Automotive
Understanding change in the automotive sector
The automotive industry faces converging forces: electrification, autonomous vehicles, connected services, economic and commercial market pressures, and evolving consumer expectations. The complexity of the entire automotive, often global, supply chain means that there is often a lot of disconnection between front end customer facing systems and processes and more legacy manufacturing, supply chain order management and distribution. Not just during the sales journey, but also during the usage and aftersales lifecycle stages. Due to this complexity and the number of parties involved, there is often a high likelihood of inconsistent information being shared, which can also lead to poor customer experiences.
Industry disruption isn’t just about technology; it’s about how people, processes and data come together to support the next generation of mobility. To thrive, automotive firms must modernise operations, engage teams, and prepare for new business models.
How we support automotive
Change Design
We start with change design, mapping your current systems and processes. We clarify priorities: whether improving customer experience, identifying where efficiency improvements can be achieved, or preparing parts of the entire supply chain for the significant shifts in technology and capability. Our navigator mode aligns stakeholders and sets governance foundations. Meanwhile, our explorer mode helps uncover root issues and explore options when your path is uncertain.
Change Delivery
Through change delivery, we not only bring effective project & programme delivery capability to ensure risks, issues, dependencies across all workstreams are being managed, but also implement the right-sized governance models. This ensures effective decisions are taken at the right time, prioritising resources and effort where required, allowing impacted stakeholders not just be informed, but confident of achieving the planned outcomes.
Human Change
Our human change practice focuses on culture and behaviours. We help employees understand why change matters and how it benefits them. We work to ensure those impacted by the change are truly engaged, so that they don’t just understand the why, but have the desire, knowledge and capability to achieve the intended outcomes. Our Values Journey model links organisational values to behaviours, ulimately improving internal customer/supplier relationships and the overall outcomes for the end user.
Resourcing for Change
Through resourcing for change, we can provide interim or permanent resources to deliver sustained change within the organisation. We ensure that hires align with your culture and values. We also support leadership development and succession planning.
Why choose us for automotive?
We understand that digital innovation must coexist with physical operations, and that change must be intuitive for teams. Our human-centred approach combines industry insights (such as the increasing adoption of Software Defined Vehicles) with practical change management. By uniting leadership, operations and frontline teams, we help you reduce friction, improve data accuracy and create customer experiences that build loyalty.
How we support your change journey
At changemaker, we take a comprehensive and holistic approach to change, offering a wide range of services across four key areas:
Change Design
Supporting you in exploring what change might look like, or navigating your way to realising the change you desire.
Change Delivery
Implementing the governance and skills to plan and deliver change in an ambiguous world.
Human Change
Supporting the human being in understanding why and how to change to realise their full potential.
Video resources
Watch our experts share real-world insights and proven strategies to help you strengthen your organisation’s change delivery approach.
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Frequently asked questions
Here are some common questions about how we help organisations deliver change more effectively, with the right governance and approach.
How can modernising processes help dealerships?
Every dealership knows that focusing on customer delight while balancing an efficient operation is critical. By creating more simplicity and transparency for the customer, integrating systems to remove manual bottlenecks, we can help dealerships to achieve these outcomes. This allows Sales, Service and Finance teams to access the same data, reducing errors, and enabling faster service. More automated workflows enable staff to focus more time on building loyal customer relationships.
What role does data play?
Real-time dashboards provide visibility into inventory, production and customer interactions. Predictive analytics can forecast demand and schedule maintenance. We help implement data governance so decisions are based on accurate information.
How do we prepare for the shift to electric, Software Defined, and autonomous vehicles?
The technological shift in the engineering of vehicles themselves is perhaps the biggest change impacting all aspects of the value chain, and importantly those closest to the customer have the biggest challenge to overcome. We help organisations navigate through this identifying where the opportunities are to add value and ensure our clients are ready to take advantage and achieve their ambitious goals.
How do we manage change across multiple sites?
We establish governance that standardises data definitions and practices, while allowing flexibility for local conditions. Shared dashboards and cross-location forums enable collaboration and knowledge sharing. Regular communication ensures alignment.
How do we address employee resistance?
Resistance often stems from fear of the unknown. As part of the fundamentals in our approach to change management we work with those impacted to ensure that there is awareness of the need for change, desire to participate and support the change, knowledge on how to change, ability to implement required skills and behaviours and reinforcement to sustain the change.
How long will transformation take?
Timelines depend on scope. Digitising records and implementing dashboards might take months, while preparing for electric and autonomous vehicles could be a multi-year journey. We recommend phased initiatives, starting with high-impact areas to build momentum.
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