Confidence in a Winning Strategy

What role does executive education play at Owens Corning?

We want our very talented workforce to be constantly learning, both within and outside the company. In parallel, to continue to challenge them as they grow, we need to provide bigger and better opportunities so that they can move up in the organization. Educating executives and promoting from within not only helps with retention, but also makes it easier for us to manage leadership succession. We hope that as we execute our strategy, we will also challenge our people in new ways and create a bright future for them.

Why did you decide to send Wesley Co to the General Management program?

Wes is an extraordinary talent with a great career path at Owens Corning. Part of my job is to coach Wes and help provide opportunities for him to move along that path—which means investing in programs like GMP.

Wes attended GMP just as we started to evolve our strategy. In 2009–2010, we were in a recession. Our company had a strong building materials business and good customer relationships, but competition was growing. If you're always playing defense, and the puck is always at your end, then you'll eventually get scored on. So, we needed to go on the offensive and accelerate the profitable growth of our business in Canada.

We talked with our customers and learned two things—that they really did like doing business with us and that they wanted us to become more of a building materials partner, rather than just an insulation supplier. In other words, they wanted Owens Corning in Canada to provide the same type of offering that Owens Corning provides in the United States.

What did Wes bring back from GMP?

Wes returned with critical insight and feedback that translated into considerable success in the marketplace. Our first goal was to understand the probability of success for the strategy we were putting together. During the program, Wes was able to present our situation and our initial thoughts on a strategy to the faculty and to other senior executives from around the globe. He received very positive feedback on the overall strategy as well as good advice on some adjustments we needed to make. Wes and I then worked together to refine the strategy and put a plan in place to execute.

Input from our customers plus validation from a world-class organization like HBS gave us confidence that we had a great opportunity and were on a good path to success.

Based on that feedback, what steps did you take?

We realized the next step was to align the organization with the new strategy. That required evolving the structure, putting the right people in the right places, developing some new skills and capabilities, and developing relationships with partners. We also needed to communicate the vision in a way that would inspire people. That's why we developed a story that included everyone—no one was left standing on the sidelines. As a result, our employee engagement scores have gone up substantially.

When you begin to execute, it's also important to put some type of measurement system in place. Our scorecards help us track our progress, and then we can decide what adjustments to make, when to make them, and who has the responsibility.

How have these changes impacted your business?

Since 2009, we've had double-digit growth in Canada, which has enabled us to obtain further investments.

One reason for our success is that we are delivering more value to our customers. For example, we used to ship single bags of insulation; now we ship multi-pack space-saver bags. As a result, we can put substantially more product on a truck, so we can use fewer trucks. We also are using less packaging overall, so we—and our customers—have less unloading and reloading to do, which reduces everyone's costs. An important result of this change is that when our architect customers are designing a LEED house, they not only get good insulation, which reduces energy costs, but also get additional LEED credits for packaging by choosing our products. So, just by changing our packaging, we have created environmental benefits, efficiency benefits, and cost benefits for our customers.

What other benefits has GMP delivered for your company?

GMP is not just a one-week affair. The benefits continue after the program ends. The connections you've established with other participants and with faculty give you an opportunity to get ongoing advice, direction, and coaching.

In addition to the strategy and execution work, Wes's GMP learning has also helped him mentor others within Owens Corning. Because the benefits are so wide ranging, HBS is certainly on the agenda when we think about future executive education for leaders in our organization.