At a glance
- Client: Graiman, a family-owned conglomerate headquartered in Ecuador that manufactures and distributes ceramic tiles, cement and auto parts
- Industry: Building Materials & Manufacturing
- Company size: 200 employees
- Challenge: KPIs folded into OKRs, projects tracked as objectives, long OKR wish lists, and a factory side and a corporate side that ran at different speeds, with the right signals buried across several systems
- Solution: Wave Nine reframed the OKR approach first, drawing a clear line between KPIs and OKRs, then configured WorkBoard AI around Graiman's six-step strategy flow, with integrations to its project tools and dashboards for business reviews
- Results: One full day less QBR preparation after the first cycle, a marketing budget reallocated mid-quarter, cross-functional dependencies surfaced before they reach customers, and six or seven OKRs per business that focus on transformation
The challenge: five years of OKRs, and something still wasn't working
Most OKR success stories come from tech companies. Graiman sells physical products.
Headquartered in Ecuador, Graiman is a family-owned conglomerate that manufactures and distributes physical goods, including ceramic tiles, cement and even auto parts. Roughly 80% of revenue comes from manufactured goods; the rest comes from imports. The company sources raw materials globally, runs its own mining operations and ships finished products across international markets. Strategy execution here means coordinating factories, logistics networks, retail stores and a corporate services layer that supports several distinct businesses at the same time.
Andres Vinueza leads strategic management at Graiman and has been at the center of the company's OKR journey for nearly five years. He has guided it from a departmental experiment in IT to the management-wide practice it is today. When Microsoft announced the sunset of Viva Goals, the platform Graiman had relied on to track OKRs, Andres saw an opening.
The company's OKR maturity had evolved over time. What started as personal OKRs tied to IT projects gradually expanded into other teams. But some habits were hard to break. KPIs had been folded into OKRs as key results, and projects were tracked as objectives. The result was a system where teams appeared active and aligned, but no one could clearly answer the question: what is actually changing because of what we're doing?
"We were using KPIs as OKRs and they were tied to projects. And everyone would have a lot of OKRs just because they wanted to show that they were doing something."
Andres Vinueza, Strategy Manager, Graiman
The structural challenge was just as pressing. Graiman runs at what Andres calls two different velocities. The factory side operates on long investment cycles: new production lines can take years to come online and involve millions in capital expenditure. The corporate services layer moves faster and serves several businesses at once. Whenever these two rhythms collided, the friction was already costing the company by the time anyone saw it.
A recurring example: the procurement team, incentivized to reduce freight costs, would sometimes select a slower supplier to hit a spend target. The commercial team waiting on that shipment often wouldn't find out until a customer was already affected. By then, the damage to relationships and reputation was done.
The information existed, spread across Viva Goals, BI tools, project trackers and executive presentations. But it couldn't surface the right signals at the right time. Graiman faced five problems:
- KPIs posing as OKRs: business-as-usual metrics were folded into OKRs as key results.
- Projects as objectives: OKRs described activity, with little sense of what was changing.
- Long OKR lists: teams added OKRs to show they were busy.
- Two velocities: the factory side and the corporate side collided, and the friction showed up late.
- Scattered signals: the data lived in several systems and couldn't surface risks in time.
Andres had been aware of WorkBoard AI for roughly two years before Viva Goals was retired, and he had already formed a view that it offered capabilities Graiman would need. When Microsoft made the decision for him, Andres approached the transition as more than a platform swap. He wanted a partner who would configure the software and also challenge and improve Graiman's OKR process.
"The real value from Wave Nine was how they challenged our OKR process, not just where we track them."
Andres Vinueza, Strategy Manager, Graiman
The work started before the software did
Wave Nine's work with Graiman began before Graiman had a single WorkBoard AI login. The first conversations were about understanding how Graiman was using OKRs, identifying where the approach needed to change, and reframing the framework around outcomes, away from projects and KPIs.
The initial focus was conceptual: helping Graiman draw a clear line between KPIs, which track business health and operational stability, and OKRs, which should reflect transformation and change. That separation had been missing for years, and getting it right was a prerequisite for everything else.
Once the OKR approach was clear, Wave Nine configured WorkBoard AI to support Graiman's six-step strategy flow:
- Organizational purpose
- Play-to-win strategy
- Culture and strategy activation
- Tactical plans
- Execution with OKRs
- The operational rhythm that holds it all together
WorkBoard AI became the single platform across all of those layers for the management team, with a clean separation between KPIs (business as usual) and OKRs (transformation).
Wave Nine set up integrations that connect Graiman's existing project tools, Planner, Project and Azure DevOps, to WorkBoard AI, so project execution links to the OKRs it is meant to support. Reporting and dashboards give leaders a consolidated view ahead of monthly and quarterly business reviews.
With 50 licenses allocated to the management team, WorkBoard AI works as a strategic layer: the place that consolidates and surfaces what leadership needs to make decisions and run the business.
"It wasn't months of implementation. In just a few weeks, Wave Nine helped us understand how to use WorkBoard AI in a way that fit our specific OKR process."
Andres Vinueza, Strategy Manager, Graiman
The results: leadership noticed the change quickly
Graiman has been on WorkBoard AI for five months. In that time, a marketing budget was reallocated mid-quarter, a supply chain conflict was caught before it reached a customer, QBR preparation dropped by a full day, and the company's OKR lists got shorter and sharper. None of that happened by accident.
Smarter resource allocation
Graiman's ceramic tile business was weighing two competing marketing investments: deepening loyalty with existing small contractors, who buy regularly from retail stores, or investing in campaigns to acquire new customers. Both mattered. The question was where to direct a limited budget. WorkBoard AI surfaced the bet clearly enough that leadership could analyze it, decide and act within the quarter.
"If you have limited resources, which everyone does, you need to understand where to put the money. Management decided that one bet is more important than the other this quarter."
Andres Vinueza, Strategy Manager, Graiman
Previously, that kind of reallocation would likely have surfaced only in a quarterly review, when the opportunities had already narrowed.
Cross-functional dependencies caught before they reach customers
The procurement-versus-commercial dynamic that historically created friction is now visible during monthly and quarterly business reviews. When a procurement decision is on track to delay a commercial shipment, both teams can see it in WorkBoard AI before a customer is affected. Without that visibility, the fallout would typically involve a chain of emails, strained relationships and, in the worst cases, a customer who didn't get what they were promised and didn't come back.
"We have retail stores and our #1 driver of repeat business is word-of-mouth. WorkBoard AI helps us protect that, by surfacing dependencies and risks before they become issues that directly affect customers."
Andres Vinueza, Strategy Manager, Graiman
QBR preparation time down by a full day
Graiman ran its first QBR supported by WorkBoard AI, and even at that early stage, preparation time dropped by about one full day compared to Viva Goals. The previous process meant consolidating information from several systems, building custom presentations and formatting everything for the executive audience. Now scorecards and KPI dashboards do much of that work automatically, and the QBR runs directly from WorkBoard AI.
"We've only had one QBR so far with WorkBoard AI. It already takes us less time."
Andres Vinueza, Strategy Manager, Graiman
Fewer OKRs that actually move the needle
Before WorkBoard AI, Graiman's teams arrived at the start of each year wanting to pursue everything. And because KPIs and projects were folded into OKRs, those wish lists kept growing.
"Everyone has a Santa Claus list at the beginning of the year and wants 100 things. We can now say 'we'll do these ten because these ten are the things that will move the needle.'"
Andres Vinueza, Strategy Manager, Graiman
Today, the businesses within Graiman run with six or seven OKRs per quarter, alongside as many as 50 KPIs. The OKRs are reserved for transformation, and the KPIs handle business as usual. The separation is deliberate and enforced:
- KPIs: Is the business healthy? Does something need to change?
- OKRs: How are we changing it?
This separation is changing how new OKRs get created in the first place. Graiman's leadership uses KPI performance as a trigger. If a KPI reading at the monthly or quarterly business review reveals a gap, an opportunity or an emerging risk, it becomes the starting point for a new OKR. The KPI identifies where the business needs to change. The OKR defines how.
"A new OKR a lot of times will come from a KPI. We use KPIs to enrich OKRs. They are two different worlds, but they inform each other."
Andres Vinueza, Strategy Manager, Graiman
The results at a glance:
- One full day less QBR preparation after the first cycle on WorkBoard AI.
- A marketing investment reprioritized mid-quarter, with budget redirected in real time based on visibility in WorkBoard AI.
- Cross-functional dependencies surfaced during monthly and quarterly business reviews, before they affect customers.
- A clear line between KPIs and OKRs, so OKRs transform the business.
- Six or seven OKRs per business each quarter, down from wish lists of everything.
WorkBoard AI showcase
How Graiman uses WorkBoard AI and its AI Chief of Staff Agent to run strategy across several businesses.
Nudges and status requests (AI Chief of Staff Agent)
Andres keeps dozens of OKRs moving across several businesses and corporate areas. Every morning, the AI Chief of Staff Agent sends him an email listing the OKRs that haven't had any progress in the last few weeks, so he can follow up with the right people.
Benefits:
- Dozens of OKRs tracked without manual checks across five or six touchpoints
- Follow-ups go straight to the right owners
- Work keeps moving between business reviews
Instant Scorecards & Dashboards (Business Review prep)
Graiman's QBR runs directly from WorkBoard AI. Scorecards and KPI dashboards consolidate what used to be pulled together from several systems and formatted by hand.
Benefits:
- A full day less QBR preparation after the first cycle
- One consolidated view ahead of monthly and quarterly reviews
- KPI signals that can trigger new OKRs
Drive cross-team alignment
WorkBoard AI shows the dependencies between Graiman's teams, such as a procurement decision that could delay a commercial shipment, so both sides see the risk during business reviews before a customer is affected.
Benefits:
- Dependencies visible before they become issues
- Fewer escalations by email
- Customer relationships protected
Spotlight: Q&A with Andres Vinueza
What is your favorite WorkBoard AI feature?
Andres: "The AI Chief of Staff. My role is to make sure that everyone is progressing on their OKRs across several businesses and corporate areas. We have dozens of OKRs, so it's not something I can track manually across five or six touchpoints. The AI Chief of Staff helps me a lot because I get an email every morning that tells me which OKRs haven't had any progress in the last few weeks. So I can follow up with the right people and make sure the work gets done. I use it all day. It's really, really good."
Your company uses KPIs alongside OKRs. Any tips for companies that are doing the same?
Andres: "Ask yourself: what changes if we succeed? That's what an OKR should answer. A KPI tells you if the business is healthy. An OKR tells you if you're transforming it. You need both, but you have to keep them separate. A lot of companies collapse them like we used to do, and then they end up with dozens of OKRs that no one can actually focus and act on."
Graiman manufactures physical goods. What would you say to someone who thinks OKRs are only relevant for tech companies?
Andres: "We have factories, logistics, and raw materials coming from mining operations. We are not a digital company but OKRs have helped us enormously. Not despite that, but because of it. The framework forces you to define what you actually want to change, not just what you want to track. In manufacturing, everyone already tracks everything. The real challenge is deciding what not to do. And OKRs help us answer that."
What's next: Graiman's next steps are already mapped
Graiman is five months into its WorkBoard AI journey, and Andres is clear-eyed about what comes next. The immediate priority is completing the data integrations, specifically connecting Oracle analytics to WorkBoard AI, so KPI tracking becomes fully automated and QBR preparation time keeps falling.
Beyond the technical work, Graiman is deepening the link between OKRs, KPIs and budgeting. The goal is to make resource allocation decisions more directly traceable to strategic outcomes, so the kind of mid-quarter reallocation that happened in Q1 becomes a repeatable process.
OKRs are commonly believed to be only for tech companies. Graiman has the results to prove otherwise.
"I would recommend Wave Nine and WorkBoard AI to anyone. The tool is one thing, but the thinking they bring is something else."
Andres Vinueza, Strategy Manager, Graiman
