What if sustainability weren't a cost of doing business, but its central engine? That is exactly the transformation Juan Aguiriano, Group Head of Sustainability at Kerry, has helped to architect over the past seven years.

In this episode, Juan traces Kerry's journey from its roots as an Irish dairy cooperative to its emergence as what the company calls an impact company, with an audacious mission to reach over two billion people with sustainable nutrition solutions by 2030.

We explore how Kerry's Beyond the Horizon strategy moved sustainability from implicit good practice to an explicit business choice, reshaping the company's portfolio, investment decisions and innovation pipeline. Juan explains the "and equation" at the heart of Kerry's approach: making food that is healthy, affordable, tasty and sustainable, all at once.

The conversation covers:

• How Kerry built its purpose, "inspiring food, nourishing life," through dialogue with tens of thousands of employees worldwide
• The five strategic impact themes driving Kerry's sustainability agenda, from nutrition and climate to responsible sourcing and social impact
• The Evolve programme: how Kerry worked with 3,000 Irish dairy farmers and Bord Bia to create what became the world's most sustainably verified dairy supply chain
• Why extending shelf life through natural fermentation and biotechnology is one of the most cost-effective tools in the fight against food waste
• How the Kerry Health and Nutrition Institute (KHNI) is advancing the science of sustainable nutrition
• The role of digital tools and AI in scaling and accelerating impact

Juan brings the perspective of a realistic optimist: the physical risks facing the global food system are accelerating, yet the cultural shift inside Kerry, where sustainability has become everyone's business, gives genuine cause for confidence.

A compelling case study in how doing good and doing well are not in conflict, but increasingly inseparable.

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What does the science of creativity actually tell us about working with AI? And where does human judgement remain irreplaceable?

Mark Blackwell speaks with Dr Todd Lubart, Professor of Psychology at Université Paris Cité, about his research on Cyber-Creativity and the future of human-AI collaboration in innovation.

Todd has spent his career building rigorous frameworks for understanding and measuring creative potential. In this conversation he brings that evidence base to bear on the questions business leaders are wrestling with right now.

In this episode:

• Why AI excels at divergent thinking but struggles with genuine originality
• Where the quickest wins are in the creative process, and where the pitfalls lie
• The Pick and Mix approach to prompting multiple AI systems for better results
• Why problem definition remains a distinctly human advantage
• The four scenarios from the Manifesto for Human-AI Creativity, including Plagiarism 3.0 and Shutdown
• How rigorous benchmarking transforms the quality of idea evaluation
• The hidden cost of slop, and what to do about it

Essential listening for business leaders in innovation-intensive sectors who want to engage with AI on the basis of evidence, not headlines.

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Arkaro Company Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arkaro
Mark Blackwell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrblackwell/
Newsletter - Arkaro Insights: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/arkaro-insights-6924308904973631488/

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Audio Podcast: https://arkaroinsights.buzzsprout.com

📧 For business enquiries: mark@arkaro.com

That famous statistic, that 70% of organisational transformations fail, turns out to have no evidence behind it whatsoever. So says Professor Julie Hodges, and she should know. As Professor of Organisational Change at Durham University Business School, and with 20 years of commercial experience at PwC and Royal Bank of Scotland, Julie is one of the world's leading authorities on how organisations change, and why it so often goes wrong.

In this episode, Mark Blackwell and Julie explore why the tidy, linear models of change that most organisations still rely on are no longer fit for purpose, and what a more honest, people-centred approach actually looks like in practice.

In this episode:

• Why the "70% failure" statistic is a myth, and what we should be asking instead
• The difference between incremental and transformational change, and why it matters
• Why change is messy, emotional and rarely linear, and why that is actually normal
• The critical role of sense-making and why people resist change for good reasons
• Co-creation versus design by committee: how to involve people without losing momentum
• The evolving role of HR in leading organisational change
• How AI is raising the stakes for change management, and what leaders should do about it
• The skills managers need most: empathy, courage, agility and digital fluency

Julie's books mentioned in this episode:

• People-Centric Change
• Managing and Leading People Through Change (3rd edition)

Both are grounded in empirical research and written with practical application firmly in mind.

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Connect with Arkaro:

🔗 Follow us on LinkedIn:
Arkaro Company Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arkaro
Mark Blackwell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrblackwell/
Newsletter - Arkaro Insights: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/arkaro-insights-6924308904973631488/

🌐 Visit our website: www.arkaro.com

📺 Subscribe to our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@arkaro

Audio Podcast: https://arkaroinsights.buzzsprout.com

📧 For business enquiries: mark@arkaro.com