Successful companies can exist only in successful and sustainable societies. Henkel´s products have the potential to transform local cultures by impacting life styles, aspirations and sustainability practices. Future success will depend on Henkel´s ability to innovate on products/ services that make people’s lives easier, better and more beautiful, in a culturally sensitive and economically relevant fashion.

This translates into a number of strategic challenges, which are also Henkel´s biggest challenges:

• To capitalize on the newly emerging opportunities at the bottom of the pyramid by serving over half a billion people, a vast majority of them with low purchasing power, with an innovative class of environmentally sound, low resource consuming products/services which are appreciative of local culture and social context.
• To evaluate, in line with Henkel´s product stewardship efforts, the sociological, ecological and toxicological aspects of its business processes, products/services and raw materials over the global value chain - and to integrate social and environmental parameters in product development and marketing decisions.
• To tailor and adapt Henkel´s business processes and practices to generate outcomes that are culturally inclusive and exceed community expectations as well as local standards in meeting environmental and social needs, by creating best-in-class practices adapted to Indian requirements and communicating with the relevant stakeholders.
• To help build capacity and transfer technology by partnering and sharing best practices along the value chain in order to bootstrap the performance of suppliers and competitors - without compromising Henkel´s own competitive advantages.