Managing culture change during rapid growth
Kuehne+Nagel was able to drive widespread cultural and technological change across multiple business units with bottom-line benefits
Hana Lee, national process engineer – corporate finance and controlling at transport and logistics company Kuehne+Nagel Canada, gave a case study-based presentation at PEX Live: Workflow Automation 2022, outlining how multiple processes were automated across several departments during a period of growth.
Despite the large-scale project, Lee explained that to get everyone on board, it was important to “start small and grow your vision” by proving that the new practices and solutions would make a real difference to a complex business. With Kuehne+Nagel working in logistics for sea, air and road, as well as insurance and customs brokerage, Lee said that the project centered on transforming finance processes to support spending control needs that were essential, even as the company grew.
Lee noted that when she started with Kuehne+Nagel three years earlier, many employees were “not completely engaged” and many processes such as paper forms and heavy reliance on email were inefficient. By empowering employees, however, a safe space was created for ideas to be shared and positive cultural change embraced as the results were proven.
