Dr. Oetker is a more than 130-year-old, family-owned company with a strong tradition, employing nearly 16,000 people across more than 40 countries. Increased competitive pressures, evolving customer and employee needs, and growing complexity challenge organizations of all sizes to rethink and restructure the way they work. Unlike many traditionally managed companies, however, Dr. Oetker proactively addresses the significant changes of our time.

Over the years, several smaller and larger initiatives emerged within the organization to kickstart a shift toward a more agile working culture. Yet it became increasingly clear to leadership that, to drive truly sustainable and noticeable change, the organization needed to take effective steps as a whole. With #move, Dr. Oetker created a four-person team to consolidate, guide, and energize internal transformation efforts.

We were invited to join the #move team in supporting Dr. Oetker’s journey toward a more agile New Work culture.

Dr. Oetker’s goal was to initiate change processes as decentralized as possible, simultaneously across different organizational units, allowing them to spread organically within their areas—like small stones thrown into water, creating ripples at multiple points.

This approach was important for Dr. Oetker because the globally distributed teams and units know best what they need to work effectively. Needs and ways of working can vary greatly between Bielefeld and Mumbai, and who better to assess that than the people on the ground?

The solution: a training program in which we train Agile Coaches across different areas and locations of the organization. The trained “Local Transformation Agents” (LTAs) can then bring the tools, methods, and collaborative practices they’ve learned into their teams, driving the transformation process from within.

In October 2019, we launched the first LTA program, with 12 employees from various organizational areas such as Sales, Logistics, Controlling, and Marketing participating. Today, a total of 49 employees across nine countries—including India, Poland, Spain, and Brazil—have been trained as Local Transformation Agents, and the number continues to grow. Several sister companies within the Oetker Group have also already participated in the program.

Local Transformation Agents complete a multi-day program tailored specifically to Dr. Oetker’s needs, delivered remotely or in person, across five modules. They are trained in areas such as role- and tension-based work, Design Thinking, Scrum, leadership culture, and change & transformation management. With this knowledge, they are equipped to initiate fundamental changes in ways of working and collaboration within their organizational units, tailored to the needs of employees on site.

Of course, alignment of the transformation requires that the coaches stay well-connected with each other to share experiences, challenges, and learnings. To support this, the LTA Community was established, meeting every two weeks for exchanges and reflecting on and further developing their skills through peer groups and retrospectives.

49

Trained Local Transformation Agents

4

Completed training programs

5

Modules delivered across 13 sessions, laying the foundation for transformation facilitation

∞

Open-ended: The LTA program is an ongoing, continuous process