Abacus Medicine Group found itself in an exciting yet challenging period of rapid growth. The company had recently made a sizable acquisition, leading to a significant increase in their workforce and operational reach. Expanding into more than a dozen countries, they integrated diverse new teams and cultures, which posed a critical question: How could Abacus Medicine maintain its core identity and culture while accommodating such growth and diversity?

The challenge of integrating new employees across multiple countries, each with its own cultural nuances, became increasingly complex. The company faced the task of building a global culture that embraced local differences while fostering a shared sense of purpose and belonging. Balancing these cultural distinctions while maintaining a unified organizational identity was essential.

In the midst of this rapid expansion, Abacus Medicine Group recognized the need to clearly define and communicate its evolving identity and values. Employees and potential recruits needed a compelling, human-centered reason to connect with and be inspired by the company’s mission. The goal was to cultivate a strong, cohesive culture that resonated globally, yet allowed for local expressions, all while strengthening the employer brand in a highly competitive talent market.

Understanding that each employee’s experience was unique, the HR team made empathy a cornerstone of their approach. They listened to employees’ stories, concerns, and aspirations, ensuring that the new brand truly reflected their collective voice. “We found that our company culture was surprisingly similar across different geographies, which was a pleasant surprise,” Lindhardt shared.

The HR team embraced the diverse cultural backgrounds within the company. They highlighted stories from different regions, celebrating the unique contributions of each team. This not only unified the workforce but also showcased the inclusive spirit of Abacus Medicine. “We were fortunate to have a relatively homogenous culture, but we also celebrated the differences that made each team unique,” Lindhardt explained.

Embedding the employer brand into the company’s operations is an ongoing process. Continuous efforts are being made to ensure that the brand remains a living, breathing part of the organization. This includes ongoing training for managers, integrating the brand into learning and development opportunities, and continuously communicating the brand’s values.

But with limited time and resources, how do you make all leaders relate to the same leadership capabilities at more or less the same time in a meaningful manner? The recipe for Novozymes consisted of four elements. 

First, make it simple and tangible. Unlocking Leadership was tied closely to existing concepts, making it clear how it is a natural lever for the already known strategy and a leadership-specific extension of the organizational values. 

Second, “toolify” it. “Unlocking Leadership” was translated into a data-driven 360-degree feedback tool, a revised template for the Individual Development Plan, and specific training modules targeting each leadership capability. 

Third, focus on facilitating meaningful conversations between human beings. Not trying to control every single outcome with rigorous supervision but instead giving leaders the means and inspiration to have good, genuine conversations, weaving the thriving and self-awareness of the individual into the needs and development of the organization. And then trusting them to apply the global framework locally how it makes sense to their context and team. 

Over the course of a year, 583 leaders at Novozymes have received 360-degree feedback through “Unlocking Leadership,” with 95 percent receiving in-person feedback on the insights. 82 percent perceived it as meaningful and valuable, and 73 percent anchored specific learnings into development plans. 

“It works, because it is concrete”, Marianne Bie Frydendahl explains. “It tells us what we need to do, using fewer words and leaving little room for confusion, creating a common language for good leadership and a few impactful tools to support it,” Marianne Bie Frydendahl.

And fourth? Humor. Using a bit of irony generates smiles and laughter, fostering a sense of belonging and humanness. “We expect a lot from our leaders. They need to be good people managers, be on top of their function, and navigate the many changes we are making in a competing business landscape, while coping with the uncertainty of an incoming merger. So, when we introduce new global initiatives, we need to be incredibly mindful of balancing the need for unity with respect for the individual context. We are all human, so we decided to create a small sit-com-like film, where we exposed all the worst-practice examples of how not to conduct development conversations to make it more fun and engaging and less corporate,” Marianne Bie Frydendahl.

While Voluntās were responsible for the directing, filming, and editing, the movie consisted of Novozymes staff as actors giving a human touch to an essential topic. 

Scenes, characters, and punchlines were later repurposed as GIFs and images to serve as a reminder to prioritize meaningful conversations. Knowing that in this year’s Meaningfulness at Work report, the lowest scoring item globally was “my leader takes time to ask how I am doing both professionally and personally, and I feel that he/she listens and takes action,” then nothing is more important to improve our sense of meaning and belonging in the workplace than exactly that. 

It’s been almost five years since the executive management team sat around a table, each taking turns expressing why they work at SGL and what makes the culture unique.

It was the first of many discussions, trying to grasp the essence of the rapidly growing forwarder. They knew that what they were part of was special. But they did not know exactly how to express it. More colleagues from across the globe joined the conversation. Customers and suppliers were invited to give their honest feedback. And then, during a leadership workshop in rural parts of Denmark, a wrinkled piece of paper was circulated. “We make the world a little less complicated,” it read. That is why SGL exists. But how? By always bringing a human approach to everyone, everywhere. An approach that, in the weeks and months that followed, was captured in Fun, Integrity, Respect, and, not least, Entrepreneurship. 

Easier said than done, of course. But fast forward to 2023, and SGL has expanded its workforce by almost 200 percent, achieved an annual average revenue growth of 33 percent to reach USD 3,506 billion, with a presence in more than 45 countries across all inhabited continents. What was an anticipated future became reality – and then some! Adding the impact of a global pandemic and the integration of 5-7 acquisitions per year, you would think that the organizational culture would suffer. 

ast year, SGL launched its Vision 2027. 170 leaders from across the globe were gathered in the middle of a forest for a three-day festival to kick it off. Labeled 1-3-5, it aims to unite SGL’s cultural DNA with its commercial ambitions. ‘1’ points to the aspiration of becoming the most purpose-driven and meaningful company in the logistics industry. For SGL, culture and business are fundamentally viewed as one and the same from the core belief that by growing its people, it grows its business. ‘3’ points to the aspiration of reaching the best 3rd in the logistics industry on earnings.

For SGL to realize its potential, earnings function as financial oxygen to ensure a strong and sustainable business with the appropriate attention and discipline to maximize value. ‘5’ points to the aspiration of achieving a total USD +5 billion in revenue. The rationale, according to SGL, is that the more it grows in size and footprint, the bigger an impact it can have on the world to uncomplicate logistics. In the spring of 2023, SGL welcomed CVC Capital Partners as new majority owners as part of entering the next phase of the company’s growth. 

“As much as we enjoy the prospect of making SGL a success in financial terms, that would be worth absolutely nothing to us if it was not achieved while having fun along the way,

paying respect to the people who work hard every day, being entrepreneurial in the market and having the integrity

with us to be able to look ourselves in the mirror and be proud of what we do. We are now a USD 3bn company,

but without continuously mastering our DNA and human approach, our ‘1’, we will never achieve ‘3’ or ‘5’. With new

owners on board and armed with humbleness, we remain committed to becoming the most purpose-driven and meaningful company in the logistics industry. 

One shipment at a time,” Mads Drejer, Global COO 

& CCO.

Manufacturing with a Purpose

From DNA sequencing to the final medication product packaged and delivered into the hands of patients, FDB is an end-to-end contract drug manufacturer. From early stage to large-scale production, they support the full lifecycle of biologics development by scaling the manufacturing process. As this year’s Meaningfulness at Work study revealed, both manufacturing (72) and pharmaceuticals (71) are industries facing challenges in meaningfulness at work, scoring below the average (74).

With FDB being an end-to-end manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, they find themselves in a placewhere they need to make an extra effort to create meaningfulness at work among employees. According to President & CEO Lars Petersen, the purpose potential is clear:

“What especially gets me up in the morning is the transformation I believe is so fundamental. I actually do believe that we are a big part of transforming the entire industry where the cost of drugs needs to be lower and where the speed of getting drugs to patients needs to be faster. This requires that we move beyond a contractual, transactional model and instead prove ourselves as a trusted partner to our customers, becoming an integral part of the ecosystem. A partner for life with unprecedented delivery.”

This balancing act requires training. Training in some of the muscles that are often overlooked or under-stimulated in the traditional leadership gym. When the philosophy is about trust, ownership, and empowerment, the mastery required rhymes more with active listening, human sensibility, and emotional intelligence than any other managerial disciplines. To create meaning for people in their work, leadership in itself is the least important driver. In other words, it is not how you as an individual leader perform that creates a meaningful working environment – it is how you as a leader can facilitate a strong sense of purpose, belonging, and personal growth. This, however, breaks with some of the truths many leaders who come to FDB are born and raised to believe in.

“Don’t come in here with the typical mindset of a leader saying, ‘I will deliver in 100 days.’ Forget about delivery. Try to relate to people, try to understand the culture before you even think about delivering anything. And to be honest, eight out of ten of our leaders are going through quite a journey to reconfigure. We even have leaders saying that they had to be broken down completely and rebuilt before they really understood what was going on. We invest that much in our journey, and we are fully aware that this might not be for everyone,” Lars Petersen says.

“We try to deconstruct some of these myths and false truths about leadership to champion a culture where leaders serve not just the business objectives but the human spirit in the organization. This sometimes also entails eradicating inflated egos to foster an environment of true team spirit as opposed to solo climbing the career ladder.”

To manifest this focus, FDB in February brought together more than 100 leaders from across the globe. The full event was dedicated to talking exclusively about strategy, leadership, and culture – not least which habits, norms, or systems the leadership community needs to say goodbye to in order to take the next quantum leap.

Nine People Fundamentals at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies

We foster psychological safety

We bring our full selves to work

We seek attitude when we hire & promote

We assume trust & expect ownership

We value teams over hierarchy

We support individual growth through empowerment