Close Menu
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    • Our Story
    • Partner with us
    • Reach Us
    • Career
    Subscribe Newsletter
    HR KathaHR Katha
    • Exclusive
      • Exclusive Features
      • Research
      • Point Of View
      • Case In Point
      • Dialogue
      • Movement
      • Profile
      • Beyond Work
      • Rising Star
      • By Invitation
    • News
      • Global HR News
      • Compensation & Benefits
      • Diversity
      • Events
      • Gen Y
      • Hiring & Firing
      • HR & Labour Laws
      • Learning & Development
      • Merger & Acquisition
      • Performance Management & Productivity
      • Talent Management
      • Tools & Technology
      • Work-Life Balance
    • Special
      • Cover Story
      • Editorial
      • HR Forecast 2024
      • HR Forecast 2023
      • HR Forecast 2022
      • HR Forecast 2021
      • HR Forecast 2020
      • HR Forecast 2019
      • New Age Learning
      • Coaching and Training
      • Learn-Engage-Transform
    • Magazine
    • Reports
      • Whitepaper
        • HR Forecast 2024 e-mag
        • Future-proofing Manufacturing Through Digital Transformation
        • Employee Healthcare & Wellness Benefits: A Guide for Indian MSMEs
        • Build a Future Ready Organisation For The Road Ahead
        • Employee Experience Strategy
        • HRKatha 2019 Forecast
        • Decoding and Driving Employee Engagement
        • One Platform, Infinite Possibilities
      • Survey Reports
        • Happiness at Work
        • Upskilling for Jobs of the Future
        • The Labour Code 2020
    • Conferences
      • HRKatha Futurecast
      • Automation.NXT
      • The Great HR Debate
    • HR Jobs
    WhatsApp LinkedIn X (Twitter) Facebook Instagram
    HR KathaHR Katha
    Home»Culture»Marrying German and Indian cultures at Dr. Oetker India
    Culture

    Marrying German and Indian cultures at Dr. Oetker India

    mmBy Prajjal Saha | HRKathaNovember 17, 20176 Mins Read3456 Views
    Share LinkedIn Twitter Facebook
    Share
    LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

    Following Dr. Oetker’s acquisition of Fun Foods in 2008, one of the biggest challenges was to bridge the gap between employer ambitions and employee expectations.

    Dr. Oetker, the German company, came to India in 2007. However, it was only in 2008 that it took over Fun Foods, a significant purveyor of Western cuisine in India. With that started a unique internal journey of marrying two cultures and enabling them to work in harmony. One of the biggest challenges, with both being primarily family-owned businesses, was the gap between employer ambitions and employee expectations, following the acquisition.

    Hemangini Jayant, vice president-HR, Dr. Oetker India shares that while the Company saw it as a doubling up of the workforce and product line, and hence a larger business opportunity, the employees were expecting much more.  With a German company overtaking the business, they were hoping for a different work culture with more comfortable work hours, better pay, five-day working schedule and so on. “Although I joined the organisation in 2011, I had been consulting for them prior to that and after the acquisition, our focus was strongly on identifying the gaps in employer and employee expectations and bridging the same” she says.  

    Hemangini Jayant

    The cultural transformation journey of Dr. Oetker, as Jayant explains to us, had five major milestones. Each one focused on a key area, where the gaps existed. Here is what it entailed:

    Behavioural changes

    Jayant shares that with both organisations being family-owned originally, the decision-making was centralised and a monochromic culture prevailed. The system lacked ERP and people were not used to working with numbers. To add to that, the styles of working— Indian and German—were very different. “We first looked at decentralising the decision-making process, bringing in more heads to be involved in the process than just the authorities. We looked at empowering people to take decisions, own them and question authority, if need be,” Jayant explains.

    Breaking the cultural barriers

    It was important to help the staff understand and appreciate the differences in the two cultures. HR had to help people with differences in speech, language, body language, punctuality and so on, so that they may adjust with each other well. Jayant shares that, even the top management is involved in the process, so much so, that in order to break the cultural barriers, even the MD shares a room with one of the employees during the annual conference. In addition, they celebrate both Indian and German festivals to help people appreciate the two cultures.

    Performance driven

    To ensure an excellence- and performance- driven culture, the Company worked towards having well-defined KRAs and assessment centres, to link pay and increments with performance. At the same time, Dr. Oetker trained its people on Excel, English language skills and so on, depending on the need.

    Jayant further tells us of the Company’s inter-country talent development programmes to help people gain larger exposure and learning on the job. The International Talent Development programme, which is a one and a half-year comprehensive talent development initiative, takes place in Germany and every country nominates a candidate or a top performer to participate in the same. “There is huge excitement around the programme and it has a huge aspirational value amongst our people,” Jayant concurs.

    Sales Force

    Jayant shares that being a product sales dependent business, it was extremely crucial for each employee in the organisation to have a sales bent of mind. “The business could not be run in silos, as sales and production had to work in tandem to align the production capacities with the sales,” she says. With that in mind, it standardised the process, with well-defined targets that each involved party was accountable for. It created a monthly sales chart, leading to an annual target, which would be looked at during the annual conference.

    The impact was such that both production and sales began looking up the numbers with zeal. So much so, that, “Once a production staff directly called the VP sales, asking for the sales figures to align the production capacity,” Jayant quips.

    Sales Enablement

    This one is a larger drive to shape the mindset of the non-sales staff, helping them appreciate the importance of the sales function in the business, the challenges that they may be facing and how the other employees can contribute to the same. As part of this, Jayant shares that everyone in the head office was handed over ready stock and they had to go out to designated areas in the market and sell the same to the retailers for ready cash.

    “It gave us all a sense of what our sales staff have to face out there in the market; where we stand; what our market perception is; and what the challenges being faced out there are. In addition, it helped bring in empathy for our sales people, making us realise the hardships they go through to make our business successful,” said Jayant. She shares that this was in line with their vision 2020— ‘Everyone in it Together’.

    Besides that, a larger challenge for the HR team at Dr. Oetker was to make people appreciate the products they are selling. Not many Indians are used to having Western food on a daily basis, and hence, it was just a product for them, which they could not relate to well. “We wanted people to understand and appreciate Western cuisines, as only then they could work with more passion,” Jayant opines.

    To do that, the Company organises a culinary competition for the R&D team every month, wherein they are given one ingredient and expected to work out a Western recipe using that one ingredient along with Dr. Oetker’s products. People are sensitised about product application through such competitions. The Company once had over 200 employees cooking together in a culinary competition during one of its annual conferences.

    “We realised that even the top management needed similar sensitisation as most of them were not too keen about Western food. Therefore, we decided to introduce one new international dish from world cuisine during the monthly management meet each time.”

    More than the dish, the idea was to introduce people to the cuisine and its characteristics, informing people about its origin and the culture behind it.

    Culture Dr Oetker Hemangini Jayant
    Share. LinkedIn Twitter Facebook
    mm
    Prajjal Saha | HRKatha

    Dr. Prajjal Saha, editor and publisher of HRKatha since 2015, leverages over 25 years of experience in business journalism, writing, and editing. He founded HRKatha to provide insightful analysis on the evolving workplace. With expertise spanning HR, marketing, distribution, and technology, Saha has a deep understanding of business dynamics. His authorship of the acclaimed Marketing White Book highlights his versatility beyond HR. A trusted voice across industries, his clear and thoughtful commentary has earned him a reputation for thought leadership, making him a reliable source of knowledge and insights for professionals navigating the complexities of the business world.

    1 Comment

    1. Pankaj Shelake on November 19, 2017 4:36 pm

      Nice Article.,,

      Reply
    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    15 − fourteen =

    Related Posts

    Third Bracket secures INR 50 Million in seed funding

    May 15, 2025

    HSBC to cut over 340 jobs in France as part of global cost-cutting strategy

    May 15, 2025

    How Pramerica Life builds an ethical culture that works

    May 15, 2025

    Cancer-stricken employee fired after being denied remote work

    May 14, 2025
    EDITOR'S PICKS

    “Dark factories still a decade away from disrupting India’s employment market,” Sushil Baveja, CHRO, Jindal Stainless

    May 15, 2025

    How Pramerica Life builds an ethical culture that works

    May 15, 2025

    Red flags in job applications: What candidates miss but recruiters spot

    May 14, 2025

    Managing Gen Z in the workplace: Listening to what isn’t said

    May 13, 2025
    Latest Post

    SV Nathan joins PwC as country leader

    Movement May 15, 2025

    SV Nathan has joined PwC as its country leader. In this role, he will spearhead…

    Amazon eliminates 100 jobs from Devices and Services division

    News May 15, 2025

    Amazon has announced the layoff of 100 employees from its Devices and Services division, which…

    Third Bracket secures INR 50 Million in seed funding

    News May 15, 2025

    AI-driven hiring platform Third Bracket has raised close to INR 50 million in seed funding,…

    NASA employee dismissed amid DEI programme shutdown

    News May 15, 2025

    NASA has reportedly terminated a Caribbean-origin employee after the dismantling of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and…

    Asia's No.1 HR Platform

    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram LinkedIn WhatsApp Bluesky
    • Our Story
    • Partner with us
    • Career
    • Reach Us
    • Exclusive Features
    • Cover Story
    • Editorial
    • Dive into the Future of Work: Download HRForecast 2024 Now!
    © 2025 HRKatha.com
    • Disclaimer
    • Refunds & Cancellation Policy
    • Terms of Service

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.