GMP-TATA STEEL Managing Strategic Transformation Page |1

Halewood-Current state and the need for change?

Halewood was the sole supplier of Escort to the European market. Ford plans to
push out the Escort and has left Halewood with only one option of being considered by
Jaguar if they are ready to change. Halewood needs to undergo frame-breaking change, ie.
Re-creation (Nadler&Tushman).
The current state or problems of the three systems (Tichy) of Halewood and the
desired state for the producing Jaguar X 400 are detailed in the table below,

Current Problems Desired State

Employees rewarded for cost rather than for Focus on improved Quality and customer
Technical quality orientation is

Power of the trade unions leading to strikes and

protests due to poor change management in the Improved accountability and empowered
past, Short tenure of managers leading to lack of employees
Political accountability

Employees believe that there is no requirement

for Change and Improvement, Emphasis on Open communication, adaptability, Mutual
Seniority and experience, Collective distrust, Lack respect, Teamwork
Cultural of respect

Why Halewood for X 400?

 Mass production was not a core skill of Jaguar, the product X-400 call for it,
Halewood is an expert in the process, i.e. it has all the production facilities on a
single site (Process- Product Fit), the workforce has inherent skills and experience in
volume production (Skill- Process fit, Internal alignment) 
 There is a grant from the Government for £ 43 million, and the location is near to the
existing Jaguar suppliers, Making Jaguar in UK was important from a Brand image
perspective (Location -Strategy Fit, External Alignment)

Ankit Singhania (CGT19006) | Bhavani Shankar (CGT19009)

Chandra Prakash (CGT19010) | Manjunathan M (CGT19011) | Udit Verma (CGT19030)
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Analysis of the strategic Transformation Journey

Hudson after becoming incharge of Halewood plant, formed a powerful guiding coalition by
reconfiguring the operating committee with hand-picked members with specific technical
expertise from across the Jaguar-Ford world. He made David Crisp as the communications
manager and David Perry as the Transition team leader who was one of the leading figures
involved in transforming Jaguar after acquisition by Ford. Every member of the committee
extended their full support to Hudson and saw him as consistent leader.

The transition team carried out a diagnosis analysis to understand the needs of the
Halewood plant, by doing detailed assessment of the working environment, the people and
their skills. It identified four key weaknesses: quality, productivity, culture and
infrastructure.

To tackle the identified challenges, operating committee jointly drafted a vision and seven
guiding values and behaviours to be shared by all employees. A new formal explicit
personal compact was made by the top management in negotiation with union- Gateway
Agreement -Greenbook- detailing the sets of milestones, bundled in gateways to be
achieved within a deadline. Progress was also reviewed regularly by an audit team.

For communicating the vision and personal compact to all employees, shop stewards
committee released a dramatic letter to the employees pleading for their cooperation and
adherence to the management team and Greenbook. Finalised Greenbook agreement with
details, were sent to each employee’s house address and they were asked to sign upon it to
show the commitment from their side.

But after taking these steps the team found that there was no improvement in the
milestones agreed in the Greenbook, they thought that it might become like a bluebook
provided by Ford. To ensure that Greenbook is effective and followed, Hudson and his team
used three-themes strategy - Quality, Centre of Excellence and Culture change.

After one year of gateway agreement Hudson again communicated the vision to all
employees by writing to them and tried to maintain the sense of urgency in them, stating
that if the right mindset was not available with the employees, top management would not
hesitate to back away from its decision upto Job1.

Ankit Singhania (CGT19006) | Bhavani Shankar (CGT19009)

Chandra Prakash (CGT19010) | Manjunathan M (CGT19011) | Udit Verma (CGT19030)
Word Count: 954
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For breaking the existing communication barrier with the workforce and break the
“them and us” attitude, operating committee pursued a communicating strategy by making
Hudson as a “magic leader” figurehead, someone dedicated, approachable and accountable
for the changes taking in the plant. Hudson for continuously communicating the vision
initiated a quarterly meeting with all level of employees and also started a hard copy
“Vision” newsletter for communicating with the employees about the past, present and
upcoming challenges and events.

Hudson to change the old culture of employees and empower them to act on vision
called Senn Delaney consulting firm to conduct two-day workshop for all level of employees,
called the “Halewood difference program”. He also sent the employees in team to visit
Jaguar’s West Midlands plant for a weak visit, to visualise the practise being followed and
shadow someone who was of their equivalent, this led to immense increase in psychological
change of workforce. Later, when Halewood workforce was sent to build x-400 prototype in
the midland plant, they could contribute upfront constructively by pointing out the problem
that would come when going for volume assembly process, showing their high involvement
in the process.

They also started targeted approach “Centre of Excellence” for encouraging the best
practices of lean manufacturing among the shop floor operators. This initiative improved the
quality of production by 50% without any major investment and renewed the sense of pride
among the workforce. Though there were visible short-term wins created from the COE
implementation, there was not much recognition and monetary incentives given to the
operators for their inputs.

When the old facility was stripped out and new facility was installed the employees
who were feeling that management promise were usually unkept, now realised that this
new team keeps up the promise and do “walk the talk”. Although the Hudson and team has
achieved in changing the mindset of the workforce in a systematic manner and achieved
significant improvement, they had still more to be done in terms of institutionalising the
changes. Since the team had mandate till Job 1 (February 2001) if they decided to change
Hudson they should be careful, since bad succession can undermine the hard work done to
bring this change.

Ankit Singhania (CGT19006) | Bhavani Shankar (CGT19009)

Chandra Prakash (CGT19010) | Manjunathan M (CGT19011) | Udit Verma (CGT19030)
Word Count: 954
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Recommendations:

 Given the plant’s history of flipping back to old ways, It is essential for the team to
find ways to Anchoring the change

 Reinforcing good behaviour by installing mechanism of monthly/quarterly rewards

and recognition for shop floor employees

 Institutionalization of “Centres of Excellence” with staff-rotation in the

implementation of new introduced lean concepts

Ankit Singhania (CGT19006) | Bhavani Shankar (CGT19009)

Chandra Prakash (CGT19010) | Manjunathan M (CGT19011) | Udit Verma (CGT19030)
Word Count: 954