Kwizda Agro – How to think beyond the limits of growth with a strong vision.
About KWIZDA Agro:
KWIZDA Agro has been a major player in integrated plant protection and pest control for nearly 100 years.
Challenge:
The Agro division of KWIZDA, a family-owned Austrian company that has been successful for many generations, is currently facing the biggest agricultural upheaval since the Industrial Revolution: new forms of farming, automation, as well as climate change and the accompanying targets set out in the 2019 Green Deal, are presenting the industry with many challenges.
Approach:
We needed to know where agriculture in general, and crop protection and pest control in particular, were headed. To do this, we initiated a visioning process:
Over a period of 8 months, we gathered in-depth knowledge from our stakeholders, as well as through "Inspirational Journeys" to Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley. Here we were inspired by scientists from Israel's leading universities and Singularity University. We explored new technologies and networked with countless startups working on precision farming and the use of artificial intelligence.
As a result, the picture of what future agriculture will look like became more concrete and we were finally able to ask ourselves the crucial question: What role will KWIZDA Agro play in this setting, and what company will it need to be during and after this transformation?
Result:
The result from the strategy process was, among other things, a corporate vision that does not end with the deadline of the Green Deal, but looks much further into the future and thus proposes a sustainable change.
What would the vision of a TOP company look like that would lose fifty percent of its current business as of 2030 due to the Green Deal?
"When the Kwizda Agro management team first discussed the framework for developing our vision with the disruptive team at the end of 2020, we created the slogan "Why our future is faster than we think". We deliberately wanted to put the need for change at the forefront of our joint project and send a strong signal that we need to react promptly to changes in our markets and among our customers.
The Team Disruptive had to ask itself many questions: What developments and trends will affect us and our industry? Where will our customers and stakeholders go? What technologies will be available to us and do they also have the potential to disruptively change our value chains?
Several times we fired up the DeLorean from Back to the Future and looked at the future and the past. And together we went through a process that provided us with many answers. Answers that enabled us to define a vision and purpose for Kwizda Agro. At the same time, we also managed to create a very high level of acceptance within the organisation by involving various internal as well as external stakeholders. The definition of High Hard Goals over several time horizons ultimately gave us a clear catalogue of actions and measures for investments and projects. By doing so, we made our vision tangible and actionable and initiated the change already during the process!"
Ronald Hamedl
Managing Director