Beefeater Academy breeds managers of the future : The practical lessons of an action‐learning scheme

“The Beefeater Academy has opened doors which otherwise would have been closed to me. I have learned more about myself and my ambition in the last seven months than in the past seven years in Beefeater,” said a participant in management development by action learning at Whitbread Restaurants’ accredited corporate business school. Action learning – a process in which learners work together in sets of four, five or six and try to solve organizational problems by using knowledge and examples of good practice – is generally thought to have helped Whitbread Restaurants to achieve its strategic objectives as well as to foster personal development.