98 | Endeavour Magazine Endeavour Magazine | 99 WRITTEN BY JOHN HARVEY SALBERG CONCRETE PRODUCTS 0027 11 357 7600 WWW.SALBERG.CO.ZA Following a sea of change in the wake of economic hardship, Salberg is enjoying record levels of success in a booming era for the company. TIME FOR A TURNAROUND SALBERG EMBRACES CHANGE TO REAP REWARDS
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98 | Endeavour Magazine Endeavour Magazine | 99
WRITTEN BY JOHN HARVEY
SALBERG CONCRETE PRODUCTS
0027 11 357 7600
WWW.SALBERG.CO.ZA
Following a sea of change in the wake of economic hardship, Salberg is enjoying record levels of success in a booming era for the company.
TIME FOR A TURNAROUND
SALBERG EMBRACES CHANGE TO REAP REWARDS
100 | Endeavour Magazine Endeavour Magazine | 101
To this end Dr Rudy Absil, one of the
country’s top turnaround specialist,
was brought in as CEO by the newly
appointed Chairman of the Salberg Group,
Barbara Parker. Twelve months later Salberg
is closing its financial year with the best
results in recent years.
According to Absil the new team broke
company records in the first six months and
has subsequently broken their own records
month on month, to date. “It’s been an
impressive four quarters and the outstanding
performance is continuing. May has once
again broken all sales records and we are
currently managing our biggest back order
book ever”.
Absil attributes successful turn-arounds
to five key elements:
• Appointment of competent business
leaders
• Effective cost and cash flow management
(Rightsizing )
• KPI based performance management and
clear role definition
• Culture of learning
• Effective and efficient communication
channels
Implementing the five key drivers
“When I arrived the key executives had
already been removed and mind-set of
change introduced but it was a long way from
a sustainable turn around”.
“The first order of the day was to surround
myself with competent decision makers in all
the key business areas, namely Operations,
Engineering, Finance and Human Resources”.
“Secondly, we had to rightsize – as oppose
to downsize, the staff and in so doing we were
able to streamline processes and develop
more effective and efficient channels of
communication”.
Thirdly, we had to develop a culture of
continued competency. This was achieved
through, among others, the introduction
of participative performance management,
targeted training and ongoing process
analysis and improvement by both managers
and workers.
“Creating visual indications of how the
business is doing to make staff constantly
aware of performance has been critical.
Performance targets all for divisions are
monitored at all levels throughout the
organisations at meeting and/or forums daily,
weekly and monthly.”
“We applied a lot of the consultancy
principles including short interval controls,
visual measurement and balanced scorecards
so people can see where we are, how much
we make, how much we sell, the cost of
production and cost of maintenance, among
others, on a daily basis. Making people aware
of how they’re doing makes it easier to
improve performance.”
Company cultureIn addition to developments relating
handling through aggressive and counterproductive warnings and
dismissals. A culture of low team work, covering-ones-back and
grapevine gossip emerged in an environment where an average of
120-150 warnings were issued a month. In a medium size company
this is excessive”.
“Pivotal to change”, suggested Absil, “was the shift to recognition
and reward”. “Giving the workforce incentives and providing
opportunities for further training has been crucial in the company’s
success. A competent, motivated and enthusiastic staff are central to
a thriving business.”
“We have a monthly incentive for the best employee and a
quarterly incentive for the best production team. Every 2 nd week we
select the best performing team and on a Friday afternoon they have
a BBQ. The sales team now work on commission and we are seeing
the obvious results.”
“We have developed extensive training, not only on-the-job
and technical, but teaching supervisors the principals of business
management and the all-important leadership and management
of people. We achieve this through regular formal and informal
educational sessions during lunch breaks, after work and Saturdays.
The staff are beginning to experience the tangibly value of knowledge
and skills”.
“Living in a country where people have no had little or no access to
this makes a great change. We found many supervisors, irrespective
of race or gender, had technical knowledge and understood the finer
details of the job. But there was a big gap in business and leadership
knowledge especially around the management, motivation and
coaching of people.”
Recent developmentsWith banks and borrowers reluctant to lend money in today’s
climate, Absil admits Salberg’s biggest challenge relates to
recapitalisation. “To date we have financed our own recapitalization
and, despite the pressure, evidence of capacity through the
performance of the past 12 months is a keen indicator of our future
growth potential,” states Absil.
“We have revived two key value propositions over the past 12
months. ‘Seize-the-Moment’ in Sales and ‘No-Compromise’ in product
quality and reliable delivery. We are winning over customers from our
rivals because of our ability to live our commitments”.
According to Absil electronic are always ditched in favour of a face-
to-face engagement where necessary. “Our sales team are trained to
not only sell but to service our clients. The complexity of our industry
demands a heightened awareness and understanding of the client’s
requirements, project to project. We specialise in delivering efficient
and cost saving solutions to our clients and in return our client’s retain
a deep and abiding appreciation of us. We are winning market share
one satisfied customer at a time”.
Absil has also revived the company’s unique and original
Innovations Division which up until the loss of its founder, had been
core to the company’s brand. As a very proud CEO, Absil highlighted
the recent winning of the 2012 Concrete Manufacturer Association’s
(CMA) Innovation Category Award for the company’s ATM blast
SALBERG CONCRETE PRODUCTS
Established over 40 years ago, Salberg has been a precast concrete industry stalwart with a wide range of specialist products and a diverse customer base. However, since founder Dave Salberg passed away seven years ago, the company struggled in the face of the global economic crisis and desperately needed a new and innovative approach to business in the 21st century.
proof housing unit.
“Providing cost effective and innovation pre-cast concrete
solutions is central to our growth plan for both our local and
international clients who find our services and the rand favourable to
their current business requirements”.
With global economies in recession and international companies
reeling from the punch of their domestic recessions, Salberg is
capitalising on the strength of their product & services market and
the wins from the turn-around to generate turnover.
Looking aheadThere are no plans to slow down in the next five years with Salberg
keen to continue and build on recent successes.
“We have quite an aggressive development plan,” states Absil.
“The first step is to make the current business highly profitable
and the second is to expand our production capacity with modern
technology”.
“We have recently returned from a trip to Europe where we
investigated new technologies and necessary contacts made to
manage the planned road to long term profits. We are excited about
the possibilities new technologies open up for us and we intend
capitalising on it in the next financial year”.
“I’m excited to find that we’ve evolved a team that is forward
looking while being able to deliver in the moment. Business and
markets are more sophisticated and it’s our business to stay focus and