How Design Thinking Can Improve Cross-subsidiary Collaboration

Abstract

Collaboration is widely recognized as an important but challenging factor for companies in the construction industry, especially as the market increasingly expects more integrated solutions. To meet this demand while maintaining strong local customer relationships, it is common for multiple specialized technical installation companies to consolidate under one parent group. This setup requires cross-subsidiary collaboration, but such collaboration does not always happen in a clear or consistent way. Collaboration is often assumed to occur naturally among affiliated companies, overlooking the need for more formalised and standardized procedures. To address this issue, this thesis examines cross-subsidiary collaboration in a Swedish technical installation and service group, focusing specifically on one focal subsidiary and its collaboration with selected sister companies. Through a qualitative and experienced-based case study design the thesis aims to identify the main challenges that hamper cross-subsidiary collaboration and to explore how the use of Design Thinking methods can influence these challenges. Design Thinking is a structured, human-centred problem-solving methodology that has been widely applied to improve customer satisfaction and support multidisciplinary collaboration across various sectors. The findings show that, while cross-subsidiary collaboration was expected at group level, it depended heavily on personal contacts, local priorities, and individual initiative. Personal relationships helped employees to start collaboration, especially when they knew each other or worked close to each other. However, this also made collaboration uneven, since opportunities could be missed when employees did not know who to contact. Collaboration also became more difficult in larger projects, where clearer roles, pricing, planning and follow-up were needed. Local financial responsibilities further limited collaboration as the extra coordination work did not create a clear benefit for the subsidiary taking on the work. Furthermore, the results show that the use of Design Thinking method helped participants from different subsidiaries discuss shared problems in a more focused way. The methodology facilitated tasks based on the established common value, achieved a more structured discussion, clear role and responsibility sharing and a better view of potential next steps. Nevertheless, Design Thinking did not assist in addressing issues such as financial models, parent company decisions or long-term follow-up. As such, the thesis concludes that Design Thinking could enhance collaboration between subsidiaries when the possible solutions to the challenge could be executed within their authority.