Aker Solutions
Aker Solutions: A Single Corporate Culture, Single Leadership Tools and a Common Language.
Acorn worked with Aker Solutions following their acquisition of Trafalgar House and subsequent reorganisation.
Aker Solutions has a turnover of NOK 6.5 billion (circa £6 billion) and 26,500 employees and Acorn worked with the board and senior management team to form a single corporate culture, common leadership behaviours and language, and common processes from very dominant corporate cultures from the USA, France and the UK.
Requirement
There were a number of issues within operations and business development:
- Different plants simply refused to adopt new operating procedures, even though they were demonstrably better, simply because they were not French.
- Different plants were competing with each other by bidding for the same work.
- Confusion within the customer base as to the purpose and function of merged units.
- A confused strategy combined with different business cultures and business languages (English, American English, and French English).
Delivery
Acorn delivered a variety of interventions:
- Coaching of the executive board using Acorn's Team Coaching Model™
- One to one coaching of the CEO
- Cultural Integration
- Behavioural Leadership
Outcomes
Delivery was carried out throughout the USA, UK and France to a deliberate mix of operational leaders from the merged companies, creating a single corporate culture, a single set of leadership tools and an agreement on a common language used throughout the business.