Newsletter No. 9 | April 2018

 

Within the BOLD MOVE project, the preparations for the future OBS Manufacturing Technology, Buildings and Process Technology and for the Competence Cluster (CoC) Conventional Power Plants are in full swing. The OBS and the CoC are due to launch on 1 January 2019. Employees from different companies, departments and hierarchical levels have been involved in various types of meetings and were able to contribute their knowledge and their competences. BOLD MOVE was always on the agenda in works meetings and some intensive discussions took place. Altogether, an increasingly high level of acceptance among the employees is to be stated. They agree that this project will certainly improve the competitiveness and thereby the future security of the Business Unit. This is why BOLD MOVE is with good reason one of the four keys to success of the BU Industrial Services, together with strategic sales, digitization/innovation and processes.

The BOLD MOVE project will continue to be characterised in 2018 by the themes of structures, strategies, processes and communication.

 

Structures

 

The management structures of the future OBS and the CoC have been completed in the end of February with the cooperation of the Managing Directors of all the companies involved, as well as the divisional and regional managers and in some cases group leaders within TÜV NORD Systems. These management structures are the basis for the discussions with the German employee representatives with regard to the balance of interests.

The German Works Council Constitution Act regulates the procedure of the negotiation of a balance of interests in case of comprehensive changes in the organization of a company. In parallel with content aspects of the BOLD MOVE project, the employer (represented by Frank Lüdeking and Stefanie Maring) and the committee for Group Development of the Group Works Council are negotiating. The document describes the detailed implementation of the second phase of the restructuring of the BU Industrial Services into a customer-focussed organisation structure. This description is based on the successful conclusion of the balance of interests of the pilot phase BOLD MOVE in 2016.

The negotiating partners have agreed to finalise this agreement by means of an external chairperson as discussion leader within the framework of a so-called conciliation committee. The dates for the conciliation committee meetings were scheduled for April.

The same procedure was already used successfully in the negotiation of the balance of interests before introduction of the previous Pilot OBS (Rail, Renewables, Nuclear, Food/Agriculture and System Certification).

 

Strategies

 

Growth strategies for the future OBS and the CoC were developed for the coming years in the context of workshops. The strategy development was completed in the middle of March. The strategies of the future OBS and the planned CoC will be presented for discussion and approval to the Supervisory Boards of TÜV NORD Systems and TÜV NORD AG in May/June. We will immediately inform you after the final approval.

 

Processes

 

The processes of the organization are also continuously adapted and modified. This applies, for example, to cost allocation, signature rules and other procedural instructions. The changes to the IT system will also be completed within the course of this year and will be comprehensively tested in the second six months.

 

Communication

 

Our aim is to remove barriers through more intensive and transparent communication, to answer questions and to clarify misunderstandings. For this purpose, the communication concept group has refined the communication concept, leading to the introduction of interactive communication formats such as the strategy workshops described above and so-called “focus groups”. In these meetings, the focus was on the employees. Among others, technical experts, team assistants, members of the works council, group heads and regional managers expressed their opinions. This meant that we could take advantage of a large number of proposals for improvements. On the one hand we defined the job profiles more sharply with regard to the new roles within the organization. On the other hand, we considered critically and revised the BOLD MOVE procedural instruction with regard to its implementation capability. The aspect of gender neutrality in written text formulation was also taken into account. In addition, our Extranet was subject to a general revision, and we are very pleased to be able to provide you with a large amount of information on the project on this site.

Your feedback contributes greatly to our project. Would you also like to play a part? Please do not hesitate to send your ideas, questions or feedback to info-bold-move@tuev-nord.de.

 

Future perspectives

 

Up to the middle of January, the external consultants Santiago Business Advisors supported the project team. They took over individual work packages and contributed their expertise in the area of organizational development. At the end of the agreed period, they created a final report. The recommendations contained in this report are now being followed up by the concept groups and other interfaces, such as for example the smartTIC project.

The next milestones are the following:

 
 

Getting to know: Edwin Franken – Nominated OBS Manager Buildings

 

Edwin Franken (Managing Director of TUV Nederland) is the designated Manager for OBS Buildings. Edwin was born 45 years ago in the Netherlands, he is married and with three children and lives in the South of the Netherlands in a small town in the Eindhoven area.

 

He studied Business Economics and has a Master in Business Administration. Edwin has been working for the TUV NORD GROUP for more than 15 years in various positions at TUV Nederland and has been active in international projects in the last 10 years.

OBS Buildings is a large OBS with more than 80% of its turnover in Germany (TNS), with a broad portfolio of services for the whole life cycle of buildings, including inspections of lifts, ventilation systems or storage tanks.

Looking at buildings globally we immediately notice that many of the megatrends are affecting OBS Buildings. Some key figures for this industry: The population of the world’s urban areas is increasing by 200,000 people per day (development of megacities). 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to buildings. The construction industry accounts for 6 per cent of global GDP.

One can conclude that the construction industry is of tremendous importance globally from a societal, economic and sustainability point of view!

Edwin Franken stresses “OBS Buildings has a strong home base in Western Europe, with focus on (mandatory) inspections of all kinds of building installations. With this extensive knowledge in the area of buildings we have to make sure that we stay a frontrunner in this area, develop new services for our clients in order to stay competitive in our mature markets, and transfer our knowledge and services from the mature markets to the fast developing countries. Together with experts from TUV NORD Systems and from various international subsidiaries we started working on a more detailed strategy in order to capture the growth opportunities for the TUV NORD GROUP.”

 

Questions & Answers

 

What is a Competence Center (CoC)?

A CoC is a preliminary stage on the way to an OBS. A CoC is an organisational unit, which, in contrast to an OBS, is limited in at least one of the three dimensions (region, activity, customer group). For example, in the CoC Conventional Power Plants, no Profit Center Clusters (PCC) are established, but only Profit Centres. The status of a CoC manager position corresponds to that of a PCC manager position in the new structure or a departmental manager or regional manager in the old structure. 

 

Who is responsible for managing the Strategic Business Segments and Operative Business Segments?

The responsibilities of the Business Segments are shown in the chart. The manager of the Strategic Business Segments is always one of the Business Unit Board of Managers. The responsibility for the SBS Infrastructure has been divided and allocated.

 
 

How will the business be managed this year in the companies, departments and/or groups which will migrate to the new structure on 1 January 2019?

The current managers will retain their responsibilities until 31 December 2018 – unless other agreements are reached on an individual basis. During the planning process for the years 2019 to 2021, the respective nominated OBS managers will be actively involved, as these will take over responsibility for the profit and loss of their OBS as from January 2019. Cooperation and agreement between managers, their current line managers, the relevant OBS managers, and also the Support Center Controlling (TÜV NORD Systems) is absolutely essential so that valid budgets and target figures can be created for the first three years of the new structure. As from 1 January 2019, the management structures of the future OBS will come into force.

 
 

Project Office BOLD MOVE

Große Bahnstraße 31 
22525 Hamburg

Info-Bold-Move@tuev-nord.de

 

Abbreviations:

OBS (Operative Business Segment)
SBS (Strategic Business Segment)
CoC (Competence Cluster)