Akzo Nobel and Oxford Leadership Academy "Ignite the Spirit" worldwide
Early in 2009 the CEO of Akzo Nobel's Deco Paints division, Tex
Gunning, asked Oxford Leadership Academy to work with the company
to bring their "Ignite the Spirit" initiative to life.
The aim is to transform Deco Paints into a strong, cohesive and
truly international community, with three clear objectives:
- to leverage Deco Paints' global leadership position to create a
truly winning team
- to emerge from the recession in an even stronger position
- to create a sense among Akzo staff that they "live in, work in,
and serve the community"
Positive energy...
The purpose of this global leadership development programme is
firmly rooted in the realisation that a company's results and its
people are inextricably linked - growth must encompass both.
Accordingly, Oxford Leadership Academy are running a series of Leadership Journeys with Akzo Nobel
Deco Paints' executives, from Board to Business Unit management
level.
Leadership Journeys are rooted in OLA's highly-influential Self-Managing Leadership® programme,
which focuses on participants' need to manage themselves better
first, as a springboard to becoming more effective leaders in their
organisations. They are unique moments for busy executives to
engage in vital self-reflection. The Journeys take place against
the backdrop of stunning natural landscapes, far away from
Blackberrys and meeting rooms.
Al fresco group work
To that end the first Leadership Journey firmly tailored to Akzo
Nobel's particular situation was held in Catalonia
in February 2009, and served the Executive Board, the global
Business Unit managers and the Support Function directors. The most
recent Journeys have served senior management of a number of
Business Units, and have been held in Thailand, China, San
Pablo in Brazil, the Lake District in the
UK, Morocco, Poland and
Sweden.
Feedback has been tremendously positive, with scores
consistently over 4.5 out of a possible 5.
The first Leaders' Journey to take place on the African
continent was in El Jadida, near Casablanca. It
brought together the management teams from Morocco and Tunisia, and
was led by Oxford Leadership Academy's Vice-President, Cyril Legrand. All the
delegates found the SML™ experience truly enriching:
I learned a lot of things about myself. It will
help me to better approach the next steps in my life.
It's a rare experience to be in the position of
confronting yourself and of telling the truth about yourself. It's
even rarer to exchange these truths with others. That's why this
was a great experience.
Small group work
As has become traditional on the Leaders' Journeys, local
traditions played their part - the last night party featured Arabic
music, singing and dancing, and some great food - due reward for
those who took part in the friendly but gruelling football match
earlier that day.
The
penalty
The Journey in Poland in early October took
place in the countryside 60 kilometres from Warsaw, and was led by
Senior Fellow Gia
Campari. The Akzo Business Units that took part were from
Russia, the Czech Republic, Poland and central Europe South. Once
again, reaction was positive, the delegates drawing inspiration
from their surroundings as well as the programme.
Cook it yourself
Out in the country
Small group work
This is an extremely unique programme offered by
an employer to its employees so that they can grow and can make the
organisation grow with them.
Joanna Krejs, HR and Communication, Akzo
Nobel Poland
Very good organisation, new inputs, new ideas. We
were able to focus on changes in private and work life.
David Pohl, CE R&D Manager, Akzo
Nobel Poland
Lasse Wrennmark,
the OLA Senior Fellow who led the Journeys in
Thailand and China, returned to
his Stockholm base full of enthusiasm for the level of commitment
that the Akzo executives had shown (and with the beautiful settings
he'd shared with them):
After two weeks in Asia, I am back in Sweden. Two
fantastic weeks. One week in Thailand and one week in China. The
SML Journey started in Thailand, Koh Samui with 35 participants
from Akzo Nobel representing 6 different countries. The location
was a beautiful spa hotel by the sea, peaceful and a perfect place
for reflection. These were the top leaders for the Asia Pacific
area. They had a deep experience and the commitment to cascade this
programme was very high.
After Thailand we went to Kunming in China. Kunming is a city with
4 million inhabitants and it is located 2000 m above sea level.
That means that the climate is very nice, around 25°. This time we
had 70 participants from China. The Chinese took it very seriously.
And the sharing was the best I've ever heard. So I am very grateful
for this experience, fantastic people, great locations.
A few moments of
reflection...
The future:
The intention is that all 22,000 employees of Akzo Nobel's
Decorative Paint division will follow an OLA leadership development
programme by Autumn 2010. Tex Gunning's objective in providing
leadership development training for all employees is to leverage
their world-leading market share position in order to achieve
better synergies and economies of scale which will enable Akzo
Nobel to emerge as the global leader in the industry, and to make a
positive difference to the communities they live and work in.
It is difficult for a training course to surprise
me… but I can definitely say that this was the best training of my
life… It was a great journey inside yourself, which forces you to
think about your purpose in your life, your values and vision for
the future… I already feel a difference in having more meaningful
conversations during the last few days with my colleagues and my
family. Thanks to the company for such a fantastic gift which has
been delivered to us, in spite of the tough times!
Kirill Liseyev, General Manager, Deco
Russia
I was fully satisfied with this Leadership
programme. The organization was excellent. The best thing was the
combination of the physical training with mental training. It was
very good talking with each other about our private challenges
beyond business. I am committed to continuing this programme for
local management.
Istvan Nemeth, General Manager, Deco
Hungary