Italmatch: Success Story of Inclusion and Sustainability

Diversification of end markets is a challenge that involves the Company on the three ESG pillars: constantly renewed products, solutions and business processes, compliance with the internal value system and the Paris Agreements.

Representative of Italmatch Chemicals’inclusive identity is its focus on maintaining a global strategy that respects the specificities of territories and different cultures. This enriches the Team, the beating heart of the organization, as all members find themselves part of a team aligned with the same goal: to achieve sustainable results for stakeholders.

The need to search for a Group ESG & Sustainability Manager.

Italmatch Chemicals Group has grown rapidly in recent years; present in many nations and continents, it incorporates a plurality of cultures and end customers belonging to different industries.

Following a model of growth not only in industry but also in culture and values, it matured the need to introduce a comprehensive approach to ESG issues, and relied on PRAXI to search for the most suitable profile to fill the position of Group ESG & Sustainability Manager, with the role of identifying, collecting and addressing needs, reporting on time and identifying optimal solutions.

In close collaboration with top management, a careful and targeted search strategy was defined to identify the profile best suited to the context in terms of skills, approach and motivation.

Extensive experience, passion toward the subject, proactivity and credibility in the market have been priority requirements.

An active collaboration to define perimeter of responsibility and autonomy of the role

The objective of the function sought was to define, in agreement with top management, a strategic plan related to sustainability issues with a continuous improvement methodology to ensure sustainable performance by all stakeholders.

Approximately 130 professionals operating in different markets, mostly industrial, with experience including international and diverse experience on projects related to all three ESG pillars were considered.

Regulatory knowledge of the subject matter and the ability to collect, manage and interpret data, defining timely reports, were always considered necessary. Skills essential to managing relationships with Institutions, Associations and Bodies were carefully analyzed. One of the most attractive elements was the organizational positioning reporting directly to the General Manager, which highlighted the strategic nature of the role.

The project

The project was structured over a period of about five months and involved a multidisciplinary team consisting of the General Manager and Global HR Manager of Italmatch Chemicals, who were joined by four PRAXI consultants.

The search methodology used was both the traditional one, with the evaluation of spontaneous applications, and the typical Head Hunting methodology of direct search, carried out on a group of target companies shared with the Client, mainly of chemical and pharmaceutical multinational matrix by industry proximity.

PRAXI worked alongside the Company for nearly a year so that the scope of responsibility and autonomy of the role could be defined, sharing internal needs and market evidence.

Results: the right match between the Group’s needs and the target market

PRAXI’s intervention ensuredalignment between the different applications in the market and the real needs of the business environment. The brand was visible to the market, which was immediately receptive, but the Client needed a gradual confrontation, sometimes even awareness, to understand the type of investment he would have to introduce in order to identify the profile most aligned with his expectations.

Contributing to the effectiveness of PRAXI’s proposed strategic research plan, which had a customized approach throughout the process in terms of expertise, speed, and concreteness, was the constant collaboration of Management.

The working team was aided by market knowledge and a networking HUB of more than 300 professionals involved in sustainability issues, provided by PRAXI, which helped identify the most appropriate bid.

Future: growing managers attentive to sustainability and inclusion

Now that the Italmatch Chemicals Group has further consolidated its competitive positioning, the sustainability strategy developed enables even more community-oriented value creation.

In this objective, PRAXI can continue to support the Company in the development of its processes and the Managers involved, ensuring the construction of advanced reporting models, the implementation of reputational and retention tools for employees, and dedicated training to grow Managers increasingly attentive to sustainability aspects and increasingly inclusive leadership approaches.

The selected profile proved to be consistent under different profiles of interest:

• source market, akin to that of the Company (utilities)
• background in auditing, ensuring an ability to read companies by interpreting their values and designing their strategy
• Specific technical and managerial expertise on sustainability issues, gained over 12 years of experience in the company and consequent possibility to extend the scope of responsibility
• approach: passion for the subject, curiosity, ability to engage, knowledge of languages (essential requirement given the international context).

All of these elements have enabled Italmatch Chemicals to quickly optimize management and control systems, streamline processes, and improve performance in the relevant area.

Determination and resilience, as well as the leadership style of the identified profile, are also enabling today to further raise awareness of ESG issues among internal resources, aligning expectations and context.