Sellafield Ltd - Site License Companies
Developing commercial leadership amongst senior not-for-profit
managers on the cusp of a transformational “privatisation”
The organisation
British Nuclear Group (BNG), a new division of BNFL, was registered on April 1st 2005. Its
task: to competitively bid for contracts to clean-up nuclear sites whose ownership was
transferred to the newly created NDA (Nuclear Decommissioning Authority) by the UK
government. By April 2007, BNG was disbanded. During the two year interval, the NDA
established itself as the contract-awarding body and, if only by default, the ‘Site License
Companies’ (SLCs) financial regulator of last resort.
The business issues
Management needed to:
On April 1 2005, the UK government brought into
existence the NDA to take ownership of all BNFL
assets (principally: 14 “Site License Companies” – 11
collectively referred to as “Reactor Sites” and 3 which
together constitute Sellafield – 7 acres of the most
concentrated nuclear site in the world). The main issue:
the liabilities. The government’s remit to BNFL in 2003
to accelerate (from 150 to 50 years) the clean-up of
existing UK nuclear sites created a £2bn balance sheet
deficit that had to be “privatized”. BNFL/ British Nuclear
Group found itself forced to bid competitively for
contracts to manage UK sites that they had hitherto
owned.
• Increase their shared commercial understanding and
capability – initially in order to retain the NDA
contract, later to retain the NDA’s confidence, through
effective stakeholder partnership engagement
The leadership team and leaders throughout the
organisation faced rapid transformation from “ownermanaged, process driven energy re-processing
monopoly” to a “nuclear clean-up, project managed
M&O contractor” operating in a competitive market
place.
• Lead and accelerate transformational change – in
order to deliver higher expectations, with increased
efficiency and safer operations
Through an extensive competitive tendering process
Cranfield School of Management was chosen in 2003
as the executive development partner to help
BNFL/BNG/Sellafield achieve these aims. Since then
we have designed and continue to deliver 4 major
progressive programmes with several derivatives to
three leadership levels (top team, senior managers,
middle managers).
+44 (0)1234 754426 | jane.wharmby@cranfield .ac.uk | www.cranfield.ac.uk/som/cced
Customised Executive Development
The approach
Working in partnership with the HR talent development
team in the SLCs, members of the top team and
representative operators across the British Nuclear
Group, Cranfield:
• Designed modular interventions (some delivered in
three day sessions, others delivered as a series of
one-day sessions) that include business simulations
and follow-up days to capture application and
measure return on investment
• Created a team of over 15 faculty subject experts
with BNFL/BNG/Sellafield counterparts to ground the
content and “share” the “teaching”
• Assembled a team of 5 Programme Directors who in
parallel with the teaching faculty coach participants
and carry each programme’s “red-thread” across the
various deliveries by different faculty
• Designed a series of 11 customized e-learning
capsules to support the main subjects explored
during the face-to-face sessions
• Created programme portals to hold all programme
material and stimulate participant’s exchanges during
and post programme.
The programme
All four programmes flowed from three bases of the
process of leadership:
• Setting Direction
• Aligning Resources
• Energizing Others
Superimposed upon the two senior programmes were
the three stages of innovation: discontinuous,
incremental and inter-organizational. The following
subjects were covered in detail:
• Under Setting Direction: vision, mission, values,
strategy, strategic assets, innovation and enterprise
risk management
• Under Aligning Resources: programme and project
management, finance, supply chain management and
performance measurement
• Under Energizing Others: leadership, change
management and personal style.
The two more operational programmes took a more
pragmatic line, structured around the five steps of
accountable leadership:
Delivering, safely, through empowerment, embracing
change, with courage and impact.
Facts and figures
Sept 2003 to June 2004: Sellafield’s top team, 55
participants, completed three core modules. Further
cohorts representing 60 participants undertook a
modified programme in 2005 and 2006.
September 2004 to February 2005: The Reactor Sites’
top team, 48 participants, started their version of the
programme, adapted to their specific context.
February to July 2005: Senior managers’ programme
delivered, mirroring and supporting the senior team
programmes. Completed by 100 participants.
February 2006: Business Application Workshops
conducted for some 50 participants from above
programmes to apply commercial practice to a series of
scenarios.
April to December 2007: Completed first phase of “5
Steps to Accountable Leadership” for 80 participants.
April 2008 to January 2009: Completed second phase
of “5 Steps to Accountable Leadership” for 210
participants.
Subjects covered in a tightly-knit series of one-day
sessions are:
Customer and Commercial Awareness; Delivering
Projects with Financial Awareness; Human Factors in
Safety Leadership; Measurements for Empowerment;
Human Aspects of Empowerment; Empowering
Appraisals, Disciplinaries and Grievances; Strategic
Change; Innovation; Continuous Business
Improvement; Impact and Influence; Courage and
Confidence.
This integrated development - designed through
extensive one-to-one interviews and small group work,
linked to group competencies, set against performance
appraisals – encourages immediate application and
cultivates a learning organization where, as iron
sharpens iron, one individual sharpens another.
Why Cranfield?
“We have been through, and are still facing, a
significant change in our organisational position.
Cranfield joined our journey early in this process and
were instrumental in helping to understand the learning
gap in our Senior Management population.
Cranfield have not only kept pace with the level of
change but in some cases were ahead. How many
calls have I taken from our Cranfield Programme
Director, Cora Lynn? ‘Lesley, have you seen the
papers – it was as I expected …’
In partnership each Cohort delivered has been
refreshed and updated in light of the latest
organisational position. Feedback from the programme
has been excellent and there is evidence of significant
cost savings across the business which can be
attributed to certain aspects of the programme.
I would have no hesitation in recommending Cranfield
as a learning partner to any organisation.”
Lesley Bowen, Head of Education, Training and
Development, Sellafield Ltd
+44 (0)1234 754426 | jane.wharmby@cranfield .ac.uk | www.cranfield.ac.uk/som/cced