A Swiss manufacturer of sterile process components for the pharmaceutical industry had lost more than half of its turnover after being taken over by a group. The internationally active company was actually very well positioned as a specialized niche manufacturer and was known or even listed by around 95 percent of all pharmaceutical groups. The interim manager was hired to find the causes, solve the problems and return the company to its former strength.
Massive problems identified in all areas of the company
In the analysis, the interim manager identified numerous causes for the decline. There was literally no area of the company that did not have massive problems.
Massive quality problems with the company's key product had meant that the product could not be delivered for more than a year. This alone accounted for 15 percent of the loss in sales. The product range was also underdeveloped. Competitors were taking customers away from the company on a massive scale.
Personnel: almost all service and knowledge providers had left
In addition, the organization was severely damaged. Almost all of the top performers and experts had left. The remaining core team was incomplete and around half of it consisted of weak and unmotivated employees. The error rate was extremely high and the backlogs were frightening.
The sales team was far too weak - both numerically and qualitatively. The company employed 3 sales staff where competitors of the same size had 20. The natural customer erosion was greater than the growth through new customers. Marketing was also virtually non-existent, and purchasing was purely operational and unstructured.
New leadership culture and communication increase motivation
The interim manager's first step was to tackle organizational development, as without the right and well-motivated employees, the resources for a fresh start would be lacking. To build trust, he held one-on-one meetings with all employees. He discontinued the micro-management of the previous CEO and gave the employees more freedom and more authority. He also implemented previously unfulfilled promises, promoted employees and adjusted salaries.
Key management positions quickly filled
The interim manager filled the vacant key positions through digital recruiting and contacts from his network. He then replaced the underperformers. The new management style and open communication led to one manager resigning and two other managers returning to the team.
Once the new team was in place, the interim organized comprehensive training measures as well as team building and incentives, thus developing a motivated and qualified high-performance team. Last but not least, MBO (Management-By-Objectives) was introduced and a bonus program for the sales team was introduced.
Quality problems eliminated in Indian plant
At the same time, the interim manager took care of the quality problems. To this end, he examined the production processes at the plant in India and optimized a number of processes. At the same time, he looked for alternative suppliers to secure the supply chain. In this way, what had previously been the company's greatest weakness became its greatest strength, as it was now able to offer not only the largest selection but also the highest delivery reliability for the product group in question, thereby outperforming the competition. The market's newfound confidence led to several manufacturers offering the company exclusive general agencies.
Restructuring international sales and renewing contracts with pharmaceutical companies
In order to get the company back on track for growth, a massive sales initiative was required. The expert relied on cost-effective strategies and looked for a number of freelance sales representatives and distributors who could quickly generate new sales without any investment. Within 6 months, sales representatives were added in the UK, France, Turkey and Denmark, as well as distributors in Spain, Korea, Morocco, Singapore, Ukraine and the USA. As a further highlight, the interim manager was able to win a Korean global corporation as a customer, which alone secured capacity utilization and growth for 2 years.
The cooperation with a number of pharmaceutical companies, which were already very dissatisfied and threatened to terminate the cooperation, was renewed and improved, new contracts were concluded with all of them and even price increases were implemented.
Successfully achieved ISO recertification after several postponements
The back office was struggling with horrendous backlogs and error rates because, among other things, the ERP had not been maintained for years. A project was set up in which the data records were supplemented and updated, the software was updated and upgraded and comprehensive process training was carried out.
The proof of the successful implementation of all these measures was the ISO recertification, which was passed at the first attempt and had been postponed several times because the organization would have failed before.
Restructuring paves the way for new joint venture and investors
The new start initiated by the interim manager drew a lot of attention to the company. The Group was approached by several potential buyers. One supplier participated in a joint production venture. After a long legal dispute, around €150,000 was raised from another supplier.
Interim mandate extended several times and takeover as CEO offered
The interim manager's work was so successful that his mandate was extended four times and the Group finally made the executive a takeover offer and wanted to keep him on as CEO. In total, the ROI generated by the interim manager amounted to almost 4 million euros
