Q&A with Stephanie Atkinson, HR Director European Functions & Culture Change Lead, Kellogg

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 (if you don’t mind us asking!)

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 have they 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, you can view their case study here. Atkinson was involved in 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.