In an exclusive interview with CEIBS Business Review, Yanda Zhang, CEO of WAGO China, said: "To become the most agile multinational company, it is necessary to create a 'win' culture within the organization and improve the agility and innovation ability of the organization, so as to provide strong organizational support for the implementation of business strategies. ”
Founded in 1951 in Minden, Germany, the WAGO Group has been revolutionizing the industry by researching, designing, and manufacturing innovative terminal blocks and connectors with its original spring connection technology. After more than 70 years of unremitting efforts, WAGO has become one of the world's largest companies specializing in the production of electrical connectors. As a global leader in the electrical connection and automation industry, WAGO products are used in the energy, factory, railway, building, marine, process industry, automotive and other industries.
In 1997, WAGO entered the Chinese market and established a wholly-owned subsidiary in Wuqing, Tianjin. In the past 20 years of development in the Chinese market, it coincides with the golden period of the development of China's automation market. Among them, the Chinese factory and storage center is already the largest industrial park outside of Germany and one of WAGO's nine production sites in the world.
In 2024, WAGO China has been named a Top Employer in China for four consecutive years for its outstanding performance in the areas of corporate culture, talent development, and sustainability. Yanda Zhang, CEO of WAGO China, said: "Employees are the core elements of a company's strategic transformation and business success, and a people-oriented approach to creating a workplace environment for employees to grow and belong to them is the driving force for WAGO China to achieve long-term sustainable growth. ”
01Deepen the local strategy and build a full value chain ecosystem
In order to build a high-rise building that will stand for a hundred years, enterprises must always pay attention to the changes in the external world, pay attention to the changes in the market, and constantly adjust their strategies and tactics in order to break the cruel law of the jungle and realize the everlasting foundation of the organization.
For many multinationals, doing business in China involves new challenges and unprecedented complexities. How to quickly foresee and respond to changes, form the agility to predict and control the environment, and adjust and respond in a timely manner has become the core advantage of long-term sustainable development of enterprises.
As a German family-owned company with a history of more than 70 years, WAGO is well aware that no company is immune to the torrent of uncertain times, and no company can completely avoid the huge impact of the changes of the times.
As the first local CEO of WAGO China, Yanda Zhang said that under the current market environment and industry dynamics, China plays a vital role as an engine in the global economic development, and reshaping and strengthening the unique competitive advantage in the Chinese market is the key for WAGO Group to continue to lead the development of the industry.
Therefore, Yanda Zhang led WAGO China to clarify its own strengths and weaknesses, carry out strategic and business transformation in a timely manner, adhere to the concept of "in China, for China", increase investment in localization, meet the changing market demand more quickly and efficiently, and better serve customers in China.
Zhang Yanda said frankly that in order to truly realize "in China, for China", we need to localize decision-making, "we need to make quick decisions in the place closest to customers, and we need to fully communicate with the company's headquarters in order to get greater independent decision-making power."
In line with the smooth transformation of the company's business strategy, WAGO China also presented a new corporate vision in 2024 - "to become the most agile multinational company".
Zhang Yanda believes that to achieve this goal, we need to get through three key points: first, truly focus on Chinese customers, "If Chinese customers need a certain product, then it should be developed in China, produced in China, and sold in China, so as to quickly respond to customer needs." "Second, accelerate the construction of the whole value chain of R&D, production, supply, sales and service. "WAGO China wants to open up the entire industry chain of R&D, production, supply, marketing and service, not based on a certain point, but every link. "Third, to achieve agile and rapid iteration of products. "With the huge Chinese market and diverse customer needs, WAGO China needs to focus on customer needs and iterate on products and services in an agile manner to truly increase its market share and competitiveness. ”
02Create a "win" culture and improve organizational agility
The strategic transformation of enterprises will inevitably be accompanied by the change of old and new values, as well as the upgrading and transformation of institutional structure and management model. The smooth transformation of strategy will inevitably need to be supported by cultural value change.
In Zhang Yanda's view, in order to become the most agile multinational company, it is necessary to create a "win" culture within the organization, improve the agility and innovation ability of the organization, and provide strong organizational support for the implementation of business strategy.
"Agile stands for active change, and you must be willing to reinvent yourself, change yourself, transform yourself, and embrace change. When the market, customer needs, technology models, and other elements are changing, organizations that are not agile can only be eliminated. ”
Cultural change is a tough nut to crack, and building an agile organization is no easy task. Cultural values are solid and intangible, a culture takes a long time to form, and once it is formed, it is firm and not easy to change, this is the inertia of cultural values that we often ignore.
"The biggest challenge in the change of cultural values is to form a consensus within the organization and break the traditional habits and cognitions, especially the processes and habits that everyone is accustomed to. ”
In order to create a culture of "winning" within the organization, Zhang Yanda initiated a transformation and change of values internally. "For an organization to succeed in making change, it starts with choosing the 'right' leader, then has a shared set of values, and lastly, it needs to execute effectively. Leaders play a vital role in the process of change, and they must step in and become role models and leaders of cultural change to eliminate employees' fear of change and lead the organization to achieve a successful transformation of values. ”
To this end, WAGO China continues to cultivate and shape a transformational leadership culture internally. Zhang Yanda believes that leaders must first have the ability to manage change, and if leaders themselves are unable to understand and adapt to change, it will be difficult to lead the team and business to success. Second, leaders must have the ability to open and learn, the external environment is complex and changeable, leaders must be able to adjust quickly and in a timely manner, and third, the ability to lead by example, managers must not become the spokesperson of bureaucracy, but must bow into the game, and use their own practical experience and open learning ability to form a benchmark to empower the business and the team.
"Bureaucracy is the biggest obstacle to transformational leadership. The biggest problem with the failure of organizational change is actually the problem of managers. Many managers make decisions based on traditional experience, and even the basics are scrapped. ”
Zhang Yanda said that managers should bow down to the game, which means that they must fight against their own power inertia, go deep into the front line, lead by example, and more importantly, find a "mirror" to supervise themselves, get feedback and adjust in time, so as to give full play to the power of role models and motivate employees to follow them.
In addition to cultivating managerial transformational leadership, in order to let employees reach a clear consensus on the company's cultural values of "winning", Zhang Yanda also led the team to launch several rounds of "values discussion" activities within the organization, and discussed five parts of core values, strategic guidance, process optimization, efficient team, and incentive mechanism through the form of corporate culture change workshops, involving about 250 senior executives, director managers, some management, and front-line sales personnel.
Through top-down leadership and bottom-up employee discussions, WAGO's managers and employees have reached a broad internal consensus, and employees have become more actively involved in cultural change, practicing the company's "agile" philosophy from concept to behavior, thus providing strong support for the smooth transformation of the company's business strategy.
03Create a more inclusive and attractive workplace where people are put first
The company's unwavering commitment to its employees is also one of the main drivers of WAGO China's successful growth. At WAGO China, the relationship between the organization and its employees is a two-way street.
Zhang Yanda said that all this is due to WAGO's insistence on "people-oriented" and creating a diverse and inclusive workplace to motivate employees. "Inclusivity means creating a safe, comfortable, welcoming and inviting environment for every employee, where they can leverage their knowledge and experience to bring more authentic and honest perspectives to better drive the company's growth. ”
As a global leader in connectivity and automation technology, WAGO's success is based on an agile response to external changes, a "customer-centric" philosophy, and a focus on and long-term investment in people, which are important foundations for WAGO's long-term sustainability.
In the face of the era of digital and intelligent transformation, WAGO China will rely on its own hardware and software advantages and innovative IoT solutions to provide strong support for customers' digital and intelligent transformation, and actively deploy new energy energy storage, smart logistics, semiconductors, smart lighting and other industries. Under the guidance of the new localization strategy, WAGO China has built an agile organization, empowered localized innovation and marketing services, and further highlighted the value of localized product manufacturing and technology R&D innovation, so as to continuously help the business grow resiliently in an uncertain environment.
The article is from the China Europe Business Review, written by Peng Haiyan.
![The 43-year-old TVB artist divorced her Taiwanese husband and disagreed with each other, saying that she identified with Chinese[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)