03: Growth with foresight: Why uncontrolled growth costs suppliers more than it brings

In the automotive supply industry, growth is often the declared goal - more projects, more sales, more market share. But what sounds like progress in theory can in practice be a real test for the entire organization. Because growth at any price often leads to chaos instead of success.

When growth becomes a burden

Many suppliers focus on acquiring as many projects as possible at the same time - in the hope of strengthening their market position and profits. But what happens if the organization is not prepared for this growth?

The answer: projects are won, but not implemented properly. Resources - whether locations, project teams or capital - are not sufficient. The result is quality problems, cost increases and, in the worst case, customer losses. The actual goal - commercial success - is thus a distant prospect.

The typical growth trap in the supplier industry

A new OEM project is acquired. Shortly afterwards, another one. At the same time, several technical ramp-ups, production relocations or capacity expansions are underway. Everything seems important - but no one has a complete overview. Resources are planned twice, internal processes get out of sync and project management goes into permanent fire-fighting mode.

Such situations do not arise from negligence, but from a lack of strategic control of the growth process. There is no clear filter: which project contributes to the corporate strategy? And is the organization in a position to implement it properly?

Grow strategically - don't just do more

The solution is not to forgo growth, but to manage it in a targeted manner. If you want to be successful in the long term, you not only have to win projects, but also deliver them - with quality, adherence to deadlines and profitability. This is only possible if growth is consciously managed.

A sustainable approach is based on three clear steps, as already mapped in modern sales platforms such as Digital Automotive:

1. define strategic target projects

Not every project is a good project. The first step is therefore the targeted planning of strategic target projects. This means: before acquisition, it is checked which projects really fit the corporate strategy - be it in terms of profit potential, degree of innovation or fit with the production network.

In practice, this means that sales organizations must learn to say no - to orders that may generate short-term sales, but overburden the organization in the long term or are uneconomical.

2. check resources and release projects

A central building block for controlled growth is the resource-based approval of projects. Before a project is started, it should be checked:

• Are the necessary capacities available?

• Do we have the right project team?

• Can we manage the project launch operationally and financially?

This approval must be system-supported - ideally in a digital sales and planning module that automatically indicates resource conflicts and provides clear decision-making aids. This is the only way to turn good sales into planned growth instead of growth chaos.

3. implementation with target visualization and monitoring

As soon as a project has been approved, the actual work begins - and here, too, a systematic approach is required. The project goals must be clearly visualized, progress must be continuously monitored and deviations must be identified at an early stage. Modern platforms such as Digital Automotive enable precisely this - through:

• Clear target definitions and KPIs for each project

• Visual status overviews

• Real-time monitoring of implementation

This creates transparency for management and responsibility in the project teams - the basis for successful, clean scaling of the company.

Digital Automotive: The platform for growth-oriented sales management

The steps described above are not just good theory - they can be put directly into practice with the Digital Automotive platform. As the leading solution for Strategic Sales Planning & Sales Management, Digital Automotive was developed specifically for the requirements of automotive suppliers.

The platform helps companies to

• plan strategically

• manage growth based on resources

• and implement it operationally

... all integrated in a single system - from project acquisition to the monitoring phase.

Conclusion: Success needs limits - and a system

Growth is not an end in itself. For automotive suppliers, successful growth does not mean winning as many projects as possible, but implementing the right projects in the right way. Only those who select strategically, deploy resources in a targeted manner and pursue projects consistently can keep quality, costs and profit in balance.

Solutions like Digital Automotive do just that. Growth becomes predictable, scalable - and above all profitable.