Phillip Irvine, Operations Director of Bartter Enterprises (Australia's second largest chicken and poultry processor) was sitting in his office in North Ryde, Sydney in June 2006 reflecting on the meeting which had just ended with Geoff Frost, Group CEO, on the strategy for extending the BBX initiative group wide. Without any doubt, the work which Geoff and he had initiated in the Beresfield plant had been extraordinarily successful. Since launch in 2005, it had already delivered verified savings of over $3 m, which would be annualised at over $5 m. The key questions he now had to address were:

Phillip was not underestimating the challenge of the task ahead. He had just finished reviewing the detailed diagnostic data from the Hanwood, NSW site which had shown that while most of the key themes for change were consistent with Beresfield, the differences in such things as plant layout, skills and work practises suggested that less than 30 per cent of the Beresfield change initiatives would be applicable group wide. He mused therefore that a simple roll out of implemented changes from Beresfield across the whole group was definitely not an option. However, he had not been counting on such a roll out as he believed passionately in the adage – change imposed is change opposed.