Hempel puts the world on the same page

Hempel is a global company competing in a highly competitive business. A provider of paints and coatings for light and heavy industry (marine, protective, container, decorative and yachts), it faces escalating raw material prices and price squeezing from competitors and suppliers. Hempel realized it needed to pull together to get ahead.

The result was a strategy that used Hempel’s global strengths to heighten efficiency and cut costs. But for the strategy to really work, every Hempel employee, from Beijing to Istanbul, had to be on the same page.

Getting the message around the world
When drawing up the strategy, Hempel drew input from every geographical area and department in the company. In the end, about 100 people were involved in pulling together ideas and needs into a single focused document.

The new strategy One Hempel – Everywhere was formed with a clear mandate: to make sure no employee felt more important than another. This has created an employee-owned document that everyone supports. But with nearly 3,500 employees, it’s important that everyone feels and knows that they are part of it as the strategy is rolled out.

Special news edition
The key to success lay in building a group-wide communication policy that kept every employee in the loop. One particularly crucial element of this was a special edition of Hempel News, the company newsletter. And this is where we stepped in.

In the summer of 2006, we interviewed over 25 people, and then put together an issue that explored, analyzed and detailed every facet of the strategy. The key was to use language that employees could easily understand and find angles that moved the strategy from high-level theories to details that people could use in their daily work.

We also helped Hempel write a 16-page strategy booklet that was distributed to every member of staff (in six languages). Snappy and informative, it gives a quick overview of the strategy, ensuring everyone is on the same page at one of the most critical junctures in the company’s history.

Has it worked?
Communicating the strategy in different ways to employees everywhere certainly helped pull everyone together. It’s amazing what you can do when the whole world is on the same page. Hempel’s Group Communication Director, Malte Eggers was extremely pleased with the results, saying “Eye for Image provided great support during this crucial project. They understand our business at the right level. Working with them has been a very positive experience.”