From Operational Data Maintenance to Strategic Data Architecture: Master Data Management at Chr. Hansen

Founded in 1874, Chr. Hansen (pronounced Christian Hansen) is a global biotech corporation specialized in the development and manufacturing of food cultures, enzymes, probiotics and natural colors for business customers in the food, pharmaceutical, agricultural and nutritional industries. Chr. Hansen has a long history as a traditional manufacturer selling to rather conservative customers, especially dairies and farms. At the time of the teaching case, the corporation just took note of the importance of digital transformation to meet its strategic goals. Installing a high-level digital transformation team, the corporation started to experiment with digital business models. A central part of the transformation was to learn how to use data as a strategic asset, which began with implementing so-called Master Data Management (MDM) as a corporate-wide capability. This would allow for a unified view on all aspects of the business based on reliable, high-quality data, which could then be used to innovate more data-driven business models. While initial experimentation in that direction delivered promising results, an audit by Ernst & Young showed that Chr. Hansen still had a long way to go in its efforts to establish MDM. As a first but decisive step, the Global Master Data unit was charged to develop master data about the customers. And it was then up to the head of the unit, Nina Bækbo Andersen, to take this challenge on and help Chr. Hansen to digitally transform from a traditional manufacturer to a data-driven business ready for the 21st century.