Orana: A Plant-based Future Calls for New Skills

Case

Orana:
A Plant-based Future Calls for New Skills

The Danish multinational company Orana operates within the food and beverage industry. Having participated in our Future Now program, the company is now equipped with a suite of tools and perspectives that give them a competitive advantage in a market where plant-based foods are increasingly in demand

Orana produces and sells fruit-based raw materials and natural extracts to dairies, juice producers, and other food manufacturers. In essence, they create great taste. The company is currently in the process of entering a new market of plant-based products, but even a large and established company like Orana must learn new skills and work processes to attain this goal.

The Results: New collaborations

Participating in our project Future Now provided the company with specific tools and methods that allow them to adapt to an increasingly plant-based future:

A plan for launching and prototyping a new product: A nutritious drink based on local fruits from Kenya. The product is intended for vulnerable groups worldwide, such as refugee camps or for children and young people in schools where adequate nutrition is necessary for the learning process.
Mapping future collaborations: e.g. with DTU (Denmark’s Technical University) or similar institutions, should contribute to ensuring the technical knowledge behind the nutritional composition of the new product.
A specific tool for internal project collaborations: The ‘basic assumptions’ tool helps the company map future processes and action plans.

Along with these three major initiatives, participating in Future Now has given Orana a new perspective on themselves. A perspective they could never get from an external consultant, says Sia Oskarson, Director, Fruit Based Raw Materials at Orana, and adds: “It’s exciting when we get to step outside of the ordinary and ask ourselves: What is Orana? Where are we going? Normally, we are stuck in the mud too much and never get to see things from a vantage point above.”

Additionally, the three-month program has given Orana a better understanding of how to involve the whole organization:

"It should not just be a director who comes up with ideas. Now it's about getting the whole organization involved and understanding where we are heading"

Sia Oskarson

Director, Fruit Based Raw Materials, Orana

The Challenge: A need for extensive expertise

Orana’s involvement in Future Now has also led to the discovery of new customer types and business partners. Although the company already has highly skilled and experienced in-house competencies in the area of technical product development – the core of their activities – they need assistance to explore alternative raw materials. Specifically, Orana needs help in sourcing these new raw materials, as well as in acquiring the necessary technical expertise to compress the right nutritional content into their future products. For example, the company needs specific technical assistance to help maintain the nutrients and vitamins from the raw and plant-based materials in the nutritious drinks for vulnerable groups in the world.

If Orana is to succeed with plant-based products in the future, they will need to integrate new collaborations into their value chain. For example, with DTU or other companies that specialize in developing nutrient-rich products for poor and vulnerable societies around the world.

According to Sia Oskarson, Orana will need to take it one step further and ask themselves: “Who will be the most suitable company or institution to work with? And how can you get a hold of them and start a dialogue about future collaboration?”.

The Approach: Engaging the entire organization

Orana is currently working on the establishment of a competent project management group, which among other things, must continue to search for new and qualified partners. According to Sia Oskarson, Orana wants to engage all levels of employees so that it is not solely top management that drives the company’s advancement in the plant-based market. Ultimately, it should be a collaborative process for the entire organization.

As part of the further development of the project, as well as for other future projects, Orana will rely on some special design tools acquired from the Future Now program. In particular, design tools such as ‘future scenarios’ and ‘basic assumptions’ played an imperative role in illustrating Orana’s path towards new plant-based product launches (you can check out some similar future scenarios here). In addition, the tools should facilitate the multinational company’s ability to visualize their development throughout the organization and in all subsidiaries worldwide.

The Future Now project was a collaboration with DI – Dansk Industri and Industriens Fond that ran from fall 2020 to fall 2021.

About Orana

Orana is a multinational company with extensive experience within the food & beverage industry. Based on natural fruit and plant-derived ingredients, the company produces tasteful products for the beverage, dairy, and baking industries around the world.