A tale of little numbers affecting big numbers
A tale of little numbers affecting big numbers
A CEO asked: how can we encourage integrated working across international boundaries, help competing groups be more outward-focused, and improve business sense?
Caption thats fairly long-winded and occupies a wider space.
A global technology company was developing a revolutionary €200m product when engineers discovered that two essential components were misaligned — not for technical reasons, but because of hidden rivalry and unspoken conflict between two departmental heads.
The numbers don’t add up
This company but had discovered the diameters of two essential connecting tubes differed by 1.5mm, not for technical reasons, but for all too human reasons — personality differences between two departmental heads.
How, asked the CEO, can we encourage integrated working across international boundaries, help competing groups to be more outward-focused, and improve business sense?
Well, maybe ‘business sense’ was the problem? Our work within the company quickly revealed painful relationships, hidden jealousies, doubts and conflicts which had previously been shoved under the carpet by an obsessive focus on ‘the numbers’.
We brought the two teams together.
We shifted the focus of conversations.
We explored the unquantifiable.
The tubes were aligned, the teams were aligned, and the €200 million technology got produced.