Anne-Marie Skov’s inaugural lecture as Adjunct Professor at IOA

‘Purpose, strategy and cultural Identity during transformational change’. On the importance of creating a correlation between purpose, strategy and corporate identity during significant change processes

Wednesday, November 7, 2018 - 14:00 to 16:00

ams

The most constant condition for management and employees in Danish and international companies and organizations is change. Often it is significant transformational changes – mergers, acquisitions, turn-arounds or even disruptions – which require change in processes and cultures and structures. It requires a lot of managements’ ability to communicate in a both visionary and tangible way, as well as the employees’ flexibility and acceptance of the necessity of the change. If the change does not succeed, everyone loses, the economic consequences are immense and the reputation of the organization is under pressure.

Based on her experience from Carlsberg, Novo Nordisk, Novozymes and Tuborgfondet, Anne-Marie Skov argues that the prerequisite for successful change processes is that throughout the organization, coherence is created between strategy, purpose and corporate identity, that none of the three areas can be assigned to functional staff, but must be strategically embedded in top management, that a close correlation between strategy and action is a must, and that strategic communication plays a key role. For more than 30 years Anne-Marie Skov has had the overall responsibility for strategic communication and sustainability in global corporations such as Novo Nordisk, Novozymes and Carlsberg, where she was part of the Carlsberg Executive Committee from 2004-2015. She has a Masters from University of Copenhagen and has subsequently been educated at Stanford and IMD. Today Anne-Marie is Executive Director of the Tuborg Foundation and is a member of the board in WWF-Danmark, DIS and The Danish Foundations’ Knowledge Center. She is also on the Steering Committee at CBS Center for Civil Society Studies.

NB! The inaugural lecture will be in Danish. 

Det mest konstante vilkår for ledelse og medarbejdere i danske og internationale virksomheder og organisationer er forandring. Ofte er der tale om store transformationelle ændringer – fusioner, opkøb, turn-arounds eller ligefrem disruptions – som ændrer processer og bryder med eksisterende vaner og strukturer. Det stiller store krav til ledelsens evne til at kommunikere både visionært og konkret og til medarbejdernes omstillingsparathed og accept af forandringens nødvendighed. Hvis forandringen mislykkes, er alle tabere, de økonomiske konsekvenser enorme og organisationens omdømme under pres.
 
Med udgangspunkt i konkrete erfaringer fra Carlsberg, Novo Nordisk, Novozymes og Tuborgfondet argumenterer Anne-Marie Skov for, at forudsætningen for en succesfuld forandringsproces er, at der overalt i organisationen skabes sammenhæng mellem arbejdet med strategi, formål og organisationsidentitet, at ingen af de tre områder må overlades til funktionelle stabe, men forankres strategisk i topledelsen, at der skal være en tæt sammenhæng mellem strategi og handling og at strategisk kommunikation spiller en afgørende rolle.
 
Anne-Marie Skov har i mere end 30 år haft det øverste ansvar for kommunikation og bæredygtighed i globale virksomheder som Novo Nordisk, Novozymes og Carlsberg, hvor hun sad i Carlsbergs Executive Committee fra 2004-2015. Hun er uddannet cand.mag. på KU og efteruddannet på Stanford og IMD. Anne-Marie er i dag direktør i Tuborgfondet og har bestyrelsesposter i WWF-Danmark, DIS og Danske Fondes Videnscenter. Sidder i Styregruppen ved CBS Center for Civil Society Studies.
 
The page was last edited by: Department of Organization // 11/15/2021