Over the last 2 years what specific activities has General Mills UK undertaken in response to the recession? 
Key for us has been staying true to the vision, increasing our brand support to reassure consumers of the value of our brands but refining our consumer offer to reflect the current importance of value in the current climate.

Has the fact that consumers have been trading down had any knock on effect on you?
We’re still on target to meet plan, which is great news.  A brand is an emotional connection you form with something because of the quality, how it makes you feel, the predictability etc., so the important thing for a successful branded business is not to lose sight of the fact that it’s about the brand and its connection with consumers. The worst thing you can do in a recession is undermine your brand by sending confusing messages and losing sight of your consumer.

Have you launched any initiatives or major programmes of work in the last few years?
For me, cultural and leadership development is an ongoing piece of work.  We’ve been doing a lot around trust recently, evolving from the work we have been doing around values.  It’s about an ongoing conversation on how we want our culture to be, how we want to lead our business to achieve our vision and goals.  I’m not into the whole initiatives thing and we’ve not had to have any big change initiatives because we’ve weathered the recession very well – despite everything, we’re still outperforming the market by a factor of two.

It is critical to maintain a focus on the values of the business to ensure that they are lived and breathed.  We did some work around what they meant to us and set up a cross functional team, which is still in place, with a mandate to make the values alive.  In 2006 the business was focused on 2010 to plan where we wanted to be but actually that wasn’t far enough ahead so we reset our future target date to 2015 and worked through what we wanted to achieve in terms of our business goals and growth, and what values we needed to help us to do that.  That was the first strategy workshop I led with the Board.

So did you initiate that piece of work?
Yes, but with the full support of the board. That went hand in hand with some powerful leadership development focused around self awareness and values using a model based around neurological levels which explores how our behaviours are manifestations of who we are as people.  So, the behaviours that you see are the iceberg above the water and below the water you have capabilities then beliefs, then values and then identity.  For example, the values are what you would die in a ditch for and for me, that’s Trust and Continous Learning.  So if I didn’t have trust within this organisation or was unable to learn and grow, I would have to leave.  This work on self awareness and leadership led naturally into the work on Trust which is all about how we build trusted leaders within the business.

What impact have you seen in the organisation as a result of this work?
The performance of the business, the engagement of our people.  Metrics like internal development are high and people turnover is low. People are talking about wanting to stay within the business.  In fact this week, two people have come back to work for us having left to go travelling and then joining other companies.

Yes I noticed all the Best Company awards in your book case…
Yes, that's another example of how well it's worked. We are very proud of our achievements year on year - we have also been recognised as the 14th Great Place to Work in the UK, Best Employee Benefits Programme for organisations of less than 1000 employees as well as other specific brand related recognition.

What do you think your biggest contribution has been in the last couple of years?
Provoking learning and change – challenging – which is what I see as the role of HR.  So I have three objectives.  First is delivering the business plan, second is getting the HR basics right, third but critically important is leadership and cultural development.

And have you been able to shape your role to deliver against those three or was it the case that when you joined that was expected of you?
When I joined, I wanted to make sure that HR became very close to the business, rather than a  focus on process, (which clearly has a role)to develop to include increased focus on leadership and cultural development. I realised I needed to change things to create a team which would take the business where it needed to go.

Did the Board recognise that was what was required or did you have to educate them?
When I was recruited, the business was used to an HR team who were technically capable. What I brought was the opportunity to experience a different approach to HR – very much grounded in the business and challenging to drive an increased level of self awareness to enable our leaders to become even better. It didn’t take very long for the Board to see the business and personal benefits that this would bring.

Let’s just move away from your role and go back to the organisation.  Can you tell me on a scale of 1-10, how efficient and responsive would you consider General Mills to be? (10 is extremely)
I have just done a survey of our extended leadership team – asking our people how trusted we are as leaders.  One thing I wanted to know was whether people felt they could be themselves within the business to enable more release of individual potential.  As part of that survey, we asked how proactive people thought we were as a business. We scored highly on all counts and the challenge is to continue to build this to move from  a really good business to one that is even greater. Our score of eight, although good, isn’t good enough and we are continually looking to improve our ways of working – it’s an ongoing journey rather than a destination.

I want to start the next section by asking you how important thinking about the future is to you.
Critical.  That’s why we’re here as leaders.  That’s what our employees need from us. We are continually looking at the horizon to see what’s coming up and giving them the confidence in our ability to lead them into that future.

And when I say future what time horizon does that mean to you?
Initially 2015 because that’s what we have been looking at but in general, I would say five to 10 years ahead. You also need to inform that by further out views of trends (where they are known or emerging) . Of course, you need to balance this with keeping a watchful eye on the here and now to deliver the year end results.

Would you say the other Board members share that view?
Yes, no question.

Do you have any plans to implement any major changes to your company based on this 2015 view of the world?
We have regular sessions within each function for them to explore where they want to be in 2015 based on the overall vision. In other words, we look at what that means for each function and use that to inform the future business. It is not always as linear as that answer might appear – iterations are obviously needed between the functional views and how that then comes into being in the whole organisation. This means that change becomes an evolution rather than a series of major changes over time.

What about your workforce – how do you envisage that changing?
That’s a part of the process I was explaining before – we outline where we want to be in the future – this means 2015 for us currently.  We look at our areas of specialism and how they are evolving, what capabilities we need – some of them may be capabilities we don’t even have university courses in!  So the workforce will evolve in terms of skills and capabilities, organisationally where it makes sense and there will continue to be a clear focus on leadership.

Have you also looked at issues such as the future size of your head office?
The need for businesses to be more flexible and agile is more a mindset issue than a geographical one.  We will continue to review where we’re at but the sense of belonging I was talking about earlier is an important one and that place is here in Head Office.

I have some cards I would like you to sort in order of where you see the greatest challenge and/or impact for your organisation in preparing for the future.  (The cards are entitled People, Process, Strategy, Structure, Measures)
You need all of them.  If I had to prioritise them, I would put Strategy and People first followed by Process, Structure, Measures.  Under People, the one I would pick off your card as being the most important is Visionary and Nurturing Leadership.  Overall my passion lies with People and Strategy but you need the rest to successfully run your business.

Yes, you’re right they are all interlinked and form part of what we would call your business operating model.  Are there any there that make you think, yes we’re OK at these but we really need to work on them more?
Process is an ongoing one for me where we need to take out some of the potential inefficiencies as we continue to leverage economies of scale.  We have a fabulous committed workforce who is very proactive - going away and doing things with an entrepreneurial spirit. Sometimes I think there’s got to be a more efficient way of doing that - of better balancing efficiency for the more routine activities with an entrepreneurial spirit where creativity is required.

Do you think that of any of these, 1 or more stand out as something more aspirational that you really need to be on top of to face into the future?
I would say that you need a clear structure in terms of what people are expected to do but I think structure becomes less important as you move forward and the ways of working become more fluid

I think that’s a very interesting point because a lot of organisation design work is about how we are or should be structured and what we are talking about moving forward is the need for fluidity and flexibility. I think if we were to sit down in 10 years’ time and repeat this exercise we may still be talking about structures but those structures would be ones which embrace flexibility.
Yes, for me, the interesting bit of structure is “where I belong”.  Some people still have a need for that certainty and clarity and especially so if one of your personal values is status.

Okay moving on now, what do you think the biggest challenges for your HR function are going to be leading up to 2015?
It continues to be enabling the organisation to deliver excellent business results.  So making sure we have the right people with the right capabilities, how we help the leaders to be even better. Nothing new – just a continuation of what we are doing.

We’re almost done now – Is there a question you would like to pose to a fellow HRD and who would it be to?
It would be something around future capability and skills – how they are starting to think about future capabilities and innovative ways for identifying them both internally and within the marketplace today and for the future.  I would ask all those Companies who are delivering above average performance in their particular industry sector.

I’m very clear on the role of HR and how it brings value.  I see myself as a business person who happens to be in HR rather than a pure HR person which is a very different perspective.  For me the right Board conversations are where I’m challenging with the business perspective and everyone else is challenging back with the HR perspective.  That is the conversation to be in because it means you are not wedded to your function.  Clearly though you also bring your expertise.

If you could be granted one wish to improve the way work gets done in your organisation, what would it be?
Building yet further leadership capability, building an even greater culture of trust, so realising even more potential, particularly from our highest talent.

What has been the most influential business book you have read and why?
Within the past 3 years - Steven Covey - The Speed of Trust.  It gave me a useful framework to talk about trust. Trust is a value which was very strong for me and this gave me a way to articulate it even more clearly as a business benefit.

Are you reading a novel at the moment and would you recommend it?
I’m a big exponent of reading for personal development which I see as an ongoing journey. I’m reading books from the 1920s at the moment, where some very far sighted thinking was done which still applies today – it is fascinating. Currently I’m reading the Power of Decision by Raymond Charles Barker.  It’s about how we choose the decisions we make about how we lead our lives.

I do also enjoy reading novels for relaxation  – classics as well as the latest bestsellers. A real mixture.

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