The energy company saw a clear need for development, along with many opportunities. The management understood that a more comprehensive and in-depth development must take place, in which the company’s culture would be the main focus. The board of directors and the owners wanted to achieve better control of the business, long-term development, stable revenues and openness to collaboration/joint action with other actors within the industry. They also wanted to make the company more innovative and to achieve better access to the experience embodied by long-term company employees.
The challenge involved stimulating the development process while respecting the content of the organisational culture. The focus was placed upon an in-depth analysis of the company culture and actions in order to achieve greater cultural impact in the forthcoming change work. It was particularly important to engage everyone in this change work – the board of directors, the managers and the employees. A key factor was getting the managers to take on the role of drivers in the change process. Their ability and commitment in reinforcing the cultural values that facilitated development of the company were seen as highly desirable. Driving the change on both the cultural and structural level was viewed as central.