Putting a plan in motion
Getting your employees on board with your new company is step one in driving change. Once a company has the support of its employees, they begin forming ideas and plans. It is critical that those plans and ideas be implemented and put into effect throughout the company in order for them to take hold and be successful.
“Because we are a global German company, the tone is going to be set at the very top of our board,” Dearth says. “It is up to me and my management team to take that tone and that vision and where we are going and put it into terms that our employees can understand. I have senior manager and operating committee meetings frequently and talk to members of staff constantly. Anything that might appear as a problem or pushback is handled promptly and discussed. You have to use the tools you give employees. You have to be entrepreneurial, be focused, be quick, and that will allow employees to contribute what they can.”
Change in a company can create a lot of uneasiness among employees. Whether it is good or bad, change can be scary and CEOs and business owners must keep that in mind when implementing plans to move forward. Dearth says that communication and visibility are key things a CEO must do.
“No. 1 is to always communicate, communicate, communicate,” he says. “The worst thing a CEO can do in a period of change is to hibernate. You need to be out in front of the employees, be in front of stakeholders and communicate what’s going on. You have to be very visionary. If you’re bringing in change, you need to be able to make a very compelling case of what change looks like and why change is necessary. Change management also is accountability. As you change your culture and change the way you do things, every single employee is responsible for doing what they can within their responsibilities to make that happen. You will be held accountable, you will be compensated on that, and you will be disciplined on that.”
Build a brand
Another important aspect of change is developing the company brand. Never an easy task, a company’s brand is everything that a company stands for. It will tell employees, shareholders and customers what the company does, what it stands for and where it’s going in the future.
“The challenge we had globally, especially in the U.S., was how do you brand this new company?” Dearth says. “Everybody knows Bayer, but Lanxess, what’s a Lanxess? How do you spell it? How do you pronounce it? We had to spend a lot of time very early on creating a brand for not only our employees but also our customers, our communities and our shareholders. As a publicly traded company, albeit in Europe, shareholders need to know, ‘What is this company, and should I be investing in it?’
“I went out everywhere. I went to trade associations. I’m a member of the American Chemistry Council. … I wanted our local politicians and other companies here in Pittsburgh to know who Lanxess was. I gave tons of presentations and did tons of interviews, and I’m very active on nonprofit boards. I do all of that to let people know who we are.
“When you are creating a new entity, it is critical that you have a strong brand that distinguishes you from where you were and defines who you are and where you are going. To establish your brand, you need to align yourself with it and make sure that it is a consistent and very visible part of everything you do.”
Monitor change
Once a company is established and things are looking up, it is easy to let focus slip away. However, staying focused on goals, monitoring change and being prepared are very important to staying in a growing position.
“Maintaining momentum is very important,” Dearth says. “When we became a new company, employees were obviously excited about building a new company. How do you maintain that excitement when you’re not buying things and perhaps divesting things as we had to do? That was a challenge. The 2009 economy, that says it all right there. We lost 35 percent of our business overnight. How do you very, very quickly react to that? Not knowing how long that crisis was going to last, I had to get my management team in place, and we had to inform employees. This crisis has had a severe impact on Lanxess and things had to change. We had to change our benefits structure a little bit, and we had to take some bonuses away and a few other things, because we weren’t sure how long this was going to be.”
When companies start to grow, they can be faced with challenges at any time. It is critical that companies have programs or teams in place to handle or prepare for those challenges. Without these precautions, a company will only dig themselves into a bigger hole.
“As a chemical company, or as any company, you are constantly going to be faced with challenges and the CEO is responsible for making sure you’re prepared for crises,” Dearth says. “You have to have teams in place and make sure that everybody’s aware of the direction you’re going to fix the problem. Employees are the first thing you should look at. You need to make sure you have well-trained people in the right positions and that they are ready to take on growth and are in the right frame of mind. The CEO has control over that. If you don’t have the right people in the right places, then make changes. Make it so it works. If people aren’t on board with these things, you’re going to flounder. They need to understand why we are buying this, why we are bringing it in, what our growth strategy is and what the goal is for making it happen. You have to make sure that nobody gets too comfortable. When you work for a big company, sometimes it’s easy to get comfortable, because you’re in such a big company sometimes you’re hidden. I know pretty much everybody in this building. I know what their skill sets are. I know what their challenges are. I want to make sure that people are ready to go and focused on the right things.”
How to reach: Lanxess Corp., (800) 526-9377 or www.lanxess.us
