HELM AG

HELM AG is a Hamburg-based, family-owned chemicals and distribution company with over 125 years of history. As one of the world's largest independent chemical marketing companies, HELM operates across chemicals, agriculture, energy materials, and pharmaceuticals with more than 100 subsidiaries and affiliates in around 30 countries.  When your teams are spread across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa, efficient cross-functional collaboration isn't a nice-to-have. It's what keeps the business moving. 

The Challenge 

With operations spanning continents and a broad sales portfolio, HELM's Pharmaceuticals business unit faced growing complexity in coordinating work across multiple locations and departments. The team needed a smarter way to collaborate, one that could keep up with the pace and scale of the business.

Several key pain points were driving this need:

Fragmented tools and outdated information: Project-related data was scattered across MS Projects, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, PowerPoint files, and meeting minutes. Information had to be compiled manually, which meant the system was almost always out of date.

Rigid planning structures: Inflexible Gantt charts and waterfall planning made it difficult to adapt when priorities shifted. A significant limitation in a fast-moving global environment.

Lack of clarity on responsibilities: Without a centralized overview, task ownership was unclear, and team members spent a disproportionate amount of time explaining and organizing work rather than doing it.

Duplication of effort and delayed issue identification: Inefficiencies built up across teams and interfaces, with overlapping work and delayed issue identification creating friction throughout the development process. 

The Solution

HELM AG chose Asana as the platform to centralize operations and improve visibility. To ensure a smooth and effective rollout, they partnered with Bluehive as their Asana implementation partner.

Rather than delivering a pre-packaged setup, Bluehive took a consultative approach working alongside HELM's stakeholders to map existing processes, identify operational challenges, and build a tailored Asana environment that truly reflected how the teams worked.

Key steps in the implementation included:

Structured yet flexible rollout: A solid foundation was established from the start, with enough flexibility to adapt sessions and focus areas as new insights emerged throughout the process.

Process mapping in Asana: HELM's own workflows were translated directly into Asana, ensuring team members could recognize their work in the new system and adapt quickly.

Training key users: Hands-on training gave team members the confidence and knowledge to use Asana effectively from day one and to continue building on it independently.

Active participation throughout: The rollout encouraged knowledge sharing and cross-team involvement, making the transition both successful and sustainable.

The Results

Just one month after going live, HELM's teams had already achieved the intended goals to a large extent. The most notable improvements were felt across Development, Life-Cycle Management, and Launch Management.

Optimized process flows: Workflows were significantly streamlined, reducing friction and increasing overall efficiency.

Increased clarity of responsibilities: Team members gained a clear view of who owned what, reducing the need for constant follow-ups and status checks.

Simplified task prioritization: With everything in one place, the team could focus on what mattered most, rather than getting lost in the noise.

One source of truth: Consolidating tasks from multiple tools into Asana freed up time that had previously been spent on managing and organizing information.

An added sign of success:  team members began updating tasks and adding new work to Asana independently without being prompted. That kind of organic adoption is a strong indicator that the system is actually working for people, not the other way around.

Conclusion

HELM AG's partnership with Bluehive shows what's possible when expert guidance meets genuine commitment to change. By implementing Asana in a way that was tailored to HELM's processes and people, the teams gained the clarity, transparency, and collaboration they needed to operate effectively across borders and departments. With a single source of truth in place, HELM's Pharmaceuticals business unit now spends less time organizing work and more time doing it.