Harim Group decided that smooth communication and quick decision-making among all group companies were necessary in order to keep up with the rapidly changing trends of the food industry. By adopting Google Workspace, communication and collaboration methods of 20 or so affiliates were unified, and collaboration took place naturally by utilizing Google Workspace tools, regardless of location. The way Harim’s teams work has changed, with horizontal communication now the norm. A fast and challenging work culture has been developed, where planning and execution can happen simultaneously.
Harim Group (Harim) started as a poultry company in 1978. Building integrated management that connects farms, factories, and markets, it has led the food culture of Korea, and has played a role as an agri-food company that integrates and manages the entire food value chain, enhancing its expertise in each sector centered on agri-food and partnering with global companies.
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Korea
https://harimholdings.co.kr/eng/main/main.do
Harim Group decided that smooth communication and quick decision-making among all group companies were necessary in order to keep up with the rapidly changing trends of the food industry. By adopting Google Workspace, communication and collaboration methods of 20 or so affiliates were unified, and collaboration took place naturally by utilizing Google Workspace tools, regardless of location. The way Harim’s teams work has changed, with horizontal communication now the norm. A fast and challenging work culture has been developed, where planning and execution can happen simultaneously.
Google Workspace Results
Integration of all group company communication
Establishment of a lean work culture where planning, communication and execution are carried out together
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A seamless collaboration experience on any device, anywhere
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Horizontal communication environment
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Seamless workbook management in one place
Harim Group (Harim) started as a poultry company in 1978 and has grown into a broader food business responsible for the Korean table, covering livestock, feed, distribution, logistics, and food manufacturing and sales. Harim has continued to grow steadily based on its long experience and capabilities in the food industry. But with that growth, came common concerns and challenges for growing organizations. Namely, how well its people could share communication, culture and philosophy.
In the rapidly changing food industry, close communication is key. Harim needed to foster a work culture where transparent and horizontal communication and collaboration could take place naturally. The company decided that
Harim Group Chief Data Officer Choi In-kyung, who leads Harim Group's IT team and introduced Google Workspace, says he thought about connecting Harim's IT environment with Chairman Kim Hong-guk's management philosophy.
“Harim's business starts with responsibility for the development of the food industry. The world is becoming more and more interested in food. However, the proportion of quality food ingredients is decreasing considerably, and businesses have a big role to play in this.”
These days, a lot of food preparation that was typically done at home takes place in factories. Companies are lowering costs with mass purchases, increasing hygiene to handle food safely, and constantly investing in research and development to create better tasting food. The way food is distributed is also changing. Harim is determined to lead the market by connecting better with consumers. Mr. Choi says communication is the key to make this possible.
“Harim Group has more than 20 affiliates raising livestock, processing, distribution and sales, and a systematic integration of the entire food industry. Although each affiliate is doing well in their respective areas, the connection between each company was relatively loosened. It's because each affiliate has a different way of working and communicating.”
Mr. Choi decided that even though each vendor has a different system, it would be beneficial to have a single channel of communication. However, implementing this was not an easy task because it would change current workflow processes. The smooth introduction of new environments has been an important challenge, especially because of the low dependence on IT in this line of work, and the high degree of acceptance as a tool.
Mr. Choi decided that a single channel of communication between divisions would improve communication and alignment. However, there were some concerns around implementation and how it would impact the current workflows and processes at the different divisions. Introducing any new solution smoothly would depend on navigating two key factors: ease of use for those who are not heavy IT users and widespread adoption to make it work across the organization.
However, just as Harim's philosophy of the food industry connects all affiliates, digital transformation of work began to open up as the management began to agree that the infrastructure of communication should be unified to achieve not only actual work but also perspectives and philosophy on food.
Digital transformation has enabled Harim to streamline communications, achieving a better workflow that is in line with the company's philosophy.
Establishing a working culture with seamless communication
“Google Workspace is quite convenient. It was so easy to connect with each other that they didn't need training in particular, and they naturally melted into their work. New capabilities continued to be added to the cloud without the burden of development and operation, and the collaboration culture was seamlessly established based on horizontal communication, creating a fast and efficient work environment.” - Choi In-kyung, Chief Data Officer, Harim Group
Mr. Choi explains that the company’s perception of the cloud has changed over the years. Until a few years ago, there was the impression that it was difficult to integrate Software as a Service (SaaS) into the core business environment. Because of this, collaboration tools were often operated on on premise PCs.
“It's hard to keep up with the times with client-centered services now. The client method has the advantage of being able to develop and use the necessary functions freely, but it takes a lot of effort to continue development and maintenance, and it is not easy to follow sensitive trends such as mobile and security.”
Rather, Harim decided that it would be much more advantageous for companies to properly utilize cloud services that are already well developed, with new technologies and consistent updates. This is particularly because collaboration and communication-related technologies were not required to integrate with Harim’s other technologies that were related to the food production business. Instead, they were used as a support tool to improve workflows.
During the deployment, Harim reviewed several cloud-based collaboration tools. His key criteria included ease of use for field users, who would account for the majority of executives and employees. It was also important for them to access and use it easily. Since the proportion of Android smartphones in the company was also high, there was already a basic environment for employees to access and use Google's services naturally. Familiarity with the platform would enable easy adoption and allow ease of communication at any time regardless of device or place.
“Upon deployment, we found Google Workspace to be incredibly convenient. The ease of use meant that employees didn't need training, and the new processes were seamlessly integrated into the day-to-day workflow. In order to increase utilization, training for managers was started with additional training also conducted for users who already use it well.” says Choi.
As it turned out, the Google Workspace adoption was better than expected. But more needed to be done if we wanted to go a step further, and we needed active participation from the management and executives.
The point is that one of the manager's skills emphasized by Harim Group is that it values execution and actively monitors it through daily management. The result is the product of the process, and the performance is not judged by the result alone. It was important for management to look at many things in real time and exchange opinions. That's why we first introduced Google Workspace.
As the management directly participated in projects focused on a Google Workspace, employees' work naturally gathered in this space, and the data accumulated while working began to be organized in one place. Management is not only briefed on the results, but also checked indicators, tasks, and issues immediately and communicated directly. The pace of work has accelerated, and the time spent on reporting has completely disappeared. The work went faster and more systematically.
Because of real-time communication, the team could remove any delays and speed up decision-making processes. Employees could share their opinions and implement changes at the same time. This new way of working created a new work culture.
Improved collaboration and better security changes the company culture
“Upon deployment, we found Google Workspace to be incredibly convenient. The ease of use meant that employees didn't need training, and the new processes were seamlessly integrated into the day-to-day workflow. In order to increase utilization, training for managers was started with additional training also conducted for users who already use it well.” - Choi In-kyung, Chief Data Officer, Harim Group
The benefit of using Google Workspace is the collaboration of documents. Instead of having to create copies every time, employees can work on a single document, and refer back to previous versions using the history function. This allows transparency, and at the same time, makes the history management easy as there is no risk of lost documents in between. Having this function also fosters teamwork, as everyone can access and work on the document together at the same time.
Businesses usually want to move all existing documents into the new environment and manage them through security rules to change the document system. However, Harim's document management strategy was a little different. Rather than gathering everything into the system immediately, Harim encouraged employees to naturally adapt to the new system.
“IT administrators expect to manage documents systematically and strictly, and to operate document centralization through security and classification policies, but in reality it's not easy to carry out. Instead, Harim ensures that every employee manages their documents in a convenient way while following security, management, and sharing rules.”
The unlimited storage space in the cloud allows each person to freely manage documents and share documents through space according to their work. Depending on the relevance of the work, documents naturally gather, and there is also a sense of awareness of common materials.
“As I shared and worked with
Currently, Harim's work-related communication is steadily moving and expanding to Google Workspace. Telephone calls have been converted to messages from
A freer and more transparent communication across the organization
“As I shared and worked with Drive, I realized that ownership of documents is not by an individual, but it is an asset that belongs to the team and the company. Documents were systematically gathered with a simple rule to post them in a shared folder if you thought they were minimal public materials.” - Choi In-kyung, Chief Data Officer, Harim Group
There has also been a change in IT management. Traditional business software has reduced its capabilities around electronic payments, and the rest is moving quickly to Google Workspace. In the process, the ongoing operational, management, and development of groupware, which was operated on-premise, has been significantly reduced, and management points have become noticeably simpler. The burden of moving large files to and from the email server is gone because of the immediate loss of the email server or restrictions on email space.
Compared to the existing email environment, Gmail was easy to search and has no storage space restrictions, increasing employee satisfaction. Managing spam has also become easier, and administrative requests to IT departments have been significantly reduced because there is little to no disruption.
Through the different communication channels on Google Workspace, a better sense of camaraderie has been formed within the organization, strengthening the bond between employees. It has also created a flatter hierarchy, where anyone can discuss their work freely in an open and transparent environment.
*Google Workspace was formerly known as G Suite prior to Oct. 6, 2020.