AAK Annual Report 2018

14 The AAK Way Our company program The AAK Way was launched in January 2017 and will guide us through 2019. After two very exciting years with the development and implementation of the program, we have seen important achievements across the globe within many functions. This has created a strong foundation going into the final year of the program during which there will be focus on continued execution and harvesting of program initiatives. The AAK Way is based on six strategic cornerstones: Speciality and semi-speciality products Customer co-development Sustainable growth Global reach aligned with high-growth markets and segments Strong local presence Multi-oil and multi-process The key focus for The AAK Way is to enable us to continue to deliver strong organic growth. This will be achieved by focusing on five priority areas – Go to Market, Operational Excellence, Special Focus Areas, Innovation, and People. Go to Market Being the Co-Development Company, we create lasting value for our customers through value-adding vegetable oils and fats solutions. Our go-to-market approach is to partner with our customers all the way – from identifying their needs, through creating the right solutions for them, to the actual sales. During 2018, we conducted a Global Customer Survey which will guide us in further strengthening our way of selling and our unique customer co-development approach, as well as enhance the customer experience and increase customer loyalty. Operational Excellence In accordance with our brand promise and to manage the ever-increasing competition in the market, it is important that we have operational excellence all the way from sourcing our raw materials in a cost-competi- tive and responsible way, via a cost-effective production to delivering on time and in quality. This is enabled by further strengthening our supporting tools and processes. Special Focus Areas AAK’s core business is to develop and supply vege- table oils and fats solutions to solve customer-specific needs across industries such as bakery, chocolate and confectionery, cosmetics, and infant nutrition. To further strengthen our organic growth, we have identified some special focus areas which we believe hold significant potential for future growth: Special Nutrition (including Infant, Medical and Senior Nutrition), Dairy (including the plant-based dairy industry), as well as an increased focus on Foodservice. Innovation Innovation is crucial to drive future organic growth and to build an even stronger AAK for the mid and the long term. This is decisive for being the preferred supplier and for securing that our solutions add strong value to our customers. When it comes to innovation capabilities we want to be in a league of our own when developing new market-driven ideas, subsequently executing with a sense of urgency leading to full commercialization. People We want AAK to be a great place to work, a place where we set a high standard for performance, where everybody is highly engaged, with potential for personal development and where strong leaders both support and challenge all colleagues in an organization to last. We also continuously prepare our workforce for the ever-changing future and invest in leadership development. Innovation Go to Market Operational Excellence Special Focus Areas People AAK Way of Selling Customer Co-Development Sourcing Excellence Cost Effective & Flexible World Class Delivery Special Nutrition Dairy+ INNOBO - Products