A matter for the boss or a collective decision?

According to recent studies, only one-third of German SMEs are currently in the early stages of digitization. Applications such as the company's own Internet presence are still very underdeveloped and widespread.

According to recognized auditing and consulting firms, decision-makers bear responsibility for this state of affairs.

As in politics, a "chief decision" is expected for Industry 4.0 and digitization.

I have been asking myself for many years: How do bosses make decisions, or how can they make the right decisions?

No hype

For the topic of Industry 4.0, which is still defined as a hype term today, coming to the right decisions is not always easy.

For many, the content and goals are intangible. Also, the definitions and standards are very different.

The investments and budgets are hardly calculable. Not every entrepreneur is aware of whether his company is ready for this paradigm shift.

The current success of the German SME sector leaves little time for these questions and future orientations. Resource bottlenecks are a further contributing factor.

A boss of a leading trading company once said to me many years ago:

"I have to invest in the future when I'm feeling well and when it hurts in terms of time - and not when it's too late."

Due to globalization and the worldwide provision of data and information, it is becoming increasingly important that I have my company and corporate data available at any time and immediately.

I also need to provide immediate transparency to my customers and my business units.

Digitization allows this information to be stored and processed as quickly as possible. The important thing is that this data can be made available to anyone, anywhere.

Product configurators contribute to fast and economical decisions. Simulations allow wrong decisions to be minimized.

Collectively, decision-making bases for bosses and decision-makers are prepared across departments and implemented as quickly as possible.

Added values are immediately recognizable, making decisions immediately comprehensible.

In my current environment of CAD direct integration into the SAP ERP system, we achieve potential savings of around 30% through digitization. Products are brought to market earlier - redundancies and errors are reduced in quotations, development and in the design area.

Today, professionals are dedicated to their core business and are not busy "searching for information".

There are certainly many more reasons to present Industry 4.0 and digitization not as hype, but as reality. I believe that we are already further along than is often assumed.

That is why I believe that any decision is only as good as its preparation and that a boss makes a decision when it is well prepared and worked out and, above all, has a comprehensible and sustainable impact on the company's success.

Conclusion

Decisions are prepared collectively and then made by the boss.