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Centraal Boekhuis

Find out how Centraal Boekhuis makes strategy tangible and measurable with AgileWalls: breaking down silos, accelerating decision-making, and creating engagement across all levels of the organization.

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The collaboration between Centraal Boekhuis and AgileWalls

Centraal Boekhuis (CB) has been a trusted logistics partner for over 150 years. From its headquarters in Culemborg, the company manages the distribution of physical books, audiobooks, and e-books, serving both online platforms and brick-and-mortar bookstores in the Netherlands and Belgium. CB also provides specialized logistics solutions for the healthcare sector.

With more than 800 professionals, CB works every day to deliver success for its customers. But in today’s fast-moving environment, where speed, scalability, and alignment across multiple disciplines are crucial, CB recognized the need for a central and visual way to better connect strategic ambitions with day-to-day execution.

The question became: How do you ensure that strategy is not just written down in plans, but actively lived by the organization? The answer was found in AgileWalls’ Obeya approach.

Obeya at CB

CB faced a challenge familiar to many organizations: strategic themes were not sufficiently embedded across departments. Teams worked with their own systems, KPI’s lacked transparency, and visibility into progress was limited. As a result, momentum was often lost and opportunities for collaboration went unseen.

The company decided to adopt AgileWalls’ visual Obeya, a physical wall where strategy, goals, and performance come together in one clear and accessible overview. Weekly sessions at the wall create a rhythm of progress reviews and collective adjustments.

Faster decision-making

One of the first visible results was a dramatic acceleration of projects. In the past, disappointing results often remained hidden, only surfacing when it was too late to respond effectively. With Obeya, everything is visible from the start. That transparency allowed CB to set new priorities and reallocate resources.

The impact was striking: a project originally expected to take two years was completed in just six months. According to Martijn, this speed was only possible because the entire organization could see progress, intervene early, and stay aligned.

Breaking down silos

Previously, departments often chose their own tools and approaches, which created fragmentation and slowed down progress. With AgileWalls, CB placed strategic themes at the center and made them measurable for everyone. “Where before each department would make isolated choices, we now make decisions from an organization-wide perspective, asking what best fits our strategic goals.” This shift has already led to more synergy, for example in purchasing processes, where choices are now aligned across the company instead of being made in isolation.

Strategy comes to life

Beyond structure and speed, Obeya brought about a cultural change. Teams began moving from a reactive to a proactive mindset. Instead of waiting for direction, employees now actively bring forward ideas and initiatives.

A striking example came from the shop floor, where colleagues suggested experimenting with generative AI. “Previously you would never have seen that kind of bottom-up innovation,” says Martijn. “Now people feel part of the strategy and dare to contribute their ideas.”

“By making everything visible in one place, you can adjust faster, create buy-in, and maintain focus in execution.”

Martijn Matena

Manager IT Platforms, Data & ISBN

A working system

For Martijn, the true strength of AgileWalls lies in connecting strategy to behavior. Many organizations rely on reports and KPI dashboards, but miss a place where everything truly comes together. “Obeya provides structure, visibility, and ownership. It forces teams to discuss alignment and progress openly, which leads to faster and better-founded decisions.” By making progress visible and tangible, Obeya transforms strategy from a static plan into a living system. Teams gain ownership, managers gain transparency, and the organization as a whole gains focus.

Looking ahead

The introduction of AgileWalls at CB is just the beginning. The first step, making strategic themes visible and actionable, has already delivered measurable improvements. “The first step has been taken. Now we are building towards an organization where strategy doesn’t just exist on paper, but truly lives on the work floor.” With this foundation in place, CB plans to continue expanding the Obeya approach, ensuring that strategy remains visible, measurable, and shared across all disciplines and teams.

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“The first step has been taken. Now we are building towards an organization where strategy doesn’t just exist on paper, but truly lives on the work floor.”