San Luis Potosí
No. 196, Suite 206
Roma Norte
06700 CDMX
E. hello@thrust.com.mx
T. +52 8190 1290
M. +52155 40941527
How did Grupo Herdez install a mindset that could drive its organizational evolution and ensure effective change adoption?
Grupo Herdez is a Mexican company with over 110 years of history, present in more than 90% of households across the country through a portfolio of over 30 brands and 1,500 products. A leader in categories such as mayonnaise, mole, tomato puree, jams, tea, and spices, it is the only food company in Mexico operating across all three temperature segments — ambient, frozen, and refrigerated — with participation in more than 36 categories. Its Megamex alliance has strengthened its presence in the United States, achieving leading market shares in mole (84%), guacamole (32%), and sauces (14%). Today, with six joint ventures, presence in over 21 countries, and more than 12,000 employees, Grupo Herdez remains a benchmark for innovation, strength, and growth both in Mexico and abroad.
Amid this accelerated growth, in 2023 the Group took a key strategic step: implementing an ERP not only to expand its operational capabilities, but to position it as a cornerstone of its organizational transformation.
More Than a System — A Catalyst for Change
The integration of this new ERP became an opportunity to prepare teams to build a new business architecture: one that connects processes, talent, and data within a single technology-driven system. To achieve this, Grupo Herdez redefined workflows, designed more robust data models, and leveraged next-generation tools — AI, Big Data, TMS, and CRM — with SAP as the backbone of a more agile and reliable transactional world.
Within this framework, Grupo Herdez assembled a SWAT team and brought in Thrust as a strategic partner to ensure the ERP implementation was guided by a deep understanding of its cultural and strategic impact. This approach ensured not only the success of the tool itself, but also the development of an adoption muscle — empowering the organization to embrace change and sustain Grupo Herdez’s transformation and growth initiatives in both the short and long term.
Aligning the Vision of Change
When analyzing the context, we identified that Grupo Herdez’s business process experts and technology business partners — responsible for translating processes from the “before” to the “tomorrow” — brought different perspectives depending on their area. This diversity enriched the experience, but also revealed an opportunity: to build a shared language that could amplify collective success.
To achieve this, we applied Change Readiness AI™, our neuroscience-based model whose dual system identifies the invisible factors that shape change adoption.
The diagnosis revealed a natural scenario for transformations of this magnitude: the speed of implementation sparked uncertainty around roles and objectives, while increased workloads and isolated work dynamics added extra pressure. By making these factors visible, Herdez turned complexity into concrete action — strengthening clarity, alignment, and trust as the strategic levers of transformation.
From Insights to Action
To translate the diagnostic insights into results, a four-stage adoption strategy was implemented to guide and support the change process:
1) Anticipation – A predictive analysis of the ERP implementation roadmap designed to prevent risks and activate emotional containment, strategic alignment, and strengthened leadership.
2) Activation – A series of operational practices deployed across the organization to equip teams with adoption and leadership capabilities.
3) Alignment – The adoption of a unified communication theme, defined by Grupo Herdez’s leadership, to translate the challenges of change into a clear and relatable narrative — reducing resistance, providing purpose, and accelerating system adoption.
4) Self-Management – A playbook connecting culture with the ERP project, giving identity to this new stage while serving as a guide to provide knowledge, autonomy, and the ability to democratize the culture of change across teams.
A New Way to “Package” Success
Driven by the integrative vision and leadership of the Technology Division — along with the commitment of the implementation team — this project has become a true catalyst for organizational transformation. The roadmap was reduced from five to three years, accelerating implementation by 30% compared to the original plan.
The process has shown remarkable continuity, with ≈0 turnover, and has already enabled 210 change agents and trained 380 people in ERP functionalities and processes. Business units have adopted seven fit-to-standard processes, spanning from order-to-cash to financial planning. In the units where the rollout has been completed, adoption took only one month instead of three, thanks to early involvement of champions and end users — allowing a fast transition from on-site support to remote assistance.
In this way, Grupo Herdez continues to build and strengthen a cultural and operational muscle that turns change favorability into a strategic lever — sustaining its growth and evolution into the future.
San Luis Potosí
No. 196, Suite 206
Roma Norte
06700 CDMX
E. hello@thrust.com.mx
T. +52 8190 1290
M. +52155 40941527
