Episode 11: Culture trumps strategy: How FMCG firms can stay resilient in tough times

Amie and Angeline sit down with Melissa Old, head of people and capability business partnering at Bega Group to discuss the importance of culture in keeping food organisations resilient, especially during an economic and geopolitically changing environment like the current one. 

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Amie Larter :

Welcome to Women Transforming Food, a monthly podcast brought to you by G100 and Inside FMCG. We explore the inspiring journeys of women shaping the future of the food industry. Today, I'm joined by my co-host, as always, Angelina Charya, Asia Pacific Chair of the Food Systems Innovation and Resilience Wing at G100 Mission Million, and our guest for this episode, Melissa Old, Head of People and Capability Business Partnering at Vega Group. Welcome team.

Melissa:

Welcome, thanks for having me.

Angeline:

Hello

Amie:

So today, you know, throughout the series, we've spoken to some truly remarkable women leaders who are redefining the food industry. And today we're deep diving into your career, Melissa. You're an executive leader in people and culture with deep expertise in organizational development and leading transformational change. Your career has spanned across Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the Middle East and Africa across FMCG, pharmaceutical technology and financial services. What have you not done? But you've got this deep passion for building high performing teams, strengthening culture and coaching to develop commercial success. 

You know, the recent period has been marked by considerable turbulence and change for organisations across many sectors, especially concerning their workforce. The food industry in particular continues to grapple with significant disruptions stemming from supply chain vulnerabilities, shifting consumer expectations, and pronounced pricing pressures driven by the rising cost of living. My first question to you really is in today's climate of, you know, intense cost management, operational streamlining, how do you strategically balance these pressures with the imperative of nurturing talent, fostering a strong organisational culture, and reinforcing brand purpose within your FMCG teams?

Melissa:

Yeah, Amie, it's really difficult to balance those competing tensions. They're all really important areas. I'm sure there are many organisations experiencing pressure to review their cost base at the moment, including looking at salaries and labor costs. So we all know that when business performance isn't tracking in line with projections, one of the levers that we have to reduce costs can be reduced headcount, or it could be decreased training budget, for example.

So why sometimes this is necessary, I think, you know the implications of a restructure or downsize can be devastating, not only on the people impacted, but the remaining team members who sometimes need to absorb more work if there are less people. The organisational culture itself will take a hit usually, and it takes a while for that to recover and for people to be able to rebuild their trust in the organisation. We know that people usually crave stability and they don't thrive in circumstances of uncertainty and the impact of a restructure can be really destabilizing as people move through a range of responses in regards to the change, what we know as the change curve and the emotions that go with that. But I think during these times, it can be helpful to focus on what you can do in regards to building talent and focus on learning and development for people and also focusing on care and wellbeing. So I think people need to have that reassurance from their leaders that staying in the business is still the best decision for them and for their career. so, you know, open and frequent communication is critical during this time. Sometimes there can be some new opportunities created for people as a result of operational streamlining. 

This could be, for example, project roles that could be being asked to operate at a higher level of responsibility or learning new skills or retraining into a different area. So sometimes by highlighting the benefits associated with a tough time, it can be a good strategy to help keep people buoyant. And I think, you know, reinforcing brand purpose as we know it requires that consistent communication and focusing on your core values, the mission, vision for the organisation across all aspects of the business is really critical. 

So looking at everything from your marketing, customer service to employee engagement, it's all about making sure your brand is consistently aligned with purpose. And so I would say during that difficult period of change, whether that's through an organisational restructure, the messaging and the communication with your workforce, it needs to be consistent around the rationale for the changes being made. And important to demonstrate the business context by giving people confidence that the business is investing in their development and also investing in the brands that can help drive business growth. 

If people can see that the organisation is making clear choices around investment that's guided by business strategy and operating to a set of values, then I think it does help provide that reassurance. I would say that, you know, ultimately people do require that clear direction and what they need from their leaders is to be human and to show that level of care and being open and transparent, which is what helps to build trust, which is fundamental, as we know, for any organisational culture. I would say having leaders encourage development and career growth, even during these difficult times, it can still show a level of care for a person beyond the role. It shows that you care about building their skills and their employability and want them to grow and be successful. We're not just seeing them as a headcount, as a person.

Amie:

Yeah, and those conversations, mean, those types of conversations are so easy to forget when you're wrapped up in things that you, you know, you feel are a little bit negative, but you still need to lean into, you know, what you've just said, that proactive, positive side of things as well.

Melissa:

Yeah, absolutely. So really highlighting the benefits of what you can do and emphasising the positives which might be in the way of exploring learning opportunities that can be a real positive.

Angeline:

So Mel, given your experience across many industries as well, but organisational restructure has become much more constant in our industry for sure. From your experience, what do you think are the critical success factors for leading through transformation while keeping employees engaged and performing? And you shared a few things, but if someone's listening out there, what would you say are the key things that you need to look out for?

Melissa:

Yes. Ange, I think it's, it's important that the rationale for a restructure is clearly explained so that people understand what it means for them personally and for their colleagues. So being clear about the end point of where you're going with the transformation so that that's understood, so people have both the context and they're clear on the vision. I think getting leaders involved early in any transformation is critical to the success of it.

We know that leading through transformation, requires leaders that have, show empathy, understand their people and are really strong and clear in their communication. So I would say for an augury structure to be an effective one, it's important to have clear listening strategies. So ways that you can check in with your workforce, whether that be through pulse checks or regular individual connects or team meetings.

These are really important opportunities to allow people to speak up, express how they're feeling, and to be able to allow them to talk about how they're experiencing that sense of loss. So whatever emotions that they're going through, it's helpful to acknowledge those to help them to move through that transition. So I would say, make sure that you follow up and answer any questions. Don't leave people wondering or in a position where they need to speculate and form their own narrative. 

I think as far as keeping people engaged and performing during that uncertain time, it's really about letting people know that you care about them and that your role as a leader is to help give them the right information and feedback throughout that transformation process. providing clarity, listening to what people need at that moment, and then providing the relevant support.

People can also require sometimes they need to build new skills or knowledge perhaps to be able to adapt, whether that be to a new process or it might be a new system or technology. also providing people with the right avenues so that they can build those skills that they need and providing them with the relevant feedback or coaching and support. Recognising their contributions also goes a really long way to building their engagement.

Angeline:

Some great advice there.

Amie:

Yeah. so drawing on your experience with, you know, some multinational FMCG leaders like Mondelez and Nestle, what key principles and or you, I mean, we could call them practices in leadership development and development and talent growth. Can smaller businesses adopt to sort of enhance their own capabilities and build future leaders?

Melissa:

Hmm. I think regardless of the size of the business, development has to start with the right mindset and curiosity, so showing curiosity. I'm a really big advocate for growth mindset. So a concept introduced by Carol Dweck. And this highlights a person's willingness to embrace challenges, work through setbacks and build skill mastery through effort, rather than seeing talent as being something that's an ace, so either you have it or you don't. Sometimes people can become stuck in a fixed mindset mentality if they're fearful of change or learning new skills, or they don't believe that they can improve themselves, which is, you know, can be common. 

It's not conducive to development, but it's, it's, it's a common experience that people can find themselves stuck. But you can imagine at an organizational level, if there's a lot of people demonstrating a fixed mindset, the organisation can stagnate because people aren't challenging themselves to stay updated with new technologies or learning new skills and as a result can get left behind. But on the other hand, people that leave with a growth mindset are much more likely to persevere. They can learn from mistakes and they can often reframe failure as a learning opportunity. So I would say smaller businesses could focus on cultivating that growth mindset as part of their strategy in building future leaders. Encouraging a willingness to learn and to be curious and self-driven. So learning new skills and exploring different technologies and address your development gaps rather than being fearful or avoidant. So this could be achieved through sharing your own learning moments.

It might be evaluating a project that hasn't worked, say a failed NPD. What did we learn through this experience? What could we replicate next time? So all of those types of reflection moments are useful. I would say leadership development starts with knowing yourself. So future leaders also need to be quite self-aware and make time to reflect on what's gone well or hasn't gone well. And then being able to tweak and be open to experimenting and trying different approaches. You could also stay informed by reading about what's happening in your industry, staying connected with your professional network, and also staying committed to learning. So make sure your team has a development plan with actionable goals and they're committed towards working towards that, that development goal and, you know, staying, building skills that will help them to stay relevant.

There's loads of resources available to help build capabilities and leadership skills. And these could be online platforms such as LinkedIn Learning. It can also help to have a coach or a learning buddy to help keep you accountable with your development goals. But there's really a lot of information that you have available at your fingertips these days to be able to continue to build your skills and stay learning.

Angeline:

And I can't help on the back of that, think about culture and the role it plays in keeping food organisations resilient, especially in an economic and geopolitically changing environment like we find ourselves in right now. How do you think leaders can foster a culture of innovation and learning that endures through these disruptions that will keep coming?

Melissa:

Culture is incredibly important. And there's a brilliant quote that I love from Peter Drucker, the one that says, culture eats strategy for breakfast. 

Angeline:

All the time, all the time.

Which is really true. So the most brilliant strategy can fail if it's not aligned with or supported by your organisation's culture. And culture is led by senior leaders in the business. So it needs to be connected with your values and the organisation's strategy. So I think the role that culture can play in keeping food organisations resilient is just helping to provide that guidance to people in the business so that they know what's important. Culture helps to inform decision-making and behaviour. I think fostering a culture of innovation and learning requires leaders to be clear on what's expected and encourage the mindsets, the behaviours, the capabilities that are conducive to innovation. I would say one way that leaders can do this is encouraging people to feel safe to speak up and to disagree respectfully. I think encouraging diversity and seeking different views and ideas can lead to richer discussion and possibilities, different ideas. 

Teams that are feeling psychologically safe to own up to mistakes or discuss projects that haven't gone well, to be able to normalise that and reframe these as learning opportunities are good examples. Culture is really strengthened through symbolism and rituals. So people look for signals around what's valued. So I think if performance measures and rewards are linked to behaviours that drive innovation and learning these are more likely to be adopted and embedded into the organization. One of the things that I thought would be a good experience for people wanting to build a learning culture is you see a lot of organisations experiment with creating permission for learning in the weekly calendar. So that could be creating sandbox days or just opportunities for people to have some time away from the task, but just some blue sky thinking time and development activities and is building learning moments into your regular team meetings or other formal business meetings. It just really helps to make it more of a way of life rather than a once-off activity.

Angeline:

I love that, I think. And also doing it as an organisation, right? That permission sometimes that people wait for. It's such a powerful way to step into this space.

Melissa:

Yeah, yeah, that's right. It could be a week program, it could be a day, but yeah, just really making it part of what's valued in the organisation.

Amie:

And we wouldn't really be having a conversation about culture without tapping into the retention piece. And so with evolving generational expectations around, you it could be workplace flexibility, alignment with values, clear career progression, things that we've tapped into in this conversation a little bit already. I'm keen to understand from a HR perspective within FMCG specifically, how are you adapting your strategies to fall in line with this?

Melissa:

Yeah, I think workplace flexibility has shifted dramatically over the last few years, hasn't it? 

Amie:

Hasn't it?

Melissa:

Since the pandemic in particular, we know, I think the goalposts have changed for both employees and job seekers. I think they're in a much better position to command flexibility. The implications for HR in NFMCG is making sure that your organisation has policies and practices that are flexible, so what we might refer to as a three-way win. So does it suit the individual needs of workers, the organisation itself and its customers? I think the key point is there isn't really a one size fits all approach anymore. I'm not sure that there ever was, but I know that it just doesn't work. People are unique. They have their own individual circumstances. 

And so with so many different generations now actively engaged in the workforce, it's important to be able to embrace flexibility and adapt in terms of how you communicate, how you lead and motivate your teams. So organizations are really required to focus on how they can provide autonomy, flexibility and connection to purpose for their workforce. And I would say leaders play a key role in this by helping people understand where they fit into the organisation and how their role connects to the purpose and ensuring that behavior aligns with values. From an HR point of view, HR strategies should continue to focus around talent, attraction, development and retention, but recognise this needs to be segmented according to your workforce profile or demographics. 

So having flexible policies and practices that allow people to work from anywhere is something that I'm seeing a lot more of, even if it's just for a few weeks a year. We see requests for people to want to work from other countries sometimes if they've got family living there. So flexibility around where to work is important and having clear pathways for people to progress, invest in learning that's also flexible to suit different learning styles and developing leaders through stretch assignments are just some of the approaches that we're seeing in the FMCG space.

Amie:

And I suppose as well, you know, I mentioned retention at first, but some of these things are particularly important from attracting talent now as well. It's the importance has escalated significantly away from what might have been more traditional, you know, attraction points.

Melissa:

Yes, definitely, because it's such a competitive talent market as we know. And so to really have that competitive edge or that competitive advantage or the other employers, businesses are really struggling to offer those competitive offers that might promote and allow for that flexibility for people.

Angeline:

That's a great segue into my next one. So on retention, right? And I think it's one that remains, and has significant challenges across the FMCG landscape for us. So based on your experience, what do you think are the key factors that help drive commitment and encourage talent to stay? How do we retain them and keep retaining them?

Melissa:

Yeah, retention, it's an ongoing challenge. Did you know 75% of engagement level and intention to stay is influenced by your leader? So having that positive relationship with your leader has more impact on your wellbeing than your partner, which is not surprising, right, given how much time we spend at work.

Angeline:

I think when you put it in that relativity context, it makes you go, okay.

Melissa:

But yeah, often it's more than just those hygiene factors such as you pay and benefits. So that's nice, but the workplace environment itself and having a good relationship with your coworkers, they're all key factors. But really, if you look at any of the Gallup engagement research, leaders make or break a person's desire to stay. And that can be as simple as the leader having one 30-minute meaningful conversation with your direct report each week. And what they suggest is that could focus on three questions. How are you? How is your work? And how can I support you? And that forms a really good basis for a meaningful conversation, demonstration of care and listening and what's important and what's relevant for your team member.

And there's lots of other key factors, I'm sure, that can influence retention, such as having that opportunity to grow and progress your career. But ultimately, it is that relationship that you have with your leader that has the biggest difference.

Amie:

It's so interesting because that's such a seemingly practical but easy thing for you to do, but it holds such significance.

Melissa:

Absolutely. And I think we're all so time poor, or that's, that's often an excuse that we might tell ourselves that creating the time for these things can sometimes be a challenge. But I really love that, advice from Gallup around that, that one 30-minute meaningful conversation, because it is, it's such an easy thing that we should be able to incorporate into our week.

Angeline:

Great advice.

Amie:

It should be. Everyone take note. I love this. Okay. So as technology automation and AI increasingly sort of reshape operations in FMCG globally, FMCG and everything else, I'm in media, certainly see that too. What core human capabilities do you believe will remain sort of indispensable within our industry and how can we strategically future-proof the workplace or workforce to leverage sort of these evolving tools?

Melissa:

I think curiosity, empathy, creativity are all core human skills that will endure. These capabilities I see are fundamental for innovation, and I don't think they can be easily replaced by technology or AI, at least not authentically. So from my perspective, these capabilities, making sure that they are in fact identified, developed,

measured in your organisation and there's a relevant plan for building those skills, I think this can go a long way to keeping humans relevant and in jobs.

Amie:

That makes sense. And I suppose there's also a lot of jobs that are being opened up on the back of some of these, you know, new ways of working as well that adds into that.

Melissa:

Yeah, we're seeing a lot of positions emerge, new roles that didn't exist even five, 10 years ago that we wouldn't have thought of are also emerging. So while there might be the impact of automation removing some roles, I think at the same time, we're also seeing the expansion of the job market and the creation of new opportunities.

Amie:

Yeah, so really honing in on where something might be dropping back that you're empowering those people with those new skills or whatever it might be to take up those opportunities.

Melissa:

Yep, absolutely. And you're coming back to keeping an open mind and staying curious around what's happening.

Amie Larter:

Makes sense.

Angeline:

And that growth mindset. Absolutely. So amid all of the constant change and the disruption in the FMCG environment, what are the critical elements for leaders and teams to maintain resilience, agility, strategic focus, and we could keep on going onto that list. But I want to turn it around a little bit and find out how do you personally sustain buoyancy and productivity through ongoing industry shifts?

Melissa:

Yeah, there's a lot of complexity and change and uncertainty as you've touched on Ange. I think for me, resilience is really about being adaptable and being able to rebound from obstacles and difficulties. And we spoke about growth mindset before as being a way that you can see learning in each difficulty that you experience. I think using that as a perspective can help you sort of stay buoyant. Knowing what fuels your energy or helps you to refuel your cup and practicing that regularly. For me, I like to focus on having a good balance and a foundation of physical health. 

So getting enough sleep and rest is important, focusing on exercise, trying to be planned with eating good foods and staying staying focused on, you know, getting enough exercise every day. So that might be, you know, yoga on the weekends and having breaks, going for trips with my family and, and enjoying some time in nature. All of those things help me to keep focused. Day-to-day, look, it's about, for me, practicing mindfulness and gratitude is, is something that, you know, I really experimented with quite a lot during the pandemic. And

that for me was a really useful technique. Creating that sort of healthy habit as part of your daily routine can be an effective way to build that resilience and stay focused. So even if it's on your daily commute, thinking about three things that I feel grateful for today is a really great way to help boost your mood and that can help sustain you throughout the day. 

I think the other one that I really do try and practice, and I encourage other leaders to practice, and my team members also, is that focusing on what's in your control and what's outside of your control. And it's so easier said than done, isn't it? But we often get really worked up about stuff that we have got no control over whatsoever. But just trying to keep that perspective, I think, is useful and really not try and waste energy over things that you can't control or influence.

Angeline:

I really think that circle of control and things out of your control keeps shrinking and being for me as well. But it's so true, it's a perspective that you get and then you go, how do I respond to this now?

Melissa:

Yeah, definitely. I think also focusing on how I can be of service to others is another one that I've probably more recently tried to anchor to. So rather than just, I guess, thinking about myself and my needs, I'm also trying to keep calm and grounded and hold the space for others to help them see things more clearly and offer my perspective and guidance to help sort of keep them sane as well.

Angeline:

I love that, it's great.

Amie:

There's a lot of being in tune with what works for you, I suppose.

Melissa:

Absolutely. So being able to notice perhaps your own triggers or being able to be self-aware and notice if you are feeling a little flustered or like if you're becoming overwhelmed, it can be useful just to focus on the breath, you know your breathing and getting into cold water sometimes is a good practice. You know, my partner loves going for a swim in the ocean and I don't join him in the winter time, but sometimes that's a good strategy is just a getting some water on your face or going for a walk around the block, those sorts of things.

Amie:

Thank you, Melissa and Angeline, and a big thank you for everyone listening to this episode of Women Transforming Food. If you've enjoyed this episode, feel free to like and subscribe wherever you tune into your podcasts.