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A Talupp case study
A values and culture transformation to turn around under-performing brands
Elida Beauty was part of a multinational FMCG giant. Working with Talupp helped it transform into a risky, cheeky, agile and financially successful enterprise.
Elida Beauty was originally a global business unit of a major FMCG organisation. It housed 25 brands that were much loved but were not performing: brands like Matey bubble bath, Timotei shampoo and Impulse body spray.
The transformation challenge was to successfully transition from big FMCG department to a separate, successful independent company with a new culture.
With help from Talupp, Elida Beauty grounded its transformation in values and culture. This was the cornerstone of the change, and it proved to be the key to success – both in terms of employee engagement and business performance.
Transformation timeline
The challenge
Establishing an agile, risk-taking culture might be straightforward for a new start-up, but Elida Beauty was still embedded within an FMCG giant. This had limited the pace of change and was the opposite of what the new unit wanted to be. However, the new unit wanted to retain its key former FMCG staff during this major cultural transformation.
The Elida Beauty management team was concerned that people would leave, but it wanted to retain that deep knowledge of efficient supply chains and operations. It could not afford to lose that talent in the transition. This presented a challenge – how to keep the same people, but make a massive shift in culture?
The answer was a values-led transformation programme.
The transformation programme
1. Set out the new culture and values
Elida Beauty started by clearly setting out its culture and value statements. These were shared far and wide in the business unit. They appeared in internal documents, job descriptions and on posters.
However, Elida Beauty realised that this was not enough and, if it wanted the values to be fully embedded, it needed them to be lived by everyone.
2. Create and roll out values workshops
Elida Beauty worked with Talupp to create a top-down and bottom-up approach to reach everyone in the organisation and transform the values from paper to the day-to-day working lives.
Four key pillars were identified to ensure success:
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The values must have personal meaning for everyone
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Everyone must feel enabled to live the values
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Line managers must support the values
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Everyone must be able to advocate for the values
The workshops were designed to address all four of the above pillars. They were highly interactive and great fun. They were run over three hours and took place across all geographies and functions.
They engaged everyone in the discussion about:
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What does this value mean to me and how am I already living it?
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What makes this value important for me and Elida Beauty?
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Which of the values is my superpower that I will advocate for?
With managers, the workshops also explored:
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Where are we on our journey to live the values fully?
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What gets in the way of me / the organisation living this value (e.g., processes, environment, culture)?
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What do I need from others (colleagues or managers) to live this value fully?
Crucially, everyone was accountable for committing to taking personal actions rather than placing the responsibility for changes entirely with others and the organisation. The change would be owned and delivered by everyone, personally.
The Talupp workshops involved discussion, participants drawing pictures to
illustrate things like their current feelings about the values and the barriers to
progression.
The Talupp facilitators used devices like ‘blob doors’ (see right) to get participants
to talk about moving towards living the values.
Each value (results driven, passion for beauty, empowerment and accountability,
and respective and inclusion) was explored in turn. Participants talked about
where they had seen the values being used at work and how they might use
the value themselves to help them get to where they want to be.
At the end of the Talupp workshop, each participant made a personal, specific
commitment to one of the values that they were going to focus on back in the workplace.
3. Values in the workplace
After the Talupp workshops, Elida Beauty ensured that the values continued to be discussed and embedded in the organisation. The values were included in everyday activities – such as when business objectives were being set. Every person in the company set a commitment to do things differently and to look toward the future. There was a contract between all employees to live the values.
The values were also used to help make critical brand decisions. As consumer
tastes change, once loved brands fall out of favour. As the team reviewed and
updated the established brands, they used the company values to challenge
and guide the decisions they were making. One example is the manifesto
produced by our North American marketing team (pictured on the right),
embedding our values to inform their approach to our brands and consumers.
It’s The Elida Way. We figure it out!
Speed was no barrier to transformation
The culture and values work has been undertaken in a challenging context. The company had to move very fast. The objective was for the business unit to be sold within two years and to achieve this, the company needed to improve the profitability of the underperforming brands. But it wasn’t just a profit drive that was a challenge. The team also wanted to improve the sustainability of the brands and ensure that the brands had a solid future. The speed of the transformation could not leave behind the team and had to apply to the brands as much as the culture of the organisation.
Psychological safety essential to success
Speed is both a blessing and curse. The drive and focus were inspiring for employees, but the Elida Beauty HR team also moved very quickly to create psychological safety. The team recognised that it had to provide a safe space for people to take risks or ask questions. They recognised that the move from the FMCG’s structure and security to a more agile and flexible organisation could result in anxiety that might have led to higher staff turnover.
To counter this, Elida Beauty engaged in extensive, proactive communications that encouraged employees to raise concerns and questions. On a monthly basis, HR facilitated open Q&A sessions during our global community calls, giving employees the opportunity to ask the leadership team about the business and the growth strategy.
Sharing the full story for full commitment
One further way that the HR team secured the full buy-in of the transitioning employees was via sharing the full story of the commercial success of the organisation.
Everyone at Elida Beauty was briefed on the financial performance of the organisation. This was not simply a case of sharing a spreadsheet or P&L, the HR team actually trained everyone on how to understand the financial results of the company. This enabled everyone to understand how the business was doing, and it secured their commitment to the end goal. They could see how Elida Beauty measured financial success. Wherever someone is in the business, they are part of the success and can see the financial results. This transparency secured the full commitment that the HR team was aiming for and brought to life the value of ‘Results Driven’.
The transformation programme has been a huge success.
After completing the Talupp workshops in Q2 of 2023, Elida Beauty conducted an employee-wide pulse survey. The results clearly demonstrated that employees understood and felt connected to the values of the new company.
Key findings (bold signifies direct links to values):
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Over 75% agreed or strongly agreed that the company culture represented at all four of the core values worked on during the workshops
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4.0/5 average rating when respondents were asked if they agreed with the statement “At Elida Beauty, we have an inclusive working environment in which everyone’s views are valued”.
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4.0/5 average rating when respondents were asked if they agreed with the statement “I feel there is a culture of accountability in my team”.
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4.0/5 average rating when respondents were asked if they agreed with the statement “I feel empowered daily in my role”.
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3.7/5 average rating when respondents were asked if they agreed with the statement “I feel that passion for beauty is part of our culture”.
In addition to the feedback from the pulse survey, two further key findings demonstrate the clear success of the transformation programme:
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Year to date attrition rate: 5.6%
This is a particularly impressive retention rate given the fact that the company went through a sale and significant change. -
Business results: The business went from a 3.6% sales growth decline to +2.1 sales growth in 2023.
A transformative success story
This entire transformation programme was led by HR at Elida Beauty and specifically, Charlotte Johns, Global Talent & Communications Director at the company, with support from Talupp.
A new CEO joined Elida Beauty on 1 June 2024 and has restated his commitment to the established values.
The transition from being part of an FMCG giant to establishing a new company with a new culture and values has been a huge success. The transformation has been validated both in terms of employee retention and commercial success.
Elida Beauty has managed to achieve a transformation that can take many organisations decades to achieve in just three years.
The results
What employees say
I joined Elida Beauty for a chance to do something different. To make a difference in a company that was defining who they were, that was rewriting the rules, building the plane while flying the plane, and knowing I could bring my crazy self and be welcome.
We have a team of winners, we have an amazing bunch of people with diverse experiences who bring a lot of passion to work every day, you can’t beat that combination of people we have across the team, it’s really powerful.
What excites me most about working at Elida Beauty is the opportunity to help revitalise such iconic brands, not to mention the culture is extremely positive and engaging.
-Diana Figiuolo – Digital Hub Lead
-Simon Cooper – Ecom Director
-Mariah Absher – Brand Manager