Almatis – Client Interview – Part 1
Global Technical Director
The evolving role of R&D is leading transformation at Almatis. The Global Technical Director shares how the Stage-Gate® initiative modernized their approach to product innovation and placed a greater focus on value creation, not just technical excellence. Almatis is launching a steady stream of strategically aligned, innovative new products that deliver real impact.
Part 1
Bernd Becker, interviews Andus Buhr, Global Technical Director at Almatis, about their recent experience working with Stage-Gate International to tailor and implement the Stage-Gate® Innovation Framework to enable strategic transformation.
What is Almatis and what do you do there?
Almatis is a global company with about 1000 employees worldwide. It is active in the raw material business and produces alumina-based materials. Our core markets are: refractories, ceramics and polishing (steel manufacturing, glass, cement, ceramics parts etc). Almatis’s products are used in a wide variety of industries including iron and steel, cement, non-ferrous metal, ceramics, automotive, polishing and electronics.
I am the Global Technical Director, in charge of product development and technical customer support. I am responsible for a global team, across all regions, and all markets that Almatis serves.
How is the role of R&D evolving at Almatis?
My role was always very results-driven and supporting of the groups involved in new product development (NPD), but I was not directly accountable for revenue targets. My role has become much more strategically-driven since the implementation of Stage-Gate. My role has also become more transformational, helping Almatis to develop new products for new markets, to enable Almatis to become less dependent upon the Refractory market.
What Framework are you using to achieve these strategic goals?
Stage-Gate is the Innovation Framework we chose for Almatis. It helps to focus us more on evaluating the business aspect of projects rather just the technical aspects. It helps to align projects to advance our company’s Innovation Strategy.
Introducing Stage-Gate has also helped improve and clarify what our Innovation Strategy should be to help us achieve our Business Strategy for the future. It has made gaps in our Strategic Roadmaps more visible, and has made us more conscious of how we are allocating resources – making sure that we are rewarding the best projects with sufficient resources.
Rolling out Stage-Gate has also helped me to clarify the roles of R&D and Product Development in the company and to communicate their value quantitatively. We are working more cross-functionally, involving more functions in new product development and encouraging them to contribute their new product ideas. With more functions getting involved early on in projects, we are building higher quality business cases that focus more effectively on the commercial, marketing, and financial aspects of projects, not just the technical aspects.
What was the main driver behind your decision to implement Stage-Gate at Almatis?
Increasing competitive and margin pressures in existing markets were what drove the change initiative. Some of our launches in the past were very successful, but others never produced the results that we were expecting. We needed a better way to allocate our resources to the right project more efficiently so that we could launch the new product and service innovations that are required to be competitive in fast-changing markets.
What myths about Stage-Gate did you encounter to get alignment and support?
Namely rumors that Stage-Gate was bureaucratic. Some of the myths we encountered were that: Stage-Gate slowed down product development, it made decision-making cumbersome, and even that having Gatekeepers slowed down the process.
How did you overcome these myths?
SGI’s structured approach helped us overcome these myths. Working with SGI to customize the process to the very specific needs of Almatis also helped. We were able to examine our past negative experiences at Almatis and were able to understand how the new Stage-Gate Process would help us avoid these issues going forward. Higher quality project presentations at Gate meetings and Gatekeeping practices were immediately visible to all stakeholders and helped to win support for using the new process.
You implemented several of our products and services – what was most impactful?
The customization of the process to Almatis’s specific requirements was a clear success as it helped us to win internal stakeholder support by showing our people how the new process could support the way Almatis works, versus a generic process that didn’t reflect our unique needs and culture. SGI’s facilitation and implementation planning with our cross-functional team was also key to success.
What unexpected challenges did you face?
We underestimated the amount of change and effort required to implement Stage-Gate throughout the company. We freed up resources and dedicated them for a period of time to get traction with our Stage-Gate implementation. A ‘side of the desk’ implementation effort would not have worked for us. The important and impactful role of the Process Manager was also not understood at first. Having a dedicated Process Manager is mandatory for success – it cannot be a side job.
What unexpected benefits did you realize?
The experience of applying a structured change management approach was a great learning for Almatis. Having Stage-Gate in place helped us to identify gaps that had not been visible before with regard to Strategy, product development and decision-making. The discipline that came with Stage-Gate also strengthened our Project Management capabilities, showing us where we could improve.
For more on Almatis’s transformation, contact Bernd Becker
View Part 2 – Andus shares learnings and tips that you can apply to your organization