On the leadership program Executive Management Program INSEAD, between modules 2 and 3 of the education, there is an assignment in the form of a management project, which the participants must work on together in groups. Typically, a concrete challenge or issue is selected at one of the participating companies, which they try to solve by applying the theories, models and tools they have been introduced to at INSEAD.
The brand must create further growth
On the INSEAD programme, Bo Maagaard from Danpo and his colleague Morten Nielsen, who is commercial director in the company, had a very concrete challenge which they brought into the project group. The ambition was to solve a specific export problem for the company, which is part of the Scandi Standard group, which is the Nordic region’s largest producer of chicken
– In 2016 we got a new managing director, and it was decided that Danpo should not primarily compete on price, but that we should be “transformed” into a brand company in order to achieve further growth. This change has brought about major changes in relation to how we work internally in the organization – for example, we have had more commercial people join the management team and generally more commercial hires. Here in 2019, we are in the middle of the brand journey and ready to get the snowball rolling. Asia is a good market for us, but our feeling is that there is much more to go after and that the market represents huge potential. Consumption figures, purchasing power and trends are upward for chicken in Asia, explains Bo Maagaard, division manager export at Danpo.
Eminent and respectful collaboration
The project group included Bo Maagaard and Morten Nielsen from Danpo, Ole Ravnholt Würtz, who is Director Sales at BDO, Jakob Stoustrup, who is vice dean at AAU, Morten Vehl Revsbeck, who is HR director at Dovista, and Peter Bruun, who is IT deputy director at Aarhus University.
The group’s strengths
– One of the most amazing things about this collaboration has been the dedication that has been from all group members. We all went into this management project with an enormously high energy level and an agreement to give the project a “shell” and really make something out of it. As project participants, we have complemented each other to the highest degree – some have been strong in theory, some in innovation and others in the more practical and commercial aspects. Morten Nielsen and I functioned as information providers, and the other four acted as consultants, constantly challenging the status quo and taking on the roles of provocative consultants and providing useful insights. It has been a fantastic process, says Bo Maagaard, and Ole Ravnholt Würtz from BDO supports this claim:
– The collaboration arose to a large extent from a respect we had for each other. We were able to create an environment where we worked fantastically well together. It was clear at the first meeting that we all had personality traits that indicated that we wanted to “manage and decide”, and therefore we did a thorough job in terms of sharing each other’s personality profiles, and both DISC and MBTI profiles was thrown on the board. We discussed how to handle six times extreme D/DI profiles and in the project distribute responsibilities and roles, and we were good at recognizing the different positions and roles of responsibility in the group and giving each other space. There was an extremely high level of energy, always constructive, often challenging, but never negative, says Ole Ravnholt Würtz from BDO.
Project-oriented learning model
Precisely the competences of several project participants with a view to how to build a fruitful collaboration in the best possible way has most likely had a big impact on how well the collaboration worked – and how well they succeeded in solving the specific case. One of those who has a lot of knowledge about this is vice-dean Jakob Stoustrup from Aalborg University.
– Basically, we had really good chemistry, but we also made an effort to apply the theory in the education model that AAU is built on. It is about a problem-based and project-oriented learning model that is based on theories about active learning, group formation, group dynamics and team performance. We used this, together with the personal profiles, to create a distribution of roles internally, which enabled us to utilize the many different skills – and thus secure the basis for the very best group dynamics, explains Jakob Stoustrup about INSEAD’s management project.
Would test ALL theories
But how could a group – which did not already have much knowledge of either Danpo or the specific strategic challenges – in a relatively short time get fired up during Danpo’s growth adventure in the Asian market?
– The group functioned as a strategic forum for us. I got some people on the team who were stronger in theory than myself and at the same time good sparring from people who don’t work at Danpo and who see things from a completely different angle. We had some in-depth discussions about, among other things: “what do we want to be in five years?”, “what is needed to advance the business in this market?”, what is “the big why” for Danpo and “let’s get into the core of our competitive advantage”, says Bo Maagaard, and Jakob Stoustrup adds:
– One of the aspects I contributed to in this context was to carry out a “Design Thinking” workshop for idea generation, which we had been inspired to do at INSEAD. Here I spent some time preparing and planning a creative process, then implementing this via individual and collective idea generation, where we used different models to manage the stimuli as well as the creative process. We got a sharp cut on ideas that could be value-creating in relation to Danpo’s export challenges – and some of the ideas formed the background for the “Blue Pond Strategy” we ended up recommending to Danpo, explains the vice-dean from AAU.
In these processes, the participants used a wide range of methods and tools that they had been introduced to at INSEAD, including the Blue Ocean Strategy, which is an innovative approach to “creating” a new market.
Ambitious goal setting
– It was an ambitious goal, but already from our first meeting in Denmark we had agreed that we should test all the models and theories we came to know during the course of the program at INSEAD. We wanted to test these in reality – and it just works. The INSEAD theories are undoubtedly extremely sharp and competitive, says the sales director at BDO.
Strong and concrete Asia plan
The results of the extensive management project have already borne fruit and given more blood to Danpo in Asia. And in that context, a group from Danpo has already made an export promotion trip to Asia, specifically to Hong Kong and Singapore.
– Firstly, I felt, via the results we had arrived at, that I was very strong and prepared in relation to the task. I had a basis to present, which meant that I could sell it “up” in the system and get my bosses on board with the ideas. In short, I had a concrete plan for how we could get a “hole” in the markets in Hong Kong and Singapore, and already 14 days after the end of the project we went on a sales trip, where we visited these markets. I have great faith that we will succeed with our new brand venture, concludes Bo Maagaard.
The further journey – together
All participants have great ambitions that their joint journey is by no means at the end of the road.
– We have already agreed on a meeting of a more social nature. But in addition, we have actually identified an additional management project we would like to solve together. This is a very innovative manufacturer that has some clear marketing challenges – and which Jakob is familiar with through his work at Aalborg University. We all feel that our collaboration was so enriching that we would like to do the “exercise” once more. We are also not averse to the idea that at some point there could be a commercial angle to our collaboration, concludes Ole in BDO.
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