American multinational food-manufacturing company Kellogg Company has been fuelling customers for more than 100 years with its breakfast cereals. HR director European functions and culture change lead Stephanie Atkinson tells us what makes it a special place to work
Stephanie Atkinson is passionate about culture. At Kellogg she has led a pan-European project to drive culture change by focusing on key barriers to and enablers of agility to transform leadership capabilities and the organisation as a whole. We caught up with her to discover what it is like working for the lauded manufacturing giant.
What do you love most about working at Kellogg?
The hugely inspiring people I get to work with and knowing I can make a difference
What is the hardest thing?
Leaders not always understanding or caring enough about their impact on culture or owning their role in developing their people
Who has been the most inspirational person you've worked with this year from outside of the business?
A few thought leaders on culture, such as Nick Jankel [author of international bestseller Switch On: Unleash Your Creativity with the New Science & Spirit of Breakthrough] and Linda Holbeche [thought and practice leader in the fields of leadership, HRM, organisation design and development] who were very generous with their time and ideas
What is the ‘Power Team’ at Kellogg and what kind of role has it taken on in the business?
Power Team is an organic cross functional team which operates like a sprint team on a defined business strategic challenge. It brings more diversity of thinking and the benefit of its members' own networks
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing UK businesses right now?
Trying to innovate fast enough to keep pace with changing consumer trends and start-up competition
Kellogg was highly commended in the Team category at the Business Culture Awards 2019. Atkinson will be sharing Kellogg’s culture change journey along with 2019 Business Culture Awards Gold winner Gunnercooke and awards partner CultureIQ at a Business Culture Club event on Invigorating Business Culture & Growth through Agility & Innovation
on 5 March, 2019 in Manchester. For more details and to register your place here
