This document provides a history of Rieber & Søn ASA, a Norwegian food company, from its founding in 1839 to recent acquisitions and initiatives. It discusses the company's vision to be a "Local Taste Champion" and efforts to integrate its organization across locations through modern collaboration tools and virtual teams. Key elements of integration include workshare, coordination, and collaboration. Technical success criteria for virtual collaboration include infrastructure capacity, quality of service, and standardization. Preliminary experiences have been positive, including increased meetings, information flow, efficiency, and reduced travel costs.

1. Kva forventningar og kompetansekrav møter dei nyutdanna når dei skal ut i yrkeslivet… og korleis vert digitale samhandlingsverktøy nytta i praksis? Rieber & Søn ASA Hvordan etablere moderne samhandling i en organisasjon med språklig, kulturell og geografisk spredning!

2. The history of Rieber & Søn 1839 Paul Gottlieb Rieber sets up a trading company and vinegar factory in Bergen. 1933 Rieber & Søn ventures further into the food industry with substitute coffee. 1946 Toro stock cubes are launched, marking the start of one of Norway’s strongest brands. 1964 Bergen Fish Soup is launched, marking the start of a new epoch in Toro’s history. 1985 Denja , a salad producer since the 1950s, is acquired. 1987 Rieber & Søn is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. 1989 Bøe Lefsebakeri AS and the Vestlandslefsa brand is acquired. 1990 Vossafår is acquired. 1992 Vitana in the Czech Republic is acquired. 1996 Delecta , the Polish food company, is acquired. Mr. Lee becomes a part of Rieber & Søn. Norway Foods, with the King Oscar brand, is acquired. 1998 Big Fish (Poland) and Alamar (Norway), are acquired and integrated with King Oscar. 2000 After 161 years, Rieber & Søn decides to abandon the conglomerate model and focus solely on food. Anja Cake in Poland and Chaka , a producer of snacks and peanuts in Russia, are acquired. 2002 Danisco’s onion factory in the Netherlands is taken over and renamed Cronions . 2003 Rieber & Søn Food Service and Rieber Food Ingredients are established as business units. Nopal AS, including the brands Black Boy , Ming , Geisha , Trondhjems , Heistad and Sopps. 2004 Acquisition of Mrs Cheng’s , one of Sweden’s leading Asiatic food brands. 2005 The Danish companies K-Salat and Bähncke are acquired 2006 The Swedish cake producer Frödinge is taken over. Acquisition of the German distributor Puttkammer & Walke . Chilled ready meals are launched in Norway under the Toro Velbekomme brand. 2007 Frozen cakes are launched on the Norwegian market. 2008 The “Future” program to ensure long-lasting operational improvements and higher profitability starts.

3. Rieber & Søn - April 2010 Rieber & Søn is one of Norway’s leading food companies. The main markets are the Nordic countries and Eastern Europe, where the Group has considerable market shares. Rieber & Søn develop products based on local taste, and shall inspire people to prepare exciting and tasty food in an easier way. Rieber & Søn have leading brands such as Toro, Denja, Mr.Lee, King Oscar, Vossafår, Vestlandslefsa, Black Boy, Trondhjems (Norway), Mrs Cheng’s og Frödinge (Sweden), K-Salat og Bähncke (Denmark), Delecta (Poland), Vitana (Czech Rep. and Slovakia) and Chaka (Russia). Rieber & Søn had a revenue of 5,0 billion Norwegian kroner in 2008. The Group has a workforce of 3834 (1207 of these in Norway). Rieber & Søn have production in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, The Netherlands, Poland, Czech Rep. and Russia. In addition the Group has sales organizations in Germany, Great Britain, Slovakia, Belgium and US.

4. The Vision We shall be the Local Taste Champion and leading Brand Builder, and will develop attractive food based on consumer needs. Good Food Local Taste Winner Brand Builder We shall inspire people to prepare and enjoy exciting and tasty food in an easier way. By Local Taste Champion we mean: We have a thorough knowledge of local and national taste preferences, and we provide delicious mealtime solutions rooted in tradition and eating habits. We are completely familiar with trends and ethnic tastes in our markets, and our expertise enables us allows us to adapt them to local and national taste preferences.

5. Working integrated together How to work integrated through long distances? Wloclawek Elverum Arna Bergen Stodulky Bysice Skjelsør Havnsø Larvik Voss Vimmerby Gniewino Oslo St.Maartensdijk Moscow Svolvær Kruiningen Roudnice Varnsdorf Solec Kuj Os

6. The Integration of Rieber & Son organisation The aim “ Our aim is to take the step from a food conglomerate to be an integrated company. In short this means working closer together in the Rieber & Søn Group both through the different functions and horizontally through the different Business Units. The end result will be even higher efficiency and better performance.” ” The new Group Management Team is appointed to strengthen and implement the integration in the company. BU's represented in the GMT have a similar portfolio and alike structure with great potentials for synergies and coordination through the whole value chain. In addition, necessary functional and value chain units are represented in GMT. Our primary focus short and mid term will be on the operational challenges in the company. GMT will have our first meeting in Bergen in the beginning of December, laying the framework for how we will work together as a team but also discussing different aspects where we need to take immediate action.” Patrick Anderson CEO – Nov 11th 2008

7. To enable true integration in an organization like Rieber & Son a dedicated Integration program with defined goals and milestones is established. Experiences from similar programs in other companies gives that such organizational change programs will face all aspects of enthusiasm and excitement as well as skepticism and resistance. Critical factors for success within such programs are management dedication, well coordinated communication, teamwork in all axes, sustainability and loyalty to the agreed process. Accordingly already ongoing projects mandates and targets have to be aligned to ensure compatibility to the new superior integration program. The Integration of Rieber & Son The process

8. Integrated organization - Key elements Three key elements in an integrated organization Workshare Coordination Collaboration Workshare Planning and performance Defined work processes, tasks and roles Formal and informal teams and working groups Coordination Communication Verbal and nonverbal communication (“bodylanguage”) Formal and informal meetingplaces for dialog Meetingrooms, Coffee bars, by the printer, cantina, at the office desk etc. Sharing experience and competence Social relations are mandatory Safe environment for discussions

9. Integrated organization - Key elements Coordination cont. The Human factors Unpredictable behavior Rational vs irrational To broaden the platform for real common understanding Culture Mutual awareness and respect for cultural differences Language skills Increased interaction in general due to the globalization factor Collaboration Create an integrated organizational culture Getting people closer together The importance of communication skills and understanding Create both physical and virtual teams Working together with clear tasks and goals Establish the arena for virtual collaboration by utilizing the integration of modern technology

10. Virtual Collaboration The new technological arena By utilizing new technology we can create new arenas for collaboration and team working (video, web conferencing, chat etc.). To achieve the benefits of true integration it is crucial to emphasize on the working processes and organizational structures that adapts to the new working arenas. Virtual collaboration – Virtual teams Using collaboration tools (unified communication) enables people in different locations to work together more efficient, share knowledge and experience without being located in the same room.

11. The Integration of Rieber & Son The tools

12. Technical success criteria Capacity in the infrastructure Integrated network for data, voice and video Everything goes IP  IP goes everywhere Quality of Service Technology partners – implementation and support Standardization on infrastructure and user interface Technical availability and sustainability Easy to use – works everytime

13. The impact of Integration A: Integration as the outspoken overall aim: Unified Communication as a mandatory tool to achieve success Establish a global technical design and architecture Start the process of purchasing defined components within R&S UC architecture and integrate in sequential phases Purchasing iaw R&S standard methodology within the frames of the constraints given by the technical design Align the plan with organizational and cultural integration processes and competence building B: Integration as a vision: Unified Communication as far as possible – IT driven Optimize the purchase process iaw R&S standard methodology Focus on fulfillment of the CTs mandates. Avoidance of sub optimization ensuring sufficient videoconferencing capabilities Where are we heading?

14. Efficient collaboration in Rieber & Søn ASA Integration as the outspoken overall aim !!

15. Quick wins: Traveling cost, efficiency and environment.. AV-suppliers business case tools are used for analyze the direct and indirect cost as well as environmental impact of traveling in an organization as the Norwegian part of Rieber & Son. The parameters used are organizational structure, localization within Norway and other countries. The traveling cost is then representing the Norwegian part of the organization only. All other BU’s traveling costs will be additional in these calculations. We recognize that the business case tools are giving a precise indication compared with actual traveling cost and there is reasons to believe that the calculated traveling time is correspondingly correct. R&S (Norw. part) actual traveling cost last 12 months = NoK 11 460 000 Calculated traveling time = 30 679 productive working hours Environment = 2703 tons CO 2 pr year. Total traveling cost (direct and indirect) for the Norwegian part of R&S pr year > NoK 21 000 000

16. Principles ” New HQ” is the catalyst for standardisation of new tools and procedures for more efficient collaboration in Rieber & Son Group. A ”Rieber-standard” within Videoconference infrastructure is established. The standard is based on equipment from an international vendor with support network in regions where R&S Group is represented. Standard infrastructure and standard end-user interface is mandatory to optimize the use of the equipment and to reduce lifecycle cost and improve the ROI. Defined BU’s are appointed to invest in minimum 1 basic Standard Videoconference solution to enable efficient collaboration between and within the BU’s. 3 categories of collaboration rooms (with videoconference capabilities) are defined: Small : 1 to 3 persons Medium : 4 to 8 persons Large : 8 to 20 persons

17. Design scheme

18. The use of collaboration tools The majority of meetings scheduled with participants from different locations should be performed via videoconference, phone conference, web meetings or combinations of such. Videoconferences involving mutual locations should utilize the “virtual meeting places” to reduce the complexity of administration. Point-to-point conferences should utilize direct calls. One-to-one conferences should utilize the use of the Movi client enabling presentation sharing. One-to-many presentations are performed as WEB casts (ie; CEOs Quarterly briefing).

19. The Intranet portal is the main information source available for all PC users in R&S. Information desks are placed at production plants enabling production workers to use the Intranet portal. Information screens are placed in cantina areas to improve the availability and accessibility of information. There are none outspoken restrictions for social medias as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. but so far the employees have limited their use by their own conscience.. Restrictions are implemented for MSN and Skype, mainly for security and network capacity reasons. The use of collaboration tools

20. Experiences with the new collaboration tools Remarkable increased numbers of meetings involving multiple locations. Improved information flow in the company especially cross location / cross border. The meetings are reported to be more efficient hence the communication flow have increased in volume and quality and the misunderstandings between colleagues have decreased. Increased impression of work efficiency. Significant reduction in travel costs. System problems have been experienced mainly due to infrastructure problems in the total solution chain. User satisfaction survey regarding the user interphases, system availability and stability is currently ongoing.

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