A County Councils Network and Newton Research Programme
How to lead through infinite disruption
Powering a thriving industry
Building a thriving industry Women in Food empowers women across food and drink to confidently step into leadership roles and build a thriving industry. At events tackling critical issues, we create space for senior women to collaborate, share diverse perspectives and shape the future. Through valuable content and specialised training, we aim to unlock visionary leadership, innovate and build confidence to solve market challenges. Women in Food is led by Newton as part of our purpose-driven commitment to the industry.
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The Women in Food expert panel Introduction to infinite disruption How to lead to deliver for today and tomorrow: Balancing reacting with resilience How to lead with heart: Leadership to unlock transformation How to lead for your people: Building the skills of the future workforce Look up, look around, look ahead Get in touch
What’s in the report Introduction
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Our expert panel
Emma Harris Chief Financial Officer Mitchells & Butlers
Allyson Zimmermann CEO LEAD Network
Claire Atkins-Morris Sustainability Director UK & Ireland Sodexo
Katherine Pickus Chief Sustainability Officer ADM
Louise Stigant Former UK MD Mondelēz International
India Moore Head of Buying Meal Solutions Sainsbury’s
Nicole Kurz Group Supply Chain Director Lactalis UK & Ireland
Paloma Lopez Chief Sustainability Officer Bel Group USA
Ruth Kelly Chief Operating Officer Aldi UK & Ireland
Jazz Swift Director Retail Women in Food Co-Lead Newton
Vicky Grinnell-Wright Director, Systems Transition
Fiona Bennie Partner Impact and Innovation Newton
Former Director, Food Tech/Futures Lloyds Corporate and Institutional
Thank you to our panel for their generosity in sharing their thoughts.
Infinite disruption
Women in Food interviewed leaders in the food and drink industry on the greatest collective challenges they face and how to rise to them. Nine key issues emerged, many of which also represent opportunities for the fastest moving. Each of these disruptions is not only significant in its own right but impacts across the supply chain, currently and into the future. These are detailed on the next page. And disruption is going nowhere. The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2026 1 shows half of the experts involved from academia, business, government, international organisations and civil society believe that over just the next two years, there is a high risk of global catastrophes. Economic confrontation, state- based armed conflict and extreme weather events are seen as the most likely to present a material crisis on a global scale in 2026. What all this means is that managing through infinite, interlinked, accelerating uncertainty is now the primary role of food and drink leaders. This report does not focus on practical unlocks for each of these disruptions. Instead, it asks: what is a successful leader in this context? It does this by revealing insights from leaders in food and drink who have seen what it takes for an organisation to be progressive in uncertainty. How are they reacting to infinite disruption? We hope you find their experiences useful and as always, we welcome ideas and discussion.
1. World Economic Forum, Global Risks Report 2026, January 2026
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The fast rise of GLP1s and the cost-of-living crisis mean consumers are consuming less. 02
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Costs are rising for a multitude of reasons, not least of which is conflict.
Climate change is disrupting supply chains: where we source from today may not be where we source from tomorrow.
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Legislation changes to improve sustainability and consumer food standards add pressure, while tariffs can land short notice. 06
What employees want and need is changing – an acute talent retention and motivation issue in food and drinks’ multi- generational workforce.
AI is reshaping operations, causing fear amongst colleagues and highlighting skills and cyber security gaps.
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From vertical farming to shelf- edge, new innovations are there to change how we make, grow and sell food. 08
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From increasing protein levels to fibremaxxing and talk of ultra-processed foods, consumers are paying more attention to the nutritional make-up of what they eat.
Legacy kit desperately needs updating at great cost and disruption.
How to lead...
to deliver for today and tomorrow Balancing reacting with resilience Food and drink systems need to be flexible enough to respond to disruptions that can’t even be imagined yet. But margin pressure eats the oxygen for long- term thinking. How are leaders balancing the demands of making good decisions for an unknown future with meeting quarterly targets?
“We can’t get too wedded to what is right today. Tomorrow it could be the wrong answer. What is your best guess?”
Ruth Kelly Chief Operating Officer Aldi UK & Ireland
When you can’t plan operations five years ahead, nobody can know the full roadmap. Wait, and the opportunity to act will have passed. Vital Farms offers an example: when many egg farms were knocked out by avian flu, its approach of using smaller, local farms meant it could win ground 2 . A leader’s role is now to weigh up the options, decide the strategy and reinvent as they go – however uncomfortable it feels. “Balance today with tomorrow. That is leadership. Doing one at the expense of the other is not.”
Set the journey How is it possible to lead with clarity without offering certainty? Start with who you are as a business. Emma Harris, CFO, Mitchells & Butlers, one of the largest operators of restaurants, pubs and bars in the UK, recommends posing one question: “What parts of your customer proposition are sacred?” The question forces choices. “Because you can’t be the cheapest, most reactive, with the best customer service and offer every option,” says Jazz Swift from Newton. Knowing this brings clarity to decisions so they can drive towards current targets and strengthen long-term resilience. “Balance today with tomorrow,” says Vicky Grinnell-Wright, Director at Systems Transition and former Food Tech/Futures Director at Lloyds Corporate and Institutional, “That is leadership. Doing one at the expense of the other is not.” Scan the horizon To navigate from here, foresight needs to be built into decisions, says Ruth Kelly, COO from Aldi: “We can’t get too wedded to what was right today. Tomorrow it could be the wrong answer. What is your best guess?”
“We have a plan,” says Claire Atkins-Morris Sustainability Director from Sodexo. “But we love to work out how we will pivot from it when the signals show why it’s needed.” Such adaptation requires testing against a spectrum of futures. What if revenue dropped 5%, 10%, 20%? What if key suppliers went under, legislation banned UPFs, you invented the next big disruption, your top people left? Predictive analytics and digital twins are getting better at modelling scenarios, paving the way for action when shocks hit. Harnessing this information to provide plausible, directional insights is where it proves its value. “We need to be making data-driven decisions, doing the real analysis to find and map the most significant opportunities, figure out how to fund them and make informed big bets,” says Katherine Pickus, CSO at ADM, one of the world’s largest agribusinesses. “We can’t afford to play it safe, can we? That could be what trips us up – not being ambitious.” All this is not the role of one person alone. The idea that leaders have all the answers is dangerously outdated. “Increasingly, the challenge is knowing who needs to be in the room,” says Vicky Grinnell-Wright. The role then is not to lead change; it is to lead people.
Vicky Grinnell-Wright Director, Systems Transition
Former Director, Food Tech Futures Lloyds Corporate and Institutional
2. Fast Company, Vital Farms’s CEO on turning the eggflation crisis into opportunity, February 2025
How to lead...
with heart Bringing out the best in your people The conscious and unconscious behaviour of a leader shapes how committed people are to the direction of travel and if they feel safe to make decisions but able to raise their hand when needed. Are leaders focused on providing solid ground or inspiration?
“Drive with purpose to unite everyone and give meaning to all the effort we are putting into change.”
Paloma Lopez Chief Sustainability Officer Bel Group USA
Gallup’s Global Leadership Report 3 reveals that of four traits followers want from their leaders, one stands hand and shoulders above the rest: hope. Over half (56%) of the qualities people named in their best leaders relate to it. Stability on the other hand was favoured by just 4% of people.
This really brings to life how skills once seen as soft are becoming highly valued. Leaders interviewed for this Women in Food report talked of the importance of human connection, emotional intelligence, empathy and psychological safety but also of the role of inspiration and bringing everyone along for the ride. Allyson Zimmermann, CEO of the LEAD Network says that the most effective leaders are happy to share both concerns and hope with their team, saying: “I see the ripples in the water, the waves of the tsunami coming. But looking towards the horizon, the sun will come out again. We’re going to go through this but we’re going to do it differently.” Share the destination Both inspiration and alignment on how “to do it differently” start with everyone knowing not only the vision, but the route to get there too. “I like to use an analogy of a sat nav,” says Jazz Swift from Newton. “If I get into a car with a different sat nav to what I usually use, preloaded with a destination and you made me drive, even if I knew the destination, I wouldn’t trust it. I’d want to know: Why this route? Why this sat nav? I’d question every turn. It’s about trusting where you are going and how you’re going to get there.”
“What are the cultural headwinds that are going to stop people moving there? Pick those off.” To shape every decision colleagues make on a day-to-day basis and engage across our multi- generational workforces, leaders show that the destination is not only about profit, but something more meaningful too. “Drive with purpose,” says Paloma Lopez from Bel Group, “to unite everyone and give meaning to all the effort we are putting into change.” Such passion has a chance to get everyone on board, if adapted to your people. Emma Harris, CFO at Mitchells & Butlers, has seen that if people question your journey. “you’re just going to get stuck. What are the cultural headwinds that are going to stop people moving there? Pick those off.”
7% 4%
Stability
Compassion
33%
Trust
56%
Hope
Emma Harris Chief Financial Officer Mitchells & Butlers
3. Gallup, Global Leadership Report: What Followers Want, 2025
Build trust by sharing and seeking the truth Trust is the second most important leadership trait for followers, according to the same Gallup Leadership Report. This is built through openness and honesty – a delicate balance when a sense of possibility and inspiration are so key. Of course, there will be highly disruptive times when being both inspiring and open are not possible at once. During organisational restructures, redundancies or mergers for instance, it is clarity and honesty that win through. “The truth is just so much more palatable than some sugar-coated story,” says Louise Stigant, former UK MD, Mondelēz International. “Sometimes when things are tough, leaders can hunker down and not spend as much time with their team. In those moments, you need to be more visible. Check in, listen and understand how people are feeling in a very open, authentic way.” It is a leader’s duty to seek out the truth, says Ruth Kelly, Aldi’s COO: “We have a phrase we use: self-information. It is up to us to get out and get the information from people in the store, the warehouse and customers.” To manage the balance of inspiration and realism, leaders are asking questions and workshopping across silos so everyone can flag risks and develop solutions.
Hand over the wheel The best leaders then create space and trust for everyone not just to follow but to make their own decisions. From the outset, this means encouraging colleagues to develop ideas and pursue ambitions that support the organisation’s strategy. Giving people ownership of an idea, and the confidence to develop it into a viable project, helps turn enthusiasm into action. Leadership becomes a skill people can practice at every level, rather than a responsibility reserved for those at the top.
The team at Lactalis sees the value in this approach, says their Group Supply Chain Director, Nicole Kurz: “It’s about involving the right people: the people who are actually doing the day-to-day work. If they are involved in the decisions, they are aware of the risks and can flag concerns so we can make a turn where necessary.” Such side-by-side, hands-on collaboration is when transformation happens. Take care Consciously keep your own tank topped up to successfully convey grounded optimism, says Paloma Lopez from Bel Group: “If your mind, your body, your emotions are at peace, you have a clear head to make good decisions and to lead others without creating more stress,” she says. “Run, have a cup of tea – whatever it takes to improve your resilience and be in the space to show people there is a way through,” says Louise Stigant, formerly of Mondelēz.
This requires building the right mindsets and skills to face into disruption.
“The truth is just so much more palatable than some sugar- coated story.”
Louise Stigant Former UK MD Mondelez International
How to lead...
for your people Building the skills of the future workforce
“Nudge your team slightly into areas where they are less comfortable.”
Amidst the turbulance, employee engagement continues to drop 4 . How do you create a team of smart people motivated to try to find answers? How are leaders building future-focused skills that generate momentum, even as what is needed shifts?
Katherine Pickus Chief Sustainability Officer ADM
4. Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026
What skills will build teams that react to opportunities and challenges together? Technical STEM skills, like robotics and agriscience, have the potential to unlock many of the nine disruptions highlighted in the introduction. Leading organisations are investing in these areas, sourcing skills and talent to develop with on- the-job training. But these specific, specialised skills are only part of the picture. Over four million people are employed in the food and drink sector across a diverse subset of businesses in agriculture, manufacturing, wholesale, retail and hospitality 5 . Women in Food’s research suggests skills emerging as widely important across the food and drink supply chain include:
Systems-thinking On shifting sands, a new way of thinking is essential for employees. It combines being open to change, comfortable with informed risk and confident to be a leader in your own right. It is key for people to see the pieces of the puzzle, bring them together, then meaningfully translate that to decision makers in the business – helping them understand the risk of doing something and, crucially, of doing nothing too. This requires people to look beyond their own beliefs and desired outcomes, focusing instead on the signals of change and how they connect to inform decision- making. However powerful AI becomes, the ability to interpret those signals critically and apply human judgement remains essential.
Resilience This can help people hold both the immediate and long-term paradox in decisions, which is so vital as seen in section 1. “The next generation of talent needs to be commercial and fundamentally approach every question with the future in mind, always starting from a supply-base stability point of view,” says India Moore from Sainsbury’s.
5. Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Food statistics in your pocket, 29 July 2026
Data Using data to make decisions is almost universally seen as a key skill. “Nobody should ever say, ‘I don’t know anymore,’” says Claire Atkins-Morris, Sustainability Director at Sodexo. “We’ve got so much data at our fingertips that I can guarantee there will be data points, that even if not directly related, provide enough insight to be able to make some assumptions around.”
AI Success here depends on catering to everyone in the workforce. Many people with long tenures, treasure troves of corporate knowledge, are worried. Leading organisations are getting them to talk about AI, work out how to use it and grow their skills. “With five generations of people in the workplace,” says Nicole Kurz from Lactalis, “we need personalisation in how people learn and how people build trust with AI. But ultimately the message is: this will make the mind-numbing day- to-day tasks quicker so that you have more time for the value-added things and can enhance what you’re doing for the business.” Leadership across all levels When colleagues are autonomous leaders in their own right, the leadership traits and approaches outlined in section 1 are important for all.
These skills are foundational to resilience, empowering people to make decisions and business to progress – even without a plan to follow. What’s next? As the world shifts so do the skills needed to match. What we needed five years ago is not what we need today. But the principle remains that people need to keep learning. As Katherine Pickus, CSO at ADM says: “Let them try new things. Provide opportunities. And nudge your team slightly into areas where they are less comfortable.”
“The next generation of talent needs
to fundamentally approach every question with the future in mind.”
India Moore Head of Buying Meal Solutions Sainsbury’s
Conclusion
Look up, look around, look ahead As a collective We heard from our interviewees that if producers, manufacturers and retailers act collectively to answer global supply chain challenges, environmental risks, legislation and consumer food standards, we can all move to do what is right by society. This reflects a sense of collective responsibility to ensure we keep healthy, affordable and accessible food available to all – this is, after all, the fundamental purpose of the food industry. Rapid adaptation happens when we align behind a common purpose, as it did when the world phased out the CFCs used in refrigeration, and during COVID when the food industry rose to the challenge of keeping shelves stocked and accessible to the nation.
Fiona Bennie Partner Impact and Innovation Newton
This Summer was an inflection point: from wildfires to crop failures to over-heated plant closures and the inevitable price and quality volatility that followed. Our industry requires a radical reshaping of how we anticipate and face into infinite disruption. This will be achieved by collaborating and competing to progress our industry – improving how we keep food on the table and delight consumers. As a commercial organisation This is also a question of business resilience – continuing to find opportunities for differentiation and growth. There is room for everyone on the aisles and the high street but not the brands that don’t progress by encouraging their people to look up. To not only be heads-down chasing this year’s P&L, but to find the space, investment and skills-in-the-room to protect tomorrow’s P&L too. When the cost of tomatoes rises in every retailer but the one who effectively modelled what could happen if crops failed, the commercial impact is undeniable and resilience to disruption becomes reality.
As a leader Resilient companies are created by bold leaders who enable teams by providing clarity despite uncertainty. They ensure information is available to make decisions for today and tomorrow, considering: is this a short-term band-aid or are we setting ourselves up for longer-term success? They identify real signals from the distractions of new disruptions. And they see resilience as a competitive edge, proving what happens when foresight and humanity live and breathe in every choice. They remember as well that resilience is not built by leaders in isolation. We cannot make every decision or anticipate every change. We have to give space and remit to our super sharp and curious people, nurture the mindset, skills and care needed today, and create the conditions for adaptability and autonomy. Only then will our people know that we will arrive at the right destination together, even if we have to change the route along the way.
Get in touch
Ask about any of the points based in this report
Join the Women in Food LinkedIn group here. Sign up to the Women in Food network here.
Fiona Bennie fiona.bennie@newtonimpact.com Jazz Swift jazz.swift@newtonimpact.com Christina Clark christina.clark@newtonimpact.com General enquiries womeninfood@newtonimpact.com
Acknowledgements We thank Fiona Bennie, Jazz Swift and Olivia Mitchell for their contributions to this report.
Powering a thriving industry
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