OPENING UP FOR BUSINESS
ABOUT CK HUTCHISON
CK Hutchinon operate in diverse sectors around the world. Hutchinson Ports is one of the moving parts in its infrastructure arm with 30,000 employees and an operating scope covering 25 countries. The last decade sees the port network in a phase of innovation, investment in IT systems, operational efficiencies and execution of CSR initiatives.
THE CHALLENGE
By definition, working ports are a constant through decades and even centuries. Even for the world’s leading port network, engagement, empowerment and confidence were issues. A lack of open dialogue, not enough decision making as a result of red tape, and a lack of courage to act and improve performance was stifling progress.
THE APPROACH
Given our brief, our approach was simple— create a culture of honest conversations. Made up of implementing our Courageous Conversations programme, giving performance management tools and developing a coaching style of leadership, we needed to keep the momentum strong.
Kicking off with a strategic session with the executive suite, the programme was then cascaded through senior and middle management, making sure objectives ran true company-wide. With underperformance an issue, we initiated a coaching for performance workshop— we needed everyone to understand ‘what good looks like’ behaviourally, and in performance criteria. When benchmarked, we could identify a path to increased employee engagement, more accountability and lay the foundations for open dialogue— especially with unions and fixing capability problems.