Reflection – Mind Mapping

Challenge  For more than ten years I have been working in the restructuring consulting business in Germany, so  my native language is not English. Usually our clients are struggling private companies facing the  threat of insolvency. From time to time we get some more strategic projects which are related to  organizational aspects of reinventing a business model but not directly facing insolvency issues. In  this case our client was a big private company within the construction business headquartered in  New York City. Our client wanted to extend its business operations to Europe, Africa and Asia and  therefore acquired several standalone companies in 48 different countries with a total of  approximately 300 production sites. The team I lead was engaged by the global CFO based in New  York and the new EMEA CFO based in London, United Kingdom. Our target was to perform an  analysis of the current processes in the finance department across all countries and come up with  suggestions for an efficient reorganization. At this point of the project neither we nor the CFO had  any idea about the processes in the different countries, the underlying IT systems, accounting  standards or which people are involved in the finance processes.      Selection  The first tool we applied was the tool of mind mapping to achieve a basic understanding of the  underlying processes, IT-systems and involved persons. We started analyzing the global budgeting  and business planning process as those are tow central activities within the finance department of a  global company. Usually if you map out these processes you can get a deep understanding of the  processes within a finance organization. We chose the tool of mind mapping as it enabled us to  organize a large amount of messy data, regardless of the amount we were not able to expect at this  time. In addition mind maps are a great tool to develop ideas about processes and also support the  communication with top management as they are easier to read than tables, spreadsheets or  reports. Like shown in the video on the mind mapping tool in week 3 this seemed to be the perfect  approach for us, maybe in combination with other tools like the storytelling tool shown in week 1.      Application  Once we had identified the key persons in the 48 countries we started collecting all the management  reports which were generated on a monthly basis. We received an overwhelming mass of data and  reports of several thousand pages. Some of our colleagues started with mapping out similarities and  differences in a visual way using classic mind-mapping tools. As we soon were aware that a classic  mind mapping will result in a way too large overview we thought about how we could adopt the  classic mind-mapping tool to fit our needs. As most of the relevant data was aligned along the profit  and loss statement of the company we decided to come up with an adjusted version of the mind- mapping tool matching the structure of the profit and loss statement. This approach worked out and  we were able to create a visual mind map showing all relevant similarities and differences across the  48 countries. Using this tool we were able to discover differences in the calculation of key  performance indicators as well as discover such basic things like differences in calculation revenues  and profits. The mind mapping tool enabled us to be aware of one of the greatest challenges in the  whole project – missing comparability across countries due to a lack of consistency.      Insight & Approach  To come up with a solution for this we invited all responsible finance managers to several workshops  to London. We organized break-out sessions based on the insights of the mind map we created in the  weeks before the workshops. For the workshops themselves we decided to include another design  thinking tool – visualization. We used the availability of finance managers across all of Europe, Africa

and Asia to map out the current processes within the finance organization to come up with  consistent processes across all countries. In addition to the classic mind-mapping we also used the  concept of the Business Model Canvas (as also described in another course of this specialization) to  map out customer centric key performance indicators. The result of the workshops was a clear  roadmap on how we can transform the finance organization to meet the challenging needs of a  global organization. In total the project took approximately eight months and was huge success.  After the successful reorganization we decided to start over at the beginning. We created mind maps  of the reorganized processes and created Business Model Canvas of the reorganized budgeting an  reporting processes. These are now part of the internal process documentation. Our client as well as  our company were convinced that the aspects of design thinking and the visual approach helped us  to achieve our target. This is why this approach has become a standard approach in our company  now.    This leaves one last question. Would another approach have been better? Well, I do think by starting  with the mind mapping approach we selected the correct approach for our needs based on the given  information at this time. Looking back from today it may have been a better approach to start over  with the tool of visualization instead. Visualization would have enabled us to take a closer look at the  messy processes and the highly fragmented IT environment earlier. Maybe this would have been an  advantage in the beginning of the project. However, we included visualization during the workshops  and performed a combination of mind mapping and visualization to achieve our target.


Reflection – Mind Mapping Challenge For more than ten years I have been working in the restructuring consulting business in Germany , so my native language is not English . Usually our clients are struggling private companies facing the threat of insolvency . From time to time we get some more strategic projects which are related to organizational aspects of reinventing a business model but not directly facing insolvency issues . In this case our client was a big private company within the construction business headquartered in New York City . Our client wanted to extend its business operations to Europe , Africa and Asia and therefore acquired several standalone companies in 48 different countries with a total of approximately 300 production sites . The team I lead was engaged by the global CFO based in New York and the new EMEA CFO based in London , United Kingdom . Our target was to perform an analysis of the current processes in the finance department across all countries and come up with suggestions for an efficient reorganization . At this point of the project neither we nor the CFO had any idea about the processes in the different countries , the underlying IT systems , accounting standards or which people are involved in the finance processes . Selection The first tool we applied was the tool of mind mapping to achieve a basic understanding of the underlying processes , IT - systems and involved persons . We started analyzing the global budgeting and business planning process as those are tow central activities within the finance department of a global company . Usually if you map out these processes you can get a deep understanding of the processes within a finance organization . We chose the tool of mind mapping as it enabled us to organize a large amount of messy data , regardless of the amount we were not able to expect at this time . In addition mind maps are a great tool to develop ideas about processes and also support the communication with top management as they are easier to read than tables , spreadsheets or reports . Like shown in the video on the mind mapping tool in week 3 this seemed to be the perfect approach for us , maybe in combination with other tools like the storytelling tool shown in week 1 . Application Once we had identified the key persons in the 48 countries we started collecting all the management reports which were generated on a monthly basis . We received an overwhelming mass of data and reports of several thousand pages . Some of our colleagues started with mapping out similarities and differences in a visual way using classic mind - mapping tools . As we soon were aware that a classic mind mapping will result in a way too large overview we thought about how we could adopt the classic mind - mapping tool to fit our needs . As most of the relevant data was aligned along the profit and loss statement of the company we decided to come up with an adjusted version of the mind- mapping tool matching the structure of the profit and loss statement . This approach worked out and we were able to create a visual mind map showing all relevant similarities and differences across the 48 countries . Using this tool we were able to discover differences in the calculation of key performance indicators as well as discover such basic things like differences in calculation revenues and profits . The mind mapping tool enabled us to be aware of one of the greatest challenges in the whole project – missing comparability across countries due to a lack of consistency . Insight & Approach To come up with a solution for this we invited all responsible finance managers to several workshops to London . We organized break - out sessions based on the insights of the mind map we created in the weeks before the workshops . For the workshops themselves we decided to include another design thinking tool – visualization . We used the availability of finance managers across all of Europe , Africa and Asia to map out the current processes within the finance organization to come up with consistent processes across all countries . In addition to the classic mind - mapping we also used the concept of the Business Model Canvas ( as also described in another course of this specialization ) to map out customer centric key performance indicators . The result of the workshops was a clear roadmap on how we can transform the finance organization to meet the challenging needs of a global organization . In total the project took approximately eight months and was huge success . After the successful reorganization we decided to start over at the beginning . We created mind maps of the reorganized processes and created Business Model Canvas of the reorganized budgeting an reporting processes . These are now part of the internal process documentation . Our client as well as our company were convinced that the aspects of design thinking and the visual approach helped us to achieve our target . This is why this approach has become a standard approach in our company now . This leaves one last question . Would another approach have been better ? Well , I do think by starting with the mind mapping approach we selected the correct approach for our needs based on the given information at this time . Looking back from today it may have been a better approach to start over with the tool of visualization instead . Visualization would have enabled us to take a closer look at the messy processes and the highly fragmented IT environment earlier . Maybe this would have been an advantage in the beginning of the project . However , we included visualization during the workshops and performed a combination of mind mapping and visualization to achieve our target .