Danone harnesses the “benefit of doubt”

Purpose – To provide a review of the winning case study from the executive development category of EFMD's Excellence in Practice Awards, 2013. Design/methodology/approach – An independent review of the winning case. Findings – Uncertainty may have become a common aspect of business life, particularly in recent years, but can such disruption transform the modern corporate culture of targets, measures and key performance indicators (KPI)? Franck Riboud, CEO of Danone thinks that it can. He proposes that Danone can only compete with big name competitors such as Nestlé, Unilever and CocaCola by “thinking outside the box”, and thus leveraging the “benefit of doubt”. Originality/value – Provides insight for practitioners into a learning and development initiative of proven impact.