Organisation Structure

Olam has a distinctive capacity to operate as one company even though it is highly diversified across 60 countries, 20 products, and 10 functions. Our ability to have a highly coordinated, cross functional and high performance organisation is driven by the way our Corporate Centre integrates our multiple businesses, geographies and functions. The Corporate Centre catalyses the integration of a multi business company like ours by developing a shared vision and agenda, installing common operating systems and embedding a common culture across the organisation. Because of these shared systems, processes and culture, the whole of Olam is significantly greater than the sum of its parts.

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We are structured as a transnational organisation. We have adopted a 3-dimensional matrix structure (products, geographies and functions) to execute our strategy. This structure through which our business, geography and functional role incumbents bring different perspectives on the same issues allows us to build 3 complementary strategic capabilities: 1) global scale efficiency and competitiveness; 2) local country level responsiveness and flexibility; and 3) the capacity to leverage our intellectual capital, insight and best practices on a worldwide basis.

The role of our Global Product Heads is to capture the full benefit of integrated world-wide operations by furthering global scale efficiency, competitiveness and extracting synergies across different countries. They serve as the strategists for the businesses, as the allocators of its world-wide assets and resources and as the coordinators of transactions across national borders.

For geography roles, the Country Manager's primary objective is to be sensitive and responsive to the local market. The Country Manager plays three vital roles: the sensor and interpreter of local opportunities and threats, the builder of local resources and capabilities and the contributor to global strategy for the businesses in his country.

The mandate of Functional Managers in such a structure is to build an organisation that can use learning to create and spread innovations across national borders. To achieve this important objective, Olam's functional managers scan the globe systematically for specialised information, transfer leading-edge knowledge and best practices, and champion innovations across our various businesses and geographies.

The Corporate Centre plays a vital role of integrating the 3 dimensions of this matrix. It provides the leadership to the various businesses, geographies and functions, moulding them into one cohesive unit by building effective coalitions across the company, with the objective of ensuring, wherever possible, that the whole is worth more than the sum of its parts. Our Corporate Centre and its top management team provide the glue that binds and integrates our businesses, geographies and functions.

The Corporate Centre in Olam is responsible for key processes and functions including strategic planning, M&A, capital raising and allocation, leadership development, career paving and manpower deployment, accounts, banking and treasury, risk management, audit and compliance, systems and investor relations.

The key deliverable of the Corporate Centre in Olam is to build a strong portfolio of leadership businesses, raise and allocate capital, drive common initiatives and processes to expand performance, build a strong culture, develop a critical mass of leaders and quickly transfer best practices and learning across businesses and geographies rapidly. At Olam, we have built an entrepreneurial, high performance and team oriented culture.

At Olam, we have an annual corporate calendar of processes and forums that help us achieve such integration. It begins with the annual strategic planning process, the bi-monthly Executive Committee meetings, the bi-annual Management Committee meetings, the monthly Budget Review Meetings, the monthly Functional Review meetings, the annual Product Plan meetings, the annual Country Management Team meetings, the Performance Management Systems, all of which take place with drum beat regularity and intensity to deliver a high performance organisation that performs across business and commodity cycles.

The Management Committee

The Management Committee in Olam represents its senior leadership team, drawn from various geographies, functions and products heads. This group of 60 meets twice a year to participate in developing corporate strategy, and provides thought leadership for various organisation-wide initiatives aimed to bring transformational change. The Mancom also ensures leadership alignment to Olam's mission and shared goals and spearheads interventions designed to improve engagement and internal partnership. Beside other functions, various Standing Committees within the ManCom are currently engaged in addressing in large cross-cutting issues shaping Olam in years to come.  

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