100 % FUTURE - ALNO

37
WE HAVE TAKEN THE FIRST
step towards higher
quality customer care
A lot has changed over the space of the last year. The changes that we set in motion with the
restructuring will affect us all: in production, administration, sales and product development. Structures
that had been in place for decades were dissolved, people who had previously not known
each other entered into dialogue, and thought processes were initiated that have partially led to
surprising results and processes.
Today, the dialogue is no longer about problems relating to a single location that require solving,
but rather about the joint development of Group-wide solutions with the help of cross-location
teams. In doing so, we have successfully awakened the ALNO team spirit by increasingly bringing
people into closer contact with one another. This has allowed working processes to be compared,
and unified solutions to be found, thereby allowing these factors to work together in many places.
Cultural change that affects us all has arrived, and many of our customers and suppliers have also
seen significant evidence of this for some time now.
With our shift from an organization entailing four locations operating in parallel, albeit separately,
towards a Group-oriented functional structure, it was in part quite simple innovations that have
brought about major changes: for example, the unified Group profile towards the external world that
we have meanwhile implemented – nobody in Enger or Brilon now answers the telephone with “Müller,
Gustav Wellmann GmbH & Co. KG” or “Schmidt, Impuls Küchen GmbH”. Instead, the caller now
always speaks with an “ALNO” staff member. Callers no longer interact with separate sales contacts
for each brand, but instead have one personal contact who covers all our brands, and who is there
to provide technical expertise and advice. ALNO has acquired a personal face as a consequence.
—
HANSJöRG ROLLSHAUSEN
Head of Group Controlling
Hansjörg Rollshausen has
been on the ALNO Group
staff since 2009. He has
been active as head of Group
Controlling since 2010, and in
this function has carried joint
responsibility for the realization
of the measures planned
as part of the „ALNO 2013“
future concept.
Earlier than we planned, we were successful in partially orientating our customer care on a crossbrand
basis, thereby providing our customers with higher quality service. We have also achieved
the objective of positioning the ALNO product brand in a qualitatively higher kitchen segment. The
associated and clearer separation of all four Group brands from each other, and precise positioning
in certain sales channels, is important both for addressing customers, and for brand recognition
value, and consequently comprises a significant success factor.
To this we have added newly launched and cross-location managerial responsibilities. The four
hermetically separated locations of four companies competing with each other no longer exist.
We have brought the organization to life, and created uniform standards, and a new awareness for
interaction within the Group. Cooperation among the teams has already generated many suggestions
for improvement. The implementation of these suggestions is feeding through to good results.
A further example: just a few months ago, the four locations were operating quite different methods
for order processing, debtor management, and complaints processing. Unification, and the possibility
that has thereby been created to examine a customer’s credit lines in one step across all our brands
has already reduced our receivables default risk, and significantly cut the backlog of open payments.