In this conversation, Patrick Thompson, Chief Information & Digital Transformation Officer at Albemarle, discusses how COVID accelerated the company’s digital strategy, reshaped how teams work, and increased the importance of execution. He shares why Albemarle selected WorkBoard to strengthen strategy execution, align individual performance to enterprise priorities, and operate with greater agility in an unpredictable business environment.
The Challenge
- Strong Strategy Without a Consistent Execution Framework:
Albemarle had a solid, well-defined corporate strategy, but lacked a structured, company-wide mechanism to consistently drive and track execution against that strategy.
- Limited Visibility Into Strategy Execution at the Individual Level:
Employees could not clearly see how their day-to-day work connected to enterprise priorities, making it difficult to understand individual contribution to winning or losing as a company.
- Risk of Low Adoption With Traditional OKR or IT-Heavy Platforms:
Patrick was concerned that many OKR platforms were too IT-centric, complex, or difficult to adopt, which could stall momentum and reduce enterprise engagement.
- Need for Faster, More Agile Execution Amid Rapid Change:
COVID, hybrid work, and market volatility increased the need to pivot quickly, but existing tools did not adequately support rapid strategy adjustment and follow-through.
The WorkBoardAI Solution
- Accelerated Strategy Execution Across the Enterprise:
WorkBoard provided a practical framework that shifted Albemarle’s focus from strategy definition to disciplined, repeatable execution aligned with the CEO’s execution-driven mindset.
- Clear Alignment Between Individual Performance and Enterprise Strategy:
The platform connected individual goals directly to strategic priorities, allowing employees to clearly see how their work impacted team and company outcomes.
- High Adoption Through Usability and Seamless Integration:
WorkBoardAI’s intuitive design and native integration with tools like Microsoft Teams enabled broad adoption without heavy IT involvement or complex system builds.
- Improved Organizational Agility and Speed of Response:
WorkBoardAI enabled leadership to pivot strategy quickly and maintain execution discipline during market shifts, supporting faster decision-making in uncertain environments.
Conclusion
By implementing WorkBoardAI, Albemarle strengthened its ability to execute strategy with speed and discipline during a period of rapid growth and disruption. With the help of WorkBoardAI and services, Albemarle drove 95% results achievement, 98% employee engagement, 2x revenues in 1 year with no headcount change. The company aligned individual performance with enterprise priorities for the first time, improved visibility into execution across strategic workstreams, and enabled greater agility as the organization adapted to hybrid work, digital transformation, and changing market conditions.
