Using actionable intelligence to build cohesion across diversity

Company: Bright Food International Ltd, Hong Kong SAR
Sector: Food and Beverages

When shoppers buy a bottle of Filippo Berio olive oil in Italy or Tnuva milk in Israel, they probably do not realise that these national brands are owned by Bright Food, a Chinese state enterprise. The group’s international food and beverages portfolio extends from Europe to Australia, and in future, it aims to harness its global distribution network to bring Bright Food products to more customers around the world.

Bright Food, based in Shanghai, faces the challenge of uniting diverse overseas management teams and workforces around the same corporate culture and mission in order to achieve its goal to become one of the world’s leading global food and beverages companies. In the past, Chinese state enterprises that have acquired foreign businesses have often struggled to overcome this hurdle. Instead, poor communication and a failure to understand the corporate cultures and business practices of overseas subsidiaries have often led to misunderstandings, confusion and even a total breakdown of trust.

Bright Food International (BFI), the Hong Kong-based subsidiary which manages the group’s global portfolio, was conscious of these issues when it engaged PwC in 2021 to develop a risk and regulatory management framework and solution. BFI wanted a people-led, technology-driven platform to help the group surmount internal language, culture and communication barriers, which had been reinforced by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns. In addition, BFI needed the platform to satisfy increasingly stringent requirements by China’s state assets regulator for large companies to ensure transparency throughout their foreign holdings.

The human factor

PwC’s platform enables faster risk monitoring and alerts across BFI’s diverse global portfolio - for example, by eliminating many time-consuming manual reporting tasks, and by generating instant data and insights into current operations worldwide.

But the platform has a human dimension as well. With the global group’s internal communication in mind, we enabled leadership teams and managers at subsidiaries around the world to access the platform easily for business analytics. In addition, it enables international colleagues to share their regional and industry perspectives with the parent group. All of these exchanges are conducted in English, where previously the use of different languages on various national platforms formed a barrier to integrated, transparent global risk management and the development of a single worldwide corporate culture.

The outcome of this approach is already visible throughout BFI’s international network. Beyond its GRC functions, the platform serves as a global touch point where operational issues and business opportunities can be discussed as soon as they arise with senior management teams at foreign subsidiaries. At a lower level, the platform also acts as an information-sharing hub for managers at individual Bright Food companies around the world. Ultimately, customers also benefit from these interactions, which enable Bright Food to make, distribute and sell better products worldwide.