Food & Drink Business podcast: With new General Mills ANZ MD Matt Salter

Food & Drink Business editor Kim Berry talks to Matthew Salter, the new managing director of General Mills ANZ, about being an industry leader for a global company. 

After six years based in Switzerland, Matt is back on home soil, keen to use and build on the skills learnt from managing truly multicultural teams. We talk about what it takes to build team cohesion and common goals when people bring different languages and cultural norms to the table, as well as our many other idiosyncrasies.

From learning to listen, flexibility and being willing to unlearn what you think you know, Matt talks about how a global business such as General Mills builds and maintains its internal culture. We discuss his experience with the company and its capacity to adapt and adjust to change, as well as the changes he has seen in his many years with the company – the growth of ecommerce, changing markets and the changing needs of consumers.

The discussion moves on to the importance of brand association for consumers, the lessons learned from COVID-19 impacts and the innovations such as collaborative supply of product to Food Bank. We wrap up the episode by talking about how General Mills is reacting to new food markets such as the rise of plant-based foods and alternative proteins, and how General Mills continues to foster innovation more than 150 years after it began.