The economist and philosopher Peter Ferdinand Drucker (1909–2005) was convinced that corporate culture eats a company’s strategy for breakfast. He believed that sustainable corporate success was up to the employees, because they ultimately implement the individual steps of strategic planning.

It is also important for KWS for all our colleagues to know where we want to be in 10 years’ time and what measures are needed to get there. That is why we invited all 5,166 colleagues worldwide to take part voluntarily in the survey on awareness of KWS’ strategy from October 5 to 25. 2,331 completed questionnaires were returned.

The 2022 survey again revealed a large number of pleasing results and also improvements over the previous survey. For example, the number of participants who have great confidence in the KWS Group’s strategy has risen by five percentage points to 75 percent in the space of a year. Confidence in the strategy of their own business unit or unit is also at a stable and high level (see the chart).

Compared to the 2021 survey, participants also rate the contribution of their own daily work to the strategic goals of their Business Unit or unit higher (78 percent assent among participants in 2022 compared to 73 percent in 2021).

On average, employees’ knowledge of the strategy of their own unit has not changed compared since the 2021 survey. A good to very good understanding of it is evident in most areas of the company. In the other areas, work on communicating the strategy continues, with measures at all levels that are geared to the long term – because this task is not a sprint but a marathon.

Complex challenges, intensified communication

Looking at the four Strategic Focus Areas of our Strategic Planning 2031 (see insideKWS 01/2022), the survey showed that the Sustainable Agricultural Practices are best known. The other Focus Areas – Nutritional Food Ingredients, Connected Seeds and Future Sales Models – and our Sustainability Ambition 2030 (see insideKWS 03/2021) all scored over 50 percent in terms of awareness and understanding (see the chart), even though they were included for the first time, but there is still room for improvement here. The Business Units have translated the goals of the Strategic Focus Areas into their own projects and communicate them constantly using many different channels (see the latest examples).

Most popular sources of information

A wide range of measures and means of sharing information are needed to communicate the strategy successfully. According to the 2022 survey, the KWS intranet is the most popular source. “Meetings in my BU/function” come second. In addition to the intranet, direct dialog with colleagues is particularly valued – in various forms, such as workshops or meetings, both within the team and beyond.