Annual Report 2011 Holcim Ltd

110
Faster learning organization
Founded on the principle of decentralized
leadership, “Holderbank”
began implementing a personnel
strategy centered on the principle
of a “faster learning organization”. It
did so in the conviction that classic
hierarchical thinking was out of
date. Instead, “Holderbank” emphasized
consensus and motivation, in
order to better utilize the abilities of
its staff in the service of the Group
as a whole. Such an approach allows
for more freedom of action, but also
requires a more deliberate delegation
of many tasks. Employees and
managers are encouraged to experiment
to a certain degree, and to
take calculated risks. This in turn
demands increased flexibility from
managers, as they have to respond
quickly to problems that arise – a
leadership principle which has in the
meantime become part of many successful
companies. “Holderbank” was
in many ways predestined for such a
leadership philosophy, as one of the
key preconditions for it, a common
goal to be pursued by all levels of the
organization, is a given considering
the nature of the Swiss cement
group: in its case, a strict focus on
core competencies. It’s also a principle
which Holcim employees worldwide
follow to this day and which is one of
the key factors in the Group’s success.
Holcim supports training and education following the principle of a “Faster
learning organization”.
It took just under 80 years for three generations of Swiss entrepreneurs, starting
with a single cement factory in Holderbank in the Swiss canton of Aargau,
to build a group of companies with worldwide annual sales of over six billion
Swiss francs’ worth of cement, aggregate materials and ready-mix concrete.
It would take less than ten years to add another six billion and double annual
sales on all five continents. Like few other Swiss companies, “Holderbank” was
able to take advantage of the climate in the 1990s to break into new markets
and expand its share of existing markets. A major focus was the post-communist
acquisitions of outdated state-run operations in Eastern Europe and the subsequent
revamping of their production equipment – a process which continues
to this day. Markets in Western Europe as well as in North and Latin America
were also “rounded out”, accompanied by extensive restructuring programs,
resulting in a substantial increase in earnings at almost all levels.
In its home market, the ninth decade of “Holderbank” started with a bang with
an announcement in the summer of 1992. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) went
so far as to describe it as one of the “most important reorganizations of recent
decades”. Via acquisitions and a regrouping of its holdings, Thomas Schmidheiny
initiated one of the most far-reaching restructurings the Swiss construction
materials market had ever seen. Over half of the Swiss cement market was now
united under the aegis of the newly formed “Holderbank” Cement und Beton
AG (HCB). After more than eighty years, E. G. Portland was dissolved, marking
the end of the Swiss cement cartel. This came amid a general trend towards
consolidation in the cement industry. The increasing pressure of market liberalization
within the European Union and through the World Trade Organization
(WTO) – which, under the Uruguay Round, was taking
steps to open markets worldwide – was also a key
motivation behind restructuring “Holderbank” in
Switzerland. Just two years after the repositioning,
the shareholders of the Société Suisse de Ciment
Portland SA ceded half their shares to Thomas
Schmidheiny, including nine percent of the votes
in “Holderbank”. This secured the entrepreneur
from St. Gallen 57 percent of the votes in the Group.