How Skarbek helped a global polymer specialist future-proof its operations
As a result of organic growth through historic mergers and acquisitions, the innovation organisation had a dispersed geographic footprint with presence in over 10 locations and countries, presenting challenges in both complexity and duplication of effort. Tasked with helping better-coordinate the client’s operations, Skarbek Associates worked to build a fit-for-future innovation organisation, simplifying structures and strengthening capabilities for global growth.
The polymers industry produces, distributes, and uses products based around natural or synthetic substances composed of bound monomers, which are repeating structural units. These materials are widely utilized in many different industries, including textiles, electronics, construction, automotive, packaging, and healthcare. Due to this diversity, the future of the polymer industry is bright, with fresh opportunities meaning Spherical Insights research predicts the global polymers market will cross $1269.24 billion in revenues by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 5.37% from 2023 until then.
Making the most of such growth will depend on firms positioning themselves for rapid shifts in different markets, however, which necessitates a well-coordinated organisational structure. As a result of organic growth through historic mergers and acquisitions, Skarbek’s client in the sector had a dispersed geographic footprint with presence in over 10 locations and countries, presenting challenges in both complexity and duplication of effort.
The fragmented structure had led to extensive layers, overlapping roles and unclear accountabilities, which in turn had resulted in slow decision-making, inconsistent governance and sub-optimal cross-functional collaboration. However, the company’s strategic ambition, coupled with the understanding that innovation was a critical enabler to this, made it clear a more agile and globally coherent innovation engine was required.
Explaining the challenges in an article on the firm’s website, Skarbek noted that its client was in need of a new organisation set-up that could serve as a holistic innovation ecosystem with harmonised ways of working, clear accountabilities, and distinguished roles and responsibilities. At the same time, it needed to enable an ambitious innovation pipeline that supports both current business needs and future innovation ambitions, encouraging exploration and expansive thinking – but to do that required a transformation of company culture and mindset, so that innovation was recognised as a partner to the business, with teams feeling empowered and energised to collaborate.
The work
In close partnership and collaboration with its client’s leaders from the innovation, technical, HR and commercial communities, Skarbek deployed a comprehensive organisation redesign process. First, the consultants defined the focus, ambition and success criteria for the future set-up, as well as core design principles to guide all subsequent decisions, ensuring a balance of efficiency, capability, and future growth needs. Once this was clear, the team conducted a holistic assessment of the existing innovation organisation and partnering teams, analysing current structures, accountabilities and work flows to identify core pain points and areas of misalignment.
To chart a course to improve the shortcomings identified, Skarbek then evaluated industry-relevant organisation archetypes to understand common structures and best in class practice, to better inform future design choices, mapping critical jobs that teams within the future innovation organisation would need to perform in correlation.
This led to a detailed review of existing roles and workloads to identify opportunities for increased efficiency, enabling a targeted headcount reduction that preserved key existing capabilities while freeing up resources for reinvestment into new capabilities and roles, before Skarbek developed a future-ready structure through greater centralisation and corporate scale whilst maintaining customer proximity, with clear accountabilities, structured governance and strengthened capability for delivering high quality innovation. It then worked to engage leadership and senior business stakeholders to secure buy in and ensure readiness for implementation.
Outcomes
The resulting plans yielded a simplified and more centralised structure with fewer layers and clearer accountabilities, enabling fast decision-making and improved focus; while the presence in each of the client’s core business regions was maintained – despite eliminating single-person locations to facilitate better collaboration and increased efficiency. A related headcount optimisation assessment achieved cost reductions whilst maintaining critical capabilities.
The optimisation also created reinvestment opportunities into high-priority innovation capabilities needed for the future, including the integration of an Innovation Centre of Excellence aimed at growing digital and data capabilities across the business. According to Skarbek, all roles within the new structure were now linked to a defined set of “jobs to be done” to ensure distinct accountabilities, efficient workflows and prevent duplication. This meant the innovation function became better connected to the broader business working in closer partnership with the commercial business units to enable faster and more commercially relevant innovation – and means the client is “now positioned to operate with a leaner, capability-rich innovation function that balances efficiency and strategy, strengthening the company’s overall positioning in achieving its growth ambitions.”
The experts concluded, “Through disciplined analysis, close collaboration and clear design principles, Skarbek helped the client reshape their innovation organisation into one that is simpler, stronger and more strategically aligned.
The project delivered both significant cost savings and reinvestment opportunities in capabilities that will drive long-term growth, ensuring the business is equipped to innovate with speed, focus and impact.”
