"We engaged JustOne and one of the "big six" conventional consultancies to each undertake a diagnostic assignment as a pilot for an operational working capital project. We asked the conventional consultancy to produce a detailed report on Inventory in Russia and JustOne to produce reports on AR. AP and Inventories in Hungary, Holland and Romania.
The conventional consultancy took over two months and used 4 consultants full time to produce their report, which was of limited value as it contained errors, producing targets that were shown to be unrealistic by the local management. In contrast, JustOne used half the number of consultants, produced reports which contained targets that were challenging but met with universal approval from the local management. Although JustOne covered a greater scope in three countries they did it in less than 20% of the time that their competitor took.
As a result of these pilots, and because we wanted the project to be implemented from within, using our own people, we chose JustOne to help us with the global working capital project. We have found their approach to be highly effective. We have already reduced our operational working capital by about 50% and expect more to come. "
Hans Schraa
Project Manager - Cost & Asset Base, Provimi
“JustOne undertook a successful pilot in our Expancel businesses in 2009 and in 2010 which convinced us to engage them on an OWC project covering the whole of Asia and Europe. Their unique approach is working very well. JustOne are particularly effective in helping our sales teams believe that it is possible to reduce terms with existing customers. They have techniques that help to change the negative mindset of the sales people which have prevented progress in this area in the past.
I have just returned from a visit Asia and our people there have been enthused by the project and are committed to achieving the targets”
Gijsberth de Ruiter – Project Sponsor
Director Control and IT - Pulp & Paper Chemicals
In 2006 Marie-Paule was trained as an Internal Consultant by JustOne along with six other Bodycote staff. She attended the pilot implementation in Edinburgh lead by JustOne and during the project she facilitated the changes in entities in Europe, the USA, and Asia.
I found that the IC training covered all areas I needed to know before going into the field. We learned interview techniques that helped us to get the information we needed during the Discovery phase.
The change management training by Mick Cope gave us a lot of techniques to use with people who are resistant to change. I have found that these techniques to also be valuable in my daily work.
The negotiation techniques were based on numerous examples that helped me to change negative mental models, especially when working with the sales team. In my opinion, the examples JustOne gave us were the most powerful tool to use when facing resistance to change.
JustOne’s KPIs are easy to use and everybody is able to understand their impact.
I found the pilot implementation very helpful because it demonstrates how to apply the theory we had learned in the training. It was an opportunity for me to practice interviews and get experience in writing a Discovery Report and an Action Plan. The feed-back from Just One was very helpful.
The Training and Pilot gave me the confidence I needed for my first implementation. Of course my self confidence has improved with each implementation. I now feel I have a high level of expertise, not only in working capital, but also project management and change management. I believe this gives me the credibility to encourage local teams to complete the actions needed to close the project and follow up to make sure that people are not slipping into old habits.
The big benefit for the company is of course that the Working Capital knowledge is now inside the organization I share experiences with other ICs and we use our different strengths in different situations to help each other.
Marie-Paule Dupuy-Roudel
Bodycote
JustOne take the time and care to get to know your company culture, and work with that to effect the changes necessary to reduce OWC. They handled a project with Eka that covered not just the complexities of Europe, but also our complete Asian operations. Miracles don’t happen, change is a tough process, but can be made easier when you have the right data, the right training, and the confidence that JustOne brings.
The benefit of having a JustOne consultant is that they can point out where communication breakdowns exist in your company, and not embarrass you with that, but empower you to change that behavior. JustOne uses tools and models that not only challenge mental models, but are geared toward making the changes possible. JustOne provides the legitimacy for making these changes, their experience gives confidence in challenging the existing relationships.
JustOne’s dedication and work ethic make them a very easy company to want to promote to other companies.
Jay Hunsberger
Marketing Manager - Pulp and Paper Europe
This statement was made by Pim van den Berghe, Internal Consultant, at the end of the pilot facilitation lead by JustOne in response to a question from a Provimi Board Member asking what he thought of the JustOne approach.
“Our company has over 90 projects running at this time and none of them are being run like this one; and they all should be!”
Pim van den Berghe
Internal Consultant
“Even during the current challenging economic climate we have maintained the improvements gained from the JustOne OWC project (we have achieved a 15% reduction in Accounts Receivables between 2008 and 2010)”
Eddy van Rhede – (Project Sponsor)
Finance Director Provimi
“Just 1 Consultants are expert project managers, strong facilitators and excellent subject matter experts. They have extensive knowledge in the field of Operating Working Capital and in the nature of human beings and have the talent to facilitate real improvements.”
David Paganoni
BU Manager OWC
