News

Novozymes sets new corporate strategy

Novozymes has announced its new corporate strategy, “Partnering for impact”. The strategy is accompanied by a new set of long-term social, environmental and financial targets and a new purpose statement which reads, “Together, we find biological answers for better lives in a growing world – Let’s rethink tomorrow.” “I believe our new purpose encapsulates the […]

Novozymes has announced its new corporate strategy, “Partnering for impact”. The strategy is accompanied by a new set of long-term social, environmental and financial targets and a new purpose statement which reads, “Together, we find biological answers for better lives in a growing world – Let’s rethink tomorrow.”

“I believe our new purpose encapsulates the very essence of Novozymes. It is our call to action and will guide us during the coming years,” said Peder Holk Nielsen, Novozymes’ CEO. “Our purpose stems naturally from our heritage, what we have accomplished up until today and the opportunities ahead. The very first word is ‘together’ because we cannot do this alone. Partnerships, alliances and networks of the willing are the way to make a difference in a world full of complex problems and large opportunities.”

With this strategy, Novozymes says that it reinforces its commitment to help solve some of the pressing global challenges facing a growing world; the company believes that biology can bring answers to some of these challenges. Pooling insight and expertise together helps find the sustainable answers needed.

“It is important to focus on relationships that make a difference. We call it Partnering for Impact,” said Peder Holk Nielsen. “For us, partnerships mean deep-rooted collaborations with mutual benefits and obligations. Impact is about creating healthier foods, better climate, cleaner air, nature in balance or more jobs. And it is about optimizing a partner’s processes, creating new products or reducing their environmental footprints. Creating impact for our partners is often also a very direct way to better lives in a growing world.”

The new strategy sets out four focus areas for Novozymes, namely; 1) Rally for change, 2) Lead innovation, 3) Focus on opportunities and 4) Grow people. These focus areas will not only be addressed at a corporate level but also be reflected in the separate strategies for each industry area.

With the special focus being on Rally for change, Novozymes will explore new kinds of partnerships, and become a driving force in bringing together coalitions of the willing, for example, working with governments and international organizations to create sustainable energy from waste or partnering with countries to solve challenges about access to nutritious food and clean water.
To measure progress, Novozymes has set new targets.

“As part of our new purpose and strategy, we have set a series of long-term targets to assess how we are doing,” said Peder Holk Nielsen. “Over the next five years we aim to reach, educate, catalyze, deliver, save and enable to make a lasting difference.”
Novozymes says that its enzymatic solutions should reach 6 billion people by 2020, while simultaneously striving to educate 1 million people about the potential of biology. The company said that it aims to partner with key public and private organisations – to catalyse five global partnerships for change. Novozymes wants to deliver 10 transformative innovations that change the lives of many people, and save 100 million tons CO2 through the use of their products by 2020. Through investing more in their employees and leadership development, Novozymes wants to enable its people develop.

Novozymes’ updated long-term organic sales growth target is 8-10% in local currency on average throughout the period from 2015 to 2020. This replaces the previous target of +10%, and reflects the current visibility of the global economy and end markets and innovation pipeline. The EBIT margin is also updated, increasing from more than 24% to 26% and above, and is expected to be achievable through 2015 to 2020. The updated long-term target for ROIC including goodwill is 25% and above, and replaces the previous target of more than 22%. This is expected to be reached throughout the period.