MSA Safety Accelerates Readiness for Enterprise Leadership
MSA Safety partnered with DDI to help emerging enterprise leaders build the confidence, judgment, and strategic thinking needed to lead in an increasingly complex business environment.
Results with DDI
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100% Ready to Improve
100% of participants identified specific leadership behaviors they wanted to change
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94% Strategic Insights
94% of participants gained strategic and enterprise-level insights
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94% Real-World Application
94% of participants plan to apply their learning within the next 30 days
Video
How MSA Safety Accelerated Enterprise Leadership Readiness
Learn how immersive leadership development helped leaders build enterprise perspective, strategic judgment, and confidence for broader leadership roles.
The Need
MSA Safety built its success on strong leadership and deep institutional expertise. But as long-tenured leaders moved into retirement or new opportunities, the company faced a question about what would come next: whether its senior leaders and emerging executives were ready to step into broader enterprise roles.
"As we grow and evolve, it's really about making sure we have the talent coming through the organization with the capability to continue driving our success," said Steve Blanco, President and CEO of MSA Safety.
When experienced leaders move on, it creates opportunity, but it also raises the question of how prepared the next generation is for those larger responsibilities.
Steve Blanco, President and CEO of MSA Safety
Those larger responsibilities were also getting harder. Technological disruption, shifting workforce expectations, and the accelerated pace of change meant the roles leaders were stepping into looked different than they had even a few years earlier.
"We've seen the business environment become much more complex, particularly in recent years," said Glennis Williams, SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer at MSA Safety. "Leaders need to make decisions with incomplete information, balance competing priorities, and inspire confidence through uncertainty. We expect them not just to lead their functions, but to think and act as enterprise leaders."
MSA sought a development experience that would move beyond theory and give leaders the opportunity to practice navigating real business challenges.
The Solution
To do that, MSA selected the DDI Strategic Leadership ExperienceSM, a two-day immersive simulation designed to accelerate readiness for enterprise roles.
The experience brought together a cross-functional cohort of directors, senior leaders, and emerging executives representing areas including HR, legal, engineering, operations, sales, marketing, and finance. Participants assumed the role of a strategic leadership team responsible for guiding a fictional organization through evolving business challenges, competing priorities, stakeholder pressures, and high-stakes decisions.
The DDI Strategic Leadership Experience placed leaders directly into a business simulation where they analyzed information, made trade-offs, influenced stakeholders, and led through ambiguity.
"What makes this program unique is the immersive aspect," said Williams.
Participants aren't spending their time learning frameworks in theory. They're practicing strategic leadership in real time, discovering what's relevant, and figuring out how to apply it to their day-to-day responsibilities.
Glennis Williams, SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer at MSA Safety
The pressure was real. The consequences weren't. "This gives leaders a chance to build the muscle before they're in the role," Williams explained. "They can experience the pressure, test their approach, and learn from it in a way that's difficult to replicate through traditional development programs."
For many participants, the cross-functional nature of the experience was equally valuable. Leaders gained broader visibility into how decisions are made across the enterprise and explored perspectives outside their functional areas.
"People who normally see only a small piece of the business were able to understand the trade-offs and decisions their peers face every day," Williams said. "It broadened their perspective and gave them a deeper understanding of how MSA operates as an enterprise."
The program also turned MSA's leadership model into something leaders had to act on rather than recall.
For Blanco, one of the greatest strengths of the experience was the way it challenged leaders to make decisions under pressure.
The program forces participants to make decisions instead of waiting for someone else to make them. Leaders begin to recognize their own capabilities, rely on their intellectual curiosity, and learn how to leverage the perspectives of others to reach better outcomes.
Steve Blanco, President and CEO of MSA Safety
The Result
The DDI Strategic Leadership Experience generated strong participant engagement and immediate development impact across the cohort.
Participant Feedback:
- They found it real. 88% said the simulation and decisions felt realistic; 100% said the experience was relevant to the leadership challenges they face today.
- They saw themselves differently. 100% gained usable insight about themselves as leaders, 100% identified specific behaviors they wanted to change, and 100% said the experience challenged them to think differently.
- They intended to act. 94% planned to apply what they learned within 30 days, and 94% gained strategic, enterprise-level insight.
For Tim Botti, Director of Engineering and Firefighter at MSA Safety, the real-time practice and feedback made the learning especially powerful.
"Instead of taking in a lot of lecture, I was trying things in real time and then getting feedback from my team members and facilitators on what went well and what I could do differently," he said. "That really resonated with me."
Botti also gained a deeper appreciation for the balance between decisiveness and thoughtful judgment required of enterprise leaders.
What the experience taught me was that leaders need to make decisions in a timely manner, but the cost of getting them wrong can be high. You have to find the right balance between moving forward and gathering enough information to make a good decision.
Tim Botti, Director of Engineering and Firefighter at MSA Safety
The experience also highlighted the importance of cross-functional collaboration for Ernesto Domínguez, Plant Manager at MSA Safety.
"Every team had people from different experiences and departments across MSA," Domínguez said. "That collaboration and the opportunity to hear others share their experiences helped you see things from a different angle."
Working alongside leaders from finance, marketing, operations, and other functions reinforced the value of diverse perspectives.
"It was a great experience to see how others approach the same challenge," he said. "When difficult business decisions need to be made, there are people you can work with to come up with the best solution."
For Chris Cerutti, Director, Global Strategic Sourcing at MSA Safety, the immersive nature of the experience made it stand apart from traditional leadership development.
"This was much more engaging than I expected," Cerutti said. "It wasn't traditional learning. The ability to work through realistic business scenarios, collaborate with peers, and receive immediate feedback made it a very interactive experience."
Cerutti also found that the experience helped him think beyond the needs of his own function and focus on broader business priorities.
When you take an enterprise perspective, you have to lead with a mission and vision that serves not only your team, but the business and its customers. That was one of the most valuable lessons I took away from the experience.
Chris Cerutti, Director, Global Strategic Sourcing at MSA Safety
That enterprise-wide perspective resonated with other participants, particularly for MSA leaders navigating complex, cross-functional transformation efforts.
“The experience was extremely timely for my role and what we're doing right now,” shared Jason Daschbach, Director, Data Analytics and AI at MSA Safety. “We have some pretty giant transformation projects going on, things change by the week, and we’re being challenged to make sure we have an enterprise view of everything. So for my current role, it was extremely timely and aligned with what we're doing.”
MSA's leadership team saw the same thing from the other side of the table.
"The biggest value of the DDI Strategic Leadership Experience is accelerating enterprise leadership through feedback, practice, and real-world challenges," Williams said.
Blanco agreed.
"This helps prepare leaders for those next-level roles," he said. "It gives them confidence to make decisions in real time, navigate uncertainty, and lead more effectively. When they leave the experience, they're more confident in themselves and more prepared for the challenges ahead."