Episode 8: Business Leaders’ Forum 2023

In this leadership focused episode, the team discuss the key topics at tis year’s Business Leaders’ Forum and we hear Accruent global solutions go to market director Eric Cook’s and E.ON head of operations Stuart Beasley’s takeaways from the day.

“There were two things that sort of stuck out in my mind,”​ said Cook. “One is around digitization and how a lot of businesses in the food manufacturing business still do things with paper – that is obviously causing a lot of people in this room distress about how they're going to have data transparency and how they're going to integrate with their partners.​

The Gen Z challenge

“The other thing that stuck out was the conversations around Gen Z – how do you not only attract that talent but retain the talent? I think that technology is going to play a key role in how people how people keep GenZ workers in their environments.”​

Also featured in this month’s episode is an exclusive interview with Ecotone UK chief executive Emma Vass and Stendert Krommendam, chief people and sustainability officer, where they discuss what makes a great leader.

“What makes a great leader is having belief and passion around what you’re doing,”​ said Vass. “Being authentic and believing in what you’re doing as a leader is what helps you make the right choices – and sometimes the riskier ones.​

Making the right choices

“It’s about continually trying to make the right choices, takes the risks where we can but balance it knowing that it’s not always going to be ‘perfect’ – continually improving and striving to take steps forward.”​

Good Month, Bad Month also returns where we talk the FSA’s new plan for tackling food crime and the Government’s plans to walk back its net zero targets.

All this and more in the latest episode of the Food Manufacture Podcast. Catch up with our previous episodes here​ ​and via Spotify.