Organizational Culture change management
Defining a new strategy and company culture for a Multinational in the Chemical Industry following a merger of equals
Situation
- Following a merger of equals in the chemistry industry (2 headquarters in Europe, company size 30,000 employees globally), the newly appointed ExCo wants to implement a new company strategy and new company culture
- The culture change program is part of the roll out of the new strategy and embedded within a leadership program
Challenge
- Main levers where change is required are to move the organization to becoming more decentralized within a BU centric model, make leaders more empowered to take decisions, and become more customer focused
- Define a specific change path for each legacy to take into account specific starting points
- Ensure a good level of acceptance of need for change and common commitment to develop new behaviors, ways of working, management practices aligned with the desired culture
Action
- Collaboration with the client to drive the culture change monitoring process. We implemented a pulse check process over the course of 2 years during the integration, where we monitored the atmosphere by doing qualitative interviews within the organization:
- Online pulse survey in Wave 1, complemented with qualitative interviews
- Sample representative of Top 500 leaders, each BU and function, from 2 legacies, from each region
- Common questionnaire on a large scale of topics to ensure a follow up (topics covered; vision and strategy, organization deployment, management, behavior, managerial commitment, …)
Result
- The results of these interviews and survey influenced the strategic priorities of the ExCo, the communications plan and integration plan in various ways. Examples:
- Shared results with the ExCo and Management Co
- Feedback on results towards interviewed leaders who played a role of change champion
- Concrete correction actions plan on different topics sponsored by each ExCo – member with a strong commitment to deliver and follow up on achieved results
- Identified the need for a joined Management Convention where the top 100 of both organizations came together and work constructively on their 3 years plans