Global bakery supplier

Breaking down brand, regional and functional silos to create a platform for value.

The situation

This global bakery supply business faced a problem: semi-autonomous regions with their own brands were spending time and resources making decisions in key areas such as marketing that weren’t aligned to corporate strategy. Within those offices, functional silos stymied communication and coordination between teams working on projects.

Proxima was able to bring a fresh perspective to the situation. With none of the political baggage that internal stakeholders carried, we were able to take a step back and look at the wider business strategy – designing a solution to deliver desired outcomes rather than build on existing processes no longer fit for purpose.

The solution

The project was designed to give the center visibility and control over disparate brand marketing efforts. We broke the challenge down into three key areas. First was marketing activation, an area that has suffered from disconnect between the actual marketing function and IT. By helping the team select and roll out a best-in-class platform capable of monitoring activities globally, Proxima gave back control to the center while empowering local marketing functions.

Second was to cement that breaking down of silos by getting involved with the IT function’s SAP roll-out. ERP is a perfect example of investment that can stumble if the organisation is misaligned or parts of it feel excluded. Proxima worked with multiple functions to ensure the SAP implementation was tailored to their needs.

Finally, Proxima was able to challenge the bakery supplier’s basic brief (sourcing a new system) by questioning a host of assumptions related to staffing. This prompted HR to reconfigure resources around the new capabilities.

The result

Consistent creative work is now being used across the globe. Each part of the business has greater access to collateral and analytics at regional and central levels – and staff resources are much more efficiently deployed. Improvements to the SAP project alone freed up USD $2.25m (£1.5m) in savings – and ongoing marketing costs are both clearer and lower.

This project was a perfect example of how a fresh look at supplier management can bring disparate parts of a business together around a common strategy from Proxima. That approach now forms the basis for much more creative, efficient and collaborative operations. But it didn’t start with “how much can we save?” The key here was “how can we best deliver on the corporate objectives?” Changes to culture, structure and enabling technologies unlocked this project.