John Webb

GW: In comparison to previous times, how integral now are people to O-I’s strategy?

O-I has been going through a very exciting transformation in recent years, becoming a much more globally aligned business, leveraging the full scale of opportunities in a global enterprise, as well as becoming much more customer-facing and competitive in the market.

O-I already has many pronounced strengths throughout its global business… so we are building on a foundation of great strength. This has always been a business with real pockets of excellence and we are now replicating those areas of strengths and best practices across the globe. This is not a revolution or reinvention for O-I but we’re consciously and deliberately capturing and defining the best of what the company already has. The business is far more networked and connected.

As a modern, progressive global enterprise, best-in-class approaches are also being adopted from other industries, perhaps for the first time into the glass container industry. Our global footprint provides numerous opportunities to roll this out on a large scale.

But for the business to maximise its full potential, Andres Lopez, O-I’s CEO, recognised the need to become brilliant at the ‘people dimension’. His vision is to further strengthen the pride of our people, making sure our culture is a competitive advantage for the organisation. That provided me with an irresistible opportunity to join O-I last year, heading up the global human resources team with a clear, single agenda.

This is genuinely a very good time to be at O-I; it’s a company that is changing, progressing, transforming and building capabilities in a number of areas. It’s an ongoing process and the focus on enabling people to be their very best is front and centre.

GW: From a manufacturing perspective, how realistic is it for employees to make a tangible difference to the overall performance of such a global enterprise?

Hypothetically speaking, the differences between a high performing plant and a low performing plant are not likely to be factors such as asset configuration or standardisation of machinery. The biggest differentiator to performance is going to be connected to people, in dimensions such as leadership, culture, skills, talent or engagement.

So, the belief and philosophy that people are at the heart of a company’s success is what our transformational strategy is based upon – it is one of the top priorities. A lot of the work we are doing now is looking at the business strategy and complementing it with what is required in the people dimension to make our imperatives and initiatives a reality. This is not just applying a generic approach to human resources; we are creating a custom plan to deliver the transformation O-I requires at a regional and local level. And that’s all about talent, culture and organisational effectiveness. There is a much more conscious approach to business management and succession planning, as well as a focus on O-I being a great place to work. The sense of shared benefit between the company and the employees is becoming very strong.

GW: Turning to some of your specific activities, you’ve recently been talking about a plant manager development programme (PMDP). What does that involve?

We are creating a curriculum, inclusive of a full suite of development programmes by functional area and also in the leadership. Some are being rolled out now, while others are planned for the future. Looking specifically at manufacturing, one of the big opportunities is to look at the pipeline of future leaders, particularly plant managers. The PMDP has been in place for a few years and has now completed five total courses, developing the capabilities of approximately 100 current and future plant leaders that were brought together from around the world. Nominated by their direct leader, participants are members of the plant leadership team or the level below, including technical roles, engineering and quality managers etc. Ideally, we want to continue to develop one cohort group per year through the programme, providing us with a healthy pipeline of strong talent.

GW: What does the programme entail?

At first, the cohort spends three weeks of training in three different locations around the world. For example, the latest diverse group of 20 graduates from locations including Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Italy, France, Malaysia, Poland and the USA started the programme at the corporate office in Perrysburg, enjoying individual sessions with members of the executive team including Andres Lopez, John Haudrich (Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy and Integration Officer) and myself. Visits to our Innovation Center, technical and leadership training programmes took place over the week, as well as personal learning opportunities and coaching experiences.

A few months later, the same group visited two plants in Peru, covering leadership topics such as talent and succession development.

A further session in Poland included not only training topics such as leadership, quality, finance, commercial, environmental and health and safety but also the fantastic opportunity of attending technical learning sessions, on topics such as furnaces, forehearths, forming, moulds etc, run by expert leaders from across the enterprise.

GW: How effective has PMDP proven so far and how will it develop in years to come?

Of the 100 graduates so far, 27 have been promoted, including positions in plant management and regional roles. Graduates come out of the programme with a really strong personal development plan and career path, equipped with every possible tool they need to continue progression. These people are our precious assets and we stay very connected with them.

The programme will continue to improve and in the meantime, all of our employees are benefiting from the vast array of expertise that graduates are bringing back from the programme and introducing into their locations. When the benefits are clearly visible, people get excited about being part of global solutions. The reaction is really positive and with events being well publicised around the business, there is a real desire to be nominated.

GW: In addition to PMDP, do other such programmes provide similar opportunities for employees in different areas of the management structure?

Yes, for example, we are currently building programmes focused on the unit plant manager and line leader that take a very similar approach but at the next two levels below in the organisation. People relatively early in their careers are being picked up and developed for leadership roles. Similar programmes have rolled out throughout the regions and we are now creating a standard global approach to learning for this group.

So eventually, you start to connect the dots and achieve end-to-end development within the business. Other examples of programmes include ‘Be Brilliant’, aimed at training line managers to become great leaders. And our ‘Leadership at O-I’ programme has been rolled out across the world to approximately 80 senior leaders that report to our executive team, aligning everyone to a common approach for leadership, succession planning and talent development and engagement. In time, this programme will be cascaded to all people leaders throughout the business.

GW: How do these programmes allow opportunities for everyone to get ahead at O-I?

O-I is all about hiring and developing the very best talent, regardless of age, race or gender. And certainly, our development and succession planning programmes are an important part of ensuring everyone is ready and capable of moving up in the organisation over time.

Several of the most recent PMDP graduates were females. The programme supports achieving a specific objective of ours - to provide the opportunity for more women to develop and progress here at O-I. We were recently recognised by the National Association of Manufacturers for our women in manufacturing but we would like to see more. It’s a big opportunity and we are sending a clear message.

GW: And how does O-I attract ‘young blood’ into the organisation to keep the potential for future leaders in the pipeline?

In terms of apprentices, there is a very deliberate programme taking place across all our regions and we absolutely recognise the importance of introducing talent early in the pipeline. In addition, the number of people we are bringing directly from university graduation is extremely exciting.

All of our regions offer a graduate development programme, attracting top candidates to join us as plant and manufacturing management trainees. We are leveraging the best-in-class of these programmes to create a global approach, providing the opportunity for the graduates to learn as a cohort and rotate around different countries and functions. It’s a terrific opportunity for all involved and our new Employee Value Proposition is integral in attracting such individuals.

GW: What does the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) entail?

Our EVP is about what O-I stands for as a company, both to prospective recruits and existing employees. It talks authentically about who we are as a business, providing a clear understanding as to what it is like to work for O-I and how we differentiate ourselves from all the other businesses out there.

We are in the final stages of defining our EVP, which is based on internal and external research among current employees, potential recruits, customers and by assessing our competitors. It’s vital that the EVP is credible (based on who we are today), relevant to all employees and aspirational to enthuse those who might want to work for us.

GW: In day-to-day terms, how will the EVP benefit employees working in manufacturing functions, for example?

It’s about being clearer on what we offer as an employer and making sure that’s a reality. We have to make sure we offer outstanding on-the-job training, development opportunities to build personal capabilities and a platform for employees to maximise their personal potential in their current and future jobs, so that they can achieve mastery.

Another example of where we are putting the EVP to life is O-I’s increasing focus on the customer and understanding of the end consumer markets. Significant internal activity surrounding interactions with customers and product launches into the market communicates a real sense of pride throughout the business. Sustainability is another example where people see our commitment and have the chance to be part of it.

We are at the start of rolling out the EVP so will have a lot more to talk about in the coming years!