OCP: Liberating energy to create sustainable growth

The case focuses on the transformation of OCP, a state-owned monopoly that mined and exploited Morocco’s phosphate reserves. By 2021 it had become an organization with a mission to contribute to the sustainability of food security as the custodians of 70% of the world’s phosphate reserves. Phosphate is one of three vital ingredients in fertilizers that are used to grow healthy, drought-resistant plants, and contributes to sustainable agriculture. This is nowhere more urgent than in Africa: sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s fastest-growing population, but an impoverished agricultural system and only one-third of its arable land is cultivated. Helping smallholder farmers to cultivate more land with robust crops could improve the continent’s sustainable agriculture and better feed its population. In 2016 OCP Group’s Chairman, Dr Mostafa Terrab, launched “the Movement,” a vaguely defined initiative to “liberate energy” and develop collective intelligence to build a more purposeful sustainable future. The Movement’s goal was to continue the group’s transformation from a hierarchical phosphate producer to a global, digital and learning organization with a mission to create sustainable growth for everyone. The case describes the Movement’s philosophy, intention and principles: self-organization, an advice process, and collective intelligence based on a shared vision that all people can contribute to the organization and its ecosystem through collaboration. The Movement brings people together to anticipate future challenges and stakeholder expectations and to bring innovative ideas to life. By 2019, the Movement had launched 60 projects involving 9,000 people that have diversified the group’s business activities, enhanced the employee experience, created growth opportunities and community engagement in Morocco and across Africa. Several of these projects have been anchored into the Group and have increased its focus on inclusive business and sustainable development.

Share

Get shareable link

Copy