A response to new markets and business strategies by the global chemicals company
What can a global company do to improve its business opportunities in international markets and quickly reorganize itself as effectively as possible? Kemira Oyj, a global chemicals company, launched a project at its headquarters in Helsinki, Finland, to accelerate growth in emerging markets and implement a new sales organization within the group. Only two years earlier, the Kemira chemical group had called upon cbs’ expertise to help it establish a new business model in Europe. With the new, more extensive transformation project, Kemira planned to establish a central operating model to be rolled out to all countries and units. To achieve this, the organizational structure was fundamentally changed, business processes standardized, and the Kemira group’s existing SAP system landscape consolidated and adapted to the concept of the new operating model. OneKem, the standard global SAP template solution, was transformed in line with the new organizational structure.
Within the space of a year, 11 countries and 17 companies were welcomed into the new SAP world and the structure of the new business model. The continued rollout of the template solution to Latin America had already been agreed and its implementation arranged with cbs when an update in strategy was presented at Kemira. To simplify the corporate structure, increase profitability, and stimulate growth, especially in the Asian and South American markets, the Fit for Growth restructuring program was launched. This follow-on project is intended to strengthen Kemira’s globally active regional business units. These were to be granted more responsibility for their business operations, enabling them to interact faster and more effectively with their customers in the local markets. However, the new roles and responsibilities not only had to be communicated at corporate and managerial levels, but also implemented operationally and, in particular, modeled in the SAP software. The change in organizational structures led to changes in structural assignments and reporting.