Statkraft: one year on Statkraft: how leader–employee alignment powers business ambition
Statkraft: how leader–employee alignment powers business ambition
In order for the vision to be effective and to drive the business forward, it has to be ambitious.
F or years, Statkraft combined little known beyond specialist circles, it faced a deeper challenge: how to ensure its brand didn’t trail behind a company expanding into new markets and adapting to shifting priorities. That inflection point came two years ago. Statkraft set out to define a vision bold enough to unite its people and steer a business in transformation. The result – “To renew the way the world is powered” – gave 7,000 employees across 21 countries a shared compass. More than words, it has become a living reference point: strong enough to endure CEO transition, market volatility, and the sharper strategic focus now underway.ay. industrial scale with surprisingly low external visibility. Europe’s largest producer of renewable power, yet A future-back approach Statkraft’s vision is deliberately ambitious. This was the intent behind taking a future-back approach: defining a vision that sets a long-term goal, then aligning leaders and staff around methods to grow into it. The aim was to give the company something to stretch towards, a direction ambitious enough to drive behavior and decisions for years to come. “In order for it to be effective and to drive the business forward, it has to be ambitious. You have to have room to grow into it because otherwise you're just describing the business as it exists today,” says Elisabeth Gathe, Global Brand Lead at Statkraft.
Has your brand caught up with your business? For other leaders, the real test is ensuring your brand doesn’t trail behind the business you have already become. Ask yourself: Do leaders and staff describe your company in the same way? Does your vision guide behavior, not just communications? Is your brand aligned to your long- term goal, not just today’s demands? Will your vision hold firm when leadership changes or markets shift?
This internal strategy gives the business a desired position to build in the landscape. It’s an aspiration reflected in Statkraft’s recent brand refresh, with the company beginning to tell a more human, connected and future-focused story. It marks a shift from fragmentation toward greater focus.s: strategy and brand moving more closely in tandem. Enduring through change That alignment has proved vital in turbulent times. In the past two years, the energy landscape has been transformed. Statkraft itself has seen the arrival of a new chief executive. In many companies, such changes can fracture focus. At Statkraft, the opposite happened. Because the vision and values had been co-created across the business, they endured. They gave continuity amid uncertainty and ensured that momentum was not lost. The brand, refreshed and repositioned, has provided stability, helping the business stay aligned through volatility. Because when your brand and business ambition are aligned, you keep momentum – whether that’s through leadership change, or a disrupted market. Statkraft’s journey shows how clarity of vision, when consistently embraced and leveraged, can power both reputation and strategy.
Having clarified this vision in 2022, it has since guided Statkraft’s brand evolution. From its 130-year history to the business it is today, the company recognized the need to adapt both to what it had become and to the demands of the new markets it now serves. The phrase “brand catching up with the business” became a guiding mantra – a reminder that the identity needed not only to reflect the present but to anticipate the future. In practice, that meant positioning the brand not simply in step with the business, but slightly ahead of it, giving employees and leaders a direction to grow into as Statkraft continues its journey. A compass, not a claim Internally, the business set a clear intention to become a leading international renewable brand, as an answer to the question of how Statkraft should be known, and what its people should strive toward. “The vision was so strong but we needed a slightly different approach to guide communications internally,” explains Elisabeth.
Is your brand keeping pace with business ambition?
The phrase “brand catching up with the business” became a guiding mantra – a reminder that the identity needed not only to reflect the present but to anticipate the future.
Brandpie Energy - Issue 04
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