Grundfos' global leadership development portfolio
Grundfos’s purpose is to pioneer solutions to the world’s water and climate challenges and improve quality of life for people. To best prepare their leaders to navigate the complex world they operate in, they saw a need for an ambitious and future focused adjustment in their leadership culture.
Grundfos’ Global Leadership Development Portfolio is a coherent, blended ecosystem of leadership journeys designed to build capability, confidence and connection for every level of leaders. The portfolio brings together self‑led digital learning, peer learning circles and powerful live experiences into a human‑centred approach that fits leadership development into the flow of work. Read on to find out how the portfolio blends timeless, personal and people development expertise with cutting-edge approaches and delivery.
Grundfos’ leadership development strategy recognises that leadership is not defined by hierarchy, but by the ability to create value, influence outcomes and enable others to succeed.
Following a period of strategic transformation and acquisition, Grundfos embarked on a journey to create a more unified global culture, leadership approach and talent pipeline. One Grundfos reflects their ambition to bring together people, purpose, values, and ways of working across the organisation, while remaining adaptable to a competitive and disrupted marketplace.
Organisational and talent analysis identified a need to:
- Equip leaders to operate effectively in a complex global organisation
- Develop people at scale and strengthen leadership pipelines
- Build a consistent, values‑led leadership culture
Traditional, single‑mode leadership training would not meet these needs at scale. Grundfos sought a blended, enterprise‑wide approach that could deliver depth, consistency and accessibility – while embedding leadership development into everyday work.
Grundfos and Impact co‑created the Global Leadership Development Portfolio: a structured suite of four blended leadership journeys designed for leaders at every level of the organisation.
The signature programmes last three to four months and include a unique blend of elements – a virtual campus, small self-led peer circles, customised activities for leaders to run with their real teams back at work and several live sessions led by Impact coaches. The coherent end-to-end learning journeys blend timeless people development expertise with cutting-edge learning methods, and every element is designed to embed learning through real life application.
The four signature programmes – Foundation, Elevate, Transform and Inspire – support first‑time people leaders, experienced leaders, senior leaders and indirect leaders. While each programme is distinct, all are built on the same leadership philosophy and design principles, creating a shared language and experience across Grundfos.
Rather than treating blended learning as a delivery mix, the portfolio functions as a human‑centred learning ecosystem, shaped by the participants and supported by Grundfos. Custom designed digital elements build awareness and mindset in ways that traditional e-learning can't, peer circles create space for practice and dialogue, and live experiences enable deep experimentation with new behaviours. Together, these elements are designed explicitly for sustained behaviour change, not content consumption.
The Global Leadership Development Portfolio is delivering clear, measurable impact.
A more connected ‘One Grundfos’ culture
Since launch 32% of leaders globally have completed a programme, with a 95% seat occupancy. Programmes run across Europe, Asia‑Pacific and the Americas, giving Grundfos a consistent leadership approach while allowing for local context and nuance. Culturally, the portfolio is contributing to a more consistent and inclusive leadership experience, with a +63 Net Promoter Score.
Stronger leadership capability in practice
Three months post-programme, participants report a 28% uplift in core leadership skills and a 19% increase in confidence fulfilling people‑leadership responsibilities. Leaders describe the experience as practical and reflective, helping them navigate complexity and collaborate across boundaries.
A healthier pipeline and improved retention
The portfolio is strengthening the leadership pipeline by equipping a broader pool of leaders for more complex roles. Detailed people analytics indicate a +4.8-percentage point uplift in retention for participants compared with non‑participants after 12 months, even after accounting for differences in role, tenure and seniority. Leaders also report greater confidence stepping into leadership gaps and focusing on strategic, rather than reactive, work.
Taken together, the results show the portfolio is doing more than developing individual leaders. The genuine partnership between Grundfos and Impact, from initial concept to launch, has generated a portfolio of learning experiences that build leadership capability at scale, strengthen succession pipelines, improve retention and engagement and create a shared leadership language across Grundfos.
Another major positive for me today is that using the tools you’ve introduced, I can now extend this to my team and make the remote workplace transition a lot smoother than I expected it to be."