A Story of Agile Leadership and Organizational Design: Biscuit International (formerly Biscuits Poult)

The case highlights an attempt to “liberate” management and employees from traditional business practices at the French biscuit company Poult from 2006–2017. It draws on the reflections of Mehdi Berrada who, until his resignation in 2017, was actively engaged in building an agile culture among the firm’s 800 factory workers, machine operators and technicians. The case offers insight into the matrix of activities that constitute a “liberated enterprise”, from building autonomous teams to driving innovation from the bottom up.