Embrace change by training senior leaders

Hannele Jakosuo-Jansson, Chief Human Resources officer at Neste, explains why it made sense for the Finnish energy company to engage the executive board with training as it went through strategic change.  

Change should form part of the DNA of any company. Rather than just changing when they see their business under threat by new competitors or unforeseen macroeconomic events, however, the most successful organizations embrace change as an opportunity for growth.  

To make any transformation succeed, you need to have strong leaders who can execute a clear vision. In over 30 years working for Finnish energy company Neste, I have been focused on developing leaders who can execute change successfully. Here are my three takeaways for how to get your top management, employees, and shareholders on board with a major change. 

1. Transparency is critical 

Early on in my career, I was assigned to take part in the task of transforming the strategy of Neste’s R&D Innovation Center. The project involved identifying new avenues for innovation and the necessary competencies that matched the company’s priorities for the future. The R&D executive team quickly recognized that renewable technology was an area where Neste needed to invest heavily and build up technology and capabilities. Yet, at the same time, we were facing significant cost pressures and we needed to restructure the R&D portfolio and cut jobs and positions in many of our research facilities. 

During the two years that we were given to implement the new strategy, I learned that the key issue in any organization is to be as transparent as possible. We had frequent open discussions inside the organization with human resources and the unions about the progress we were making. Our aim was to find new positions within the business for as many of the people we were making redundant as possible. And we were successful in doing so, but it required transparency and cooperation.  

2. Courageous business decisions require constant communication 

In around 2005, and as a standalone oil business, we were demerging from Fortum Corporation and Neste was going to be listed separately. I was asked if I wanted to join human resources. At this point, Neste made a €2 billion (US$2.1 billion) bet on renewables. In the beginning, it was a business in which many of the people on the ground did not believe. We were then thrown a curveball by the financial meltdown caused by the Lehman Brothers collapse, and there was suddenly no market readiness for our new renewable diesel product. Refined using our own NEXBTL technology, it turns renewable oils and fats into renewable fuels that could replace fossil diesel and bring substantial GHG emission savings to its users. At this stage, some shareholders even thought that we should pay back what we had invested in renewables production.