New operating models drive Lappset’s international growth

Lappset is a medium-sized family-owned company based in Rovaniemi, Finland, originally specialising in playground equipment, which has grown into an international player in the 2000s. In addition to traditional play equipment, Lappset offers park furniture, outdoor sports equipment and modern interactive play equipment. In addition to manufacturing equipment, Lappset offers a range of life cycle services. A life cycle service can include, for example, the installation, maintenance and decommissioning of play equipment.

Over the last decade, Lappset’s business has grown profitably, both in terms of turnover and in terms of its product and service offering. At the same time, the company has also grown through acquisitions. This growth has meant an increase in the number of employees, the range of services offered and the complexity of the business.

This growth puts constant pressure on the company to improve its operations. In order to ensure scalability, quality, sustainability and profitability in the future, new operating models are needed to support the business.

Few growth companies have the resources to implement numerous internal development projects with sufficient speed and quality. It does not make sense for a company to try to carry the burden of development all alone. As a matter of fact, it is essential for the business to make use of external resources that can help manage the whole process. This is true for Lappset as well: in-house resources are not sufficient to complete all the necessary development projects. Therefore, Lappset has a team of experts from Sofigate helping them.

The Business Technology Standard supports organisational and operational development

To overcome the challenges of development work, Lappset and Sofigate have created a three-ingredient recipe:

1. The introduction of the Business Technology Standard, a management model that is easy to understand for anyone, where applicable.
2. A strong partnership based on trust, challenge and constant exchange of opinions and ideas.
3. The use of Sofigate’s flexible network of experts alongside Lappset’s own top experts in line with Lappset’s changing needs.

Lappset has already relied on the BT Standard on many occasions to develop its organisational and management models. The Standard’s open framework provides an excellent basis for achieving concrete results. When Lappset has wanted to delve deeper into specific parts of the framework, Sofigate’s experts have supported them in tailoring the models to the needs of a medium-sized family business.

For example, the BT Standard was used to develop Lappset’s project model, which has created a consistent way for the whole organisation to take development projects from development idea to production in a structured and efficient way.

“Embedding the Business Technology Standard into our business has been the most important benefit of our journey together. Lappset now has leaders who know how to manage business technology,” says Husberg.

A strong and trusting partnership ensures mutual success

Lappset has found Sofigate to be a competent, efficient and flexible partner to implement development projects together. Sofigate’s extensive pool of experts is used to select specialists with both the right type of competence profile and personality for various development projects.

Lars Husberg considers it important that Sofigate’s experts have shared the journey with the company and seen the development work in relation to Lappset’s current business situation.

Co-development is not just about managing development projects on a day-to-day basis. Lappset’s top management and Sofigate’s management experts work together to develop operating models that affect the whole organisation. 

Flexible development resources for changing needs

According to Lars Husberg, Lappset’s future development work will put more focus on managing capabilities and data.

“Data will be at the heart of every business in the future. I’m a firm believer in the BT Standard and I believe in capability development. It’s very important that the BT Standard evolves as it is used in companies. I look forward to the next extensions of the model!” Husberg says.

“Product data management, in particular, has become a constant topic of discussion as operations have become more sophisticated and digital. This will also be a focus area of development in the cooperation between Lappset and Sofigate during this and the next year,” continues Juho Ruottinen from Sofigate.

The content of Lappset’s development projects and the skills required to complete them vary considerably. In other words, different projects require people with very different types of backgrounds and skills to lead development.