From Vision to Execution: Making Business Models Future Ready

Dr. Damir Kralj, Head of Lubricants & Chemical Products, Mercedes-Benz AG
 

In an environment defined by accelerating change, many organisations struggle not with a lack of vision, but with turning strategic intent into consistent execution. Business models that once delivered strong results can quietly lose relevance long before financial indicators make this visible.

In this conversation, Dr. Damir Kralj (Mercedes‑Benz AG) shares a practitioner’s perspective on what makes business models truly future‑ready. The discussion explores how leadership decisions, governance, capabilities and performance management must evolve to move transformation beyond slides and into measurable, sustained impact.

What are the key early signals that a business model is no longer future‑proof, and how can leaders distinguish them from short‑term noise?

The first signal is often not a financial one. By the time the numbers clearly show the problem, the organisation may already be late. A business model begins to lose its future readiness when customers start to change faster than the company. Their expectations shift. Their buying logic changes. New competitors set new standards. The company still delivers quality, but the market no longer rewards it in the same way.

A second signal is internal friction. Decisions take too long. Too many people need to be aligned. Meetings prepare other meetings. Ownership becomes unclear. The organisation still works hard, but the energy is consumed by coordination instead of progress.

A third signal is a decline in ambition. People start to defend the current model rather than challenge it. Past success becomes an argument against change. That is dangerous. Past success is valuable, but it is not a guarantee for the future.

The decisive question is simple: are we adapting faster than the environment around us? If the answer is no, the business model is under pressure.

You argue that a “future perspective” is a leadership decision rather than a vision. What must change in governance to make that decision operational?

A future perspective is not a slide. It is a choice. It becomes real only when governance changes how people allocate time, capital, attention and authority. The first governance change is decision speed. Decisions must be made where the knowledge is. Not where the hierarchy is. Expertise should carry more weight than formal position. This requires trust. It also requires clear mandates.

The second change is accountability. Every important task, decision or result needs one clear owner. Not a group. Not a committee. One person. Others can contribute, but accountability must not be diluted. Shared responsibility often sounds inclusive. In practice, it can create ambiguity.

The third change is a reduction of unnecessary alignment. Pre-alignment often feels safe. But it can slow down the company and weaken real debate. Strong governance creates forums where the actual decision is made in the room. Proposals are prepared in advance. Then people discuss, decide and move.

The fourth change is performance transparency. Leaders must know whether the organisation is moving or merely talking. This requires clear targets, visible progress and regular reviews. Governance should not control everything. It should create focus.

In short, a future perspective becomes operational when governance gives people the authority to act, the obligation to deliver and the discipline to learn fast.

When redesigning a business model, where do you start: customer value and journey, or revenue logic and pricing, and why?

I would always start with customer value. Revenue logic and pricing are essential. But both are consequences of value. A business model exists because it solves a relevant problem for customers. If we do not understand the customer journey, we may optimise the wrong thing. We may improve internal processes while the customer has already moved on.

The customer journey shows where value is created, where value is lost and where trust is built. It reveals moments of pain. It shows where speed matters. It also shows where the company can differentiate. Once this is clear, revenue logic and pricing can be redesigned with discipline. What are customers truly willing to pay for? Which services create recurring value? Which parts of the offer should be bundled? Which should be modular? Where can digital capabilities create new profit pools?

But there is another point. Customer value and revenue logic should not be treated as separate worlds. A future-ready model connects both. It asks: how do we create value that customers recognise, and how do we capture part of that value in a fair and scalable way?

The order matters. Start with value. Then design the economics. If you start with pricing before value is clear, you may only defend the old model with new numbers.

Which roles and skills are critical for a future‑ready organisation, and how do you ensure they drive real behaviour change rather than remain on paper?

Future-ready organisations need people who can connect strategy with execution. They need leaders who can think across functions. They need owners who take responsibility from start to finish. They need experts who bring knowledge close to the decision. And they need teams that can work across boundaries without losing speed. The most critical skills are not abstract. They are practical:

• Strategic judgment. People must understand the bigger picture and still make concrete decisions.
• Customer understanding. Every function must know how its work affects the customer.
• Execution discipline. Ideas are important, but implementation creates impact.
• Collaboration across silos. The most important problems rarely fit into one department.
• Learning speed. The organisation must test, learn and adjust faster than before.

To make this real, skills must be embedded into work. Training alone is not enough. Behaviour changes when routines change. It changes when leaders ask different questions. It changes when meetings become smaller and sharper. It changes when ownership is visible. It changes when performance is recognised and underperformance is addressed. Cross-functional roles can also help. They broaden perspective and reduce silo thinking. But they only work when responsibilities and shared targets are clear.

The rule is simple: do not define roles only on paper. Define the decisions they own, the outcomes they influence and the behaviours they must demonstrate.

Which performance levers most effectively turn transformation from slides into results, and what is controlling’s role in accelerating focus, accountability and speed?

The strongest performance lever is focus. Transformation fails when everything is important. Leaders must decide what matters most. Then they must protect that focus against complexity.

The second lever is ownership. Every initiative needs one accountable owner. Without ownership, progress becomes a discussion. With ownership, progress becomes visible.

The third lever is speed. Decision loops must become shorter. Meetings must become smaller. Escalations must become clearer. The organisation should spend less time preparing decisions and more time making them.

The fourth lever is performance differentiation. Contribution must be recognised. Mediocrity must not be hidden behind average results. A high-performance culture is fair because it makes impact visible.

The fifth lever is rhythm. Transformation needs a cadence. Targets, progress, obstacles and decisions must be reviewed regularly. Not as bureaucracy, but as a management system.

Controlling plays a decisive role here. It should not be the department that only reports the past. It must help the organisation see what matters now. Good controlling creates transparency. It shows where resources are tied up. It shows which initiatives deliver value. It shows where complexity consumes time and money. It helps leaders compare ambition with actual progress. But controlling must also accelerate decisions. It should simplify performance information. It should highlight trade-offs. It should ask hard questions early: What is the expected impact? Who owns it? What is the milestone? What must stop so this can succeed?

In a future-ready organisation, controlling is not a brake. It is a steering function. It brings focus, accountability and speed into the transformation. That is how strategy leaves the slide deck and enters the operating system of the company.

Više o temi na:  CONTROLING DAYS: "Partnerstvo menadžmenta i kontrolinga", 22.05.2026.