Transformation at Jaguar Land Rover

TeamTalk caught up with Adrian Mardell, JLR’s transformation director, to find out why, with the business doing so well, it needs to continue to transform.

TeamTalk caught up with Adrian Mardell, JLR’s transformation director, to find out why, with the business doing so well, it needs to continue to transform.

Can you reflect on your time in the role? 

There has been considerable progress over the last few years. People I meet do recognise the overall corporate objectives and they also recognise their own responsibilities and functional objectives. The LEAP programme was set up as a six year programme in early 2015. We target to deliver returns growing up to 12% EBIT ( Earnings before tax and interest ) as a percentage of Revenue, not because we are greedy, because we are hungry for success and sustainability. High returns mean higher investment, higher Investment means more jobs both directly at JLR and for outside stakeholders and the local economy. But Transformation is also about how we engage with each other, the way we interact, perform and work together. This can become our competitive advantage. This must become that advantage.

Governance is strong. It’s particularly well supported from the most senior levels of management. Ralf makes a point to be at every monthly governance meeting, along with Hanno, Ken and Wolfgang. 

Transformation has become more business-as-usual. But it has to be a complete culture change. You can’t play with transformation: it has to have buy-in at all levels. We’ve certainly begun our journey to embed it fully within JLR. 

Every function now has transformation infrastructure in place. They are working towards their initiatives, increasing their transformation headcount and growing their networks. There are now more ideas in the repository and, after two years, it is certainly not losing momentum. But we need that energy we saw in the kick-off phase back in the business. This is mainly because the challenges have increased. The market equation is more difficult. China normalisation and CO2 were identified two years ago and we’re beginning to see the emerging landscape as a result. But over the last year additional threats have emerged, the impact of BREXIT and market protectionism is also now emerging as additional challenges to our survival. There will be additional challenges currently unforeseen, so Transformation has to gain energy, speed and momentum to stay ahead of this unprecedented environment.

People query the need for transformation when we make £1.5-2bn per year. But this is not enough if we want to invest £4-5bn per year to thrive and grow. You have to generate more to be able to spend more.

You can’t stop on a journey like this. Each time you go to the next stage you build up a structure within the organisation. You add a car line so you then need to refresh and update that car line. There’s no stopping once the wheels are in motion.  

Why is growth so important? 

To sustain yourself, you need to refresh and you need increased profit. Economies of scale are also important. We get protection by sharing platforms, sharing components and we can spread the diversity of products on existing platforms. Our competitors are significantly larger than we are, that will likely always be the case. But we are growing fast, and need to grow efficiently. Otherwise we will have to restructure once we have grown, which is more difficult to do. 

Another big factor for us is that the customer buying proposition has changed a lot and the traditional model of ownership is gradually evolving. Customers have more information than ever and they also have far higher expectations than ever. There’s some serious disruption in the value chain.

Autonomy, connectivity and powertrain options are all key trends we need to adapt to. This requires significant new investment and further cash reserves. 

It’s important that we remember what we’ve achieved together. We have two brands to die for. They are the envy of the world’s manufacturers. But things are more challenging and we have to adapt, change and lead. 

How important is it that colleagues realise we are in control of the challenges we face?

It’s fundamental to understand that we’re in control of our own destiny. That’s not to say we’re in control of everything. What happens in the marketplace is out of our control. With compliance, for example. What it means is that you have to be laser-focused on the things that you can control. This is what transformation is about. All the big decisions we make are within our control.

Transformation implies change. You look at what you do and then attempt to remodel yourself. Is your mindset open to collectively finding better ways of doing things and broadening the scope of what you can affect? I don’t think enough people find new ways of doing things differently to say that we’re fully embracing transformation. We need to constructively challenge and develop conversations and new ways from a point of data and fact. It’s about helping the organisation to enable change and put forward new ideas. 

How do we empower non-management grades to feel confident enough to raise suggestions?

One of the jobs of the transformation team is to shine a light on really good practice and then try and industrialise it. When we find something we want to standardise, we need to be a conduit to ensure that it’s accessible to lots of other teams. 

I can see that some transformation groups are ahead of others. We need to ask them to share and socialise what’s working for them. We need to find a way to build a repository for people who are out there feeling a little bit lost. So they get inspired by things they’re seen within the organisation. People have confidence in the model in which they’re working and they don’t feel empowered enough to change that. 

Whether you like it or not, we’re all involved in transformation. We all chose to come to work here, so we’re all part of the transformation journey. 

Over the last six years we have taken on 26,000 people. We don’t have an organisation stuck in a pre-2008 mind set. We have an engineering demographic to die for, as each generation Y colleague becomes one year closer to leadership age. 

A transformed organisation has room for an eclectic series of views and uses data and information as well as the anecdotal stuff. A big part of having the courage within a meeting is coming from a point of objectivity, making the decision data-based and data-driven. Our data is still poor in a lot of areas. The good thing is that people in non-management positions are a lot closer to the data than managers. So, when raising a challenge, they come from a point of fact. People who do have a good grasp of data often put themselves in a much better place than those who don’t. Using data when talking to senior leaders in the organisation is a very powerful and effective strategy. It’s about trust, respect and capability.

What does a transformed Jaguar Land Rover look like?

We need to conceive, launch and build cars more efficiently. We need to improve our quality. These are fundamental elements that need to improve if we hope to tackle future projects. 

We need to strengthen everyone’s confidence on telling it how it is. Where is the value in disguising something? A lot of the issues we’re challenged with were identified much earlier on in the programme. We have to stop hiding problems from each other. Complete honesty and transparency is the only way change happens. 

Problems can only be overcome if they’re brought to the surface. You need to get the right people in the room around to engage, support and tackle them. You can’t do that by sweeping them away, belittling them or ignoring them. Problems remain problems unless they’re shared and tackled. We need to be set-up for problem solving, not just in terms of process, but in terms of behaviour. As senior leaders we need to encourage openness, honesty and transparency, be role models for those things, engage in problems and stop kicking people because they raise issues. Let's be tough on the issues and engage with the messengers. That is a transformed environment. That's the company I want to work for.

We need to create a work environment and culture that stimulates and engages through the levels of the organisation. This can be fun and vibrant! There are thousands of enlightened and passionate people here. But sometimes people need to be shown and made to realise the amount of direct influence they actually have. We all have influencing power over someone, or a small group. No one is powerless.

Hundreds of people are now directly involved in transformation activities and that number will significantly increase in 2017. These points may be lost on people who do not see anything changing around them. Rest assured, there is a lot of change happening. 

Industrialising good ideas is key. A lot of people have to go on a personal journey. Each of us can do something. We often look up the management line for answers. But everyone can affect what they do in the business. 

We need everyone, and I do mean everyone, to look at their processes and say I have done everything in my power to transform, through behaviour, or process or cost or quality or innovation. 

Transformation is the circle around the blueprint. It’s fuelling everything we do. 

For consultation and feedback, email: leap@jaguarlandrover.com

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