In 2015, Volkswagen was forced to recall 8,5 million cars across Europe after the emissions scandal involving their EA-189 engines, known as ‘Dieselgate’. As Volkswagen’s Norwegian importer, Møllergruppen had to act fast, figuring out how to protect their reputation and safeguard their relationship with customers in the midst of the crisis.
The easy way to handle a situation like this is from the top down: make a plan behind closed doors, then hand employees a set of ready-made instructions and guidelines to follow. Møllergruppen chose a different path. They quickly realised that navigating the crisis successfully meant bringing in the people closest to the customers: local staff working in dealerships across the country.
Specifique developed a concept designed to mobilise the whole organisation at the exact same time. The concept was called ‘The Proud Host’ and was built around the topics of reputation, trust, integrity and collaboration. The initiative opened with a video message from CEO Terje Male, after which every employee worked through a shared set of questions: what being a good host really means, how colleagues can help each other succeed, and what local opportunities and challenges the EA-189 case opened up.
The rollout was planned for early 2016, with local managers and support staff trained in advance. At 5pm on 20 January 2016, dealers and employees across Norway worked simultaneously, using the same tool, reflecting on the same questions, at the same time. Local ideas and experiences were shared centrally, all the way up to senior management. In this way, employees across the whole organisation gained a clear understanding of their role and responsibility, while directly shaping both local and national responses to the crisis.
4,000 employees took part in what became known as ‘Norway’s greatest group exercise’. The process created a shared direction and clearer expectations internally, while mobilising an entire organisation to face a demanding situation together. The result was hundreds of concrete, local initiatives developed by the people closest to the customers. The crisis was managed successfully, and Møllergruppen has since reported fewer losses and less lasting damage than initially anticipated.
