Topics covered:
- Challenges of aligning people, processes, and technology in large organizations
- Adapting to accelerated digital transformation post-COVID
- Internal and external digitalization strategies, including automation and Industry 4.0
- Strategic technology adoption and balancing innovation with stability
- Advice for organizations navigating transformation and technology adoption
Introduction and Summary:
In this episode of Sensei Labs' "Meet the Maestro" series, Jay Goldman, CEO of Sensei Labs, interviews Henning Bork, Vice President of Digitization Strategy and M&A at ASMPT. The discussion explores the challenges large organizations face in aligning people, processes, and technology, especially in light of recent disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic. Bork shares insights into how ASMPT has navigated these challenges and adopted new digital technologies to improve both internal efficiency and external customer interactions.
Bork describes ASMPT’s approach to enterprise orchestration, where strategic initiatives are broken down across different business units, with clear targets tracked throughout the year. He emphasizes the need to align people, processes, and technology to drive change. Bork highlights the challenges of managing multiple initiatives in parallel within a large organization while ensuring that people accept and drive the necessary changes.
The conversation moves into how the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated ASMPT’s digital transformation efforts. Bork notes that, while the company had already invested in infrastructure, the sudden shift to remote work forced a rapid adaptation. ASMPT embraced new tools and collaboration methods, and the experience demonstrated that many business functions could be successfully managed without in-person interactions. He predicts that the changes made during the pandemic will lead to a permanent shift toward hybrid working models and increased reliance on digital tools.
Bork also touches on ASMPT’s dual approach to digitalization—internally, by automating processes and improving efficiency, and externally, by helping customers integrate digital solutions into their own operations. For example, ASMPT provides digital interfaces, customer portals, and remote training options to enhance the customer experience. On the internal side, Bork explains how ASMPT is selectively adopting new technologies, such as business intelligence and automation tools, to streamline processes and improve operational efficiency.
A key part of the discussion is Bork's perspective on technology adoption. While he acknowledges the value of new technologies, he cautions against adopting technology for its own sake. Instead, ASMPT conducts process discovery and proof of concept evaluations to ensure that new tools provide real value and fit within the broader organizational strategy. Bork stresses the importance of balancing stability with innovation, testing new tools in smaller environments before scaling them across the company.
In closing, Bork offers advice to organizations undergoing transformations. He recommends that companies first identify their key pain points and desired outcomes before exploring technology solutions. He also emphasizes the importance of gauging the organization’s capacity for change and managing change carefully, especially when implementing new technologies. Lastly, Bork advises adopting a test-and-learn approach, where organizations continuously evaluate and adapt their strategies in response to new challenges and opportunities.
This insightful conversation provides valuable guidance for companies navigating transformation in the enterprise orchestration era.
Frequently asked questions
How does a large industrial company manage many strategic initiatives at once?
By breaking strategic initiatives down across business units with clear targets that are tracked throughout the year. Henning Bork, VP of Digitization Strategy and M&A at ASMPT, describes this as the core of enterprise orchestration in a large organization, with the hard part being not the tracking but getting people to accept and drive the change behind each initiative.
How should a company decide which new technologies to adopt?
Start with the pain point and the desired outcome, not the tool. Bork cautions against adopting technology for its own sake; ASMPT runs process discovery and proof-of-concept evaluations first, tests new tools in smaller environments, and scales only when a tool has shown real value and fits the wider organizational strategy.
What does a digitalization strategy look like for a manufacturer?
By separating internal and external digitalization and pursuing both. Internally, ASMPT automates processes and adopts business intelligence and automation tools to improve efficiency. Externally, it builds digital interfaces, customer portals, and remote training so customers can integrate digital solutions into their own operations, an Industry 4.0 play on both sides of the relationship.
How do you balance innovation with stability in a large organization?
Deliberately, and after gauging the organization's capacity for change. Bork's advice is to measure how much change the organization can absorb before introducing new technology, manage the change carefully, and take a test-and-learn approach that continuously evaluates and adapts rather than committing to a fixed plan.
What did COVID-19 change permanently about how large companies work?
That most business functions could be run without in-person interaction, and that the shift would be permanent. ASMPT had already invested in infrastructure, so the rapid move to remote work was an adaptation rather than a rebuild, and Bork expects the result to be lasting hybrid working models and heavier reliance on digital collaboration tools.
