Campbell Soup Company: Harmonizing Processes and Empowering Workers

Abstract

In 2007 Campbell Soup Company was implementing Project Harmony: a multi-year effort to implement SAP and create more standardized and integrated business processes across Campbell’s North American businesses. Campbell pursued its transformation with an expectation that it would not experience the performance dip common in companies implementing major new systems. Toward that end, Campbell designed a governance structure intended to (1) allocate ownership of project outcomes to senior executives; (2) free up top talent to ensure effective process design and smooth implementation; (3) benefit from the expertise of external partners; and (4) empower stakeholders to learn from one another and drive benefits from new systems and processes. Early results suggest that the firm’s efforts were paying off. This case describes Campbell’s journey from isolated systems and processes to an integrated business with empowered local decisions makers who were learning to take advantage of transparent transaction data.