The Marketing Institute Breakfast Series

Last Wednesday morning, we had the final Marketing Institute of Ireland Breakfast series event, sponsored by MCCP, of 2018 in Fire Restaurant on Dawson Street. Fiacre O’Donnell Strategic Development Director at encirc, formerly Quinn Glass, spoke to us about the challenges of changing a company culture. MCCP and encirc have been working together for a number of years to help the business tackle one of their biggest issues.

It can be difficult for business owners to not only see that they face a culture challenge, but also be willing to accept that something needs to change, despite the fact the business is a success. Encirc was a great success, from modest beginnings in Derrylin under Sean Quinn, the business had grown, following a buyout by the now owners Vidrala, to boast a factory in Elton, UK and in Milan. The workforce had grown from around 200 to nearly 1,500 and they gone from being a bit part player in the glass industry to producing nearly 3.1 billion units per annum. They have also expanded their business model and gone from solely creating glass containers to bottling wine for many well-known vineyards. The business has always had an eye on sustainability and has implemented practices and production techniques that were state of the art in the Irish market and which led the way for the industry. However, despite this, the senior team in encirc were not content with the level of staff satisfaction.

Each year they utilised surveys to gauge how happy their staff were to be working in encirc. Over a number of years this jumped from 44% to 66% in terms of satisfaction, but this wasn’t enough for encirc, they wanted 90% and to have a business whose staff loved coming to work.

Through significant research undertaken by MCCP (over 100 internal interviews) and a series of workshops with representatives from across the business, encirc and MCCP co-created an Engage plan to help improve their company culture. In essence, this involved co-creating a set of behaviours that would support the goal for the business and a clear plan that would improve the working lives of their staff, while supporting encirc’s wish to be an innovative and sustainable business.

The results have been transformative for the business and totally changed how the staff interact not only with the senior leadership team but with each other – peer-to-peer. However, this is an on-going process and one which needs attention. Staff of all levels, from CEO down need to be involved and reflect and develop pas they go. Which is way MCCP continues as a strategic partner with encirc, helping them to refresh their Engage process so that it meets the changing needs of the business, but also the changing lives of their employees.

MCCP has been sponsoring the Marketing Breakfast series in 2018 and will be doing so in 2019. We had some wonderful speakers throughout the year, from a wide range of industries, from Teelings to Today FM and encirc to Glanbia. Throughout 2019, the breakfasts will be sure to bring you more speakers addressing the challenges facing modern marketers. The breakfasts are an opportunity to bring together marketers from all stage of their careers to network, reflect and learn.

The first event of 2019 will kick-off on January 16^th as MCCP present our trends to watch out for in 2019. See www.mii.ie for details of this event and the Breakfast series throughout 2019. Look forward to seeing you there.

Declan Flynn

Strategist & New Business Manager