Behavioural Investments in Environmental Sustainability Enable a Culture of Lean Thinking

Dr Andy Wood, CEO of Adnams PLC who is also a Professor of Corporate Leadership at the University of East Anglia and hosted the Lean and Green Consortium’s recent Gemba Exchange visit at Adnams, says: “As a family business with a public listing we are proud of being rooted in our community, sustainability in the widest sense therefore, has always run deep in the DNA of our business.

However, we have had to make tough decisions when investing in future business. For example, when we were planning our state-of-the-art warehousing facility, it required 15 to 20 percent higher investment, at least on the paper. However, we have been delighted with the result both financially and from a brand building point of view. We work hard to create a collective culture of value-based decision making across all levels of the business and the pay back is remarkable. The cultural and behavioural investment in turn has been the key enabler on our lean journey”