Salla Roni-Poranen: Operational excellence starts with people

Salla Roni-Poranen

Managing Director & Operations Manager at Borealis Polymers, Finland

Q.

How did your journey in operations begin, and how has it progressed to your current role?

I have been with the same company and its predecessors throughout my career, initially working within the innovation and technology team, which is genuinely where I thought I would remain and become a specialist. However, after a few years I was approached by my manager who asked if I’d ever thought of becoming a leader and managing a team. I gradually took on more and more leadership responsibilities and then had an opportunity to become a production manager. This then led to me gaining a management role in operations and I must be honest at this point and admit that I had always considered operations to be boring, assuming everyday must always be the same. How very wrong I was. As soon as I joined operations, I discovered how interesting it is, and how every day is different. When I worked in innovation and technology, I enjoyed developing technology, but I realised quite quickly that what I really enjoyed developing was people - discovering how they can do things better and the impact this had on operations. Gradually I became OpEx manager of all the European PE plants and was responsible for the continuous improvements, operability, and quality of plants. Several years later, I was promoted to my current role as managing director, location leader and operations manager of Borealis Polymers Oy, which is the Finnish company. The last 39 years have gone so quickly, and now I find myself planning my gradual retirement and onboarding my successor.

"If you have a good team spirit and people who are motivated and want to come to work, even if we have big challenges, we can solve them together and improve the operational excellence."

- Salla Roni-Poranen, Managing Director & Operations Manager at Borealis Polymers, Finland

Q.

You’ve had an inspiring journey; can you expand on the role that leadership plays in driving operational excellence and what does good leadership look like to you?

There is no doubt that good leadership is particularly important. Around 25 years ago, I attended a leadership course titled People Focused Leadership. This resonated with me and has remained my core value ever since. I believe that you really need to know and understand the people in your team, and this comes from face-to-face communication and taking the time to be visible and approachable. When you have trust and allow freedom, then you can have open two-way communication, which means that people can come to me with a problem, or if I see things are not going in the right direction, I can ask for their opinion and we can solve the problem before it becomes a bigger issue. It is a two way relationship that is based on trust. This is key and something I always communicate to new starters, I tell them that I trust them, but if I lose their trust, it will be very hard to get back. I enjoy building leadership teams whereby people support each other and have trust in each other. I’ve worked hard to build this and so when it came to planning my retirement, I was grateful to be involved in the recruitment process, so I know that these values will continue with my successor, who I know shares this vision. Ultimately, whatever we do in OpEx starts with people, so if you have a good team spirit and people who are motivated and want to come to work, even if we have big challenges, we can solve them together and improve the operational excellence.

Q.

With your prior experience in developing new technology, it must be interesting to see how innovation and technology can improve the efficiency of operations. Do you have any specific examples you can share of this?

Innovation has always been incredibly important to me and also the Borealis group, especially as our own innovative technology has been the core of the growth of the company. Continuous improvement is absolutely key for operational excellence, and this is not possible without embracing innovation. Developments are rapidly evolving and can play a crucial role in mitigating risks. For example, with digitalisation and data management we can easily use simulations which reduce the risks involved in commercial test-runs. Then of course there’s sustainability development, which requires a lot of innovative solutions e.g. to reduce energy usage.

"Continuous improvement is absolutely key for operational excellence, and this is not possible without embracing innovation. Developments are rapidly evolving and can play a crucial role in mitigating risks."

- Salla Roni-Poranen, Managing Director & Operations Manager at Borealis Polymers, Finland

Q.

You mention sustainability, how do you see other practice areas such as sustainability, safety and risk management are helping to create operational excellence, and contributing towards making the business more resilient and better positioned to withstand industry volatility?

Safety is the backbone of everything. It always has been, because if we can’t do something safely then we shouldn’t be doing it at all. If you have a safe operation, it’s an excellent operation. However, it’s surprising how quickly sustainability has progressed, even 10 years ago we would have made different decisions to those we would make today. Over the last five years it has really gained significance and I would now say that it’s as important as safety, because if you think about the future of OpEx the reality is that if you can’t do something in a sustainable way, you will be out of the game. What has also changed over the last few years is stakeholder management, it’s essential that you look at the whole ecosystem because no company can work alone for a sustainable future. From raw materials through to the consumers, we have to move as quickly as possible from a linear to the circular economy. In Finland, this is something our company is actively involved in, by building ecosystems in the whole value chain, and encouraging businesses to work together for a sustainable future.

Q.

So, if you had to identify three key drivers for creating operational excellence in your industry, what would they be?

Safety is the key driver and the platform to build from, then it is about having the right people and leadership, followed by stakeholder management. I would say that safety and leadership have featured heavily throughout my career, but stakeholder management is new. If you’d ask me this question five years ago, stakeholder management wouldn’t have featured but now it’s a critical piece of the jigsaw. If I could add into these three drivers an overarching piece of advice, it would be to always look to the future and don’t be afraid to try new things and follow your intuition. I have always been keen on trying new ways of working, whilst always balancing this with risk management. It is a complex balancing act, but incredibly rewarding and as I said at the start – no two days are ever the same.

"If you think about the future of OpEx the reality is that if you can’t do something in a sustainable way, you will be out of the game."

- Salla Roni-Poranen, Managing Director & Operations Manager at Borealis Polymers, Finland