GS Caltex, one of the largest oil refinery companies in Korea, knew that innovation is crucial for survival. The company was considering new ways to bring innovation to their organization. To help the corporation nurture innovation, SAP AppHaus Seoul collaborated with GS Caltex for the past 3 years to introduce its best practices in forging an innovation culture. Here’s a quick look at the journey since 2016.
366 Employees
366 employees experienced Design Thinking workshop
16 Coaches
16 coaches trained through SAP Train-the-Trainer program
C-level Executive Training
CEO and C-level executives trained in Design Thinking
Space Re-design
10 project members re-designed the office space using Design Thinking
Embracing SAP’s innovation culture offering, GS Caltex took the 5 key enabler approach advised by SAP AppHaus: people, process, place supported by leadership and technology. As a result, the organizational change in each element has not only transformed the way GS Caltex employees work but also brought the necessary changes to move to digital transformation.
Here are the five approaches and how each of them has evolved at GS Caltex.
People
Embracing SAP’s Innovation Culture
The culture transformation started with people. SAP AppHaus designers trained GS Caltex employees with Design Thinking to help them build skills, competencies and mindset for innovation. After a successful pilot program launch in 2016, over 350 employees of GS Caltex have been trained in Design Thinking at SAP AppHaus. The participants range from newly hired employees to CEO and the statistics shows that it is 20% of the total office employees.
On top of the regular workshops, SAP designers facilitated several Train-the-Trainer workshops to selected employees and nurtured 16 Design Thinking coaches who can drive innovation projects by advancing their facilitation skills. According to So Young Park, Head of HR at GS Caltex, the coaches are playing crucial roles in scaling innovation across the entire organization.
Process
Scaling Design Thinking across organization
As a manufacturing company, most people at GS Caltex felt that they were competent in execution and didn’t necessarily need creativity for daily work. However, after experiencing design thinking with SAP, GS Caltex employees started to see the need for innovation and its impact. The Design Thinking process is now established as one of the core innovation tools at GS Caltex and members are actively adopting the process to understand their customers first and forging a prototyping culture to unleash the creative confidence in individuals.
Place
Setting up a creative space
After visiting SAP AppHaus, many employees discussed the importance of space and how it encourages creativity. Seeing how SAP applied design thinking in designing its workplace and advised by SAP AppHaus, GS Caltex began the space design project in its own context. The program was their first real design thinking project to re-design the office space with 10 volunteer employees over the period of 7 weeks dedicated time. By following the Design Thinking process, deeply understanding their fellow employees, identifying the real problems, designing and iterating design prototypes, the space project team successfully re-designed the office space for their employees, making a collaborative space which used to be inefficient and underutilized area. The brand new space is now open for all GS Caltex employees in GS Tower, Seoul
Leadership and Technology
Supported by the CEO of GS Caltex, the organization is changing at a faster pace. The company has started introducing innovation related programs, hiring employees, building roadmaps for digital transformation. People transformation also continues as team leaders come to the SAP AppHaus Seoul to acquire Design Thinking process and mindset every year. Moreover, there are ongoing discussion and strategies to incorporate intelligent technologies in the company’s future services.
In continued partnership with SAP, GS Caltex will keep grow and innovate. With this change, GS Caltex is taking another step to bring innovation not only for itself but also the global market.