Story:
SHIFT CHANGES THE WAY CEMEX WORKS

Today, after just 18 months of using Shift across the company and changing the way we work together, CEMEX has proven that by leveraging its collective talent and skills, more value can be produced more quickly and effectively.

One example of the way this change in practices has profoundly altered the way the company is managed is in the case of the “Construction for the XXIst Century Community.” This group of about 400 members was challenged to come up with the strategic topics that the company should focus on to remain an important part of the construction industry in the XXIst Century. This is a departure from the way such strategic topics were addressed in the past, where the company’s top executives would get together and determine the company’s strategic objectives, and then issue a directive from the top-down.

The leaders of the Construction for the 21st Century initiative along with members of the Innovation Team worked together and proposed many ideas and action plans on how to tackle this strategic challenge. Leaders along with Innovation team members identified potential profiles that matched the needs that the challenge required and addressed the objectives, and relied on country managers to identify potential candidates to participate in this initiative. Also, they contacted experts located in central strategic business units to seek for their help in the initiative, and in finding more people interested to participate. Finally, an open invitation was offered to all employees, where those who were interested and believed that they could add value decided to join. 

When all members were together in a virtual community, a welcome message was launched to invite them to participate in defining the agenda, as well as the strategic topics to be addressed. Enabled by Shift, the community members from all levels of the company, started to collaborate in analyzing the industry, the macroeconomic situation, the trends, and challenges that the company would likely face in the future. In a social, collective way, the community posted, voted, discussed, and eventually decided the 10 strategic topics for the company to focus on:

1. Sustainability Credentials and Certifications

2. Regulations for a Better World

3. Promoting Concrete as a Sustainable Material

4. Waste and Recycling materials

5. Energy Efficient Buildings

6. Housing for all

7. Construction Solutions

8. Urban Integral Solutions

9. Country Roadmap

10. Sustainability-Focused Market

Having done that, leaders for each topic were defined collectively based on all members’ decision and input in a democratic, yet strategic manner. Also, along with leaders, a group of experts was assigned to each particular topic which would be a main focus, but would also serve as support for all other 9 strategic topics.

Today all of these topics are considered a priority in the company’s day-to-day activities as well as in long-term plans. Examples of how these 10 strategic topics were embedded in our organization are the following:

• Development of a carbon footprint tool (First in Industry to measure and disclose carbon cement contents of key products)
• Global green brand and identity to market our products
• Top and middle management training in climate change and implications on market requirements
• Industrial ecology methodology for further application in CEMEX plants
• Definition of business model to recycle construction materials from demolition
• Development of best practices for energy and water efficient buildings
• Development of a construction system of houses for the “base of the pyramid” as well as financing solutions with a sustainable focus
• Documentation and awareness of certifications and credentials and pilot testing of new regulations
• And more…

Ready Mix Products

Another example is the development of a Ready Mix special products catalogue and the important discoveries and developments it led to. The challenge was to gather all the different products that the company develops in this business line, especially after some acquisitions, to gain visibility of all products, benchmark the best ones and share them across all operations.

The first attempt to do this was made in 2005, with a traditional, top-down approach to management. A team with a leader would travel to different countries to obtain the necessary green lights, and then send a team to collect the relevant data to form the catalogue. This proved to be an impossible task that failed due to its highly bureaucratic, and mandatory approach.

In a second attempt, a community was created in Shift where all our operations were invited to post and share their special products, with their characteristics, technical specifications, production process, marketing strategies, etc. By making this a transparent, open, social endeavor, instead of a top-down bureaucratic process, participants were easily encouraged to participate. Everyone wanted to share the good things they were doing in their country. Now that the catalogue is up and open to all, it is a constant work in progress that can regularly be updated as products are added or removed from the market.

With the achievement of this goal, a new level of visibility of all the company’s products was now available. This led to an important discovery that would not be possible otherwise: The company was producing many products with the same characteristics in different countries but they were being sold with different names and under different market strategies. This meant a dilution of our brands and a waste of valuable resources.

This prompted the company to develop the first ever global brand, called Promptis Ready Mix, that would leverage economies of scale, lessons learned, and a global brand presence. This is the first of many such products to be launched worldwide by CEMEX. Our next challenge is finding a way to bring these products to market faster and more effectively.

In this initiative, a new management style emerged, where transparency was encouraged and expected of peers. This new collaborative and coordinated global system leads to best practice sharing and development of new technology in ready mix admixtures. Special products (which are characterized for being manufactured for a particular client with particular needs at a premium price) where effectively shared in a worldwide basis and studied by experts. Also, all business units have now active communication and collaboration with Research and Development labs located in Switzerland and Mexico thanks to Shift. Resources are being made available to all CEMEX members of the initiative. The support by the R&D labs has been also informative developing a series of open invitation to all employees in webinars where they were explained how these labs worked and what is CEMEX currently working on in an transparent manner, opening a space for Q&A while also documenting the lab tour online for those who require further reference. Direct contact with experts is available for those who seek support and know-how sharing, and experts are constantly communicating and sharing best practices in Shift.

Among the benefits found in this initiative we have seen the following:

• Launch and development of our 1st global ready-mix product (PROMPTIS)
• Constant interaction among countries in a web-conference fashion and documentation of conversations to keep everyone informed
• Monthly update reports in video format
• Development of virtual companies located in the cloud to work collaboratively with an open innovation methodology in a particular challenge of the initiative
• And more…