on the previously defined IT operating model enables targeted development of the IM organization in line with corporate strategy.
• Operative excellence: Timely, effective empowerment of IM employees in their new roles through personal development plans and the immediate planning and coordination of training activities.
• Employees at the center of transformation: Creating acceptance for change in the organization with the help of a transparent and fair approach to skills evaluation, as well as extensive communication measures.
• Scalability: The defined structures for development within the IM organization enable the extension of the competency model to additional MM Group units and can be continuously expanded with newly relevant capabilities and further training measures.

A continuing strategic transformation partnership

The MM Group is currently collaborating with Capgemini Invent on various projects that support the company’s growth ambitions. One team is managing a strategic outsourcing project with the aim of building a partner ecosystem for Group IM and handing over defined IT services to service providers. The associated refocusing of activities in IT enables improved scaling in the implementation of the growth targets of the MM Group.

Meanwhile, another team is supporting the post-merger integration of various production sites from an IT perspective. MM Group and Capgemini Invent are also coordinating on the implementation of a new enterprise service management system to improve quality and efficiency in the delivery of IT services.

Competence Development has been crucial for our transformation. I can only expect from my team to achieve great things if they are empowered accordingly!

Jacqueline Wild
CIO at the MM Group