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Success Stories
EIC Survive 2024 EIC Survive&&Thrive Thrive 2024
JulyJuly 2024 2024
Story type #innovation (main category) #collaboration, #diversification
IMI
Benefits
Achieving greater customer alignment through Growth Hub Yogini Pekarskis
IMI at a glance:
Growth Hub Manager
How is IMI thriving? Transforming the culture and operations of a large company is never a simple task. With intricate structures in place and a natural resistance to change, the process can be daunting, especially when supporting tens of thousands of employees. IMI’s story, therefore, is immensely impressive. Recognising the shortcomings of its traditional market approach, the company boldly implemented a highly effective growth hub strategy to better cater to customer needs. Having seen several new products developed that are now driving tens of millions of pounds in new revenue, IMI stands as a true success story. The challenge - With an annual revenue surpassing £2 billion, a workforce of nearly 11,000 employees, and an installed base of 180,000 severe service valves supporting critical industrial plants and processes worldwide, IMI commands great respect in the energy sector. Specialising in flow control solutions for vital industries including oil and gas, power generation, petrochemical, marine, pharmaceutical, and other heavy industries, IMI has built a reputation for delivering dependable and efficient flow control systems, ensuring smooth and safe operations even in the most demanding industrial environments. In many ways, the company eliminates the unique challenges of others. However, this is not to say that it hasn’t been immune to its own obstacles. Traditionally entrenched in the oil and gas sector and conventional power plants, the company has been compelled to pivot its business in response to the global push for decarbonisation, assisting its clients in reducing their carbon footprint. This strategic shift, aimed at mitigating the environmental impact of traditional energy processes and facilitating the transition towards renewable energy sources, posed both significant challenges and opportunities for IMI. Moreover, the company’s decision to embrace transformation coincided with a period of profound global political instability, heightening energy security concerns and necessitating greater agility and adaptability.
▸ Growth Hub brought over £40m in new revenue in 2023. ▸ Mindshift promoted in the business.
Internally, however, fostering agility and adaptability has been a formidable hurdle for IMI. Historically, the company has experienced a siloed approach to product development, with engineers working in individual teams and generating ideas internally rather than those driven by market needs. And by the company’s own admission, this approach has hindered market insight and led to unrealised development potential. The solution - To overcome these issues, the company opted to establish a new internal Growth Hub in 2018, designed to foster innovation, insights, and agile methodologies. The pivotal change brought about by the Growth Hub was a shift in perspective, moving from an inward focus to actively engaging with customer insights, ensuring alignment with customer demand, and placing customers at the core of operations. Under the Growth Hub initiative, IMI teams worldwide are tasked with returning to their respective regions to identify customer pain points and validate them. Embracing a sprint mentality, teams work in intensive two-week cycles over three months. The process involves testing ideas in the first week and learning from these tests to refine minimal viable propositions in the second week, with regular check-in calls being an integral part of the process. At the end of each three-month cycle, ideas are presented to consultants and IMI’s leadership for evaluation. In the inaugural year of the Growth Hub, only one idea received backing, leading other teams to pivot or abandon their concepts. This endorsed idea, however, subsequently launched as EroSolve Wet Steam, emerged as one of IMI’s fastest-growing products. Specifically, EroSolve Wet Steam upgrades the valve plugs, stem assembly, cage, and seat ring allowing steam valves in power plants to better deal with more frequent cycling of the plant – a consequence of more renewable energy sources feeding into the power networks. The solution engineers sealing surfaces that optimise droplet impingement angles to reduce their impact. Its use of special, erosion-resistant hard-facing materials also enhances trim life in a solution that can be easily implemented in any make of control valves for steam applications in power plants.
Key products and services: flow control solutions for vital industries. Main industries served: ▸ Oil and gas ▸ Conventional power ▸ Nuclear power ▸ Hydrogen ▸ Carbon capture ▸ Others (non-energy): marine, pharma, iron and steel Headquarters: Birmingham, UK Year established: 1862 Number of employees: 10,900 Revenue: £2.1bn Revenue from exports: N/A
More recently, Growth Hub has also led to the development of Retrofit3D, which focuses on the engineering of bespoke drop-in replacement internal components, including disk stacks and valve trims (inclusive of seat and plugs), ensuring the body of the valve can remain in situ throughout the process. Through these product developments, the programme has been incredibly successful, driving over £35m in revenue in 2023. It’s not just the numbers that indicate the company’s success, however. Indeed, Growth Hub has changed the mindset of the entire business, driving a culture of customer-focused innovation. With such feeling now also being adopted in other functions such as sales and operations, the firm has fundamentally improved the way in which it does business.