Article: Keva - Reengineering structure and organizational culture

Culture

Keva - Reengineering structure and organizational culture

For reinventing its business, Keva transformed its organizational culture by developing programs that aimed to reposition the structure, operations and ways of working
Keva - Reengineering structure and organizational culture
 

At Keva, the core goal is to become ‘Future Fit’ through ‘Right Hiring and Right Sizing – Right People at Right Place’

 

Keva’s is a nine-decade business heritage company that spans across fragrance, flavor and aroma ingredients and has established a strong foothold in the domestic market. In the last decade, the company has initiated a number of interventions to fuel its business expansion plan—beginning with the consolidation of business units, strengthening of management team by hiring professionals and leveraging technical expertise. Keva made its first oversees acquisition, set up manufacturing units, established Creative Development Centre for Fragrance India business, and Fragrance International Business which set the pace for the transformative journey of the group to rebuild on the foundation.

Organizational transformation for reinvention of business

Along with Keva’s expansion and transformation plans came various challenges that needed immediate attention. The company’s aim was to consolidate and grow revenue in India and expand and strengthen foothold in South East Asian markets. The challenge was to manage multi-generational workforce including expat employees and ensure cultural integration of oversees acquisition. Therefore, strategic investments, global expansion and alignment with the change of lifestyle, customer segmentation, called for a complete transformation of the organization’s culture. The company needed alignment of the workforce towards new culture of working to accomplish the organizational vision.

Continuation of traditional attitudes, ways of working and behavioral patterns would have decelerated the ability to embrace the renewed vision of transformation at a global platform. Had it not been for adoption of culture change, Keva’s dominance in domestic market and vision to expand in the export market would have been a failure.

Strategic repositioning of structure and operations

Culture transformation at Keva was all about repositioning the structure, operations and ways of working to drive business and outperforming organizational vision. Keva thus initiated a phase-driven approach. The first step was to prioritize the key areas for intervention and kick start the journey in developing policies, practices and programs. Instead of hiring external partners, Keva took the initiative forward by investing in hiring professionals in HR and at senior leadership level. This hired team, along with the leadership team, designed and rolled out initiatives with their diverse cultural orientation. The entire team brainstormed and carved out an intervention framework for change agenda.

The change intervention was designed by articulating the core values of the organization. The model included all aspects of organizational and individual aspirations; focus being on key HR verticals such as talent acquisition, performance management, rewards, compensation and benefits, communication and internalization, capability development and talent management. The main goal of this initiative was for the organization to become ‘Future Fit’ through ‘Right Hiring and Right Sizing – Right People at Right Place’.

Progressing as ‘Future Fit’ organization

The intervention rollout has marked a notable shift; Keva is now marching progressively in line with its strategic objectives. Employee engagement score has improved and attrition has gone down. Further, the company has witnessed significant cultural shift. The business performance has improved, and processes and people have come together in synergy which has ensured overall well-being of the organization and its employees.

Keva is now aggressively working on streamlining initiatives that have launched organizational transformation to keep them relevant and impactful. As the company moves forward year-on-year, it seeks to ensure that the impacts of the change interventions are being closely monitored. Taking the initiative forward, Keva is building on its on-going agenda and bringing sustainable and dynamic programs forward. Further, the company is also looking to soon kick start Talent Management process for identifying key talents to support the organization’s growth needs.  

 

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Topics: Culture, #RootedinLearning

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