EXECUTIVE INSIGHTS
Robert Mannion
Global Senior Executive
Robert Mannion shares insights from his career journey, moving from Process Engineer through to President roles at Johnson Matthey.
In this career conversation, Sam Yates speaks with Robert Mannion, Global Senior Executive. Robert shares insights from his career journey, moving from Process Engineer through to President roles at Johnson Matthey.
Sam: Hello Robert, thanks for joining us today. I think the best way to frame the conversation for our readers would be an overview of your career so far.
Robert: I’m an executive who has spent most of my career working with a British multinational called Johnson Matthey. I started straight out of university as an engineer and worked my way up from the shop floor to business leadership positions. While I came up through the operational side of the business, I used many of those lessons to learn how to run a broader business by building connections and relationships with people.
The fun part about my career with Johnson Matthey is that I spent over 20 years working in expat roles around the world. I was fortunate to have a family situation where we moved and lived in six different countries over that time. I had great exposure to different parts of the world, markets, and phenomenal people. It was a great start to my career.
Since I left Johnson Matthey, I’ve been working in smaller, mid-sized businesses in growth niche areas. I spent about three years with a company called Accsys, which makes chemically modified wood. It’s a UK-Dutch company, and I really enjoyed helping scale their operations globally. We established a joint venture in the United States and made an acquisition that expanded our market share into a new segment very quickly. Then I moved into the private equity space in the packaging industry—what they call cold chain—and worked to professionalise the business and position it for sale. So that’s what I’ve been up to career-wise up till now.
Sam: As an expat you spent some time in Argentina and Mexico. Could you share examples of how those early roles in South America and Central America influenced your leadership philosophy?
Robert: Sure. Early in my career, I went on assignments to build and start new factories in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Querétaro, Mexico. In both cases, Johnson Matthey had no prior experience in those regions, so it was very much the Wild West—figuring out how to set up a business, build a factory, hire people, and get things started.
For me, the number one takeaway was learning to recognise what I didn’t know. When I first moved to Mexico, I didn’t speak the language and had to learn it very quickly. I also learned to trust people, surround myself with talented, enthusiastic individuals, and listen to them. Trusting my team and their expertise became foundational to my leadership style. Most often, the answers to business problems are already within the team. It’s just about facilitating a conversation to surface those solutions and getting them implemented.
Sam: So, you didn’t speak Spanish before arriving in Mexico?
Robert: No. I took it in high school, so I knew some basics, but conversationally, I wasn’t great. Living there helped me learn quickly because, at the time, few people spoke English in Querétaro. I had to make the effort to learn, and within six months, I was fluent. It was a fantastic experience.
Sam: You’ve mentored high-performing teams across many geographies. Is there an instance where someone has exceeded your expectations?
Robert: Yes. When I was in Shanghai, China, we developed a new strategy to capture more local business—the growth area for that market. A younger local sales manager came up with a great idea to overhaul our business processes, from product development to marketing and manufacturing. He didn’t initially have the skill set to drive it through, but I recognized the potential in his idea.
We put together a plan, and I let him lead the project with my sponsorship. His energy and enthusiasm were incredible. He got new products to market, and we grew from a 5% market share to 40% in that segment within a short time. It added hundreds of millions in revenue. Later, he emailed me to share that he’d taken a general manager role at another organisation. While I was sad he left Johnson Matthey, I was proud to have supported his growth and confidence.
Sam: That’s an amazing story. Out of curiosity, what was the product?
Robert: It was a new type of emissions control catalyst, tailored to the needs of Asian markets. Western designs, like those from Volkswagen or Ford, tend to be over-engineered with premium materials. The local market wanted something more cost-effective and practical. That was the fundamental difference.
Sam: That’s fascinating and transitions well into the next question. You’ve repositioned businesses for new market opportunities, as in that example. What framework or methodology do you use to identify and capitalise on emerging markets?
Robert: The first step is understanding what you currently do well. Then take an external view—what is the market looking for, not just now but in 3, 5, or 10 years? Identify gaps between your current capabilities and future market needs, and work on addressing those gaps quickly.
For example, at Accsys, we saw an opportunity in North America but didn’t have a footprint there. We partnered with another organisation, established a joint venture, and built a U.S. factory to enter the market rapidly. It’s about understanding where your business is today, where trends are headed, and aligning efforts to meet those demands.
Sam: Nowadays, is that process entirely data-driven? In your earlier career, did intuition play a bigger role?
Robert: Earlier in my career, intuition played a larger role, partly due to inexperience and fewer available data resources. As I matured, I became more reliant on data and hard evidence, especially as decisions became more impactful. That said, intuition still has its place, particularly with risk-taking. No situation is completely black-and-white, but data is the foundation for sound decision-making. Even then, mistakes happen, but at least you’re acting on the best information available.
Sam: You’re often involved in large investments, whether that’s acquisitions or projects. What are your key criteria for evaluating whether to make that investment?
Robert: Well, number one, it starts with the broader scope, what is the strategy of the organization? Where are we headed? So where do we want to put our resources going forward? There might be a lot of good projects, potential investments you can sink your money into that might give good returns. But how does it align with where the business is going to be in five, ten years in terms of where you’re going to allocate that capital or investment? That’s really the number one principle.
Then secondly, behind that, is what’s our ability to make that happen? Do we have the organisational capability to make that investment? Can we be excellent at doing it? And then thirdly, obviously, are the returns on that project. Are we getting superior returns versus other alternatives that we could pursue in lieu of this particular project?
Sam: Okay. So, with a reputation for challenging the status quo, as I think we’ve covered already, how do you strike the balance between pushing for innovation and getting the best out of your teams, maintaining morale, and maintaining credibility, particularly in high-pressure situations?
Robert: I believe it really comes down to providing an environment where people feel comfortable taking risks and not being afraid of negative consequences, but understanding risks—understanding that there’s never a 100% certain solution or outcome. One of the more difficult situations I worked in was when I was with Johnson Matthey. It was my first global P&L role. I was joining a business that was asset-constrained, with an old asset base that just didn’t have the capacity. But we had huge commercial opportunities that could be pursued if we could produce more.
Under conventional thinking, you just replicate what you already have and expand your capacity. But the problem with that type of investment was that it had no payback. It was difficult to justify that sort of project. It was blocking the ability of the business to grow in a financially advantageous manner. So, we took a step back and said, let’s think about this differently. What can we do with our existing asset base and business processes to get more productivity out of those assets?
What we did was use a lot of lean techniques and value stream mapping to innovate the way we thought about manufacturing. We challenged the team to come up with a new way of producing our products. The great thing was they went into it and identified about half a dozen key areas where if we made a change, it could dramatically improve our output and margins. It involved risks—commercial risks with the customers and technical risks with the product. But we worked through it.
Sam: You allowed the team to make these things happen, push through these projects.
Robert: Exactly. We made some mistakes, but that’s okay. The big thing was celebrating the successes we had when we accomplished these goals along the way. In less than a year, we initiated this project and effectively doubled the capacity of our asset base with very little capital investment, just by thinking differently and challenging the status quo. There were no bad ideas. We were getting a lot of great thinking from the experts who’d been in the business for a long time. That’s really what it came down to—giving people the comfort that they didn’t have to worry about saying something outrageous. It can be wrong, but it helps us move along in the thought process. That’s how I try to stimulate people to take risks and feel good about those risks.
Sam: And in those types of manufacturing environments—aged assets, often long-standing team members who’ve been there for 20 or 30 years—often new ideas or new processes are met with inertia or resistance. Is that something you’ve experienced often? And if so, is there a particular technique you use to try and win over those people who are particularly stubborn?
Robert: Yes, this was a great example of that project I spoke about. There were a lot of people who’d been with that business for a long time. It was a business that Johnson Matthey had acquired from another legacy company that no longer exists. But it was a case of recognising the expertise those folks had, even though they were reluctant and throwing up all the reasons why something couldn’t be done. My approach in these situations is really to sit down with them and explain: “Okay, if we don’t do anything, this is going to be the outcome. If we do this, here’s the potential benefit.”
I encourage them to see the potential benefits of making a change. I think if you spend the time upfront explaining the “why” of change, why it’s necessary, and how they can contribute to it, you get much better buy-in from those who are more reluctant to embrace change. The good thing is if you get them to buy in, they tend to have so much credibility because of their time and experience. It builds momentum with the rest of the team and adds credibility to what you’re doing.
It all starts with explaining the “why,” working through their concerns, letting them speak to their concerns, and offering suggestions for how to overcome those concerns. I’m not saying, “We’re doing this, hell or high water.” I’m looking for them to help us solve the problem.
Sam: Has there been a decision in your career that was higher risk than others, or one that initially seemed risky but ultimately was positive for the business or the organisation?
Robert: Yeah, I’d say probably when I was working in Asia. One of the businesses I was responsible for was based in Korea. It was an okay business, but it was growing at a very marginal rate, and the profitability wasn’t great. We had so many other great areas to invest our funds. But that business was targeted at a very large potential opportunity that we were struggling to get into.
What I realised was that we were spending so much time and effort spinning our wheels for very little benefit. I took the decision to get out of that business altogether and repurpose our efforts to focus on these growth areas that we believed were going to drive the future of the organisation. We closed that business down, which alienated a potentially large customer globally. But within a three-year period, we more than doubled the size of the business by focusing on these new opportunities—one of which I mentioned earlier, new products for China and India.
There’s always the unknown of what could have been with that customer, but judging by the results, it was a success—even though we took enormous risk by walking away from a large global customer.
Sam: There’s a lot of talk at the moment about AI, advanced analytics, and so on. Are there any technological trends or products that you see as the next frontier, particularly when applied to operational excellence and how can executives prepare to leverage these technologies in their businesses?
Robert: I think AI can add a lot of value, especially in manufacturing businesses. Internally, we can collect massive amounts of data, but we don’t have the bandwidth to analyse that data and determine what it means. If we can use these advanced AI-supported analysis tools, we can see a lot of potential for continuous improvement, particularly in asset management.
For example, we can predict when equipment is going to fail, predict how processes are running, and where there might be disruptions that aren’t obvious. Today, businesses do some of that, but I would characterise it as fairly low level. We collect massive amounts of data, but we don’t use all of it.
If we develop tools to leverage that data, it could really serve us by using all the data we’re collecting today that’s just sitting in databases, not being used. To prepare for that, executives need to ensure their teams are trained on what AI can do. Many people don’t know what AI is capable of, so it’s about bringing in experts, encouraging basic education in AI, and building a strategy around new tools and technologies. It’s important to stay grounded and keep track of what’s happening in the marketplace and industry, as well as how competitors are leveraging these technologies.
Sam: And what do you think are the primary risks for businesses diving headfirst into these advanced analytical systems?
Robert: The downside risk is that people might think, “I’ve got this great tool; it’s going to solve all my problems.” But that’s not the case. AI is a tool, not a bulletproof solution. You’ll always need humans to make decisions. The balance needs to be struck between embracing these tools and understanding their limitations.
Sam: From your work in sustainable materials and emissions control, you’re closely aligned with ESG initiatives and net-zero targets. Are there any technologies or innovations that excite you the most in the coming decade?
Robert: There’s a trend right now in industry that I think is really fascinating and encouraging—the use of natural materials. For example, in construction, there’s a push to use more wood because it’s a much more sustainable material than concrete or composites. There are even farms dedicated to growing certain types of trees for specific applications.
In the packaging space, natural materials that can be recycled are becoming more popular. Materials like starch or recycled paper are being used in insulation and other products. It’s great to see industries realizing the benefits of these materials. They solve a lot of waste issues, and in many cases, they work almost as well as artificial products. There might be slight performance sacrifices, but those can be overcome.
There are challenges with natural materials, of course, because you get more variation. But from a scientific standpoint, it’s fun to work with and figure out how to address those variances.
Sam: Living materials – you’re never going to have two identical tree stocks, but it’s all about engineering that variability into your product design, right?
Robert: Exactly.
Sam: Finally, is there a piece of advice you received early in your career, or at any point, that really stuck with you and that you would give to anyone else in a similar position?
Robert: I think more than anything, it’s to be flexible. You need to be able to adapt to changing circumstances. Life isn’t black and white. There will always be curveballs, and I learned from one of my first managers that you can’t plan for every contingency. Problems will arise, and it’s about being flexible and adaptable. Respond to them with focus, analysis, and patience, and you’ll get through them.
Sam: Thank you for your time today, Robert.
Robert: My pleasure.