Times of Change in Haldor Topsoe

Workz has had the pleasure of assisting with the strategy execution in Haldor Topsoe’s international organisation. Following the passing of CEO and founder Haldor Topsøe, the company has been busy adjusting and growing.

“In Haldor Topsoe we are changing our course radically. We have a new management group after Haldor’s death, we are pressured by increasing international competition, and we are crazy enough to work hard for an ambitious growth strategy aimed at quintupling the company’s revenues over the next ten years. And all this is happening in a global engineering company, that is specialised in problem-solving but started out with very little experience with change management, strategy roll-out and cultural change. We are not bored” says Kim Hedegaard, Group Vice President.

With changes this radical it is of utmost importance to create a clear and shared image of the vision and strategy, to build ownership and engagement and, last but not least, to enable the entire organisation to actively contribute to realising the strategy. You must ensure alignment in a large, global organisation that is growing rapidly, which is never an easy task.

The positive collaboration with Workz has provided us with new perspectives and creative tools

Works has helped with the design of the overall strategy roll-out, with ecents and summits, with the development of game based dialogue tools and workshop formats as well as all the supporting communication material; a movie, posters, booklets and so on.

Furthermore, Haldor Topsoe has used our leadership simulation Wallbreakers to train the mangers in change management.

“We are driving the strategy internally, but Workz have, in their capacity of specialists, assisted with process design, facilitation and the internal strategy communication. Among other things, we have jointly developed a so-called one pager, which, in a simple and meaningful way, visualises the connection between vision, strategy and concrete initiatives. Furthermore, we have produced a number of movies and designed a dialogue game which is used locally to strengthen behaviour and culture, that support the strategy. The positive collaboration with Workz has provided us with new perspectives and creative tools”  says Christina Hove Odgaard, Head of Strategy Implementation Support.