Strategy

dormakaba’s corporate strategy Shape4Growth (S4G) is about transforming the company, shaping it to achieve its full potential and accelerating sustainable, profitable growth. It consists of five building blocks: Accelerating Growth; Customer Centricity; Improve Operational Excellence & Gain Scale; Realize Effective Capital Deployement; and Customer-centric & High-performance Culture.

In 2023/24, dormakaba made good progress in executing its strategy, supported by the transformation program launched in July 2023. Spanning over three years, this program focuses on network and production efficiency, procurement improvements, innovation, functional efficiency in HR and Finance, and reduced IT complexity though standardization and harmonization of systems and processes. The initial effects of the program are reflected in the strong 2023/24 performance.

Selected achievements in strategy execution:

Markets & Innovation

• Transformation to a more streamlined organizational structure completed: removing the regional layer of management and creating the global positions of Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Innovation Officer, the simplified setup enables dormakaba to sharpen its go-to-market approach and customer-centricity, and to coordinate all its R&D activities for improved time-to-market.
• Strengthened focus on leadership in core markets: supporting profitable growth by prioritizing core markets where dormakaba holds strong competitive positions. This also means changing the go-to-market approach in selected countries with smaller scale: for example, divesting the business in Sub-Saharan Africa to an exclusive distribution partner.
• Increased specification capabilities: opening a new specialist center for specification writers in Chennai (India) and integrating the EntriWorX P360 web-based project collaboration software with Salesforce CRM and SAP CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) – both major boosts to specification efficiency and customer experience.
• First Global Product Roadmap: allows to harmonizing of innovation capabilities and product development and enables targeted investment in highest market potential.
• Award-winning innovation: the innovative EntriWorX EcoSystem and the Argus V60 sensor interlock were winners in the Product-Building Technologies category at the 2023 ICONIC AWARD: Innovative Architecture. The Axessor Apexx IP safe lock received the New Products and Solutions Award from the Security Industry Association in April 2024.

Efficiency

• Agreement with workers councils: major agreements with workers councils in key countries were reached, ensuring that the transformation program can be executed as planned.
• Procurement improvements: the consolidation of supplier base progressed further to 23% against baseline, and we achieved continued procurement savings.
• Establishment of shared service centers: as of 30 June 2024, more than 250 employees are working out of these centers located in Sofia (Bulgaria), Nogales (Mexico) and Chennai (India). The centers provide, simplify, enhance, and harmonize administrative and support services in areas such as Finance, HR, and IT.

Sustainability

• Carbon targets achieved: for Scope 1+2 emissions for the third year in a row with savings of 12,500 tCO₂e since the baseline (FY 19/20).
• Substantial increase in self-generated energy share: our production sites in Malaysia and China now have 21,000 solar panels in operation, producing over 11,000 MWh of electricity and saving almost 7,000 tons of CO₂ equivalent annually. Overall we increased our on-site solar energy production by more than five times.
• Leap forward in Health & Safety management: this has resulted in a 21% decrease in injury rates year on year.

Well positioned to deliver on industry trends

dormakaba remains well positioned to leverage present and upcoming trends in the global building market. In broad terms, increasing urbanization and an ageing population in many countries are reflected in a move towards more flexible working spaces and multi-housing, including repurposing of existing buildings. This creates demand for responsive, versatile digital and cloud-enabled access solutions. Digitalization also plays an important role in the drive for sustainable construction and energy efficiency. The result is increasing emphasis on Building Information Modelling (BIM) and ever-closer integration of building systems, including access solutions, with consequent requirements for robust physical and cyber security. Growing demand for touchless access solutions in the aftermath of Covid-19 puts further emphasis on integrating mobile and biometric authentication into electromechanical systems. Increasingly, this means combining access management with flow management solutions, which also reduces building energy loss. These trends all play to dormakaba’s strengths in R&D: electromechanical technologies, sensors, digital software and interfaces, building operations, and the deep understanding of how to enable the seamless flow of people through places that matter.