SUCCESS STORY
Building the Foundations for Sustainable Transformation
From Resistance to Alignment: A Strategic Reset for Rotork Bath
- How the Rotork Bath Senior Leadership team aligned visions, defined a shared “True North” and built a structured plan to communicate and cascade the objectives and programmes needed to ensure their future as an ‘Academy Organisation’ and Global Exemplar.
Our Impact
Strategic clarity and alignment
• A unified True North vision, strategic programmes a set of breakthrough objectives linked to the site’s long-term ambitions
• A Strategic Planning Framework (SPF) connecting vision, key performance indicators and improvement priorities
• Clear ownership and alignment of initiatives across functions via an X-Matrix, ready to be cascaded through a Catchball process
Effective deployment and governance
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Established a Transformation Oversight process and drumbeat to provide governance and maintain accountability
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A structured cascade process ensuring two-way communication from leadership to the frontline
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Leader Standard Work is designed to embed consistent leadership behaviours and problem-solving routines, supporting the first cohort of frontline ‘Lean Leaders’
Leadership and culture
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Cultural traits and leadership principles for Bath’s future success were defined and introduced through training with the first group of leaders.
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Increased leadership engagement and confidence in deploying and sustaining the transformation plan
BACKGROUND
Rotork Bath is the flagship manufacturing site for electric actuators for the global firm, operating in a low-volume, high–complexity- environment. As market expectations rose and complexity increased, the site needed a clear transformation plan to remain competitive and valuable within Rotork’s global footprint.
the challenge
Diagnostic analyses and leadership workshops surfaced several critical issues:
- Change Fatigue and Cultural Resistance
Long tenure and past failed change efforts had left pockets of resistance, apathy and cynicism towards new initiatives.
• Unclear Strategic Role in the Organisation
The Bath site lacked a clearly articulated strategic position and future role within the wider Rotork organisation due to the high turnover of CEOs within a short period of time.
• Low Engagement and Retention Risks
Employee engagement scores were low (3.38), and retention was becoming a concern.
• Leadership Misalignment on Direction
The newly formed Leadership were not yet aligned on expectations, direction and priorities.
• Weak Structure and Governance in Deployment
Strategy deployment lacked structure, and supporting systems, such as escalation routines and governance, were focused on tactical issues.
our solution
Henkan worked closely with Rotork Bath to design and deploy a structured transformation strategy. The approach unfolded in three phases:
1. Defining the long-term vision and True North: Through a series of leadership workshops, the team created a shared vision (“True North”) framed around three pillars: Inspire High Performance, Protect People and Enable Growth. This vision was captured within a Strategic Planning Framework that linked the site vision to objectives and improvement priorities.
2. Developing strategic goals and initiatives: Using the X–Matrix and Catchball process, long-term goals were translated into actionable initiatives ready to be cascaded through communications and goal setting. Ownership was clarified, alignment across functions ensured, and focus directed toward business-critical themes.
3. Organising cascade and governance: A structured cascade process and supporting governance were designed so that site-wide activities would aligned with leadership intent.
key tools & concepts used
- Strategic Planning Framework (SPF) – to connect the vision to objectives and initiatives.
• X-Matrix – to map breakthrough objectives, key initiatives, ownership and metrics.
• Catchball process – to enable bidirectional alignment between leadership and teams.
• Leader Standard Work (LSW) – to establish consistent leadership behaviours and problem-solving- routines.
• Cultural traits and leadership principles – defined to support the future culture Bath will require.
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