Big Ambitions Need Outstanding Leadership: Bramble Energy

Leadership Goals & Challenges:

Bramble Energy have big ambitions, and knew they would need outstanding leadership to fulfil their potential. Specifically, they wanted to:

1. Form the SLT: Unify the newly formed exec team, with everyone on the same page, clear and
   aligned, creating followership and trust at all levels in the business.
2. Embed values: Refresh consciously, nurture and embed fully the chosen values and culture you want for your business as new people join Bramble.
3. Build leadership beyond the SLT: Define and create leadership mindsets in [the top 30] leaders at Bramble, delegate to and empower senior managers.
4. Deploy/re-deploy/remove people: Make changes so all people are playing to strengths and
   motivated in their roles.
5. Prioritise: Normalise constant prioritisation to deliver the greatest positive benefit for Bramble, and de-prioritisation with equal gusto.
6. Fresh feedback: Gain more clarity on people’s strengths and gaps through feedback – and build a Bramble habit to listen and address what’s said
7. Communication: Win alignment and buy-in to goals and priorities at all levels in the
   organisation, have everyone feel fully informed.

RESULTS:
– Unified Exec Team
– Playing to strengths
– Increased responsibility
– More effective feedback and commitment to increase psychological safety
– More effective meetings and decision-making

“We have optimised our performance in specific targeted areas, increased effectiveness in those areas, and increased team performance.”

Tom Mason, CEO

Context: who is Bramble Energy

Bramble Energy is a Hydrogen-economy Fuel Cell disruptor based in Crawley, UK. Their printed circuit boards enable fast and customised fuel cell production which they manufacture rapidly and globally.

Achieving some major technical milestones (especially during 2022 with their PCB-X™ platform), created both the opportunity and need for Bramble to move strongly into a commercialisation phase.

Scaling was ferocious. They had already raised £8m by 2021, and in the period we worked
together they raised an additional £43m. When we began work together in 2022 their headcount was 27, rising to >70 by September 2023.

In the same year, Bramble was the receiver of the prestigious Gateley Business Transformation of the Year Award 2023, recognising them as a company that is operating in an incredibly important space, moving the world to net zero.

Horizon37 began work with their leaders on known needs, but we quickly pivoted towards providing an on-going partnership to identify new needs, new risks, and new creative solutions as challenges unfolded.

“Outstanding impact. I’m seeing results, I can see the output, I can see the positive change, the top leaders are changing as people. The underlying steel is still there but now it’s wrapped in something highly effective and enabling success.”

Board Member

Solution: their leadership journey

Horizon37 delivered two leadership programmes over two years (2021-23). Both included:

• Insights and diagnostics, workshops and seminars.
• Creative problem solving with small groups or individually on challenges arising.
• 1:1 coaching plus thematic reflection and group action coaching for participants to share and support individual breakthroughs.
• Results Manager and Programme Director thought-partnership.
• Programme design curation and adaptation.
• Aide Mémoires, frameworks and materials

1. The Discover Align Transform (DAT) programme was designed to build leadership capacity at
   the very top – supporting the founder-CEO and other Exec Team members, and some inefficiencies between the Board and Exec. This programme formed leadership foundations and created momentum.
   We got to know Bramble extremely well, having invested in gathering insight formally and by
   partnering to solve emerging problems as they came up.
   During the DAT, we adapted and helped to ward off big and pending risks. For example, a pivotal moment was when we issued a “storm warning”, and stopped a planned schedule of workshops.
   With the Chair and CEO, we worked to reset and refresh the organisational design for the top
   leadership. We delivered a series of reactive coaching sessions, workshops, and practical solutions to get back on track.
2. The Leadership Performance Programme (LPP) was designed to improve the depth and quality of leadership at all levels across Bramble, and form a new Exec Team identity.
   Freeing up the CEO to focus on strategy – both exit and fundraising – was important in this phase.
   We designed and delivered a bespoke programme within the LPP called “Do, Manage, Lead” – focussed on enabling the next level of emerging leaders to step-up. Having them embrace leadership was a critical success factor. We trod a line between validating perspectives and encouraging listening vs. encouraging and empowering individual and group responsibility, to step up and lead change in Bramble.

“[Horizon37]’s work means the team has grown and improved. The technical and commercial results are coming now.”

Board Member

Impact and Results

Leadership Readiness Check
At the beginning and end of the LPP phase, we asked the Exec Team and the next level down
managers to score the business on the 18 components of leadership that Horizon37 research has
identified correlate to successful business outcomes during the scale-up phase.

We are delighted to report that Bramble has seen an improvement in every leadership
component, with the biggest improvement area being Giving & Receiving Feedback.

Leadership Component	Avg Score Before	Avg Score After	Range Before	Range After
Overall Readiness to Scale	46%	62%	31%-60%	44% – 79%
Mindset	70%	73%	54% – 83%	58% – 84%
Creating Culture	41%	58%	26% – 54%	36% – 82%
Direction Setting	44%	62%	23% – 53%	48% – 86%
Managing Performance	42%	59%	16% – 62%	37% – 76%
Giving & Receiving feedback	37%	62%	13% – 59%	47% – 81%
14 Tail Components	40%	57%	24% – 55%	30% – 76%

“We’ve grown and changed. We appreciate the human side of performance in teams much more, and we think 6-12 months ahead now. We are building the right team, pulling in the right direction to achieve what’s needed. We are able to step back, check everyone is aligned and stay more open with each other.”

CEO

What’s next?

The Bramble Exec Team is committed. They have a clear focus on sustaining, maximising and building on the success of the leadership work so far. Horizon37 remain fully committed to support Bramble with bespoke support as the leaders embark on this next phase of the leadership journey.

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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.

Get in touch to hear more and discover our programmes.