In recent years, the Legal Operations team at Kraft Heinz has undergone significant change, driven by a commitment to growth, continuous improvement, and people-focused solutions.
This journey has been marked by key changes to our team structure and strategy, all designed to enhance our ability to support the company's goals and objectives.
Our Legal Operations team was established in its current form in late 2024 following our merger into a single global team. We took that opportunity to review our technological and operational frameworks and ensure alignment with current business needs and best practices.
As a small team supporting the Global Legal and Corporate Affairs function across multiple jurisdictions, one of the first steps in our evolution was to reassess our team structure and adopt a strengths-based approach for our areas of responsibility.
This involved identifying each team member’s unique skills and capabilities and organizing our team into "branches" of activity.
For example, we now have one team member dedicated to complex legal projects and change management, and another to budget strategy and financial analytics.
These specialized branches have enabled us to tackle ambitious projects and provide more sophisticated metrics, ultimately driving better decision-making and outcomes.
Taking ownership of these elements enables our Legal Operations team to seamlessly connect the legal and commercial aspects of the business, delivering tailored solutions that meet the needs of both.
To guide our evolution, we’ve developed an incremental strategy focused on optimization, based on a Global Legal and Corporate Affairs-specific hierarchy of needs.
This approach recognizes that certain foundational elements of legal operations must be in place before more aspirational, tech-focused goals can be pursued.
It also recognizes that serving a global team means tailoring our approach to solutions that properly support our colleagues, whose needs are not always the same.
While we aim to implement global standards, we recognize that certain geographies or groups require unique solutions. By prioritizing the basics and building on them, we've created a solid foundation for future growth and innovation that can be applied holistically or regionally.
We’ve clearly outlined the buckets of activity we directly impact: time, cost, compliance, and people. This clear line of sight to our value has, in turn, enhanced our brand within and outside the function.
Rather than pursuing transformation for its own sake, we've stepped back and taken a pragmatic, human-centered approach to change.
For example, we’ve taken on various small-scale engagement initiatives, such as launching a global team podcast and inviting colleagues to prepare lunch-and-learn presentations discussing their important projects.
We’ve also tackled retrospective clean-up work, such as streamlining matter templates in our e-billing system and modernizing our training materials.
By focusing on bite-sized wins at a global level, we've been able to drive meaningful improvements without the disruption of a tech stack overhaul.
To ensure that knowledge is shared across the team, we've created libraries of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and support documentation.
These resources have a direct impact on onboarding new team members and ensuring that everyone has access to the information they need to succeed.
Additionally, we’ve streamlined and consolidated our reporting and data collection to reduce the manual burden on the legal team. This ensures our insights are captured in a single tool for enhanced visibility.
We’ve also taken control of exploring automation using enterprise-wide solutions, upskilling our team to build their own solutions in line with citizen development and design thinking principles.
This approach has allowed us to drive innovation and improvement that is closely aligned with company strategy. As strong advocates for cross-functional collaboration, we are excited to see the impact that our team can have on the company and its goals as we continue this journey.
For our team, true transformation means providing solutions that drive efficiency and impact, with people at the heart of our mission.