1. The document discusses sales process design at Aker Yards, a shipbuilding company, focusing on managing relationships between salespeople and cruise ship buyers. 2. It contrasts flexible, managerial creativity-driven sales processes versus rigid, protocol-driven processes. Flexible processes rely more on the salesperson's judgment, while rigid processes follow a pre-designed protocol. 3. In 2007, Aker Yards was facing issues with late deliveries due to overbooking sales and an inability to coordinate suppliers. This highlighted a need to better regulate the sales process to prevent overselling.

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CASE: AKER YARDS
Title: Managerial Creativity versus Protocol: Sales Process Design from a
Relationship Management Perspective
Abstract: This case grows from the curiosity as to how ongoing relationships
between salespeople and customers develop into sales over time, and how
this should be regimented, or not, within the Aker Yards sales
organization. The focus is on contrasting how i) flexible sales process
design, versus ii) rigid protocol can assist relationship management
between cruise ship buyers and Aker Yards salespeople. The case
indicates that in the beginning of the sales process the salesperson’s
personal judgment and experience often act as the best determinant of the
next step in the relationship and cannot be replaced by a pre-designed
sales process that does not allow for such managerial creativity. As the
sales process advances and more people are tied in to the project and the
focus of the exchange shifts from relational to technical, the progression is
best guided by protocol.
Keywords: Sales process design, relationship marketing organizational design,
managerial creativity, CRM, adhocracy, managerial creativity
Theoretical and/or analytical framework: Adhocracy, managerial creativity, CRM
Companies: Aker Yards (currently STX Europe)
Industries: Shipbuilding, cruise and ferry
Context: Large project business
Sales management focus: Sales process rigidity
Date of production: 28th
May 2008
Authors: Petri Parvinen, Nikko Molinare Karki

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Introduction
Preliminary interviews revealed that although perhaps one of the world’s most advanced
managers of supply chains, Aker Yards did not have a highly evolved, at least formal,
relationship management protocol. Our initial hypothesis was that there might be a way
of helping sales processes progress more fluidly, especially with new customers.
After the first three meetings with Aker Yards it became clear that the focal problem at
Aker was the relationship management between cruise ship buyers and Aker Yards
salespeople, and relating this to the organizational design construct. We were curious to
investigate how ongoing relationships between salespeople and customers developed into
sales over time, and how this was regimented, or not, within the organization.
A preliminary dimension that seemed to provide an interesting framework was to apply a
sales process design approach from an organizational perspective to the task of managing
and improving relationships with customers. This case study aims to examine, from an
organizational design perspective, how the sales process design can influence the key
relational attributes leading up to a sale, identify strong points and areas in need of
improvement.
This case is predominantly about selling cruise ships and what it takes on relational,
technical and organizational levels to achieve. The phases are numerous and the
interaction complex. The cruise ship selling process can take years to come to fruition.
The process cannot be rushed and exorbitant levels of cooperation and trust are required
from both organizations to achieve a contract.
Core to sales is sustaining long-term value in relationships and ensuring continuity over
generations. Few companies have the resources to procure from Aker Yards and there is a
relatively closed circle of people with the expertise to purchase and sell ships. Thus
relationship management is crucial to sustaining long-term commitment between buyers
and sellers.
Optimizing a sales process from lead generation to delivery and through the lifecycle of
the ship is a normative equation without definitive guidelines for success. The aim this
case study aims to accomplish is to contrast flexible and rigid organizational design
constructs with existing procedures to be able to make recommendations on the key
processes that guide cruise ship sales.
Case description
STX Europe ASA (OSE: STXEUR), formerly Aker Yards ASA, is a Norway-based,
international shipbuilding company. The company has three business areas: Cruise &
Ferries, Merchant Vessels and Offshore & Specialized Vessels. Aker Yards was split

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from its mother company Aker ASA, controlled by STX Shipbuilding and listed on Oslo
Stock Exchange since 2004.
In April 2006, Aker Yards bought Alstom Marine, Alstom's naval construction activities,
with Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire. Aker Yards is now a publicly traded
company on Oslo Stock Exchange and was owned 40.1% by the Aker Group until March
2007, when Aker ASA sold its shares, though remaining an important customer of Aker
Yards. In October 2007, STX Shipbuilding secured a 39,2% stake of Aker Yards,
currently being the sole industrial owner of the group, after the majority stake was sold
by Aker. The company changed to the current name on 3 November 2008.
Aker Yards is a world leader in building cruise ships and ferries, merchant vessels, and
offshore and other specialized vessels. A thorough understanding of customers’ markets,
an ability to develop innovative solutions, and extensive experience in the design and
construction of advanced vessels are Aker Yards’ hallmarks. Aker Yards has 18
shipyards, located in six European countries and in Brazil and Vietnam. In 2007, Aker
Yards delivered a total of 54 vessels. For information on financial performance, offerings
and markets, please refer to Appendix. This case concentrates predominantly on the
cruise and ferry business.
In 2007, customer relationship management (CRM) at Aker Yards was not perceived to
be at the level it should be. Long-term customer relations tended to themselves naturally,
but without formal guidelines. With new customers, the beginning stages of relationships
did not always progress as fluidly as they could have.
At times, the action required to take the next step in building the relationship and
advancing the sales process to the next phase was unclear. What is done in between
meetings, between telephone conferences, from step-to-step to make the relationship
grow was done on a case-to-case basis, at the discretion of the account manager. This
highly unregulated managerial approach gave room for postulations concerning a more
regimented sales process design.
The initial hypothesis was that the continuous progression of the sales process from
initial contact to signing of the contract could be improved through focusing on a
formalized relationship management protocol transcending the organization. However,
preliminary research indicated that the complexity of procuring a cruise ship generally
acts as the main impediment to implementing such a solution. The salesperson’s personal
judgment and experience often act as the best determinant of the next step and cannot be
replaced by a pre-designed sales process that does not allow for such managerial
creativity.
Here is where the research problem surfaces. Placing such a high level of significance on
the cognitive abilities of one individual does not seem to allow for the co-existence of a
pre-designed set of relationship management processes to guide sales. However, as there
are instances in which a regimented process would seem to give guidance and decrease

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uncertainty, a hybrid sales management model relying on both managerial judgment and
protocol might offer solutions not previously anticipated.
The task at hand therefore, is to understand the phases and processes that lead up to a
cruise ship sale and identify whether intermediate steps would benefit from a rigid
design, or flexibility allowing the salesperson to use his own judgment as he sees fit. The
challenge is to determine how can or should the rigid sales processes at Aker Yards been
around 2007, given the complexity of the offerings.
Over the years, effective supply chain management has developed into one of Aker
Yards’ main sources of competitive advantage. However recently, relationships with
suppliers have lacked the communication, partnership and planning necessary to
coordinate deliveries on time (Heikinheimo, 2008). As a result, Aker Yards has set
company records for late deliveries, both in quantity of projects and duration of delay.
Penalty clauses for late deliveries have eaten up profits and, despite full order sheets,
contributed to a fiscal loss in 2007. Additionally, former CEO Yrjö Julin was forced to
step down at the bequest of the Board of Directors because of the poor financial result.
In mid-2007, the focus was on relationship management between Aker Yards salespeople
and cruise ship buyers. However, over the course of the year as over-load emerged as
Aker Yards’ primary concern, it appeared that sales was doing an exceedingly good job
at managing relationships leading to more sales than was profitable to undertake. Certain
market-driven factors also contributed to the spike in sales, but the big picture indicated
that long-term cooperation between salespeople and customers was the key factor
resulting in so many sales in the same year. A gradual build-up of sales during the past
three years led to construction in 2007, which should have been avoided.
During the past year, shipyards’ build capacities have been put to their limits, as well as
suppliers’ ability to accurately predict goods available to promise. Neither shipyards nor
suppliers have been able to find the required labor to complete jobs on schedule. Sharp
price increases to meet increased volume have also been a side effect of the unexpected
demand, contributing to smaller margins.
Aker Yards Chairman of the Board, Svein Sivertsen had a positive outlook on the
situation in early 2008.
“The challenge ahead is to improve productivity and profitability in Finnish
shipyards. The markets are strong and the order sheet is in good shape. The main
focus now should be on making deliveries.” (Sivertsen, 2008)
In a booming market, Aker Yards sales processes lacked the regimented control to halt
projects from going into production that would eventually lead to negative cash flows due
to incurred penalties. Management did not effectively moderate sales processes’ closing
phases with stringent enough regard to constraints dictated by operations and suppliers.
This was mainly attributable to organizational issues and resulted in scheduling projects

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that were not all feasible to undertake simultaneously. In salesperson jargon, too many
deals passed through the funnel at the same time.
As a result, supply chain management during the past year was not Aker Yards’ source of
competitive advantage, but its downfall.
Seeking out a system for concentrating on the most profitable projects and still keeping
less profitable customers would have been an interesting alternative research approach to
dealing with the over-capacity issue. Customer portfolio management is undertaken at
Aker Yards at sales manager meetings, but it seemed like the increased spike in demand
and scheduling new builds could not be balanced within the organization nor supported
by Aker Yards’s suppliers.
During the past two to three years management’s focus should have been on managing
supplier networks or project-specific return on investment (ROI) calculations that would
yield either a minimum monetary amount or a percentage figure. A simple percentage
ROI calculation is not enough of a yardstick for measuring profitable projects at Aker
Yards because some of the key resources each individual project ties up may be the same
for projects priced at one hundred million to one billion euros.
Theoretical and analytical frameworks
Customer relationship management (CRM)
A Strategic Framework for Customer Relationship Management (Payne & Frow, 2005)
positions CRM at a strategic level and proposes that to increase customer value, and as a
result, shareholder value, CRM must take on a cross-functional, process-oriented
approach. This latter view is also supported by literature on increasing shareholder value
(Srivastava, Shervani, & Fahey, 1999).
Payne & Frow’s framework is tightly regimented. The design of the cross-functional
processes requires coordination between multiple inter-organizational units. Further, the
design requires compliance to a set of pre-determined processes and as such does not
allow for much managerial leeway or improvisation.
Payne & Frow’s five key cross-functional processes are: a strategy development process,
a value creation process, a multi-channel integration process, an information management
process and a performance assessment process. Successful implementation of the
aforementioned cross-functional processes is core to the authors’ view of a customer
relationship management architecture that penetrates the entire organization. A graphical
depiction of the five key cross-functional processes is presented below.

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Figure 1, Cross-Functional CRM Processes (adapted from Payne & Frow, 2005)
Payne & Frow’s framework requires the foundations of a purposeful strategic vision. An
organizational-wide understanding of customer value in a multi-channel environment,
appropriate and proactive information management, operations, fulfillment and service
are all required for the framework’s successful implementation.
The perspective that Payne and Frow take on adopts a strategic and holistic approach to
CRM that emphasizes the selective, process-centric management of customer
relationships to create shareholder value. This reflects elements of several previously
noted definitions of CRM.
Organizational Design and Industry Recipes
The upper management of Aker Yards most consistently follows the description referred
to as an adhocracy (Mintzberg, 1980). This is typical of organizations geared towards
sophisticated innovations, where experts are drawn from different specialties to fuse
teams necessary to complete varying projects.
Adhocracies are the least formalized types of organizations, operate organically in
response to market requirements and have the least reverence for classical management
principles. Typical adhocracies have been described as plastics companies (Lawrence &
Lorsch, 1967), NASA (Chandler & Sayles, 1971), modern process production
(Woodward, 1965), and the Boeing Company (Galbraith, 1973).
As Aker Yards functions as an adhocracy one proposition would be that it is best
managed through flexible processes that adapt to market requirements.

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J-C Spender (1989) challenges the nature of classical management theory and calls for a
more creative approach from managers to organizational design. For investigations into
the nature and sources of managerial judgment, he offers the following tools for analysis:
A critical analysis of classic managerial theory focused on its inability to deal
with uncertainty and, in consequence, with managerial creativity.
A methodology for investigating how managers deal with uncertainty; by
implication a method for measuring the entrepreneur’s creative contribution.
A redefinition of the organization as a body of limited and contextually specific
knowledge.
A redefinition of management as the task of creating and manipulating this
knowledge-base.
The notion that competitive advantage generally lies in this knowledge-base
rather than in a tangible resource, no matter how idiosyncratic.
Spender’s research creates an ideal framework for analyzing an organization’s design in
terms of how managers perceive themselves as part of the processes that contribute to
creating sales. This flexible approach to management’s operations is a polarized view of
how to strategically align an organization’s operations and will be balanced in the final
section of the theoretical framework by combining it with cross-functional process
design.
Spender defines the essence of corporate leadership as based on uncertainty resolution.
Managers operate in an environment of existing knowledge and additionally must possess
the skills to create new knowledge as necessary in the face of imperfect information. The
third component required of managers is the ability to disperse ideas throughout the
organization to create the knowledge-base. The knowledge-base, in turn, is manipulated
by managers to create what is perceived as the organization. The organization is therefore
the body of knowledge shaped by managers. How flexible this process is depends on the
manager’s manipulation of knowledge, according to the needs he perceives. This
relationship is depicted below.

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Figure 2, Industry Recipes I (Created from text in Spender, 1989)
Within the context of the organization a manager’s intellectual activity is divided into
two parts (Spender, 1989). Decision-making is the logical processing of perceived facts
and making conclusions based on the information already present in those facts. The
intellectual activity therefore, is extracting knowledge from an existing base, using
analytical skills. The second type of intellectual activity managers engage in is creative. It
is the application of human judgment in response to uncertainty. The element of
creativity is required to create facts from existing uncertain data. The ability to resolve
such uncertainty and communicate this throughout the organization is the mark of an
effective manager resulting in a strategy. Spender defines strategy as the intellectual
response to the uncertainties in the managers’ ideas and knowledge about the
Within the context of the organization a manager’s intellectual activity is divided into
two parts (Spender, 1989). Decision-making is the logical processing of perceived facts
and making conclusions based on the information already present in those facts. The
intellectual activity therefore, is extracting knowledge from an existing base, using
analytical skills. The second type of intellectual activity managers engage in is creative. It
is the application of human judgment in response to uncertainty. The element of
creativity is required to create facts from existing uncertain data. The ability to resolve
such uncertainty and communicate this throughout the organization is the mark of an
effective manager resulting in a strategy. Spender defines strategy as the intellectual
response to the uncertainties in the managers’ ideas and knowledge about the
organization. The connection between intellectual activities and strategy is depicted
graphically below.
Figure 3, Industry Recipes II (Created from text in Spender, 1989)

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Spender’s framework for creating and managing an organization and its strategy is
therefore entirely based on managerial creativity and intuition. In a sales context,
managers have the task of interpreting market information and creating knowledge to
disseminate throughout the organization as either a reactionary or proactive response to
their observations. Ongoing cognitive activities therefore form the sales design process as
well, as nothing need be pre-determined or regimented.
Spender’s theories on managerial creativity and Payne & Frow’s structured cross-
functional relationship management theory present two contrasting, yet equally valid,
axioms for managerial approaches to sales process design. Combined, they give cause for
further investigation into how activities at Aker Yards are regimented, and to what extent
particular processes should pre-designed or left to be improvised according to what
situations demand.
When aiming to practice optimum relationship management, trade-offs will always exist
between the flexibility and rigidity within an organization when balancing a pre-designed
sales process with managerial creativity. The following diagram depicts the connections
between the two main components of sales process design within the perspective of
relationship management and helps explain why at Aker Yards, an investigation between
the substitutability and flexibility of organizational design and relationship management
is warranted.
Figure 4, Theoretical Framework

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As an assumption, the progression of sales processes (strongly linked to CRM activities)
can be improved through organizational design thinking that favors a hybrid between
total managerial creativity and a rigid set of cross-functional CRM processes. Optimal
relationship management design is expected to emerge through a sales process design that
is found as a mix of flexibility and rigidity. The empirical section of the case study will
determine to what extent this is applicable, if true.
The framework will be used to measure the extent to which the Aker Yards sales
organization adheres to the organizational design constructs of an adhocracy (Mintzberg,
1980) managed by a fusion of managerial creativity (Spender, 1989) with stringent regard
to cross-functional CRM processes (Payne, 1999).
Case analysis
The explorative nature of the interviews uncovered several unanticipated perspectives for
evaluating the sales process within the context of relationship management. Interviewees
responded to questions from four main topical clusters: relational versus technical selling,
customer segmentation, human resource management, and cruise ship finance.
These will be divulged by sub-heading, leading up to a phase-by-phase analysis of the
cruise ship selling process. The objective of this structure is to first educate the reader
about the cruise ship sales operating environment and simultaneously contrast these
findings against the framework depicted in Figure 4. The analysis in the following
sections contains the main findings concerning how cruise ship sales processes may be
optimally designed to fit each sales phase.
Relational Versus Technical Selling
The magnitude of closing cruise ship deals makes it so that selling the ship to the first
contact person in the buying organization is never sufficient. The buying organization
will always closely evaluate the offer on a deep level, using the expert opinions of
engineers and consultants before making the final purchase decision.
Therefore, in the final stage of the deal, the technical aspects of the offering will always
take precedent over relational exchanges. However, the progression of the sales process is
dependent on the relationship between the salesperson and customer, as illustrated
through the following quote:
“Best practice sales is when there is frequent interaction between salesperson and
customer. There is a continuous reciprocal dialogue resulting in the customer
sensing that after each contact with a salesperson he or she is benefiting from the
relationship and learning something new that can be concretely transferred to the
benefit of his or her own organization.” (Interview with Tuomas Routa, Head of
Project Design, Aker Yards Turku, 14.9.2007)

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Experience has proven that the success of the customer is in the best interests of Aker
Yards. What is promised to the customer is also fulfilled. Salespeople must strive to
impress customers with the belief that if they bother to engage in dialogue with Aker
Yards salespeople, every conversation will give them something that they can walk away
with to improve their own business.
This is the type of relationship management that benefits from a purely flexible design
process. The salesperson interprets uncertain data with his managerial creativity to
determine the next step in creating perceived value for the customer. The intellectual
activity of the manager in the face of no clear or pre-conceived notion of the next right
step defines the strategy by which the relationship is managed and the sales process
moves forward.
The sales process often takes years, during which the salesperson and representatives
from the buying organization have continual exchange. Each contact builds the
relationship between buyer and seller and serves as the basis for signing a contract in the
future. Despite the high level of importance of the technical specifications to the signing
of the deal, these details are built through relational exchanges of ideas, predicting the
customer’s needs, collaborating and relaying technical specifications between buying and
selling organizations.
“The relationship quality between the salesperson and the customer determines the
probability of continued interchange between those parties in the future. Future sales
opportunities depend on relationship quality that is measured in levels of trust and
satisfaction. The ability to convert opportunities into sales is determined through
relational selling behaviors such as cooperative intentions, mutual disclosure and
intensive follow up.” (Crosby, Evans, & Cowles, 1990)
As the interface between the salesperson and the customer is the hub through which all
information first originates and later transcends both organizations, it is extremely
important to maintain the quality of the relationship throughout the sales process.
Information sharing serves as the basis for progress in the sales process and is based
completely on personal interaction that cannot be pre-determined or predicted.
Innovations result from teamwork that takes place at this junction between salesperson
and client. The clients’ marketing department often comes up with ideas that are relayed
to the Aker Yard design team. Salespeople and customers determine how these proposals
are handled between organizations. Choosing to develop or discard an innovation
proposal is a process vital to the progression of the sales relationship. It is based largely
on the managerial cognition of the salesperson. Aker Yards is considered the most
innovative shipyard in the world and the prudent selection of viable innovations is key to
their future success. Whether a proposed innovation is deemed worthy of further attention
is a result of the exchange between the client and the salesperson and as such exists as a
relatively unregulated process with respect to the impact it might have on the future
design of the cruise ship.

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Creating powerful visuals for the customer is effective in communicating low-detail
plans. Executive level ship buyers are generally visually adept marketing-oriented people
within their own organizations. Sales pitches in the earlier stages of the relationship are
designed with a focus on the audience’s response to imagery, whereas later in the sales
process the presentations are more technically orientated.
Aker Yards aims to make cruise ships for those people who have not yet been on a cruise,
as there is an identifiable segment of potential customers that has not yet been reached.
Ships are being manufactured at an increasing pace worldwide with the expectation that
markets will continue to grow into the future. Managing innovations to entice these first-
time cruise ship goers is therefore a vital process to Aker Yards sales activities.
The process of managing innovation is diffused through the support staff at later phases
in the sales. Some people within the sales organization have more responsibilities
concerned with generating new ideas and then there are those with more technical
experience who generally shoot down the more wild innovative ideas. This sort of
flexible design seems to work well within Aker Yards.
The atrium design in ships was one revolution, the next challenge will be to predict the
next breakthrough. The flexibly designed cooperative relationships between salespeople
and clients will ultimately result in the next technically-based innovation in the cruise
ship industry.
Aker Yards salespeople know how to adopt the perspective of the ship buyer and think
about the concept of the ship in such a way that they can develop new projects with
customers and communicate with them to understand their needs. This implicit market
knowledge allows for the effective implementation of flexible sales process design in the
beginning stages of the sales process. Salespeople gradually build the relationship on a
foundation of mutual understanding of Aker Yards’ capabilities and the client’s
aspirations for their potential new build.
Customer Segmentation
Since the nature of the cruise ship industry entails relatively high barriers for entry, new
potential customers rarely surface. The financial backing required to order a ship is so
large and at the availability of so few that all potential buyers are well recognized. This is
a mature industry where there are few new customers; all have been identified and further
categorized according to segment.
Each salesperson at Aker Yards is assigned a portfolio of customers. Each salesperson
acts as an account manager and keeps relationships current over the long-term. The sales
project team is led by a sales manager who acts as the main point of contact for
customers. As the project advances by phases, the number of people working under the
sales manager increases. The project manager joins the team when there is a reasonable
possibility that negotiations will conclude in a contract. Under the project manager is a

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project engineer who can also referred to as a naval architect. The team is also comprised
of technical engineers who are responsible for planning, procurement and tender costing.
If circumstances demand a change in personnel, the change is not abrupt but is managed
gradually. The new account manager will accompany the old account manager to
meetings with the customer. There are so few customers and salespeople that this mode
of operation works. However, the value in the relationship between the old account
manager and customer cannot always be replaced as quickly as one might hope. The
design for undertaking such a replacement process is flexible by nature. The new account
manager familiarizes himself with the new client and knowledge is passed on from the
account manager who is stepping aside. The systematic management of such processes is
attempted by promoting from within the Aker Yards organization. Generally the
replacing account manager is a project manager who has worked with the customer on a
past new build. The familiarity from the past relationship exchange between
organizations is therefore transferred into a new type of relationship. However, the
effective transfer of a relationship in this regard is largely due to the compatibility
between the new account manager and customer organization.
Ninety percent of cruise ship orders come from four major corporations that operate
under different brands for their own segmentation purposes (see Appendix). Aker Yards
sells to three of these four (Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Mediterranean Shipping
Company, Norwegian/Apollo). The fourth large player is Carnival Cruise Lines, who
received their last delivery in 2004. Since then relationship management has continued on
a consistent base, despite no current orders.
Ongoing salesmanship with customers who have not placed orders within the past five to
ten years is based on the kind of relational exchanges described in the previous section.
Patience and cooperation are key virtues in long-term selling. Cruise ship builders make
decisions based on their own strategies for growth and positioning. Maintaining close
contact with the customer is imperative for sensing their perceptions of the current
market to be able to predict their possible needs. Offering consultation and expert
opinions on the direction of the cruise industry and current production possibilities is also
an asset salespeople can rely on to build relationships with inactive customers.
As the pool of potential buyers is so small, all customers are, in some stage or another in
the pipeline and being actively managed by salespeople. Salespeople are divided
according to ship operators and tend to relationships as they see necessary when not
undergoing sales negotiations. The necessity and relevance of setting sales targets is
completely different from other industries where a sales push may result in more sales for
the year. Aker Yards’ customers can hardly be pressured into buying billion euro cruise
ships.
Organizational thinking that supports setting sales targets by certain dates does not go
hand-in-hand with cruise ship selling that happens on an information exchange-based
long-term timeframe. Trying to regiment the process by instilling date-dependent
protocol may actually have an adverse effect on relationships by alienating or pressuring

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customers who are keen to stay in contact with Aker Yards, but just not yet ready to buy
a new ship.
Aker Yards does keep a record of past and potential customers. Each customer is
assigned to a salesperson who acts as the main point of contact between Aker Yards and
the customer organization. Past customers are also informed about developments within
the Aker Yards organization, such as changes in management, new sales, and the likes.
This type of rigid design is conducive to effective relationship management over the
long-term. Informational exchange can therefore be regimented and adhere to a rigid
design as long as the goal is not directly linked to advancing the sales process. This type
of design is more closely linked to marketing.
At Aker Yards, marketing and sales exist completely separately. Marketing’s job is to
help the salespeople and ensure visibility outwards and maintain the image of the
company. The core function of marketing is to support sales in such a way that sales
reach is its goals on a long-term time frame. Marketing needs to be able to foresee what
they can do to support this goal. The actual work is coordinating and designing
advertising and events in Finland and abroad, as well as exhibitions. Ad agencies handle
brochures, direct mailings, Christmas gifts, etc. This sort of design supports sales from an
organizational standpoint, but does not have an effect on sales processes themselves.
New ship constructions are pitched by segment. Salespeople know which ship operators
target which segments and try to predict what the ship operator might be hoping to
achieve with their next new build. Market knowledge is imperative to serve this purpose.
The more a salesperson is tied into the customer’s business mindset the better he or she
will be able to effectively sell by creating an atmosphere of confidence and mutual
cooperation. This type of decision making in a realm of uncertainty demands flexible
sales process design encouraging managerial creativity.
Human Resource Management
In 2002-2003 there was a low-point in the ordering of new cruise ships. Ocean
Development Group had the idea of creating a residential luxury cruise ship and actively
searched for a shipyard to undertake their project. As a small company with uncertain
prospects of financing, they received a surprising amount of attention from Aker Yards
because of the inactive market situation. In addition, key personal relationships went back
over twenty years. Salesperson Kaj Liljestrand worked very actively with them and was
the main reason the relationship continued to grow over time and also in terms of the size
of the ship.
During a low period in sales the proactiveness of a salesman resulted in a project that
would have unlikely been selected nor pursued using traditional cost-analysis tools.
Managerial flexibility capitalized on long-term relationships and now nearly six years
after talks were started, collaboration with Ocean Development Group has lead to the
final stages of planning before signing a build contract.

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The cruise ship building environment has changed dramatically within the last few years,
yet Aker Yards salespeople have remained extremely fair and patient, despite the
relatively small size of the Ocean Development Group project compared with other
colossal projects underway. Despite fluctuations in the market, the core behavior of
salespeople has remained consistent. The feeling in the market has gone from a dead sea
to a sea of activity, yet the feeling between the buyer and seller has remained the same of
cooperation and working towards mutually beneficial results, a factor of the long
relationship behind it.
Kaj Liljestrand, who started the sales process with Ocean Development Group, retired
and handed the relationship over to Carl-Gustaf Rotkirch, who also had a history
stretching back to 1986 with Jon Rusten of Ocean Development Group. The sales
behavior is described as very attentive, accommodating, understanding, always prepared,
and always thorough.
With the Ocean Development Group case, Aker Yards Head of Naval Architecture, Kai
Levander offered his resources to brainstorm and develop project.
“If you compare the shipyards in Italy, France, Germany, Norway to Finland, Kai
Levander is the biggest difference. What Finland has is Kai Levander and their
tech group. That is their best offering. They are sitting up in the north and they
produce these presentations that no one else has. Kai Levander has the ability to
create the myth.” (Interview with Jon Rusten, Director of Development and New
Construction, Ocean Development Group, 22.9.2007)
Kaj Liljestrand was the last of the great ship salesmen to move into retirement. Kai
Levander is soon to follow. According to the executives at Ocean Development Group,
Kai Levander produces images that enable him to lure people along like a flute player. He
can pop out a new idea every day in his life. His ideas come out and although sometimes
a little outlandish they all have the potential of becoming something for someone.
Current customers have built key relationships with Martin Saarikangas, Kai Liljestrand,
Antti Pankakoski, Carl-Gustaf Rotkirch, Olli Jantunen and Juha Heikinheimo stretching
back over 20 years.
Despite restructring of corporations, name changes, chapter 11’s, etc, the relationships
between buyers and sellers continue under different corporation names on new projects.
Key people in the industry have all worked together at one point or another, whether at
Fincantieri, Chantiers D’Atlanique or Aker Yards. Even as Wärtsilä became Masa Yards,
then Aker Yards and merged with Chantiers D’Atlantique, the relationships between the
key players have stayed the same.
The kind of implicit knowledge that has been built over the years and stretches across
companies in the cruise ship industry cannot be replaced by elements of sales process
design. Only perhaps a more systematic management of relationships over the course of
successive years could possibly enable a greater level of knowledge diffusion throughout

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the cruise ship industry. Still, such an approach is unlikely to rival or even compliment
the unmanaged, trusting relationships built between key players over the course of the
past twenty plus years.
Certain ship operators will not discuss sales with the Spanish or Chinese shipbuilders. It
is interesting to notice that these shipbuilders do not necessarily have the contacts with
customers that Aker Yards and Fincantieri have.
Long-term relationships dissipate as people retire and there is no control mechanism in
place to contain the value of these long-term relationships. Young people in the
organization are good at giving presentations and pitching sales of new ships, yet lack the
firsthand knowledge of salesmanship to particular shipyards that comes with years of
experience.
Grooming salespeople is a process that is managed rather loosely. Key personnel in Aker
Yards’ sales organization have a background in naval architecture that is complemented
with either a second degree in economics, or other comparable business experience.
Almost all salespeople have worked as project managers at one point or another on the
construction side. Some salespeople have the know-how to handle a sale from the
beginning stages of brainstorming through construction to delivery. People who work at
Aker Yards in Finland are quite similar and get along well each other. They have a
calling to the sea, which is also present in the customers they sell to.
Customers have backgrounds in finance, naval architecture, new construction of ships,
procurement of ships, and at the top levels of organizations business backgrounds in
administration and marketing.
Northern Europeans at Aker Yards and their Nordic counterparts in American and other
European countries tend to get along well together. The flexible sales process design
encourages long-term buyer-seller relationships to continue outside the realm of the
cruise ship industry. People who have forged relationships over the past twenty years
have naturally become friends and in some instances may spend family vacations
together.
In effect, the account manager uses his own judgment based on past experiences and
knowledge of the client to determine the progression of the sale. This has worked
tremendously well. The personal traits of the salespeople in the organization are largely
to credit for this. The way that project engineers are promoted from within the company
to salespeople ensures that each salesperson has intricate knowledge of all levels of the
ship building process and Aker Yards.
It is important to know the customers because when they say they want a certain aspect of
their current fleet improved, the salesperson must immediately understand what exactly
they are referring to and react in the most appropriate manner.

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“There is huge value in the relationships between buyers and sellers in the cruise
ship industry that is not purposefully managed” (Interview with Tuomas Routa,
Head of Project Design, Aker Yards Turku, 14.9.2007)
As the value of a relationship between buyer and seller has been compared to tangible
assets it would seem to be within the best interests of companies to guard these assets and
develop them over time. The core team that is the sales manager and the project engineer
generally work together and with the same customers, but changes to this triad can take
time to rebuild to their previous level.
Similarity between customer and salesperson has been positively correlated with sales
effectiveness. Perceived salesperson expertise has the same effect. Product and market
knowledge are the most important areas of expertise for salespeople in increasing the
levels of trust customers sense. (Crosby, Evans, & Cowles, 1990)
Cruise Ship Finance
Aker Yards customers can be crudely separated into two categories: those who have
money and can buy ships and those who are faced with the challenge of financing, the
latter of which tends to be the case for smaller shipyards because of the sheer size of the
sums in question. As the price is often too high for the customer, a design to cost solution
might be more efficient.
The issue of trust surfaces not only in the sense that can the buyers trust the sellers, but
can the sellers trust the buyers and be sure that time and money spent on potential offers
is not going to be wasted by the client’s lack of resources? The latter group of customers
is a difficult segment to deal with because it is nearly impossible to gauge when a ship
operator may receive the required financing, if ever. Refusing to negotiate with a client
because of credit doubts allows for the possibility of turning away a potential sale.
In a perfectly controllable world, this aspect of sales design protocol could benefit from a
rigid credit check process. Conceivably, the customer could prove that their organization
has the required resources to procure a ship, and that those resources will still be
available after what can easily be two years of negotiations and planning before a
contract is signed. Furthermore, the resources expended by Aker Yards during that two-
year period of preliminary planning and negotiations are likely to be in the millions of
euros in addition to the opportunity cost of tending to other customers.
However, as the cruise ship building industry tends to be small in terms of players and
relationships are closely knit across the board, this kind of process cannot be
implemented in the beginning stages of a sales process. Establishing whether a customer
has the resources or not to procure a ship is done at the discretion of the sales manager,
who sometimes undertakes considerable risk when allocating resources to a customer
who may never procure a ship from Aker Yards.

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The profitability of a customer can become a bargaining chip for a salesperson. The price
is composed from a number of specifics. There is the market cost, which is how much the
contract is agreed to cost on signing. These are calculated pretty much according to how
much the client can afford. Price is a huge factor when closing deals. Other important
aspects are quality and reliability of the delivery date.
Financing terms and packages are critical to sales, “It boils down to price and financing.
Everyone can build a ship”, Interview with Kristian Stensby, CEO Ocean Development
Group, 22.9.2007. The biggest factor for customers when considering the procurement of
a new ship is the difference between the price and projected profit of the ship.
This is a contrasting view to that of Aker Yards salespeople who list their quality of ship
and innovation abilities as world class, and the key attributes to their success.
Financing cruise ships as the builder does not offer an attractive business model from
Aker Yards’ perspective. This is reinforced by the fact that outside financial institutions
do not always compete for the financing packages of cruise ships. New builds are based
on speculation over at least a forty-year period. Unlike other assets, cruise ships are not
easily liquidated and re-fits are extremely costly. Financing is dependent on the financing
institution’s faith in the profitability of the new construction’s business plan. Solid
business models tend to receive support from financial institutions whereas concepts
perceived as risky and perhaps either too innovative or too traditional may be deemed
uninteresting investment opportunities.
The Selling Process at Aker Yards
There are four phases in the sales process that progress according to the level of
involvement between Aker Yards and the customer. As the sales process progresses and
the phase advances, the concept of the ship matures and specifications become more
technical. At the conclusion of the fourth phase, the build contract is signed and
construction is planned. The four phases are labeled from A to D.
Phase A deals with very general specifications, but is important as it is the customer’s
first expression of interest to order a new ship. Only the salesperson is involved with the
sales process and the technical specifications take as little as ten man-hours to prepare.
However, getting to the point of specifying the details of Phase A may take up to ten
years of continual interaction and relational selling. The organizational form of the sales
organization acting during Phase A is best described as an adhocracy. The organization is
flexible and adapts according to customer specifics.
The involvement of the salesperson begins at the lead generation stage and continues
until the final contract is signed. The project engineer jumps on board as soon as the lead
is qualified. However the sales person is still the main point of contact for the customer.
The product engineer is in constant contact with the design support team that is also
onboard the project until the end.

19. 19
Phase A progresses as the salesperson shows interest in the client and project through
asking questions about the client’s needs and proposing meeting times to sit down with
the client and go over possible next steps. This demonstrates proactive interest and is
done according to judgment of the salesperson. Feeling out and talking to the client helps
target what the client wants next. The process of selling is led by the salesperson’s
activity and interaction with the client. The salesperson must know what steps need to be
taken in order for the relationship to take the next step.
Frequency of interaction between salesperson and customer is dependent on the phase of
the deal, which is generally regulated by the customer. Salespeople cannot always pace
the progression of the sales project as the advancement is often dependent of the upper
management of the ship operator who are often tied to other obligations, such as making
sure existing ships are full of passengers, or that financing to procure a new ship is in
order. In this regard, stringent protocol or targets to advance the sales process by certain
dates are irrelevant. The process must be left adaptable to the customer’s schedule.
Phase B is dependent on a keen interest from the customer to move forward and more
intricately create technical specifications for a potential new build. As the plans become
more detailed, the salesperson brings together a team of 3-5 people for preliminary
designs, totaling 100-500 man-hours of work. The salesperson may do some of the
technical plans himself, but does use the help of other experts with the organization. The
team is constructed based on the salesperson’s preferences to work with individuals
within his organization.
Salespeople are key in establishing trust between organizations and leaving customers
with the feeling of confidence in Aker Yards’ knowledge of the market that transforms
into innovations that drive business, quality assurance, on time delivery, competitive
pricing, ability to manage intense projects. The salesperson needs to get along well with
clients, know about shipbuilding, and cannot make promises without the project
engineer’s knowledge.
Already at Phase B a price indication can be given that includes quite a bit of technical
information, such as calculations and tender costing. Depending on the situation, the
salesperson can bring in a project engineer around midway of Phase B, who exists to help
salesperson. The project management division operates directly under the sales division.
A good project engineer is tied to the project at a very early stage. The transfer of
responsibility from the salesperson to the project engineer is purposefully done gradually.
The sales person is responsible for the client before the contract is signed and the project
manager thereafter. There is a divide between salespeople and project managers where
the salesperson has sold the ship and it is the project manager’s job to deliver it. The
salesperson should not interfere with the building of the ship, that is the project
manager’s job. If the customer complains, it is the salesperson’s duty to pass this
information onwards. However, the salesperson remains in close contact with the
customer over the course of the build.

20. 20
The project engineer acts as the liaison between the Aker Yards sales and design teams.
He is involved as early as possible with the salesperson and the customer and stays on as
chief contact between the customer and Aker Yards after contract signing. This may
include change of representative on the customers’ end in which case the rapport built in
the courtship stage may be lost. The back end team at Aker Yards provides the support
functions involved with the project engineer and the salesperson but rarely directly with
the client.
The salesperson still has to show an active interest in the client during Phase B, but the
progression of the sales activities begin to take on a more technically specific nature,
especially from the naval architecture side of operations. As the sales process progresses
past Phase B, the focus of the salesperson shifts from relational exchanges towards
technical exchanges. The task of the salesperson is to manage the development of the
ship’s technical specifications through the collaboration and cooperation of two
companies. Pitching projects at the end of Phase B is already almost entirely technically
based.
During Phase B sales meetings Aker Yards personnel must decide whether a project is
worth undertaking. Progressing to Phase C can take 5.000 man-hours and cost a
minimum of half a million euros to prepare all the requisite material.
In Phase C a larger team of people is brought together. At this point, Aker Yards and the
customer have to make the decision at which shipyard the ship is built. Tender costing
begins to take offers from suppliers amassing a bill. This stage can easily take 5.000 man-
hours and the resources of ten to fifteen people. The scheduling of the project is stepped
up and given high priority within the organization.
At this point, the sales design can abruptly shift from a flexible, relationship-based
rapport idea exchange to a process-based, regimented, goal-oriented design where
expectations on both ends are more results-oriented. It is at the best interests of both
customer and Aker Yards to shorten the timeframe between meetings at this point and
accelerate the progression of the sales process.
Phase D is almost at contract signing. This can take 5.000 to 20.000 man-hours to
complete. Fifteen to fifty people are brought on. At this stage it is prudent to offer help
with finance or other incentives to get the project moving.
At the conclusion of Phase D, a build contract is signed. At this contract signing only one
to two percent of the entire design of the cruise ship has been completed. After that
everything enters the operations funnel and the focus of the sale shifts to getting the ship
out on time. Operations are entirely protocol-based. The design is rigid and the processes
pre-defined.
Sales continues also after the contract is signed and into the construction phases. Many
details are agreed upon later and intricate price negotiation happens after the original

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contract is signed according to customer requirements. Customer interaction throughout
the process of construction are regimented and often diffused to different parties.
The focus of the salesperson shifts from the customer after the contract is signed. In
certain instances the salesperson stays on the project as the project manager for the
duration of the new build’s construction. Many salespeople possess the skills to carry a
project from conception to fruition. However, this contains problems such as the rarity of
salespeople and the risk of losing current market knowledge as a result of being tied up
with one project for a few years consecutively. The risk of overloading a salesperson is
also high.
Ship operators generally have a site team in Finland from the contract signing that can be
about ten people. As the project progresses, the site team gradually increases to as many
as one thousand people being trained and learning about the ship that is about to be
delivered.
The delivery of a ship creates transient knowledge in the form of the ship operator’s
personnel who have contributed to the development of the ship from its concept through
final construction. This is an example of quality selling throughout the beginning
lifecycle stage of the ship.
Below the four phases are illustrated according to man-hours, time to complete each
phase, and involvement of personnel. A divide between sales process design approaches
is proposed and further explained below.
Figure 5, Optimum Sales Process Design at Aker Yards

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The above figure represents the four major phases in selling a cruise ship. As the phases
progress, the involvement levels between organizations deepen, the resources expended
grow and the process changes from a optimally managed flexible design to a rigid design.
This revelation will be further explored in the next section of the case study with relation
to the research questions.
As the progression of Phases A and B are largely at the discretion of the salesperson, they
seem to most naturally call for a flexible sales design process where the driving force
behind sales is the salesperson’s own managerial cognition. As the sales process
progresses to Phases C and D, the financial commitment and personnel commitment of
Aker Yards increases. As the focus of the exchange between organizations shifts from
relational to technical, the sales process design should also become more rigid and goal-
oriented.
Example of Best Practice Selling: Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines
Through the interviews, case of selling Royal Caribbean emerged as an example of a best
practice case of relationship management in the cruise ship industry. Specifics of the case
can also be generalized for application into a variety of industries as a model for long-
term inter-organizational cooperation.
The relationship between Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and Aker Yards appears to be an
example of best-practice selling. It would be interesting to further research the
development of this relationship and see if elements could be isolated that might lead to
the development of a similar relationship with other shipyards.
It is agreed that the Royal Caribbean brand is quite well understood by Aker Yards
salespeople. The challenge is to figure out how to reach this same level of cooperation
with other ship operators in an even shorter amount of time.
Royal Caribbean and Color Line are starting to be the most experienced buyers from
Aker Yards (interesting to note that Salesperson Olli Jantunen has sold five cruise ships
to Color Line and has handled the Freedom and Genesis projects with Royal Caribbean).
The partnership vibe is more stable with these two ship operators. The demands with a
new client tend to be higher. The client who is used to ordering new ships is the easiest.
Open cooperation requires extraordinary trust and people that can communicate
effectively. Trust is built by doing and experiencing. Harri Kulovaara at Royal Caribbean
is directly in contact with many people at Aker Yards because he has been working with
them for a long time and knows who to contact directly. This also depends on what phase
of the project they are in.
“Salespeople try to profit on the trust that has been built between the company
and the client. Saarikangas and Liljestarand are the best examples of salespeople
who built trust in customers and closed deals.” Interview with Olli Jantunen, VP
Sales, Cruise and Ferries, Turku, 17.10.2007

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The relationship between Harri Kulovaara and Olli Jantunen has been described as
amicable, open and forward-looking.
The sales process brings different possibilities to the attention of the customer and works
together with them to find the best solution for the customers’ needs. After all, the ship
operators’ main business is selling tickets and ensuring constant occupancy of the ships.
About two percent of the operations of ship operators is dedicated to the procurement of
new ships and arranging financing. Particularly ship operators’ upper management is less
knowledgeable about the technical specifications of ships, but is more interested in
selling tickets.
“The core competence is the ability to satisfy the customers’ wishes. This is a
really big factor when it comes to sales. We have to be able to deliver. Openness
helps build trust. The client’s trust also stems from sharing problems.” Interview
with Olli Jantunen, VP Sales, Cruise and Ferries, Turku, 17.10.2007
Developing innovations, predicting trends and managing cooperative design are
instruments for fulfilling promises of providing the ship builder with the best possible
consultation and designing of their new build.
Salespeople have continual interaction with customers, even when an order is not on the
immediate horizon. Part of salesmanship is discussing trends in the industry and
developing new potential clients to meet demanding market needs. An example of this is
the Genesis series of ships for Royal Caribbean. The concept was developed over two
years before the contract was signed to begin construction.
Some customers may feel that Aker Yards is a ship builder that is only looking out for its
own interests, although this is not so. The optimum relationship is one where trust exists
and both companies have their needs satisfied. This has been accomplished with Royal
Caribbean Cruise Lines over a long period through constant interaction and exchange of
ideas and innovative collaboration.
Best Practice Summary
After 2007, Aker Yards experienced a case of over-selling that resulted in increased
building costs from over-extended suppliers and late deliveries to customers followed by
penalties. An organizational design construct focusing on supplier relationships may have
been able to better prepare the company for what lie ahead. Compared to past years, there
was no data available as to how well the suppliers’ market could support this spike in
demand.
Core to promise fulfillment is cooperation between different divisions within Aker Yards.
Focusing on the inter-organizational cooperation between operations and sales would

24. 24
have offered more fruitful data on how customer relationships can be effectively
managed over time with respect to sales process design.
The focus has been to contrast how i) flexible sales process design, versus ii) rigid
protocol can assist relationship management between cruise ship buyers and Aker Yards
salespeople. It is not always clear whether salespeople should be encouraged to use their
personal judgment or whether a pre-determined protocol should be followed.
This case study aimed to contrast flexible and rigid organizational design constructs with
existing procedures to be able to make recommendations on the key processes that guide
cruise ship sales.
The initial hypothesis was that the continuous progression of the sales process from
initial contact to signing of the contract could be improved through focusing on a
formalized relationship management protocol transcending the organization. However,
preliminary research indicated that the complexity of procuring a cruise ship generally
acts as the main impediment to implementing such a solution.
In the beginning of the sales process the salesperson’s personal judgment and experience
often act as the best determinant of the next step in the relationship and cannot be
replaced by a pre-designed sales process that does not allow for such managerial
creativity.
Aker Yards salespeople are all highly professional and possess strong knowledge of their
customer base. This allows them to adaptively approach customers with varying
proposals according to current market needs. Such a highly specialized process is
difficult to regiment and is best left to the discretion of the salesperson.
As the sales process advances, more people are tied in to the project and the focus of the
exchange shifts from relational to technical, the progression is best guided by protocol. It
is in the best interests of the shipyard and the customer to guide the sales process through
the end phases of the sales process with targeted objectives and constraints.
On an organizational level there should be closer moderation to the projects that are
accepted. New projects should be evaluated on a scale of profitability, and with respect to
other potential or ongoing projects. Small projects that consume a disproportionate
amount of resources compared to the cash flow they bring in can be decreased by
increasing profit margin percentages for these smaller projects in the one hundred million
to three hundred million Euro range.
Aker Yards needs to start grooming the next generation of ship salesmen and architects.
An enormous amount of personnel capital is tied up in the deal brokers and designers
who have forged relationships with other key players in the business over the past twenty
years. There is no formal protocol in place for replacing these key players, or ensuring
the relationship reciprocity between organizations over the long-term. The key to success

25. 25
in the future is stronger relationships with the customers’ key decision makers and
systematic management of the accounts between orders.
Learning questions:
What is meant by sales process ridigity? Which aspects of saleswork do sales processes
normally harness?
What are the potential advantages and downsides of having a rigid or flexible sale
process? What are the key contributions of the Aker Yards case to this question?
How does industry scale and context influence sales process ridigity? What do you think
is case-specific and which issues can be generalized? Can you think of cases which
would provide evidence that is contrary to the Aker Yards findings?
Appendices:
STX EUROPE CORPORATE INFORMATION

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Aker Yards Personnel Interviews and Customer Interviews 14.9.2007- 30.11.2007
Aker Yards Personnel Interviews
14.9.2007 Tuomas Routa, Head of Project Design, Cruise and Ferries, Turku
14.9.2007 Johan Fransman, Quality Manager, Cruise and Ferries
20.9.2007 Jarmo Seppälä, Manager, Americas
20.9.2007 Henrik Grönvall, Service Sales Director, Americas
11.10.2007 Johan Snellman, VP Sales, Cruise and Ferries, Turku
17.10.2007 Olli Jantunen, VP Sales, Cruise and Ferries, Turku
17.10.2007 Kai Levander, Head of Naval Architecture, Cruise and Ferries
17.10.2007 Marjo Keiramo, Marketing Communications Manager, Cruise and Ferries
30.11.2007 Carl-Gustaf Rotkirch, VP Sales, Cruise and Ferries, Turku
Customer Interviews
22.9.2007 Kristian Stensby, CEO, Ocean Development Group
22.9.2007 Jon Rusten, Director of Development and New Construction, Ocean
Development Group