Succession planning at Bakelite is rooted in a simple belief: long-term success depends on investing in people. With more than 1,500 employees across 13 countries and 23 locations, Bakelite operates in a complex environment shaped by growth, acquisition, and decades of institutional knowledge.
John Branham, VP of Talent and Communications, shares how the organization has been rethinking succession planning to support continuity while creating realistic, meaningful growth opportunities for its people.
While the Bakelite name has existed for more than a century, the organization entered a very different phase in 2021 when it became a standalone company. What followed was a period of rapid expansion. Over the next few years, Bakelite grew through acquisitions in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, nearly doubling its workforce and adding new technologies and capabilities along the way.
With that growth came new questions. “When you’re growing and integrating teams at the same time, you’re constantly balancing what the business needs with people’s skills and interests ,” John explains.
At the same time, Bakelite was navigating very human realities. Many associates had spent most of their careers with the organization. Some leaders were beginning to think about retirement. Others were looking for new challenges. Managers were trying to lead through change while still keeping the work moving day to day.
Growing talent from within has always mattered at Bakelite. In a specialized chemical environment, external hiring can be unpredictable, and internal expertise carries real value. Developing people internally wasn’t a new idea. It was part of the culture.
What was missing wasn’t commitment. It was clarity. Succession-related information lived across systems and informal conversations. Performance, development goals, and future readiness may not have always been discussed together, which made it difficult to step back and see the full picture.
“It’s easy to say someone is doing a great job,” John notes. “It’s much harder to really ask whether they’re prepared for what the role will require next.”
That lack of visibility became harder to ignore when retirement conversations started to surface and there was no clear path already taking shape behind the scenes.
Succession planning at Bakelite is shaped by a simple truth: careers don’t need to follow a straight line.
Some employees want to deepen their technical expertise. Others are interested in gradually expanding their scope or moving laterally into roles that better fit their strengths. Supporting those different paths has become an important part of how Bakelite thinks about growth.
At the same time, Bakelite, like most organizations, experience the associate lifecycle, which includes leaders will eventually retire. This creates an opportunity to thoughtfully balance continuity today with preparation for future leadership needs. “But it means the organization has to be proactive. You can’t wait until a transition is imminent to start thinking about readiness,” John says.
By focusing on who the organization has today, how roles are likely to change, and what skills will be needed in the future, gaps can be identified sooner and addressed more thoughtfully. Succession planning becomes less about reacting to change and more about staying ahead of it.
Rather than waiting for roles to open, Bakelite has shifted toward earlier, more forward-looking conversations. For John, effective succession planning isn’t driven by one-time exercises or formal programs. It’s built through consistency. “The most successful organizations are the ones that invest in people every day,” he explains. “It’s the feedback, the development conversations, and the trust that builds over time.”
This mindset has shaped how Bakelite approaches leadership and growth. Instead of treating succession planning as an annual event, the focus has shifted toward everyday actions that help people learn, stretch, and stay engaged. When development becomes part of regular manager-employee conversations, growth feels ongoing rather than reactive.
A key shift has been helping managers see that succession planning benefits them, too. Developing others isn’t an extra task. It’s a way to build stronger teams, reduce burnout, and create space for higher-impact work.
“When you build capability in your team, work gets done through other people,” John notes. “You can start handing things off. That’s when leadership really begins to scale.”
Over time, those daily investments add up. Teams become more resilient. Leaders gain confidence in their bench strength. Succession planning starts to feel less like an initiative and more like part of how the organization operates.
For Bakelite, succession planning isn’t about filling roles at the last minute or scrambling when change happens. It’s about respecting the experience and knowledge built over decades, while creating clear, realistic pathways for the next generation of leaders.
In an organization shaped by growth, acquisition, and long tenure, continuity can’t be left to chance. By bringing greater visibility, structure, and intention to succession planning, Bakelite is better positioned to anticipate change, prepare its people, and make decisions based on readiness rather than urgency.
Most importantly, this approach allows Bakelite to move forward without losing what matters most, supporting people at every stage of their careers while continuing to grow safely, sustainably, and in alignment with its people-first culture.
“It’s easy to say someone is doing a great job,” says John Branham, VP of Talent and Communications. “It’s much harder to really ask whether they’re prepared for what the role will require next.”
