So what are the options for small and medium-sized companies whose budget does not leave room for extensive external consulting?

In most cases, the evaluation ends positively and then led directly to the decision to invest in the deployment of the identified technology.

In Brazil, a reorganization is the optimization of fiscal, managerial or organizational conditions within a company. Turnaround is part of restructuring and not reorganization or transformation. This distinction is generally valid in Brazil and is based on the delimitations of the North American economic area. This may sometimes sound confusing with regard to the German-speaking economic area, since in this region there is usually no real distinction between reorganization and restructuring.

Sometimes radical change is needed. Companies are subject to dynamic change and this also affects management. The art of leadership, especially in reorganization and restructuring phases, lies in not just looking at a small window of time. Whether growth, crisis or restructuring - no phase is permanent, not even if the right things are done at the right moment.

In this article, however, we will look at the issue from a more fundamental perspective.

Lean Startup belongs to the agile management methods. The approach is very often used by strategic investors in the startup scene. Since 2016, we have worked in five projects with startup companies; all of them were in the advanced seed stage. In all cases, our clients were the strategic investors of the Brazilian startups. Even though the companies were in an advanced seed stage, they were still operating under noticeably increased uncertainty.

Business Development Coffee Shop Franchise - Part Three: Transformation of client relationship & migration to digital business models.

The original project focus when the project was placed at the beginning of 2020 was to develop a system to increase customer satisfaction and maintain it at a high level. During past years, our customer was in a crisis. Difficulties in the management of the company led to a loss of the profitability and customer satisfaction indices.

With the outbreak of the pandemic in Brazil in March 2020, the project focus expanded. In addition to the focus on customer satisfaction, the new situation was to be used to develop possible new business models using digital tools and fundamentally increase customer loyalty. The general idea could be summarized as follows: more agility through digital services.

Is it possible to design projects with open results?

That is not easy.

Especially not if the initial situation was an acute crisis in very recent times. The threatening dynamics made open- ended thinking almost impossible. So you can only move forward from success to success.

This time the project definition was more differentiated. It was not about acute crisis management, but rather about a strategy to consolidate the position, or better, a further expansion using the prevailing crisis scenarios in Brazil. It was clear, however, that no enthusiastic adventures should be undertaken and that any strategic assumption must be robustly backed by operational-tactical measures. The implementation of these tactical measures should then also define the next steps or be used to adapt the strategy.

In 2012, the economic situation in Brazil was still largely unproblematic. The country had the longest phase of an economic and social upswing in democratic times behind it. The financial crisis of 2008-2010 had been overcome extremely well, without really causing major upheavals. A new sociological- economic middle class had emerged in the context of the emerging global economies.

Starting in 2014, Brazil's situation deteriorated rapidly and an economic downturn occurred, which has not really stopped until today.

After one year, growth of over 25% was achieved at the beginning of 2017 and profits increased by 100% compared to the previous year. The installed simple financial control system improved efficiency and cash flow in the small local coffee store chain. All installed coffeeshops were back in the blue zone.

The absence of a strategy has in no way been synonymous with the failure of the organization, as many third parties always assume. It can already be observed very clearly that the deliberate absence of a strategy encourages the organization to be more flexible. Possibly, these companies are the best prepared economic units for constant learning and the necessary adaptation.

A global company specializing in property facades and energy efficient windows and doors executed the most emblematic projects in Brazil, but the company had not returned a profit from its Brazil office since 2001 and had recognized that a strong brand and quality product were not enough to succeed in the current market. The company’s headquarters in Europe was considering closing the Brazil office. However, it also recognized that Brazil is an emerging market with a large social middle class and an average age of 29 years, making this a potentially lucrative location if a successful turnaround could be executed. The business model is not matching to the local requirements. To survive, the model would have to be adapted, which would seem to be contrary to the European standard. Is that feasible?

We have been applying the Design Thinking mindset for many years, evaluating with every project. We see again and again that Design Thinking is probably one of the most important aspects on the path of corporate cultural change in a transformation. Therefore, we come to the project with the evolutionary knowledge of Design Thinking and implement this way of thinking. It should take root and stay in the project and in the client company.

Since around 2016, the requirements for implementing digital and automated solutions for business processes in reorganizations and transformations have been constantly increasing in our projects. This applies equally to B2C, as well as B2B applications.

What we notice again and again is that words like digital transformation, digitalization, blockchain, up to the almost mystical artificial intelligence AI, naturally trigger shining eyes and delight in many customers.