Transforming Supply Chain for Growth in New Markets

A global food and nutrition leader recognized that achieving its ambitious growth plans required changes to its supply chain organization. Their strategy focused on driving growth through acquisitions to develop new customer channels in some regions, while maintaining operational excellence in established markets. The supply chain function would play a pivotal role in integrating acquisitions and meeting the needs of emerging markets.

 

We partnered with this client to evaluate strategic priorities, define critical capabilities, and establish design principles to guide the design of their new supply chain organization. The result was a clear roadmap, strong internal alignment, and a leadership team ready to implement a more agile, customer-focused operating model.

 

Redesigning the Supply Chain Function

 

The Supply Chain function had a track record of strong performance, supporting the company’s success in all regions. However, with an ambitious new growth strategy that included expanding customer channels, entering emerging markets, and pursuing acquisitions, it became clear that the role of Supply Chain would be crucial, and the existing setup was not fit for purpose. The leadership team recognized the critical need to redesign the Supply Chain organization.

 

Key challenges included:

 

• Balancing global expertise with regional accountability: Ensuring a structure that leverages the company’s global scale while being responsive to local market needs.
• Empowering leadership: Streamlining the leadership team to enable faster decision-making and drive transformational change.
• Shifting to a customer-centric approach: Moving beyond a traditional functional focus to align the operating model with emerging customer and market opportunities.
• Improving data-driven decision-making: Enhancing supply chain resilience and performance through better use of data and analytics.
• Building engagement: Communicating the vision and mobilizing employees to embrace and implement the transformation.

 

Engaging Stakeholders and Establishing Design Criteria

 

We guided the client through a structured and collaborative approach, ensuring decisions were grounded in a deep understanding of strategic direction throughout the transformation. The process emphasized engaging stakeholders across levels and regions to discover insights, draw out perspectives, and build commitment to the changes ahead.

 

The main components of this approach included:

 

• Core Team collaboration: Partnered with a dedicated internal team that acted as the "engine room" for the program, driving engagement and building internal capability to sustain change.
• Strategic analysis: Facilitated workshops and 1:1 dialogues with stakeholders to identify strategic assumptions, organizational strengths, and future capability needs.
• Design criteria: Established a set of enduring design criteria to guide decision-making, aligning with the organization’s growth strategy and cultural aspirations.
• Stakeholder engagement: Supported the Core Team in preparing a compelling case for change, ensuring alignment and buy-in from key stakeholders through tailored communications and workshops.
• Organizational system review: Identified virtuous and vicious cycles in current ways of working and mapped organizational elements to test potential design options.

 

This work provided a foundation for testing and refining future organization structures.

 

Building a Strategic Supply Chain Function with Regional Accountability

 

The project transformed the Supply Chain function from an operationally focused unit into a strategic driver of growth. By strengthening regional accountability and aligning the organization around customer segments, the Supply Chain function is now positioned to deliver on the company’s growth strategy.

 

Key results include:

 

• Clarity and alignment: A redefined operating model that balances global expertise with regional accountability, enabling Supply Chain leadership to focus on strategic priorities rather than operational crises.
• Enhanced data capabilities: Improved data governance supports strategic decision-making and enables performance tracking across the supply chain.
• Implementation roadmap: A concrete set of activities ensures the operationalization of changes, embedding them into the company’s DNA for sustained impact.
• Communication and change plan: A compelling story and engagement plan, aligned with key stakeholders, fosters a shared understanding of the purpose and benefits of the transformation.

 

This strategic repositioning empowers the Supply Chain function to integrate acquisitions effectively, meet evolving customer needs, and drive sustainable growth in a dynamic market.

 

To learn more about our work, contact us at info@orgdesignworks.com