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Hellmann: A Global Leadership Framework for 1,800 Leaders in 57 Countries

Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has been family-owned since 1871 and today ranks among the world’s leading logistics providers. Most recently, the company faced a unique challenge: with the Hellmann Promise, it had established a strong cultural foundation. But one decisive question remained: how could this culture be made tangible across 57 countries – and brought to life through leadership in everyday practice?
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May 12, 2025

Starting Point

Since its founding in 1871, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has grown from a family-run business into one of the leading logistics providers worldwide, with more than 12,000 employees in 57 countries. With that growth came increasing complexity – and with it, new demands on collaboration, culture, and leadership.

The introduction of the Hellmann Promise marked a major milestone. By combining vision, mission, and values into a single foundation, the company had created a strong cultural compass to guide both strategy and day-to-day interactions. Yet a gap remained: leadership looked very different across the globe. Styles of managing people, giving feedback, and making decisions varied from country to country. While this diversity was a strength, it also created fragmentation. Employees didn’t experience leadership in the same way everywhere, and the shared culture risked losing traction.

The realization was clear: for the Hellmann Promise to reach its full potential, leadership needed to be understood and lived consistently across all regions – turning culture from an aspiration into a daily reality that supports strategy.

 

Goals and Intentions

Turning that realization into action required a program tailored to Hellmann’s specific challenges. It needed to build on the cultural foundation of the Hellmann Promise, reflect the operational realities of a global logistics business, and resonate across 57 countries.

From this starting point, four key requirements emerged:

1. Create a shared leadership understanding

All 1,800 leaders worldwide needed to work from the same principles. A shared language and clear orientation would reduce friction, strengthen trust, and ensure reliability across regions and levels.

2. Align leadership with the Hellmann Promise

Leadership behaviors had to be directly linked to the company’s cultural foundation, translating vision and values into everyday actions. This way, culture and strategy would no longer remain abstract, but become visible in daily leadership practice.

3. Ensure practical relevance

The program needed to make leadership tangible in everyday work, with formats and content tailored to different leadership levels. Every manager should walk away with tools and guidance directly applicable to their role.

4. Embed leadership sustainably

For a change of this scale to succeed, leadership could not be treated as a one-time initiative. It had to become a continuous development process, owned by the organization itself and sustained over the long term.

“Let’s Lead – for the better”: A Global Development Journey

To meet these goals, GOBRAN® designed a program aimed at building a consistent leadership framework – one that would bring the Hellmann Promise to life in daily practice across 57 countries. The approach combined multiple formats into an integrated development journey, balancing global consistency with local relevance, and strategic alignment with practical application.

Global Kick-off

The journey began with a global culture event in February 2023, marking the launch of the Hellmann Promise in practice. In his keynote “Shadow of Leadership”, Michael Gobran highlighted leadership as the bridge between strategy and culture. The message was clear: leadership could no longer be left to individual interpretation – it had to be recognized as a strategic success factor for the company.

Impact360® Trainings

Around 1,800 leaders worldwide completed three core modules designed to establish a common leadership framework. Built on the foundation of the Hellmann Promise, the modules translated cultural principles into concrete leadership behaviors. To ensure accessibility, content was delivered through multiple formats – in-person, online live, and OnDemand – and made available in five languages.

QuickCards®

After each module, participants received QuickCards® with concise summaries and actionable recommendations. This ensured that principles were not left as theory, but were directly translated into daily leadership practice.

Workbooks

Workbooks deepened the training content and helped leaders apply the Hellmann Promise to their own roles. They created space for reflection and practical exercises, making leadership tangible and directly relevant in everyday work.

Reflection Dialogues

Facilitated dialogues provided a protected space to revisit training content, share experiences, and work through challenges. Leaders discussed common pitfalls, explored ways to overcome them, and developed concrete steps for applying insights in their leadership practice.

Let‘s Lead Coaches

Around 40 HR managers worldwide were trained as “Let’s Lead Coaches.” They now facilitate reflection dialogues independently and provide ongoing support to leaders. This built-in capacity ensures that leadership development remains embedded in the organization and that the Hellmann Promise is sustained over time.

Formats for Every Level

To include leaders at all levels effectively, program content was adapted in language, length, and tone for different target groups. This ensured that the learning experience remained accessible, relevant, and practical – truly meeting leaders at eye level.

The Impact of “Let’s Lead – for the better”

1. Global principles, lived locally
The Hellmann Promise provided a strong cultural foundation. Yet in practice, leadership looked very different across 57 countries – shaped by varying leadership styles and decision-making processes. The program turned leadership into the bridge: translating culture into concrete behaviors and linking global principles with local applicability. The result is a practice that is consistent worldwide, while still respecting regional differences.
2. High reach and strong relevance
With around 1,800 leaders participating across in-person, online, and OnDemand formats, the program achieved broad global rollout. Just as important, it signaled that leadership is no longer seen as optional or individual, but as a shared success factor for both culture and strategy across the company.
3. A common language and shared principles
Before the program, leadership was understood differently across regions and levels, leading to inconsistencies in feedback, collaboration, and decision-making. Today, leaders work with the same principles worldwide. What was once fragmented has become a common framework that provides orientation, creates clarity, and makes collaboration easier across the organization.
4. Sustainably embedded
Leadership is no longer dependent on external initiatives but is carried forward from within the organization. Structures are in place to ensure leaders are continuously supported, share experiences, and reinforce principles in their daily work. As a result, leadership has become an ongoing development process, not a one-off intervention.
5. Leadership made concrete, practical, and tangible
Leadership is no longer an abstract concept, but a practical orientation for everyday work. This is visible in feedback conversations, in team collaboration, and in employee development. Leadership is now lived in daily practice – strengthening performance, anchoring culture, and enabling collaboration across the globe.

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