Krones CEO Christoph Klenk sees the world and all of humanity faced with three major challenges: slowing climate change, feeding the world’s population, and using packaging responsibly. Two years ago, Krones set out on a mission to develop solutions that address precisely those challenges. At the time, we were in the process of defining what Krones’ own future should look like. We held a series of workshops, interviews and online surveys involving not only our Executive Board members but also nearly 500 employees worldwide. It was the insights that emerged from those activities that formed the basis for our target picture and, with it, the direction we want to take into the future.
The tagline “Solutions beyond tomorrow” distills the core idea underlying Krones’ target picture into three words. But what is a “target picture” anyway? What does it consist of? And how are we translating it into hands-on reality? On the two-year anniversary of its release, we’d like to answer these questions and more.
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Our vision |
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Our mission |
We call it our “target picture” because it describes the image we wish to convey to the world and embody in our team. It encompasses our purpose, mission and vision and defines the culture, behaviors and the strategic focus for our products that we need in order to achieve our ambitious goals. Examples include honoring diversity, collaborating, showing appreciation and commitment as well as a ceaseless pursuit of creativity and quality.
Committed to sustainability
“Krones needs a big and ambitious vision in order to keep evolving. That is why we have adopted our new target picture. ‘Solutions beyond tomorrow’ is our contribution towards creating a future that is truly livable, sustainable and successful. It’s why we’ve set specific goals for all aspects of sustainability and established binding corporate targets for those metrics,” explains CEO Christoph Klenk about the development and content of the target picture.
In other words, sustainability has become the main driver of innovation at Krones. That is important because sustainability features heavily in the minds of customers and consumers alike. The challenge for Krones is to marry sustainability and efficiency in its solutions. And Krones intends to do just that, systematically, across its entire portfolio, from process technology to filling and packaging right through to plastics recycling and intralogistics. Digital solutions and comprehensive services play a crucial role in increasing performance and reducing resource consumption and carbon emissions on our clients' production lines. We at Krones also believe they are the cornerstone for future business models and for ensuring the company’s resilience in general.
A dependable partner
Our target picture debuted on the public stage to much fanfare: It was at the drinktec 2022 that Krones made its first trade fair appearance under the new tagline “Solutions beyond tomorrow”. We proudly presented it and our target picture across the whole of our exhibit area. And as CSO Thomas Ricker reports, it was a great success: “The consistency with which we all communicated, spoke of the same goals and worked in concert made a real impression on visitors at drinktec.” But the unveiling was only the beginning. The target picture is an ongoing process, which Krones and its employees have been filling with life every day for the last two years.
These days, the target picture is virtually everywhere – above all the tagline. “Solutions beyond tomorrow” features prominently on walls and in presentations, ensures brand recognition at trade fairs and adorns the background screens of proud employees on Teams, LinkedIn and other social media channels. But it goes far beyond that. Because our target picture also directly influences our activities in many areas.
In research and development, for example, it provides guidance on which projects are prioritized. That is quite apparent in our current work on the lines of the future, in which sustainability drives our innovations and digital technologies enable progress.
In Human Resources, too, Krones’ target picture has spawned numerous projects and initiatives. The behaviors defined in the target picture lay a new foundation for conversations with employees and inform the training and continuing education courses we offer our specialists and managers. The reinterpretation of our employer brand deserves special mention here. In it, we have identified and fleshed out what characteristics set Krones apart as an employer and make us attractive to a wide variety of occupational groups.
“The target picture emerged from the company’s identity, the values that we all represent and the goals that we want to achieve together – and that goes for our financial, social and sustainability performance,” explains CFO Uta Anders. “Our new employer brand has two primary aims: to help us recruit the right people to fill open positions and to ensure that we are doing everything we can to enable the talented people who are already working for us to fully realize their potential and feel seen, heard and supported. It is the only way we can achieve our goals as a company. Together.” Under the hashtag #BePartOfKrones, we will focus on creating a supportive, empowering community working towards a better future.
Quo vadis, target picture?
Two years after its drafting, we’ve recently put our target picture to the test, gathering input from our employees through a group-wide survey. We asked questions like: What progress have we made so far? Where can or must we do better? The results of the survey will help move Krones forward along its path into the future. Because as ambitious as our goals may be with respect to the three major challenges we mentioned at the start of this piece, the last two years have shown us one thing very clearly: when we all pull together, we can accomplish incredible things – like solutions that go beyond tomorrow.
