The Challenge
Kraft Heinz, one of the largest food and beverage companies on the globe, was about to embark on a period of great transformation for the company. After the birth of a new 5 and 10 year growth plan, Kraft Heinz was ready to show up differently – internally, to their board, investors, and to competitors. Courageous was brought in by leadership for multiple high visibility projects over a 3-year period to help inject creativity and stopping power to bring Kraft Heinz to life in a new way in every place they were – whether an internal meeting of the company’s top 200 global leaders or a gathering of 500 investors and analysts. Our job was to not only make people understand their grand 5 and 10 year plans, but to also make them feel and believe that this is a new era of Kraft Heinz.
the courage
To set a new standard for how Kraft Heinz presents itself and articulates its future, Courageous helped to:
- Inspire top company leaders by having them walk the future via an intentionally constructed art gallery inspired immersion of their key focus areas featuring what we called ‘brand docents’. While 100 walked the gallery, the others were in facilitated break out sessions designed by Courageous unearthing the different “Obstacles” and “Obsessions” of the 5 choices made across the 10 year plan.
- Connect with the investor community on an intimate level through a curated immersive lunch experience. The company’s top brands like Heinz, Kraft Mac & Cheese, and Primal Kitchen were brought to life via vignettes showcasing their current and future states through messaging, unique product displays and food pairings.
- Create a multi-sensory immersion space bringing to life the mission, essence and future plans of the company’s top 15 brands that was experienced by board members, customers, and employees.
- Shift Kraft Heinz away from boring PowerPoint presentations. We designed a comprehensive three-day offsite experience that blended experiences, inspiration, hard conversations, presentations and collaborative breakout sessions.
the change
At internal events, leaders walked away inspired, aligned and confident in the future of the organization. At external events, commentary received included notes like, “I wish more companies took this kind of approach.” Sentiment shifted with each event with feedback including:
- “Working with Courageous has just been a great process. What I saw today, it felt like a different company.” – Alan Kleinerman, Global Head of Innovation
- “Having the best we have at Kraft Heinz with great talent coming from the outside, that is the foundation of how we’re actually choosing greatness.” – Carlos Abrams-Rivera, CEO
- “Courageous drove major impact to the organization and solidified my trust in their team across any business or brand I’m on for future projects to come.” – Former KH Director
In summer of 2024, Fast Company named Kraft Heinz to its prestigious World’s Most Innovative Companies list.
