Better collaboration and transparency: How Covestro successfully implements its strategy with Mooncamp
I find the simple and fast handling of Mooncamp absolutely outstanding. In addition, I can set and save my views according to individual requirements. That makes the work much easier.
About Covestro
Covestro is a leading global manufacturer of high-tech polymer materials with around 18,000 employees. Covestro’s products and application solutions can be found in numerous areas of modern life. Covestro focuses on innovation and sustainability in order to always be at the cutting edge of products, processes and plants.
Following this claim, Covestro is committed to a new guiding principle: a complete focus on the circular economy:
Circular Economy is becoming the new global guiding principle for companies. Plastics, with their high sustainability potential, are essential to this. Covestro wants to fully align itself with the circular economy and become the shaping force for the entire plastics industry in the process.
To achieve this goal, Objectives & Key Results were introduced in Covestro’s Group Innovation function. The focus was on selecting a suitable OKR software and rolling it out to all employees in the function.
Challenge
Covestro has taken the decisive step and wants to focus entirely on the circular economy. A sustainable future is not just a goal, it is a responsibility. But living up to this responsibility requires more than just declarations of intent - it requires real innovation and a joint focused effort from all stakeholders.
It is therefore essential that all teams at Covestro pull together to develop the best solutions. But how can this be achieved? The answer is simple: with OKRs!
Although some teams at Covestro have already used OKR, the method has not been applied uniformly. The strengths of OKR, such as transparency and collaboration across team boundaries, could not be leveraged. This is dangerous because if OKR is introduced as a new framework but the key benefits are not realized, this can quickly turn into a fundamental rejection by employees and undermine all further efforts.
So a solution was needed that would enable effective collaboration with OKRs across many teams. A solution that could simplify the management of OKRs, make the strategy transparent across the company, make dependencies between teams visible, adapt to Covestro’s individual needs, and all the while be fun and motivate employees to work with OKRs. For Covestro’s Group Innovation, there was only one answer to this challenge: Mooncamp.
Solution and implementation
As with all tool implementations, we researched the entire market and compared different solutions. To do this, we approached the providers together with our purchasing and IT departments, evaluated strengths and weaknesses and decided on the basis of clear criteria. Of all the providers, Mooncamp stood out as a lean and intuitive software that combined a multitude of powerful features.
Mooncamp’s clear structure and design were crucial to the OKRs’ successful implementation. After all, only if a software is easy to understand and use without much practice can it be widely adopted.
Mooncamp's support team has also done an outstanding job. There were trainings, videos and presentations. In addition, Mooncamp was introduced online to selected users in onboarding sessions at the beginning.
In an OKR rollout on a larger scale, training around the OKR methodology and mindset is of course indispensable. Every user must master the basic functions: how do you create OKRs, how can you score it, how do you find OKRs of other teams. Additional internal training of staff and the training of OKR masters have further consolidated the method and acceptance.
In Mooncamp, you can work without having to undergo much familiarization or training. This is hugely important if you want to expand the use of OKRs and software in the company.
Lastly, Covestro is using Mooncamp’s Microsoft Teams integration, which has made adoption of the software even easier as it fits seamlessly into Covestro’s working environment.
MS Teams is a standard tool at our company. Mooncamp's MS Teams integration makes the workflow even more efficient, which is a big advantage.
Results
We use Mooncamp as the central OKR software to implement Covestro's Group Innovation strategy. Mooncamp helps us to work effectively with OKRs. The OKRs are easy to create and track in it, they are transparent for all employees and the discussions in the check-ins are directly supported by the software. This has simplified the introduction of OKRs enormously.
The implementation of OKRs through Mooncamp has led to an increase in communication and collaboration within and between teams. In addition, exchanges and alignment with management expectations have become more transparent and intense. Lastly, Mooncamp’s implementation of OKRs has led to new projects and activities to further drive the business and strategy.
We have continued to grow together as a team and are more engaged with our strategy and its implementation. In addition, the teams are increasingly contributing their own ideas for projects and initiatives and thus developing the company further.
