Company Overview

Deerns is an independent engineering firm founded in 1928, specializing in technical consulting and engineering solutions for high-performance buildings. With over 600 employees across 17 offices in 10 countries, Deerns provides comprehensive services from strategic consulting and systems design to specialist engineering, sustainability consulting and digital roadmaps. The company's 550+ experts in mechanical and electrical design, building physics, energy efficiency, digitalization and sustainability operate across diverse sectors including airports, healthcare facilities, data centers, laboratories, cleanrooms and commercial real estate.

The Challenge

Deerns was facing a critical inflection point in its organizational evolution. After nearly a century of operating as a family-owned company with strong regional identities, the business imperative had shifted dramatically. The appointment of a new CEO brought a fresh strategic vision: transforming the company from a country-centric structure to a truly international organization capable of competing on the global stage.

The challenge was not merely structural, but deeply cultural. Leaders who had successfully managed within their own countries, speaking their own languages and maintaining close ties with the shareholder-owner-CEO, now needed to think and operate across national borders. The "new generation" of leaders had to balance performance with global thinking, manage diverse teams across boundaries and represent Deerns as a unified brand of 700 engineers worldwide rather than fragmented regional entities. This transformation required not just new org charts, but a fundamental reset of what leadership meant at Deerns.

The Solution

Wibo's approach centered on co-creation rather than prescription. Instead of importing a generic leadership model, the methodology involved bringing together a carefully selected group of "ambassadors", key leaders from across the organization, to collectively design what the "Ideal Deerns Manager" should embody.

The process began with something that initially felt overwhelming: participants conducted surveys that generated a large number of potential leadership behaviors. However through structured facilitation and a phased approach, Wibo guided the group from chaos to clarity.

The Wibo team positioned itself not as external consultants imposing solutions, but as expert facilitators enabling the Deerns team to discover their own answers. Through systematic phases, the group distilled dozens of behaviors into three specific leadership principles, each supported by five concrete behaviors. The process culminated in the Leadership Forum (DLF), where these principles came to life through real-world examples and interactive sessions with Barbara and Marco, transforming written behaviors into practical and actionable leadership commitments. This was not just a workshop, it was a journey of organizational self-discovery that left participants both proud of what they had created and equipped to implement it.

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The Impact

The transformation at Deerns is a work in progress, but early indicators are promising. Rather than expecting sudden cultural change, both Dominique and Lenny acknowledge they are "in the middle of implementation" - the critical phase where principles must move from paper to practice. What sets this initiative apart is its systematic integration strategy: the leadership principles are not treated as a one-off training event but are being woven into the fabric of organizational life.

The CEO himself has taken personal ownership of the principles, setting a powerful tone from the top. At the same time, the principles are being embedded into performance cycles, recruitment processes and the ongoing "Ideal Deerns Manager" program that will train successive cohorts of leaders. Dominique reports that in her conversations with directors and managers, the principles are already "top of mind" - leaders are consciously using the framework to give feedback, tackle work challenges and translate strategy into execution. The ambassador group from the initial co-creation process is now serving as internal champions. While it is too early to declare full success, the infrastructure for lasting change is being built systematically. The organization is shifting from regional to global thinking, from siloed departments to cross-functional collaboration and from implicit expectations to explicit shared leadership standards.

Conclusion

The partnership between Deerns and Wibo exemplifies how strategic leadership development can support organizational transformation. By co-creating a tailored leadership model with clear behavioral principles, Deerns successfully transitioned from a family-run regional culture to an international matrix organization ready for global growth.

Key Success Factors

Strategic Alignment: The leadership principles were directly tied to Deerns' business transformation from regional to global operations, ensuring practical relevance.

Co-Creation Methodology: Rather than imposing an external model, Wibo facilitated a collaborative process in which Deerns leaders shaped their own principles, ensuring ownership and cultural fit.

Practical Integration: The principles were immediately embedded into leadership programs, performance cycles and recruitment processes, making them actionable rather than aspirational.

Expert Facilitation: Wibo's trainers balanced theoretical expertise with practical application, using storytelling and experiential learning to engage a critical audience of engineering managers.

Continuous Evolution: The program design allowed for ongoing feedback and adaptation, with the "Ideal Deerns Manager" program evolving across multiple cohorts.

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