GF in 2025 is the result of living up to our winning culture

Our Strategy 2025 and its strategic focus areas are a logical next chapter, given the successful path we have taken in the last five years. It addresses profitable growth, portfolio resilience and a “go for the full potential” spirit. It paves the way for GF to face the challenges of an uncertain environment, like the one we are facing now as the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is a roadmap to reach our objectives. If I were to sum it up in one sentence, I would say: It is the way to ensure GF will be successful and growing in the times ahead.

The focus moves to a winning culture. Strategy and culture go hand in hand, as two equally important drivers of our future success. Our culture, the set of shared beliefs and values that govern the way we interact with each other, is the basis to create a positive environment where our people thrive, develop, and deliver. It is a big opportunity to build on our purpose and continue to make GF an inspiring and highly motivating place.

“Becoming better every day – since 1802” is not just a slogan. It‘s what GF has always been doing. It‘s the ambition and the ability to set new standards, by creating new technologies to respond to ever-evolving needs, and by developing our people. Our Purpose perfectly combines our long heritage with our future-oriented attitude and our drive to provide superior customer value. It is what motivates us at GF to give our best. The strength of our Purpose is the message that there are no limits.

At GF, we provide more and more products with a positive social or environmental impact. We can quantify by how much our solutions are cutting harmful CO2 emissions, replacing dangerous chemical processes, or ensuring that more and more people have access to clean water. Sustainability is also a driver of growth for GF and it provides many opportunities for innovative solutions to satisfy the demand for products with demonstrable benefits. Another important aspect is the effort to increase gender diversity in our workforce and tap our incredible human potential. Here, the message for everybody is that there is a bright future in our company. Everyone is empowered to take action and make a step.

We can be proud of our identity and culture which has grown over 200 years. At GF, we respect and care about people. To unleash our full potential, we need to evolve our culture towards more performance and learning. Ownership and the desire to discover new ideas, a positive attitude towards change, and team orientation will be key pillars of our new winning culture. A strong corporate culture is a prerequisite for future success in a rapidly changing environment. Everyone at GF must do their part.

I would not single out one value alone because they absolutely work in synergy. There is no performance without learning, and no learning can happen where there is no caring. Let‘s look at the new values and target culture holistically, rather than as tasks to be completed in isolation. They are a crucial part of our roadmap to steer GF, and our people, into the future.

I agree that this might sound contradictory at first. In a fast-changing world, we can only deliver top performance if we have the courage to embark on new paths. New ideas always imply a certain risk, especially if we want to be fast. When we think about Learning at GF, we should remember what we are already applying with Design Thinking: It is okay to make mistakes, if we learn from them quickly and share the lessons learned. An excellent performance is one that meets and exceeds customers‘ expectations. The principle of “putting our customers first” did not disappear; it is already part of GF‘s DNA. If we aren‘t putting our customers in the center of everything we do, we are not doing our job right.

They say you cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs, right? Obviously, I have made and still make mistakes. It is part of being human, I guess. What is important, as I said before, is to learn from them and move ahead.

I hope to travel more to our GF locations this year and be able to meet more colleagues in person, share experiences and insights, and have good discussions about GF‘s direction and goals. I also wish for every employee to feel part of our journey towards 2025. It‘s only thanks to our GF team that we can bring the company forward and strengthen it even further.