One year after ditching traditional hierarchy, Bayer Canada's shift to decentralized model is reshaping leadership, says Head of HR
One year after Bayer Canada began dismantling its traditional hierarchy, decision-making has shifted to the front lines.
The company’s move to a Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO) model – designed to cut bureaucracy and decentralize control – is now driving faster execution and closer customer alignment.
A central feature of this model is shifting decision-making away from management and into the hands of employees. Nearly 95% of decisions that were once made at the top are now handled directly by teams at every level, accelerating the company’s ability to respond to market demands.
“It enables decision making right at the level that is required,” says Janine Pajot, Head of HR.
That de-layering removes traditional top-down management in favour of what she describes as an “ecosystem of talent” focused on 90-day cycles designed to address business outcomes.
Before adopting the DSO model, Bayer had become tangled in its own internal processes. And it became clear that bureaucracy was impacting business agility.
“It did become a bit more bureaucratic,” Pajot says. “With hundreds of policies, decision making was slower due to approval processes.”
If the company was to remain competitive, it needed to rethink not just its technology, but how its people worked.
“We need to evolve in how we work, and we need to be closer to our customers,” Pajot explains.
Early results are coming into focus. The agriculture division, for instance, has embraced the DSO model with speed and control.
“What used to be an older process for preparing brand plans, which tend to be a very long process, with lots of approval, is no longer a year to three-year plan, but rather in 90 days,” she says. “Decisions are made within the group and not by a higher-up who’s not even close to what the customer needs.”
Flattening this structure has resulted in rethinking how people lead. Frontline employees are not waiting for decisions from layers above – they’re acting.
“We're feeling and seeing more a sense of empowerment within our team members,” Pajot says. “They feel empowered to be able to help their customers without this long process of getting approvals.”
For leaders, the adjustment has been less straightforward, with one manager now supporting 20 employees instead of 10. HR created a leadership program focused on helping managers shift into this coach role. The new approach emphasizes team-wide coaching over one-on-one check-ins, which are no longer feasible at such scale.
“They've needed to adapt how they lead. And by that, it’s not a check box exercise,” Pajot says. “That requires the leader to take more of a coaching approach.”
The HR function itself has changed as a result. In Bayer’s crop science sector, for example, HR and business leaders worked together to restructure around customer focus
“We were lockstep with the businesses,” Pajot says. “They were able to meet the needs of de-layering, which did require changes within the organization; however, HR and the business worked together to put even more people in front of the customer.”
Internally, HR has adopted a North American model to pool resources and increase efficiency. That, in turn, allows the HR team to do what they’re meant to do: strategically enable growth.
“It enables us to stretch our resources or share our resources across,” Pajot says. “We, too, share that philosophy of 'It's all about the customer.'”
Growth in this structure is defined less by climbing and more by expanding. Bayer has introduced a talent marketplace that posts global project opportunities that employees can join for three to six months.
Still, the shift hasn’t been without challenges, which makes communication crucial. Bayer used town halls, pulse checks, and a network of employee volunteers called DSO Champions to build understanding.
“It’s certainly a 180,” she says. “A watch out when endeavouring to do a DSO-type of transition is communication, communication, communication; it builds up the engagement with the employees at large, because it’s their peers who are leading the way.”
Despite the success Bayer has seen, Pajot cautions that the DSO model isn’t a universal fix for all organizations. For organizations considering a similar shift, she stresses the importance of understanding whether the model fits their people and culture because talent grows and develops in a DSO model through different experiences and skill building.
“If you're an organization, talent or individual who likes that rigorous structure or a top-down type of approach, a DSO model is probably not for you,” she says.
For Pajot, mindset is the deciding factor. Leaders and employees alike need to be willing to let go of familiar structures and accept the ambiguity that comes with change.
An individual who is simply open to fail is the type of person who will thrive in a decentralized environment because “that’s how you grow,” Pajot says.
However, adopting this model provides the opportunity for employees at all levels to broaden their thinking.
“The type of individual who really thrives in a DSO world is someone who is open to and wanting to develop their experiences across many, many facets,” she says.
