Ian Roberts

Testimonial for Raphael H Cohen and his contribution to Buhler

Introduction We are pleased to provide this feedback on the Master of Buhler Management (MBM) programme developed and run by Raphael H Cohen.

Buhler initiated the MBM in 2012 to train talented, predominantly technically skilled, employees to utilize their skills to bring greater commercial impact for the company and to develop their skill sets as individuals to be more successful. To achieve this we focused on the skills required to be more intrapreneurial and utilized the IpOp model as the backbone of this programme. In 2015 the initial regional scope was expanded to cover the global Buhler employee base.

There have been four cohorts representing about 110 participants who have been trained in the IpOp Model and its use for real projects.

The program consisted of about 18 days of training session run by reputed business school professors with real-life experience as entrepreneurs or senior executives.

In addition to the structured education and training, each group of about 5 participants, with members from different cultures and functions located on different continents, had to identify, analyse and start to implement a real project. This project allowed them to apply the tools they had been exposed to, had to be aligned with the company strategy and needed to be signed off by the head of the business responsible it impacted.

Since altogether 22 fully analysed projects have been developed with different kinds of innovation (new products, new processes, new selling tools, etc.), the MBM has not only been a training program but provided also an additional channel of innovation that complements the other innovation channels, such R&D and the Innovation Challenge.

The IpOp model brings considerable value to an organisation and is applicable in many cases to support decision-making. The basic modules of understanding your customers, their business issues, the market, your uniqueness against competitors, the business model and then building an appropriate solution touch the basic weaknesses of many technology companies. The identification of clear unknowns resolved the major frustration of project managers and steering committees of providing an analysis of what the potential threats are that they will address in the next phase of the project, thus making decision making easier.

The model has been embedded not only the MBM programme, but also in our Innovation Challenge process and training and the corporate M2M basic research process. Approximately 160 employees have been trained in the IpOp in addition to those on the MBM.