“Many of our sites did not have a single recordable injury. We’re world-class on safety, and that’s something the whole organisation is particularly proud of. One injury is one too many.”
A customer and market focus
Amcor works closely with its customers, in many cases partnering with them to deliver greater value.
Peter Brues, Amcor’s president of Europe and the Americas, gave a few examples.
“It might be a matter of joining together our research and development, or marketing teams. Or to work jointly with them on simplifying our products and what we do.”
Bringing along the talent
In the early days of its turnaround, Amcor’s talent strategy paid a lot of attention to having the right people in the right position. In the first 18 months, Amcor reviewed the top three levels of its organisation, and moved on or replaced 60 of its top 80 people.
Today, the company focuses on selling its message and strategic imperatives at every level within the organisation.
Brues describes it as “singing from the same hymn sheet.”
“When I talk to co-workers, whether at procurement or sales conferences, leadership meetings or at a plant, we talk about the importance of our financial results.”
“We think if we’re focused on the key things that’ll make a difference to the business, that’s our score card. It’s about creating one culture.”
Capital discipline
Amcor has conducted five acquisitions in the past year, plus Alcan and Ball the year before.
In measuring the success of the acquisitions, the company is strikingly conservative.
“The great legacy of Alcan and Ball acquisitions is the cash-flow,” MacKenzie says.
Speaking of further acquisitions, he adds that a “pipeline of opportunities” has been prioritised.
“But we’re going to remain disciplined in how we benefit our cash-flow. We understand the benefits of patience and of not paying too much.”
“All things have to be considered against returning cash to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends. That keeps us very, very disciplined. If we can’t find good returns for the next dollar, we’re quite happy to turn around and give that back to shareholders.”
Lean, low-cost operations
In the first few years of its turnaround, Amcor divested $1.5 billion of non-core assets. This was made easier by its leadership overhaul. When it came time to divest, few of the leadership team had been heavily involved with the previous strategy.
Another aspect of keeping costs low is driving quick synergy gains from acquisitions.
The Alcan and Ball purchases, for example, have been completely absorbed into the organisation a full year ahead of plans.
Myriam Robin is a reporter for SmartCompany and its sister site LeadingCompany. She has degrees in economics, international studies and journalism. She likes writing about businesses taking risks and doing new things.
