CooperVision - Empowered by people: A refreshing perspective on vision care

Empowered by people: A refreshing perspective on vision care P R O J E C T

PA R T N E R S

B U S I N E S S I N T E RV I E W

Empowered by people: A refreshing perspective on vision care Stephen English, Managing Director for UK Manufacturing within CooperVision offers insights into how the company thrives by embracing science, technology, data and a customer-centric approach to business.

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Photo credit: Jim Curtis 3

Driven by a commitment to developing a wide range of highquality products for contact lens wearers and a pledge to provide focused practitioner support, CooperVision’s mission is to “help improve the way people see each day.”

Here to tell us more about the innovation, strategies and people behind CooperVision’s success is Stephen English, Managing Director for UK Manufacturing.

automation for manufacturing contact lenses. Over the last 25 years he’s had the opportunity to work in the UK and abroad, as well as within multidisciplinary teams, all working together to not only create great outcomes for customers but supporting a wider positive culture.

“We really pride ourselves on our values, which are being dedicated, friendly, innovative and partners in all we do,” says Stephen. “For us, they aren’t just words we have on our walls – they are our North Star and underpin everything we do as a business.”

Stephen has been with CooperVision since 1998, driving and leading innovation in process

These values are an integral part of CooperVision’s ability to innovate and grow. He remembers a decade ago,

ooperVision makes billions of contact lenses annually which are available in more than 130 countries. In 2023, the company’s global revenue was almost $2.4bn and CooperVision takes tremendous pride in providing the widest range of soft contact lens prescription options, covering even the most extreme cases of eye corrections.

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after an acquisition expansion, he led the integration of three different engineering functions to form the European Technical Innovation Group. This new group brought together a range of expertise including engineers, project managers, material scientists, lens designers and metrologists from the UK Manufacturing project group, the global innovation group and a newly acquired company, Sauflon. Tasked with supporting manufacturing on delivering growth with automation, as well as the next generation of technologies, Stephen recounts the team as being “very unique because it included all of the skill sets to develop great solutions, excelled at project management

and knew how to deliver high-quality lenses.”

He remembers that the group needed external support to turn their ideas into real-life industrial processes for high-volume manufacturing. This led to building even stronger alliances with strategic partners and eventually formed the foundation of many of CooperVision’s manufacturing platforms that are currently used.

“While that cross-functional group delivered world-class manufacturing platforms, looking back, my key achievement in leading that group was really in developing people – providing them with

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direction and coaching them to be the best they can be,” Stephen says. “Building this team and seeing what they had achieved was a great experience for me and I’m incredibly proud of what they achieved, both collectively and individually across the UK, Hungary and US. It’s incredibly rewarding to be surrounded by such talented and dedicated people.”

In 2021, Stephen relocated to Scottsville, one of CooperVision’s

says Stephen. “We forged two key strategic partnerships to support our process, which provided us with a robust and capable set of machines that delivered exactly what our requirements set out.”

One of these strategic partners was one that CooperVision had worked with for nearly two decades.

Stephen describes them as agile, flexible and innovative – supporting CooperVision’s success in providing

“We forged two key strategic partnerships to support our process, which provided us with a robust and capable set of machines that delivered exactly what our requirements set out” manufacturing sites just outside of Rochester, New York. While running the operation of this site, he also oversaw the deployment of a new automation cell and software solution that was developed by the European Technical Innovation Group, which he had spearheaded.

“In my previous role, I’d led the technology shift for our Made to Order (MTO) lenses from a very manual process to a fully automated one,” 6

technical solutions, such as putting first-off automation into a site that had previously been 100 percent manual, and then scaling up that solution globally. “Together, not only have our two organisations grown individually, but our partnership and level of trust have grown to the point that our global innovation team is confident in giving them challenges and knowing that the recommendations are operationally sound and innovative,” says Stephen.

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solutions,” continues Stephen. “This partnership has enabled us to move to higher volume manufacturing lines without creating greater risks to our process. They’ve been a dedicated and true partner to us – always considering the best ways to address our challenges and work with us to find the right solution.”

Stephen believes that great partnerships and their collaborative nature, paired with CooperVision’s guiding values, have led to robust

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a voice was essential to building trust with the leadership team.

processes that have improved the customer and wearer experience.

“Our MTO platform provides customers with complex eye corrections with personalised lenses in a matter of days. This is a very unique customer experience,” summarises Stephen.

Stephen says his time in the US not only helped strengthen strategic partnerships and automation processes, but also provided him with an opportunity to develop a sense of community at the Scottsville facility. “We were creating change by implementing the automation platform, and there were high expectations for a new technology of this magnitude to be successful,” recounts Stephen. “Creating the environment for change, but more importantly, improving engagement and building trust with employees, was paramount for success.” Stephen adds that ensuring employees had

“One of the first things I did was introduce a forum for employees where they had a voice and I formed an engagement team to ensure listening and two-way feedback was part of our DNA,” says Stephen. “The forum also provided a place to provide timely feedback to employees. This approach really worked well and gave leadership a better understanding of any concerns and helped us to understand what needed to be addressed.”

Stephen stresses that it was essential to “be visible across all shifts” so all employees felt included.

“There were some long days, trying to speak to both the day and night shifts – but it was invaluable since it provided me with insight into how people were managing their roles. It also gave me an opportunity to get to know each employee personally.”

In addition to increasing employee engagement in Scottsville, Stephen also introduced development and recognition programmes.

“By expanding quarterly checkins to all employees, regardless of position, managers were able to have meaningful one-to-one conversations with team members,” 9

“Great leadership is a great enabler.

It’s the people who drive innovation, make it work and ultimately drive the success of the business” recalls Stephen. “This enabled them to learn more about their team’s career aspirations and development needs. It also identified areas where employees might need further support in their role or with their general well-being.” In addition, he expanded the recognition programmes across the site to encourage engagement and peer acknowledgement. He found that employees enjoyed being recognised by not only leadership, but also by their peers.

“At Scottsville, we came a long way in a short amount of time in terms of increasing engagement,” says Stephen. “Ultimately, this came from collaborating with employees, giving them a platform to be heard and a voice, and building two-way trust. I’m a big believer in ‘walking the walk’ and using strategies that ‘stay the course,’ which

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is what I believe led to the site being successful overall.”

A people, process, profile approach to leadership Stephen returned to the UK after two years in Scottsville, taking on the role of Managing Director (MD) for UK Manufacturing. Reflecting on his 25 years at CooperVision, Stephen emphasises the importance of investing in people. “Great leadership is a great enabler,” says Stephen.

“It’s the people who drive innovation, make it work and ultimately drive the success of the business.”

“As a leader, I believe you need to allow people to grow in a way that’s right for them,” explains Stephen.

“In all my leadership roles, I’ve had to find a balance across my teams.

Diversity of thought is crucial for me. You need to

have as many viewpoints in the room as possible when decision making.

You need to avoid ‘groupthink,’ which can stifle creativity and innovation, and ultimately slow a business down.”

Stephen believes that, as a leader, it’s essential to be open to new ideas and thoughts. “I don’t show up at meetings with a preconceived outcome in mind. Instead, I listen to see how things can evolve,” explains Stephen. “Sometimes, I’ve been in a meeting where the majority of the group is aligned with my ideas and direction, and there is a diverse thinker at the table who offers a leftfield suggestion. While some might see this as disruptive, I value stopping and exploring their suggestion further.”

His diverse experiences at CooperVision have led to the development of his “three P’s” approach – people, process and profile – which underpin his leadership style.

Stephen says that regardless of whether he’s developing teams, individuals or projects, he always starts with his three P’s – people, process and profile. He believes that with people, it’s essential to understand their development goals and aspirations. Along with this, the need is to always consider and leverage emotional intelligence (EQ). In addition, Stephen says it’s important to provide feedback and support them in their journey.

In terms of process, he continuously looks for potential development gaps and opportunities. He explains that if an individual or team doesn’t have the right toolkit, they can often struggle to find a solution or path forward, and the team and business can sometimes miss an opportunity to progress. By empowering people with the right skills, they can be better equipped to deliver what is asked of them. “I try to always enable opportunity and provide support through valuable two-way feedback where I can,” says Stephen.

He explains that profile focuses on recognition and increased visibility of individuals, teams, departments, or even the company – and acknowledging their contributions.

“Too often, I’ve seen individuals and teams delivering great results and it’s unacknowledged by leadership. I’m a leader that always wants to recognise and celebrate our people. All three 11

P’s work together and can be used in everything we do within the work setting,” says Stephen, “and this is how I approach leadership and building my people and teams.”

Innovation and the future What does innovation and the future look like at CooperVision?

Stephen believes the use of data in manufacturing will be key, as will innovations in raw materials that will impact the engineering process.

Already, CooperVision is well advanced in its usage of data.

Stephen explains that they currently capture every piece of data that comes from machines used in manufacturing. This data is being used in several ways, including using Digital Twin technology to test the manufacturing platform in a virtual environment to identify any potential challenges to production start dates. Big data has also been used to track products throughout the end-to-end process of lens manufacturing, especially for bespoke products. He adds that one of the more important data developments in UK Manufacturing is within the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) software, which has been built directly into machines.

“The OEE displays crucial realtime information to the technical operators and maintenance team members that operate any given 12

machine across every single business unit,” explains Stephen. “Our colleagues gain immediate insights into station performance, tracking performance, or alarms when something unexpected happens.

We can use the data in real time to be able to intervene and get the line performing back to its capacity.”

He adds that CooperVision has started to use smart sensors and smart devices which can predict machine or device failures before they happen. According to Stephen, data has played a fundamental part in CooperVision’s ability to manage uptime and planned downtime.

Stephen says the future of data deployment at CooperVision includes the interactions of raw materials and how they perform on a line, as well as trying to get more prescriptive and predictive about manufacturing performance. “It’s a journey that we’re on and in the next three to five years, we’ll be even more predictive with the products that we’re making,” says Stephen. “Datadriven decisions are becoming the norm, and in the future, not only will we be able to use data in our automation processes, but also in predicting our yields within all of the variability in the process, as well as how to consider how materials perform with the machines we use.”

In addition to advancing the use of data in innovative ways, CooperVision is embracing the

latest science and technology related to the materials it uses to manufacture its products. As Stephen explains, soft contact lenses are made up of several materials to form the best quality lens for CooperVision’s customers. Part of the company’s success stems from its dedication to developing materials in R&D and then managing the scale-up to ensure they can meet high-volume manufacturing needs. This is done in partnership with the Global Technical Innovation Group to ensure that as operations scale up, the incoming materials meet company and product specifications.

“As part of any new lens development project you have to ensure the industrial process is also developed in tandem, so we work from bench top to pilot process and right through to testing and developing on production lines,” explains Stephen. “Development begins with scientists and engineers working together so they can provide many paths of opportunity.

I believe we have a strong combination of R&D, technical innovation and manufacturing engineers and scientists who collectively develop innovations that will help us grow over the coming years. We try to make sure that the three teams work collaboratively for the lifecycle of development into production. This is a fairly unique approach in the industry because it relies on knowledge management

across those three functional groups throughout the process.”

Stephen emphasises the need for material innovation to unfold in the context of strong strategic partnerships as part of a successful product development and deployment process. “Partners are incredibly important to us at CooperVision because with the right people you cultivate not only an understanding of the process and how to solve problems together, but you also build trust,” says Stephen.

“Some of the challenges when we work on new materials are all about the industrialisation of going from an R&D pilot process to a high volume 24/7 process where downtime is our enemy. The creative ideas of our automation partners provide opportunities to de-risk key areas of the process. Their diverse experience outside of the contact lens field allows them to bring a solution to the team that perhaps we were blind to before.”

He adds that time to market and the capacity of strategic partners is critical when considering growth.

“We look to provide visibility of 13

what our long range strategic plan looks like and translate that capacity and timing of when we are likely to receive an order,” says Stephen. He notes that this approach enables the ability to block capacity or provide a realistic timeline for internal review, as well as make strategic decisions for the business. In addition, support from strategic partners in the period following production start-up is key – from observing how things are ramping to stepping in and providing training to set-up challenges.

“One of our partners, established for over 25 years, is at the forefront of technology in the mould tool design and manufacturing industry.

This collaboration has provided us opportunities to progress not only our capacity but also resolution on challenges we may face with continuous improvement.

Furthermore, the collaboration coupled with joint innovation has allowed us to create IP, develop new processes and speed up cycle times. A big success factor of our

“One of our partners, established for over 25 years, is at the forefront of technology in the mould tool design and manufacturing industry”

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partnership is their flexibility and willingness to support us, which is further underpinned by the working relationships formed between our engineers.”

Engaging with strategic partners who work with diverse industries and sectors can be beneficial as well. “As we have continued to be creative in

our innovations, we have benefitted from working with a Germany-based partner who has been able to provide a different perspective from their work in the consumer goods industry,” explains Stephen. “In addition, they bring new and different ideas to the table and have a lot of experience in pilot processes. For example, we have been able to go and work in their

“As we have continued to be creative in our innovations, we have benefitted from working with a Germany-based partner who has been able to provide a different perspective from their work in the consumer goods industry”

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shop floor area in their development centre and streamline the design process.”

Stephen adds that developing deep relationships with strategic partners has resulted in long-term collaborations that extend well beyond the design conception to well after implementation. Good strategic partners will make well-intentioned observations and recommendations, such as offering more training.

“These partners are very engaged, offer tremendous support and always maintain high levels of communication,” notes Stephen.

These innovative approaches to data, manufacturing and strategic partnerships ultimately help

CooperVision achieve its mission of serving patients and practitioners and bringing better vision to the world.

“Our customer service levels – with an internal focus on service level attainment – is a top priority for us, so we are investing into our capacity to meet the demands of our customers,” says Stephen. “We offer a wider range of prescriptions than our competitors, which is in the millions of SKU’s (Stock Keeping Units). Plus, our MTO lenses are produced in both our UK and US facilities and can be with our 17

customer in a matter of days.

No other competitor can offer this service with this range of prescriptions.”

Wrapping up our conversation, Stephen celebrates the people at CooperVision who make its innovation and success possible. “Any product or process we design, develop, install, validate and subsequently produce needs our people,” says Stephen.

“Our people are paramount to CooperVision's success and I’m committed in my role as MD for UK Manufacturing to identify talent and develop our employees to their potential.

This is the journey ahead of me. I’ve been given so much opportunity to show my potential throughout my career and I want to do the same for all our people.”

To learn more about CooperVision, visit coopervision.co.uk.

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Added Value Find your downtime Stephen believes in the importance of switching off to maintain a balance between the professional and personal realms of life.

“For me, I have a 30-minute drive home that allows me to deactivate from work mode,” shares Stephen. “I like to go to the gym on a regular basis, which helps me to destress, as does cycling – whether out on my road bike or at home on a stationary bike.”

Connect with Stephen

Recommended Resources Stephen is always looking to learn and challenge himself in the process, but he highlights three particularly impactful resources that have opened his eyes.

“I’d rather read a book that will educate me rather than relax me,” says Stephen. “There's a technical element to everything we do. But I think one of the key things that I recognised in recent years is the importance of behaviours and how to deal with people. I'm very much into neurolinguistic programming (NLP). If you’re interested in the topic, I highly recommend Sue Knight’s books and writings. It's a very powerful tool and it can be used at any level, because the core premise of NLP is around connecting with people.

“Another resource I’d recommend is Good to Great by Jim Collins.

It's very insightful as you go through your career and it gets you to reflect on the importance of getting the right people in the right roles, all of which is underpinned by empowering them to be the best they can be.

“Finally, I highly recommend checking out Simon Sinek’s Start with WHY, either the book or TED Talk. His insights are simple, practical and incredibly powerful.”

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