Empowering Inclusive Global Supply Chains: A Case Study

A global beverage group has around 5,000 employees across three continents and $4.5 billion a year in revenues.

With a rich, two-century heritage, the company has become a global leader in beverage product categories. It aspires to remain one of the world’s most admired companies by growing long-term sustainable value through quality, innovation and authentic connections with consumers, suppliers, employees and the community.

The Challenge

The company’s chief supply chain officer (CSCO) sought to adopt five disciplines of inclusive leadership, across engineering, manufacturing, customer service and logistics. Goals included increased supplier innovation through inclusive design, and accelerated racial equity through business diversity in the communities in which the company operates.

The five disciplines of The Inclusive Leader (TIL) are:

• Builds interpersonal trust: is honest and follows through; establishes rapport by finding common ground while simultaneously able to value perspectives that differ from their own.
• Integrates diverse perspectives: considers all points of view and needs of others; skillfully navigates conflict situations.
• Applies an adaptive mindset: takes a broad worldview; adapts approaches to suit the situation; innovates by capitalizing on differences.
• Optimizes talent: motivates others and supports their growth; joins forces for collective success across differences. 
• Achieves transformation: is willing to confront difficult topics; brings people of all backgrounds along to achieve results. 

Having gone through the TIL process, the CSCO was convinced that the leaders who will succeed in the future are those who are exceptionally good at partnering with diverse people across internal and external ecosystems, and at creating the trusting, inclusive environments that are required to make full use of the power of all people in the end-to-end supply chain.

The Solution

Certain sub-functions such as manufacturing were facing difficult circumstances outside their control, which presented serious barriers to inclusion. The business needed to delve well below the surface to have direct, “uncomfortable” and highly productive conversations.

The first step was to understand the root causes and issues being experienced, and to bust the myths around diversity, equity and inclusion. With the help of online tools and individual coaches, the global supply chain team underwent an assessment to identify where each participant was on their inclusive leadership journey.

The Results

By sharing the common language of inclusive leadership, the team was able to gauge their progress toward that goal. They were also able to acquire a deeper understanding of where their fellow team members are, as well as the global supply chain as a whole. Together they worked to develop the expertise required to lead themselves, teams, and all participants in the internal and external organization.

In the end, the company was able to: 

• Evaluate strengths and development areas using the Inclusive Leadership model;
• Enable each leader to develop an in-depth understanding of self through individual assessment, development, and coaching;
• Benefit from cohort coaching and sharing experiences at a global level; 
• Establish a framework for a more diverse and inclusive workplace, workforce, and marketplace where people experience purposeful employment and community engagement, and 
• Develop a living, breathing action plan to measure and track progress, with relevance at local, regional and global levels.

The company’s global supply chain team has bolstered its confidence in the ability to achieve ambitious and inclusive sustainability goals, and to integrate them into the greater business strategy. It did so with the help of a common rubric for delivering sustainable value through inclusive management and its relationships with employees, suppliers, customers and communities.

Cheryl D’Cruz-Young is senior client partner, ESG & Sustainability COE, at Korn Ferry.

Read more of SupplyChainBrain's 2022 Supply Chain ESG Guide here.