Improving leadership collaboration

About Huntsman

Huntsman Tioxide is a global manufacturer of speciality chemicals. They make pigments for a wide variety of uses such as plastics, paints and food colourings.

They have a number of manufacturing plants across Europe as well as Umbogintwini in South Africa and Teluk Kalong in Malaysia.

The challenge

Huntsman was embarking on a £200m capital investment programme to grow market share.

Supporting the investment programme was a newly created technical network, intended to create and maintain a culture of knowledge sharing and sustainable skills development.

To make the technical network a success, collaboration had to become the ‘new normal’. Isolated engineers and chemists needed to work closely together to share knowledge and celebrate success.

How we helped

We supported the Global Technical Network Manager in the design and mobilisation of a behavioural and cultural change programme for 158 engineers.

This paved the way for a subsequent expansion to the entire global workforce of 12,000 employees.

Beginning with a clear understanding of the current working practices, we designed a ‘network handbook’ for the engineering teams, explaining the purpose of the network, its goals, and its importance in achieving the growth aspirations of the business.

The handbook was then turned into a practical programme of behavioural and cultural change activities. Change leaders were appointed with responsibility for knowledge management, capability development, technical skills, stakeholder engagement and strategic alignment.

The change leaders drove and embedded the change, with regular executive coaching providing for support and advice.

Throughout the programme, a governance structure and a communications and engagement strategy ensured ongoing tracking against organisational goals, and senior leadership buy-in.

Results

Huntsman described the work we undertook for them as “absolutely phenomenal”.

The technical network has delivered demonstrable, positive changes in working practices, and a significantly more collaborative environment, both within and between their global manufacturing sites.

To date the programme has delivered over £20 million of value to the Huntsman business

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