From R&D to commercialisation: the leadership evolution at Wayland Additive in this critical growth phase

From R&D to commercialisation: the leadership evolution at Wayland Additive in this critical growth phase

Wayland Additive’s leadership evolution transformed the company during a critical growth phase. Through a nine-month leadership programme, Wayland achieved game-changing momentum, deprioritised strategically, and implemented a 360 feedback process.

The outcomes included a well-prepared funding plan, extending the cash runway, fostering collaborations, and instilling an effective scale-up culture, positioning Wayland for successful scaling with a confident and aligned leadership team.

Who are they?

Innovation leaders within the Additive Manufacturing industry, Huddersfield-based Wayland Additive Limited are a rapidly scaling business of 62 people. They manufacture large scale 3D metal printing machines which are now commercially available.

Context: 

We partnered with them on leadership in 2022 at a crucial stage of their growth; they had already taken pre-orders for their Calibur-3 machine. Build time was limited, putting the team under pressure to develop fast and meet deadlines, as they transitioned from a culture dominated by R&D to successful commercial activity. Both the exec team and board had identified that there were pending risks around single points of failure. 

“We needed to change what we were doing to make it suitable for supporting future growth and commercialisation of the products.”

Wayland wanted to take an in-depth look at their business and top of their priority list was fundraising, product and sales pipeline. Focussing in with laser precision on how to prioritise deployment of their resources and target these areas would most move the needle on their business results.

Solution:

We delivered our nine-month Discover Align and Transform programme to Wayland. Our partnership began with their leadership team for insight gathering using HorizonMethod tools combined with staff surveys, discovery coaching, board interviews, and meeting observations. With such a detailed understanding of the business, we prepared for some really deep, and sometimes confronting discussions with the executive team to prioritise what would really make the difference to Wayland’s performance in the months ahead. 

“The game-changing moment came with the delivery of the Initial Insight Report… It was really lifting a veil off and you could see much more clearly. The things that we were recognising as a business that we were not good at, having it presented in a coherent fashion that really was drawn on insights from across the business and across a broad variety of stakeholders was a really revealing moment.”

Together, we deprioritized ruthlessly, that’s the approach we take. You can’t do everything in the results-focused and pacey way that you need to work right now. And, we implemented a 360 feedback process, using a bespoke framework for the Wayland leader, defined by the executive team with our help.

Collaboratively, we enabled very focused discussion on priority topics that we delivered through a series of specialist workshops that were bespoke, with curated content, especially for Wayland. The six bespoke HorizonMethod workshops engaged the team on business planning and execution, strategic communication, decision making, culture feedback and difficult conversations. 

“We identified 6 areas of focus to really improve what we’re doing… And that has just enabled us to really manage the business better. Achieving better alignment in the team, clarity of responsibilities, clarity of decision-making, clarity of objectives, improving feedback are the kinds of things that we were able to achieve that have allowed us to perform better as a team and consequently perform better as a company. And actually help us achieve the goals that we have for the business.”

Their learnings were underpinned and supported by group coaching for team leaders to track progress, hold accountability and unstick real time problems. This was scaffolded with one to one individual coaching for the leaders on topics that were specifically relevant to them, but fitting within the overall themes and priorities for the business. 

The responsive nature of the HorizonMethod allowed Wayland to continually determine the shape and direction of their programme. As we continually sought their feedback and proactively pivoted our support, working with them to adapt for maximum effect.

Impact:

Together we created a very iterative approach, it was a true partnership. We were able to constantly adapt together, being open and able to respond to what was coming up, keeping a constant focus on the outcomes from the programme that we needed. 

“I think what Horizon37 did really successfully with us was making sure that the programme was relevant to current tasks around the business and making sure we weren’t just working on contrived case studies but on the real thing we were trying to tackle as a business and by making those part of the workshops and part of the programme. It wasn’t diverting time away from what we were doing day-to-day, it WAS the day-to-day.”

Through a series of progress reviews and conversations, so formal touch points, as well as informal ones, we were able to achieve substantial step ups through the course of the programme.

The HorizonMethod approach on business tools and strategic planning empowered a realistic and well prepared funding strategy that raised further funds, extending the Wayland cash runway, opening new doors for business collaboration and bolstering board confidence in the Exec Team.

Our partnership with the team has delivered the embedding of an effective scale up culture at Wayland, where R&D now co-exists harmoniously with commercial activities. Exemplified by a suite of leaders who are now leading by example and creating followership with minimum effort.

Wayland are absolutely ready to scale.

With all the necessary structures and processes in place, the entire leadership team is now aligned and speaking with “one voice”. They are effectively guiding the ship with small incremental course corrections rather than big sweeping changes. This makes for massively increased confidence and morale across the business as they move into the next growth phase of series manufacture.

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Horizon37 designs and delivers leadership programmes for exec teams and individuals ready to step-up their leadership, enabling them to succeed in breaking new ground.

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