Culture at a Crossroads

Few companies today can boast 100 years of success as a family-owned business, but Dawn Foods has defied the odds. What began as a local bakery in Jackson, Michigan is now a global operation spanning three regions and serving customers from corner bakeries to major retailers.

Despite this impressive growth, internal communication wasn’t keeping up. A 2018 audit revealed something was missing. Dave Lawrence, Internal Communications Senior Manager at Dawn Foods, explains:

“The company’s rich family history is a huge part of Dawn’s culture and why customers still buy from us today. We needed a way to ensure this family-like culture was practiced throughout our business – a way to share information and communicate as a business globally.”

There was very little knowledge or idea-sharing across teams. Dawn’s people were dispersed, disconnected, and it didn’t feel like Dawn was operating as one global business.

Moving Fast With the Right Partner

To address the disconnect, Dawn partnered with Enablo to find and implement the right employee communications platform—fast. Enablo led the engagement with a structured blueprint and launch approach in line with Dawn’s way of working. Enablo helped Dawn create the business case for change and plan, build, and deploy the platform with a 75% adoption rate.

“The Enablo team took the time to understand the business and our unique needs,” Lawrence said. “They did it quickly and successfully, in just under two months, educating and holding our hand along the way.”

The rollout, completed in under eight weeks, gave Dawn a single global communication platform that over 4,000 employees could access, regardless of location or language. 

New Ways to Share, Solve and Celebrate

With the platform in place, real-time collaboration took off across regions. The Commercial and Technical Sales teams, often on the road or with customers, led the charge. They began sharing photos, videos, and customer stories, giving the wider company a window into what was happening on the ground.

The translation function made a huge difference in Europe. “In our European offices, we work with a half dozen different languages,” Lawrence explained. “I can go into any group and understand what is going on. It is amazing.”

The cultural impact was just as meaningful. “I think [the platform] brought us closer,” said Alexandre Deschamps, Artisanal Sales & Account Manager in France. “Because now we can keep in touch easily with everybody in the World of Dawn.”

As teams adjusted to remote and hybrid work, the platform became a daily anchor. “No matter what, we have a global water cooler to come back to, to figure it out together.” Lawrence explained.

Celebrating Diversity and Making Everyone Feel Heard

Since launch, Dawn has seen a transformation in how teams connect and communicate—from DEI campaigns to creative content and global celebrations.

Tools like Enablo’s profile frame bot, holiday bot and acronym bot brought an extra layer of creativity and personalisation to employee interactions.

Their most successful campaign? A global celebration of Dawn’s 100th anniversary—originally planned as a live event, it pivoted to digital due to the pandemic. Dave Lawrence explained just how much this matters to Dawn: “Now we finally get to celebrate all our team members and see the diversity around the company globally.”

What’s Next: Elevating Team Dawn

Looking ahead, Dawn is focused on extending access to deskless workers and building a centralised knowledge library, so everyone has the tools and information they need to succeed. John Schmitz, President of Dawn’s North America region, explained the next goal: “Launching to our frontline workers is an exciting step as we continue to elevate Team Dawn and further engage with and connect Team Members from across the business.”

Dave shared just how important this project was for the future of the business: “Our leadership team thought it was important. The Dawn family thought it was important. The Board of Directors thought it was important. We are all equally passionate about connecting everyone on one global platform, and that is why [it] has been so successful.”

What could we build together?

Enablo helps people-first organisations simplify work for deskless teams. From our roots in enterprise collaboration to employee experience, we create digital solutions that connect, engage and empower people—so your teams can thrive, no matter where they are. 

Let’s simplify your people’s day, starting now.

‍