Transforming a company starts inside-out

SH Group is a production company within the commercial maritime business in southern Fyn, Denmark. Having tapped into an immense market potential in the defence industry with its newly developed CUBE system, SH Group is on a journey to transform itself from being an all-round supplier in many markets into a development partner, offering specialized solutions in focus markets. 
When we met SH Group, the company was at the beginning of transforming its business. While the management had identified the future source of business, it was unclear how its new offering would change SH Group’s narrative about themselves. 

In the beginning of our collaboration, the big question was: Does SH Group stand in front of a communication task, explaining clients the new focus and offering? Or does SH Group stand in front of an identity task, realigning as a company on its very core elements, its reason to exist, its uniqueness in the market and its core narrative, based on the new, changed offering? SH Group decided to work with its identity to take the entire company including their employees with them on their transformational journey and to realign not just a business unit but the entire company on a shared new narrative. 

Through the process, SH Group identified their inner WHY; the inner motivation, that all employees share and the one element that everybody is proud of in being a part of SH Group. It is not that SH Group can offer many different technical solutions, but the fact that all of their solutions contribute to changing the game at sea. It is their ability to rethink solutions, solve the most difficult tasks for clients and master the contest with the harsh conditions at sea, constantly extending the boundaries of what is possible to increase operational stability on open water.

With a clearer understanding of who SH Group is as a company, its new defence offering suddenly became more than a new business unit. It is another proof point of living the company’s WHY, the why that holds the entire company together. The future source of business is no add-on, it is deeply rooted in SH Group’s inner strengths. And like this, it is substantiated that SH Group will succeed. As it is doing what the company is best in. 

Working with its identity did not just help SH Group to integrate a new business unit into the overall understanding of the company. It provided the newly appointed CEO with a clear compass on how to drive the transformation of a production company with over 400 employees, strengthened their commercial activities and – highly relevant in today’s market– increased their ability to attract talents.