Making Strategy Tangible: How OKR and Hoshin Kanri Can Help Companies Effectively Embed Goals Throughout the Organization—Practical, Concise, and Featuring Exciting Insights from Bochum.
As an innovative methodology for strategic goal deployment across the entire organization, Objectives and Key Results (OKR)—known from digital startups and tech giants like Google—are enjoying a veritable triumph. In Japanese, Hoshin Kanri roughly translates to “compass needle management” and is successfully practiced at companies such as Toyota.
But what lies behind these seemingly new-fangled concepts? Which core ideas are relevant, and what can work well in medium-sized companies? Answers to these questions were provided by the event “Operationalizing Strategy and Goals with OKR & Hoshin Kanri,” which was offered in collaboration with the consulting firm Vollmer & Scheffczyk GmbH. The event was hosted by the Chair of Production Systems (LPS) in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Ruhr University Bochum. Dr. Christopher Prinz introduced the participants to the work of the LPS. A tour of the LPS Learning and Research Factory (LFF) also provided insight into the practical work of the research facility.
In the morning, Michael Kasteleiner (Vollmer & Scheffczyk) gave a concise presentation on the fundamentals of the OKR and Hoshin Kanri methods. The goal was to enable participants to assess how well these methodological approaches align with their company-specific challenges and their respective contexts. According to the speaker, the context within a company has at least as much influence on successful strategy implementation as the method itself. Based on this premise, the following points were discussed:
- Why Hoshin Kanri?
- How does OKR work?
- What it is not?
- Objectives and Effects
- What can we expect during implementation?
- The Specific Process
covered. In the afternoon, this overview of the methodology continued; this was followed by the participants working through scenarios. The scenarios were proposed by participants and discussed collectively within the group, with support from the experts.
In this way, the exchange of experiences became a valuable event for those involved, set against the backdrop of the ongoing challenge of how companies can function more effectively.
The organizers and participants would like to thank the host, LPS, and look forward to future events in Bochum.
Organizer
The event was organized by ProduktionNRW. ProduktionNRW is the cluster for mechanical engineering and production technology in North Rhine-Westphalia and is managed by VDMA NRW. ProduktionNRW serves as a platform to connect, inform, and promote companies, institutions, and networks with one another and along the value chain. Significant portions of the services provided by ProduktionNRW are funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection, and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.