JANUARY 2019 COVER STORY
19
A report has identifi ed a breed of manufacturing
‘super managers’, who are best placed to lead their
companies into the future. Trouble is, they only
make up 20% of industrial leaders. What do the
rest need to be doing to avoid getting left behind?
BY CHRIS BECK
M uch has been written about the impact
that the Fourth Industrial Revolution
will have on manufacturing operations
– from increased automation (see
p30) to the rise of AI (p24) and smart
maintenance. However, a new report
by NatWest, entitled Future Fit, has highlighted a
worrying lack of much-needed forward thinking
from those at the very top of companies.
The report examines the leadership challenges
that manufacturers will face in the next fi ve to 10
years, and ways that industry leaders can prepare.
It identifi es a new breed of ‘super managers’, who
will be at the forefront of business progression in
the next decade. These so-called ‘trailblazers’, the
report says, “whether individual executives or the
board as a whole, are crucial in setting a company’s
forward-thinking strategy, and implementing it.”
However, they make up just 20% of manufacturing
leaders – meaning there’s a worryingly large
number of senior management teams who may
be holding their companies back.
Richard Hill, head of manufacturing at
NatWest, explains how the trailblazers were
identifi ed: “There are key challenges that face
every sector of the industry – productivity,
innovation, Industry 4.0 and so on. The thing
that really enables progression within a sector,
or in one of those cross-sector challenges, is
the capability and mindset of the leadership
team. The Future Fit research has looked at the
mediumsized
companies have the greatest potential
to grow. For the leadership teams in these
companies, it’s therefore important to consider
how to deal with disruption in the company.
“What we found with this research was that
there is a cohort of leaders that
stood out over the rest: the
trailblazers. They were more
positive, more aware and more
active than the rest, in respect
of understanding and pushing
their business forward with
a future-proofi ng agenda. To
some, future proofi ng can sound
like a defensive position; we
want to position in the other
way. There’s so much change
going on in the world currently,
and it’s important to fi nd the
opportunities in it when they
arise. It’s not a case of defending
the company and protecting
what you’ve got in the face
of change, but rising to the
challenge and meeting it headon
– re-shaping, re-building
and re-modelling the business.
MEET THE
NEW BOSS
www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk £5m-£80m turnover organisations, who we see as
critical to progressing the market. These medium-
Future Fit
Trailblazing in the
Fourth Industrial Revolution
/www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk