Executive Summary
Why do so many supply chain transformations fail to deliver lasting results? Karen-Marie Katholm, former Chief Integrated Supply Chain Officer at Akzo Nobel and incoming Chief Supply Chain Officer at Orkla Foods, argues that the answer lies not in systems or processes alone—but in capabilities. After leading 14,000 employees across 130 manufacturing sites through a transformation that consolidated 13 separate supply chains into one integrated operation, she has learned that technical expertise is merely the price of entry. The real differentiator is human-centric leadership.
Core insights:
- The Balcony and the Dance Floor: Leaders must understand what’s happening on the dance floor without dancing themselves—observation, reflection, and direction-setting are the leader’s true work
- Three Dimensions of Excellence: Successful supply chains require processes, systems (the toolbox), and capabilities—but most leaders underinvest in the third
- Differentiated Supply Chains: One size doesn’t fit all—agile supply chains serving demanding customers require different approaches from cost-focused commodity flows
- From S&OP to Integrated Business Management: The five-step monthly process that transforms supply chain from cost centre to value driver
- Soft Skills Aren’t Soft: Gemba walks, listening, and clear narrative matter more than technical prowess when leading global teams
- Diversity Drives Innovation: Fresh perspectives from engineering trainees often surface the questions experienced leaders have stopped asking
- Supply Chain as Value Chain: When strategy connects upstream to downstream, sustainability becomes opportunity rather than cost
The Balcony and the Dance Floor: A Leadership Awakening
“As a leader, it’s important that you understand and realise what’s going on on the dance floor. However, you’re not really supposed as a leader on an ongoing basis to be dancing around on the dance floor.”
When Karen-Marie Katholm first encountered Ronald Heifetz’s balcony and dance floor metaphor, it crystallised something she had been sensing throughout her career transition from technical expert to executive leader.
The image is deceptively simple. The dance floor represents operational activity—the daily work of running supply chains, managing production, serving customers. The balcony offers perspective—the vantage point from which patterns become visible and direction can be set.
“There has to be like one dance,” Karen-Marie explains. “It cannot be both the waltz and the tango at the same point in time. So you have to be clear about what’s happening, what’s going on on the dance floor. Are the capabilities in place to dance whatever dance should be danced?”
The transition from dancer to observer doesn’t come naturally to technically trained leaders. Karen-Marie’s engineering background meant her early career focused intensely on processes and systems—what she calls “the toolbox.” The capability dimension came later.
“Early on, my main focus before the leadership part really took off was indeed very much around the toolbox and also the processes. And then the real importance of the capability part—that came a little bit later on.”
This connects directly to what Heifetz identifies as the fundamental challenge of adaptive leadership: the temptation to treat every problem as technical rather than adaptive. Technical problems yield to expertise. Adaptive challenges require people to learn new ways of working—and that demands a different kind of leadership entirely.
“Have those balcony moments on and off to find out what is really happening. Go and check in on the dance floor, on everybody around. And then also get up on the balcony to try to get the bigger and broader perspective of what is working well, what is actually not.”
The discipline of moving between balcony and dance floor—observation and engagement, reflection and action—remains central to how Karen-Marie approaches leadership today.
Three Dimensions of Supply Chain Excellence
“What really characterises a successful supply chain is that it has to be fit for purpose. And there has to be clarity from within the organisation about whether it’s a time of cost cutting, a time of operational excellence, or a time where you’re really funnelling growth.”
Karen-Marie frames supply chain capability through three dimensions: processes, systems, and capabilities.
Processes provide the structure—the workflows, handoffs, and procedures that govern how work gets done. Systems represent the toolbox—IT infrastructure, planning tools, data platforms. Capabilities encompass the human dimension—skills, mindsets, and the ability to adapt when circumstances change.
“One does not rule out the other,” she emphasises. “The technical skills are important. But everybody comes with a different skill set, and everybody’s the expert in their field. So what would kind of tie everybody together? That’s where the soft skills come in.”
Most organisations invest heavily in the first two dimensions whilst underinvesting in the third. They implement new ERP systems and redesign processes, then wonder why transformation stalls. The missing ingredient is capability development—building the human skills to make processes and systems actually work.
This insight aligns with what Stephen Wunker explored in the Arkaro podcast on AI and the Octopus Organization. Wunker’s research revealed that 80% of executives believe AI is core to their strategy, whilst only 15% of employees agree. The gap isn’t technological—it’s human. Systems without capabilities produce slides, not results.
Karen-Marie’s prescription: strategy must connect to supply chain, and supply chain must connect to people.
“If you cannot see yourself in that strategy, then obviously we as leaders have a problem. I ultimately have a problem leading a team.”
Differentiated Supply Chains: Why One Size Doesn't Fit All
“Having a differentiated approach in your supply chain is very critical, because in most companies there’s a big difference between your end market, the competitive landscape, and your different products or services.”
At Akzo Nobel, Karen-Marie inherited 13 separate supply chains serving diverse markets—from premium coatings requiring agile, responsive delivery to commodity products where cost efficiency dominated. The transformation challenge wasn’t simply consolidation; it was designing differentiation within integration.
“Some products, some markets—due to customer requirements, due to competitive landscape—it was all about being very agile, very much on time, not stopping any lines at any customer. Cost was not really ruling. Then there would be other supply chains where it was a matter of being more simple and efficient, big volumes, typically lower margins—cost was really of the essence.”
The strategic question becomes: which supply chain characteristics match which market requirements?
“Is it a matter of making sure that your asset is always fully utilised? That may be the case where cost is of the essence. Or do we really need to have some buffer so that we can swiftly turn around and have the agility whenever a customer comes in and requires something rather today than tomorrow?”
This differentiated thinking extends beyond internal operations to supplier relationships. “It really has to go all the way through to your suppliers as well when you’re differentiating.”
The insight challenges the standardisation impulse that drives many supply chain transformations. Consolidation without differentiation may achieve scale economies whilst destroying customer value. The art lies in creating integrated systems that enable rather than eliminate strategic variety.
Pete Compo’s Emergent Approach to Strategy, explored in earlier Arkaro content, makes a similar point about strategy more broadly: strategy should provide guidance for decisions, not impose uniformity. Karen-Marie’s differentiated supply chain model applies this principle to operations.
From S&OP to Integrated Business Management: The Five-Step Monthly Rhythm
“We used to work with the sales and operations planning process. But all of a sudden I began realising—this DuPont Integrated Business Management process, that is actually an additional layer and additional step. And that really ties it all very well together.”
When DuPont acquired Danisco, Karen-Marie encountered a planning discipline that transformed her understanding of what supply chain could achieve. Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) balances supply and demand. Integrated Business Management (IBM) connects supply chain to strategy execution.
“The sales and operations planning process—nothing wrong with that. But if you really want to click it all together, then there’s an additional dimension. Running five steps every month—I have really carried that with me forever after.”
The distinction matters. S&OP typically focuses on short-term supply-demand balancing with some cross-functional involvement. IBM extends to a 24-month rolling horizon with full business integration, owned by the executive team.
The five-step monthly process creates natural integration points:
- Product review—assessing portfolio health and new product introductions
- Demand review—testing forecast accuracy and market assumptions
- Supply review—evaluating capacity, constraints, and capabilities
- Integrated reconciliation—aligning commercial and operational perspectives
- Executive review—ensuring strategy drives decisions
“Doing a good job on new introductions, but also remembering to retire some of the SKUs that are no longer active. That good housekeeping should run like clockwork.”
Karen-Marie acknowledges the source of her IBM education. “Thanks, Mark, because you are one of those who helped me initially to get into the fascinating world of IBM and also the DuPont production systems—Lean Six Sigma, the continuous improvement part.”
The point isn’t that DuPont invented these concepts, but that systematic monthly discipline transforms planning from an annual ritual into an operating rhythm. Strategy becomes a living process rather than a document that sleeps on hard drives.
Soft Skills Aren't Soft: Gemba Walks and the Art of Listening
“There’s a reason why we have two ears and one mouth.”
Karen-Marie’s commitment to Gemba walks—the practice of going to the actual workplace to observe and understand—reflects a deeper philosophy about leadership and listening.
“I would take a lot of time doing plant tours, Gemba walks. Really no matter where I would go—also where I don’t speak the local language—I would be keen to interact with the operators, with shop floor, having somebody help me translate. To understand: what is it actually you’re doing? Can you see any improvements? Is there something that’s not working?”
In an organisation spanning 130 manufacturing sites and 14,000 employees, this commitment requires both time and humility. It also yields intelligence that never surfaces in reports.
“Everybody is really working within their different remit on a daily basis”
The listening extends to how change is communicated. Karen-Marie’s Executive MBA in change management taught her that transformation looks different to different people.
“It’s really from the early adopters to the laggards and everybody in between. As part of the narrative, be very crisp and clear that it’s not a one size fits all. We are not just all jumping for the sake of change. Some take a bit more convincing. Some—it’s a matter of trying to articulate things in a different way.”
This connects to what Hilary Scarlett’s neuroscience research reveals about how brains respond to change. The SPACES model—Self-esteem, Purpose, Autonomy, Certainty, Equity, Social connection—explains why different people require different approaches. Without that understanding, change communication becomes broadcasting rather than connecting.
“Just to make sure that we get, via the soft skills, a strong communication, a clear narrative. But also listening.”
Transformation at Scale: 13 Supply Chains Become One
“It has really been an amazing journey, and the team is still on a fabulous journey. It is really a true transformation.”
Consolidating 13 separate supply chains into one integrated operation at Akzo Nobel wasn’t primarily a technical challenge. It was an adaptive one—requiring people throughout the organisation to change how they worked, collaborated, and made decisions.
“The cultural component, the change management part—that is being clear about the story. Being clear about the narrative of what is it we are trying to achieve. And then get the engagement going.”
Karen-Marie describes a three-level engagement model: local, regional, and global. Rather than imposing standardisation from headquarters, the transformation invited contribution from across the organisation.
“It was great to see how so many different individuals actually chipped in. There were different home pages where stories could be shared—’we have found ways of reducing electricity consumption,’ or whatever the stories were. That has been amazing.”
The approach echoes what Adrian Stratta explored in the Arkaro podcast on Mission Command—the military doctrine that enables decentralised decision-making within unified intent. By creating clarity about direction whilst inviting local contribution, Karen-Marie built ownership rather than compliance.
“In many companies, it does not necessarily come very naturally that you talk with other sites, you share ideas. Getting that built and getting that funnelled—that makes a huge difference.”
The transformation continues. Supply chain excellence isn’t a destination but a capability—the ability to keep adapting as markets, customers, and conditions change.
Diversity as Innovation Engine
“For me, diversity is really in its broadest sense. It is diversity of thought. It is diversity of different cultures. It is also gender diversity.”
Karen-Marie’s advocacy for diversity isn’t abstract principle—it’s practical strategy for navigating complexity.
“If we are all alike and if we are all thinking along the same one or two dimensions, then it will be more of the same. Whereas if you really try to bring in different perspectives—whether from different cultures, different backgrounds, different genders—we are different. And that difference altogether makes it very interesting and also enriching as a way to come up with new creative solutions.”
She illustrates this through Akzo Nobel’s Global Engineering Trainee (GET) programme, which brought fresh graduates into manufacturing sites worldwide.
“They come from a new generation. They come directly from engineering school or university. And they were just asking really refreshing questions.”
Those questions made some plant managers nervous. “I know for a fact that many plant managers were super scared when I was sitting together on my own with those new engineering trainees, because they are not necessarily asking the questions we would have asked. But also very refreshing. They would just be straight.”
The discomfort is precisely the point. When experienced leaders stop hearing challenging questions, they risk mistaking habit for wisdom.
“The answer ‘this is how we have always done it’—that’s not really the answer to give. Maybe it’s time to look into it and say, is that also really the best way going forward?”
This connects to what Dr Catrinel Tromp explored in her Arkaro podcast on creative constraints. Diverse perspectives introduce new constraints that were not obvious before. The creative benefit isn’t comfortable, but it’s real.
In a complex adaptive world where cause and effect are unclear until after the fact, expertise alone isn’t sufficient. Fresh eyes may see what experience has learned to ignore.
Sustainability Across the Value Chain
“From a sustainability perspective, I would typically talk about the impact we have on Scope 1, 2, and 3. And many will come to realise that in your own remit, you can be on top of that and control that quite well. But it’s more challenging when you’re looking into the customer side and the supplier side.”
Karen-Marie frames sustainability not as a constraint but as a lens for viewing the entire value chain—upstream to suppliers, through internal operations, downstream to customers.
“Looking into working with suppliers—can we improve the sizes of what gets delivered? Is there something that can go into bulk? Can we reduce the mileage and therefore the carbon footprint impact?”
At Akzo Nobel, tangible initiatives included solar panel installations, water recirculation, and energy efficiency programmes. But the deeper shift was conceptual—viewing supply chain as value chain.
“Trying to connect between R&D with customers, also commercial, and also supply chain to find out: what kind of products, what can we offer as part of services that will make customers have a lower curing time or something else that really has an impact?”
The framing transforms sustainability from cost centre to value driver. When customers benefit from sustainability improvements—faster curing, reduced waste, lower energy use—the value chain creates shared benefit rather than traded-off interests.
“Trying to network and bring sometimes the three parties together—that gives idea generation. You get perspective: we haven’t done that, we haven’t thought about that.”
The shift from supply chain to value chain thinking also opens strategic possibilities that pure cost focus obscures. Differentiated supply chains serving premium segments may justify sustainability investments that commodity flows cannot.
“We can all really contribute here. But it starts with me, it starts with us individually.”
The Power of Mentoring: A Story from Wilmington
“I’ll never forget the first time I got mentoring offered.”
Karen-Marie’s story about her introduction to formal mentoring captures something essential about leadership development—and about how easily well-intentioned support can be misunderstood.
Three months into working for a new boss at DuPont, sitting in Copenhagen, she received a call from Wilmington, Delaware.
“He said, ‘I’m going to give you a mentor.’ And my literal reaction was—am I really doing such a bad job? It’s really strange that he didn’t tell me. And now he wants me to have a mentor?”
Silence on the line. Then laughter.
“He said, ‘Karen-Marie, you completely misunderstand. We really want to support your growth, your leadership journey, your future career. That’s why we’re going to offer you a mentor. We don’t do that with everybody in the company. So just really take this as a positive.'”
The mentoring relationship that followed proved transformative. “I began the journey of mentoring, which was absolutely fantastic. One of my former bosses was mentoring me for some time period, and I’ll just be forever grateful for that.”
The lesson extends beyond personal development. In organisations where mentoring is treated as remedial—support for the struggling rather than investment in the promising—high-potential leaders may resist the very relationships that could accelerate their growth.
“Offer yourself to be a mentee. And also say, hey, can I mentor somebody over time? That is one of the ways to get going.”
Karen-Marie’s career trajectory—from procurement specialist to executive committee member, from technical expert to human-centric leader—illustrates what sustained mentoring and development can achieve.
Why This Matters Now
The themes Karen-Marie Katholm explores aren’t abstract management theory. They’re survival skills for leading in complexity.
The three dimensions of supply chain excellence challenge leaders to invest as seriously in capabilities as in systems and processes. Technology alone doesn’t transform organisations—people do. The gap between executive belief in strategy and employee understanding of it won’t close without sustained attention to the human dimension.
Differentiated supply chains challenge the standardisation impulse that drives many transformations. Integration without differentiation may achieve scale whilst destroying value. The strategic question isn’t “how do we standardise?” but “where does variety create competitive advantage?”
From S&OP to Integrated Business Management offers a concrete mechanism for connecting strategy to implementation. The five-step monthly rhythm transforms planning from annual ritual into operating discipline—strategy becoming a living process that guides daily decisions.
Soft skills as strategic assets reframes leadership development. Gemba walks, listening, and narrative clarity aren’t nice-to-haves; they’re the means by which leaders understand their organisations and communicate direction. In global operations spanning dozens of sites and thousands of employees, these skills determine whether transformation succeeds or stalls.
Diversity as innovation engine provides practical justification for inclusion efforts that are too often framed as compliance. Fresh perspectives don’t just create fairness—they surface the questions that experienced leaders have stopped asking.
As Karen-Marie moves to Orkla Foods to transform their value chain, she carries lessons learned across Lego, Arla Foods, DuPont, and Akzo Nobel. The pattern is consistent: technical excellence enables; human-centric leadership delivers.
Your Arkaro Insight for the week: the next time you assess your supply chain capability, ask whether you’re investing as seriously in the third dimension—human capabilities—as in processes and systems. That may be where your transformation is stalling.
Listen to the Full Conversation
Karen-Marie Katholm and Mark Blackwell explore the balcony and dance floor, differentiated supply chains, Integrated Business Management, and human-centric leadership in depth.
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/bnTRby7Yjao
Listen on your favourite podcast provider: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012667/episodes/18662083
About the Guest
Karen-Marie Katholm is Chief Supply Chain Officer at Orkla Foods, having previously served as Chief Integrated Supply Chain Officer and Executive Committee member at Akzo Nobel, where she led 14,000 employees across 130 manufacturing sites. Her career spans iconic operations at Lego, the cooperative complexities of Arla Foods, and global leadership at DuPont. An engineer by training, she holds an Executive MBA in Change Management. She is a passionate advocate for diversity in leadership and the power of mentoring to develop the next generation of supply chain professionals.
Is Your Supply Chain Strategy Connected to Execution?
If your S&OP process balances supply and demand but doesn’t drive strategy implementation… if your supply chain transformation has invested heavily in systems but underinvested in capabilities… if your differentiation strategy hasn’t extended to supply chain design… the missing element may be integration rather than optimisation.
At Arkaro, we help organisations:
- Evolve from S&OP to Integrated Business Management—connecting supply chain to strategy through disciplined monthly processes
- Design differentiated supply chains—matching supply chain characteristics to market requirements rather than imposing uniformity
- Build capability alongside process and system change—ensuring transformation delivers lasting results rather than consultant slide decks
Our collaborative “do it with you” approach builds your team’s capability whilst delivering results—sustainable, value-generating solutions rather than dependency on external experts.
Ready to explore how Integrated Business Management could connect your strategy to execution?
Contact Mark Blackwell: mark@arkaro.com
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrblackwell/
We work with organisations in agriculture, food, and chemicals to transform supply chains from cost centres to value drivers. We don’t just coach—we get on the pitch with you.
Related Reading from Arkaro
On Integrated Business Management & S&OP:
- Make Strategy Work: The Power of Integrated Business Planning – How IBP evolved from S&OP to become the core consensus-driven managing process for strategy execution
- Integrated Business Management Service Page – Breaking down organisational silos through structured cross-functional collaboration
- IBP as a Change Catalyst: Leveraging Meeting Discipline for Success – Using IBP’s disciplined meeting cadence to embed change
On Adaptive Leadership & Strategy:
- Strategy Is an Adaptive Challenge Not a Technical Problem – Why treating strategy as a technical problem leads to failure—references Heifetz’s adaptive leadership framework
- Strategy in a VUCA World – Emergent approaches for volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environments
- Mission Command: Leadership for VUCA Environments – Military doctrine for enabling decentralised decision-making with unified intent
- 10 Signs Your Organisation Needs VUCA Adaptation – Warning signs that your leadership approach needs to evolve
On Change Management & Human-Centric Leadership:
- The Neuroscience of Collaboration: The SPACES Model – Hilary Scarlett on creating conditions where brains can move from threat mode to reward mode
- Why ADKAR and the Arkaro Approach Are Essential Partners – Combining individual change models with collaborative implementation
- From Technical Fixes to Adaptive Solutions – Building adaptive leadership capabilities in technically excellent organisations
On Innovation & Diversity:
- Why Constraints Make You More Creative, Not Less – Dr Catrinel Tromp on how diverse perspectives force new connections
- Why Smart Companies Miss Disruption: The 3 Ghosts – Scott Anthony on organisational barriers to seeing what’s coming
- AI & the Octopus Organization – Why 80% of executives believe AI is core to strategy whilst only 15% of employees agree
On Operating Model & Value Chain:
- Revitalising Your Operating Model: The Arkaro Approach – Structural alignment, customer connections, and integrated processes
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