Actylis Chief Strategy Officer, Lauren Seufert, joins Ali to discuss the human side of guiding an organization through a digital transformation, including creating a culture of innovation, importance of leadership, change champions and change agents, and listening to what people are communicating up.
Lauen joins us to talk about the human side of strategic transformations such as digitization projects:
Creating a culture of innovation throughout the organization to support change
The importance of communication in both directions, especially listening to what teams are telling management
Identifying change champions and change agents to support internal communication
The importance of a change-averse industry embracing digital change
+More
Interview Transcript
Ali Amin-Javaheri: Hello and welcome, everyone. I’m your host, Ali, CEO and co-founder of Knowde. As you guys know, our goal with this is to share perspectives at the intersection of digital and the industry. I’m thrilled to welcome Lauren Seufert, Chief Strategy Officer at Actylis.
Actylis is a global solutions provider with over 75 years of experience, specializing in streamlining the management of critical ingredients and raw materials. They offer both manufacturing and sourcing solutions, ensuring a reliable and secure supply network. As Chief Strategy Officer, Lauren is responsible for lots and lots of different functions: marketing communications, portfolios, supply, sales ops enablement, and so on. She’s passionate about leading organizations through strategic transformations, one of which obviously involves digital, but there’s lots of human aspects to this, which is where we’re gonna focus a lot of our time today. Lauren, thanks so much for joining us.
Lauren Seufert: Thanks, Ali, for having me and inviting me to this conversation.
Ali: Amazing. I’d love for you to maybe give a little bit more color on your background and whatever else you wanna share about Actylis.
Lauren: Sure. So my background: I’m currently living in Basel, Switzerland, but I grew up in a small town called Toms River, New Jersey, which is about an hour south of New York City. And that town, I would say, or growing up there, immediately got me interested in the chemical industry. Toms River was essentially put on the map by the chemical industry. There was a company called Toms River Chemical Corporation, which later turned into Ciba-Geigy.
And as a child I was fascinated by chemistry, the fact that it goes into everything that we do, we consume, we buy, we eat. At the same time, unfortunately, if you use the word Ciba-Geigy in the town of Toms River it creates a bit of emotion. Not to go into a lot of detail, but it is now a Superfund site. There were groundwater contamination issues that happened there.
So from a very young age I was exposed to the nuances of chemistry, the fact that it can create amazing things and science goes into everything we do and at the same time it’s really up to leaders and organizations to maintain that sense of ethics and sustainability and environmental health and safety aspects.
I went into the chemical industry, I think, with this background in mind and now I’m grateful to be a leader in this space, to be able to really live that out and to make sure I’m part of cultures that really make good decisions in this industry. So that’s a little bit about how I navigated my 25-year career into the chemical space.
Actylis: I joined last year in November as Chief Strategy Officer, as you mentioned, and it’s a fantastic company. It’s the first time I’m working in a private equity-owned space. We have a tremendous amount of companies that have come together over the last five or six years with a lot of know-how on the sourcing side. We source chemical ingredients and raw materials from China, India, and other places overseas.
In addition, through acquisitions over the last years, we have acquired a lot of different manufacturing sites in Europe and India as well as the US and Canada. And so really our model is to help our customers solve their complex sourcing challenges, and we do that with a variety of product sourcing, but also have analytical service capabilities, quality, regulatory, supply chain. If you have complex sourcing needs, we’re the company to come to.
Ali: I did not know about your background like that. You’ve literally anchored yourself to this industry. And I didn’t know about the backstory of Ciba at Toms River.
Okay, let’s dive in.
A lot of times I talk to our guests about digital transformation, the tech itself and all of that sort of thing, and we haven’t spent as much time talking about the teams that bring this to life, which I think is particularly relevant in our industry because we’ve lagged when it comes to adoption.
I’d love to spend some time talking about your perspective on balancing the implementation of set initiatives and the human elements of change management. Buying the software on its own, it will over time become shelfware. Getting the teams to rally behind this and embrace the different business processes and the changes and all that is a big challenge for our space. We see it every day.
I’d love to get your perspective on this challenge.
Lauren: Absolutely, and I’m excited to talk about that.
I started with the Toms River story, in a way, because I find that where the chemical industry was back in the 1950s in terms of kind of not really knowing everything: “If we put our wastewater in this river and it goes into a big blue ocean, everything’s gonna be fine.” We start to learn, over time, the implications of such decisions.
I think we’re at a very early stage of AI, with little regulation, we’re still learning as we go, similar to what the chemical industry experienced with human know-how and learning and all the ethics and things required for that. It’s even super-important now more than ever to make sure that we as human beings are also mindful of the transitions we’re going through. I’m passionate about that and I’m excited to have an opportunity within a company to help lead and navigate those changes.
I think the chemical industry, I think I’ve heard it on a lot of your interviews, is pretty conservative when it comes to digital transformation. And there’s a lot of reasons for that. But I think it’s more important than ever. It’s happening. We need to be on the bandwagon, and I think it takes leaders to really help navigate that and help the people explore that together.
Ali: It certainly starts at the top, and the full team needs to be in alignment in terms of the direction of the org, but then it needs to spread through the culture.
Lauren: Absolutely.
Ali: From your perspective, how do you create that culture of innovation in the organization?
Lauren: We just rolled out, as I said, a new strategy. Communication was key on that. I think that communication is always… it’s a unique storytelling of vision and hope for the future. Digital transformation was a big pillar of our strategy, by the way.
But then also combined with a sense of urgency. If we want to maintain our customers, be competitive, attract and retain young good talent, we have to go on this journey. We’re now seeing people coming into the workforce that have grown up with digital technology. Not like myself, or you – we were sending faxes 25 years ago, back and forth.
Ali: Faxes are still happening!
Lauren: Yeah, I’m sure. I’m sure that’s still happening.
We have to do it, otherwise people are gonna get frustrated. It needs to be simple. It doesn’t need to be complex. So I think the communication around that, really making sure that we’re touching the hearts and minds of people, of “What’s in it for me? Why are we going down this journey?”
In addition to that, we’ve created what I would say are networks within the organization. Not only networks of leaders – as you said, it starts at the top – but that next layer down, getting 50 of our top leaders together on a weekly or biweekly basis to really talk through what these digital transformations have as an impact on the organization.
Also, in addition to that, the identification of change champions, change agents. People that are open-minded, curious; perhaps they’ve come from another organization where they’ve seen the positive successes of digital technology implementation. Having them spearhead the communication, those peer-to-peer networks, is really important to help move the organization.
And then to your question on innovation, I think what’s really important I would say is, as you said, mindset and culture, is being curious. A lot of scientists or science-educated people have a judgment-based mind, which is great. We make quick decisions or are quick to put things in boxes, and that’s very helpful.
When it comes to innovation, though, that can sometimes get in the way, so helping people recognize that, more curiosity, more open-mindedness, less fear of failure, if you will. And that goes into the whole direction of emotional intelligence.
Helping people embrace that element of curiosity and creating, I would say, time and space for creative discussions. A lot of times we have agendas that are so packed and so full, one point to the next. What we try to do is simply leave a half hour at the end of every meeting for discussion, creative space. Just an open-ended question like “What else is on your minds today?”
Those things, I think, can go a long way and help people get out of their typical mindset that they’re used to doing on a daily basis.
Ali: I’ve got to imagine that even with all that in place you’re gonna feel resistance in certain places. There’s gonna be pockets of this where folks don’t want to adapt, they like the way it’s been done. How do you navigate that?
Lauren: It’s a great question. Resistance to change is real. A lot of times I would say it’s fear of the unknown. It’s the uncertainty. They don’t perhaps know what we’re changing, why we’re changing, how we’re changing.
So these questions come up and I think… communication is key, but I think the way that we communicate is even more critical. One thing I’ll point out is everybody learns differently. One method of communication might work for certain parts of the organization, but not all.
So really having a variety of communication methodologies, whether it’s email, video, town halls. We brought together, for example, 150 of our salespeople at a summit and had a variety of different interaction ways to learn and to digest what’s happening.
Then I think in the method of communication, people really want to be talked with versus talked at. So really that co-creation, making them feel that they’re part of the change, that they’re heard, that their feedback is taken into consideration. Those are, I think, all important things. And then, really celebrating those wins or those driving forces.
So there are a lot of positive things that come from digital tools and technology – highlighting them out, writing them down, getting that into the bones of the people. And then as well, acknowledging what are some of the restraining forces.
We just did this exercise with the team and the collaboration and the insights were phenomenal because people felt like “I have an impact here. I can influence the change versus just have it happen to me.” So those things are all important.
Ali: When sitting in the rooms and having these discussions with everyone, how do you communicate these transformation strategies internally so that employees feel empowered and excited rather than threatened?
Lauren: It’s a good question, and I think, let’s face it, people are afraid with change that “What is this gonna mean for my job? What is this gonna mean for how I do things?”
So what I always like to say is when we’re starting to communicate it’s important that we get the message out there as leaders. So I’d say the ratio of the leaders talking to the team is usually 80:20 or 70:30, but quickly over time, and I’d say more quickly than people feel comfortable with, it should be the other way around. It actually should be 20-30% the leaders talking and 70% the teams talking. And usually that comes in the form of questions, of fears, of concerns. And those are all important things that they need to feel are being seen and heard.
Otherwise you have the fear that they’ll just shut down or you’ll lose them, or they’ll quietly resist – we all know what passive resistance looks like – so I think getting into dialogue sooner rather than later is really key. So that two-way communication, I can’t stress enough.
Ali: Yep. Makes sense. Any advice you would give fellow executives that are about to embark on this transformation adoption journey?
Lauren: I would say one thing that we need to be mindful and aware of is that conflict is inevitable in these transformations. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Conflict is actually a sign that things are working. Now, it shouldn’t be disruptive conflict. I like to call it healthy friction, but usually that’s when the stuff comes to the surface and you can start to come up with proactive solutions. If people don’t have the feeling that they can voice their dissent they’re going to resist.
It’s important to have leaders that understand how to build momentum from that conflict, create democratic decisions where possible or as much as possible, and then get commitment from the organization. So I would say that’s an important element.
Then the other advice I would say is crawl-walk-run. As I said, we have that mindset. If you throw too much change at the organization at the same time, that can also create a little bit of pushback or resistance.
For example, the work that we’re doing with Knowde and with you, let’s not do 15,000 products. Let’s do 300 first, see how it goes, pilot some of the quick wins and the successes, get people excited about it, and then expand from there. We’ve found that is a much more successful way. Otherwise you have the potential to lose people and those are really our most important assets to go through these transformations.
Ali: Indeed. I personally had this feeling of exactly what you’re describing, that you thought your employees would have.
I grew up on Google, and I was talking to a younger family member last night, she’s like 10-12 years old. I said something to her like “Just Google it.” And she goes “Google it? Who does that anymore? I just use GPT. I don’t ever go to Google anymore.” And I was like, I had that moment of wait, what?!?
And so it’s probably that same feeling that a lot of people have in these meetings where it’s just that confusion and surprise and anxiety and it’s “Wait…” Even though I’m in the digital world all day long, hearing somebody say that…
Lauren: Threw you off a little bit.
Ali: Yeah, it throws you off a little bit. And so it’s real to get people to go through these waves of change. It’s human, and humans are a lot more complex than machines.
Lauren: For sure. Once that amygdala is triggered, our rational brain is turned off – it becomes emotional, not something that we can predict.
What I’ve realized, there’s a couple of basic needs as humans, right? The need to feel seen and heard, listened to. The need to feel that they’re part of something, that they’re belonging. The need for control, that they have some sort of control over where things are headed.
If you can address these things – and it’s not easy, it’s a dance – but it requires a trustful relationship between leaders and the organization. It requires empathetic leaders to listen, to actively listen, emotional intelligence, all these things that are counterintuitive because we’re talking about technology. But those leadership skills are really key to be able to provide that safe space for that discomfort that happens with any kind of change.
Ali: Yeah I agree. It’s all about communication. That’s it. That’s the core.
Lauren, I appreciate the time, love the insights. This took a slightly different direction than some of our other conversations, but I think, very necessary.
Lauren: Yeah. Thank you for giving it a platform.
Ali: Of course. Everyone loves listening to these informal conversations between folks that help shape this industry, and you’re one of them. Thank you for everything you’ve done, and can’t wait to see where you take Actylis next.
Lauren: Thank you. Thanks, Ali. Looking forward to going on the journey with Knowde.
Ali: Appreciate that. Thank you.
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