Stera updates strategy through co-creation
Together with Fountain Park, we have built a suitable way to enrich the dialogue among our own staff and with key customers as part of an inclusive strategy process.
Doing strategy work interactively
We have been a partner of Stera for almost three years. “Together with Fountain Park, we have built a suitable way to enrich the dialogue between our own staff and with key customers as part of an inclusive strategy process,” says Jussi Ohlsson, CEO of Stera.
Ohlsson believes in working together and in active dialogue with key stakeholders as part of strategy work. The Management Team and the Board of Directors have the main responsibility for forming a strategic vision and the means to achieve the desired future.
“In collaboration with Fountain Park, we have built an effective model to regularly receive observations and insights from all staff as part of strategy work and to expand dialogue with our key customers to anticipate future needs and intensify collaboration using web-based methods,” says Ohlsson.
From 2017 to the autumn of 2020, Fountain Park has implemented several web-based staff strategy dialogues and shorter pulse measurements, key customer dialogues, and facilitated web-based and face-to-face workshops as part of Stera’s management team strategy work.
The new CEO wanted to increase the strategic thinking of the organization
Stera Technologies is an internationally operating contract manufacturing group for mechanics and electronics. The company employs more than 800 highly skilled professionals in Finland and Estonia in seven different locations.
The collaboration with Fountain Park began in late 2017, when Jussi Ohlsson, who had been in the house for a long time, started as CEO. At the time, he wanted to hear more from staff on the most important issues in Stera’s future to support strategy work.
Cooperation continued in the spirit of implementing the strategy. With the help of a flexible web-based method, management was able to catch up with the perceptions of the progress of the change and the staff’s pulse. The opportunity to listen extensively to the staff and the high-quality reporting provided the management with an up-to-date view of the implementation of the strategy, its successes, and the challenges it faced.
“A well-constructed interactive online method has enabled a diverse and content-rich way to engage in dialogue on issues that are important to us. We have been able to delve deeper into relevant areas for development. The partnership with Fountain Park has strengthened and created a new way of working in support of cooperation, ”concludes Ohlsson.
A confidential relationship with customers is at the heart of our operations
In today’s ever-evolving international industrial environment, the role of the contract manufacturer is emphasized. The requirements set by Stera’s own customers and end customers for the supply chains of products and services are growing and changing at an ever-accelerating pace.
Alongside customers, they need a renewable partner that provides services throughout the supply chain. Deepening cooperation is an integral part of Stera’s strategy.
In the spring of 2020, when the pandemic hit, Stera launched an extensive dialogue with its key customers. Even in exceptional circumstances, Stera wanted to provide a secure channel for dialogue. The aim was to deepen cooperation and focus on common longer-term development goals. In the web-based dialogue, customers were invited to come up with the best possible collaboration.
“It was good that we got a wider group to commit to Stera and they had ideas for developing operations in these difficult times. A confidential relationship with key customers is a core issue for our operations, and I felt this extensive dialogue would take it forward. Content-rich communication between a wide range of people served our goals better than a simple feedback survey, ”Ohlsson reflects on the benefits of the key customer dialogue.
