IHI CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS

The challenge

The leadership team at IHI Construction Materials was looking to identify, analyse and evaluate their future business direction. As part of this they wanted to train young team members in strategy development; with the aim of contributing to a positive environment and culture within the company including collaboration with the wider IHI Group.

Alongside this approach, there were some specific business challenges:

• IHI Construction Materials wanted to evaluate current and future business innovations to gain competitive advantages
• There was a need to explore the opportunities for positive sustainability impact
• The leadership team wanted to empower young team members to bring ideas and innovations and to contribute to business strategy and planning

The solution

Previously IfM Engage supported IHI Construction Materials with technology strategy development and industry market strategy development. This project focused on disseminating roadmapping knowledge and capabilities across IHI Construction Materials, especially empowering young team members.

The main objectives were to:

• Implement a customised industry scan programme over six sessions to understand how the civil engineering and construction sector has developed to inform IHI Construction Materials’ strategies
• Explore and examine future trends and drivers to identify and prioritise new strategic innovation opportunities by considering resources and capabilities
• Implement a customised Strategic Plan (S-Plan) roadmapping programme over twelve sessions to identify and prioritise strategic innovation opportunities looking towards 2030
• Develop executive candidates strategic thinking skills and capabilities, whilst equipping them with the experience and skills to deliver straightforward roadmapping workshops

“Throughout the project, I had the opportunities to practically experience the roadmapping approach. I have gained the knowledge and experience relating not only to product development but also to marketing strategy. I would like to utilise what I learned from the project to contribute to our roadmapping activities further, managing and implementing the roadmaps and action plans.”
Workshop participant, IHI Construction Materials

Tailoring IfM tools and approaches

The project was facilitated online by IfM Engage once a week during a 9-month period from June 2021 to February 2022. The online sessions aligned well with the construction industry with some people working in the office and others onsite. The training sessions were well received, and the attendance rate was almost 100%.

Participants were split into two teams to collaborate throughout the training programme and each team had their own theme to focus on and challenges to overcome. The first team explored current business offerings and how they could be developed, and the second team looked at new business opportunities.

Each team included three young members from IHI Construction Materials and two senior members from IHI Group. The President of IHI Construction Materials frequently joined the sessions throughout the project. The working group style gave attendees the opportunity to understand roadmapping theory and to think strategically.

Following the training programme by facilitated by IfM Engage, members of each team were able to facilitate company-wide training across IHI Construction Materials. This supported some of the objectives of the project including expanding and embedding the use of roadmapping across the organisation.

The results

New carbon neutral business unit established

The IfM Engage roadmapping project aided the generation of the idea of establishing a new carbon neutral business unit. The network established within the IHI Group during the work with IfM Engage was key as IHI Group’s Technology Intelligence & Integration (TII) is widely utilised to accelerate the technology and business development relating to this unit. This partnership was formed by employees from TII attending the roadmapping programme with IHI Construction Materials and thus fulfilling the goal of improving the cooperation between IHI Construction Materials and the TII.

Further new technologies for sustainability impact have also been identified and IHI Construction Materials has included these developments within their 3-year strategy.

Empowering young employees

While young members of IHI Construction Materials did not have much work experience in general compared to the senior members, they were able to gain significant experience and insights throughout the project and had the opportunity to develop their strategy development skills. The young members of the team successfully completed the work required in the project with very good outputs.