mondelez international

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The global snacking giant spun off from Kraft Foods in 2012 and markets products in more than 150 countries. Associated brands include Cadbury, Oreo, and Chips

Mondelez International | 2023 America's Most Innovative Companies

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Mondelez International

Mondelez International | 2023 America's Most Innovative Companies | Fortune

Eric Roston

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Sanjeev Vohra, Global Lead - Applied Intelligence, Accenture
Javier Polit, Chief Information and Digital Officer, Mondelez International
Moderator: Alan Murray, FORTUNE

Brainstorm A.I. 2022 - Leading With A.I.

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Sanjeev Vohra, Accenture
Javier Polit, Mondelez International
Moderator: Alan Murray, FORTUNE

Brainstorm A.I. 2022 - Leading With A.I.


[ MUSIC ] Dirk, it's almost a year now since you've been made CEO of Mondelez and recently you've finally came out with a strategic plan for the company, and you're calling it snacking made right. What doesn that mean? Well, snacking refers to the fact that we are The world's largest snacking company, 85 % of the products that we sell are snacking product. We are in 160 countries. So it means we going to continue to build our snacking direction, which is working for us. Made right refers to the fact that the consumer these days has many diversion tastes, and we wanna make sure that we offer the consumers The right snack at the right moment, made the right way. Well, you know, you're right about consumers thinking more about snacking as opposed to a real meal, but also they're moving towards healthier, fresh foods, trying to stay away from sugar. So, what does this mean for some of Mondelez's big brand names like Oreo cookies, Cadbury chocolates, I mean what will that mean for your sales and also for your growth plans? I think the consumers and the way they look at health is evolving quite a lot and so we're trying to make sure that we offer as wide a range of product as we possibly can and so an Oreo these days Is existing to cookie form but also existing in indulgent form, in chocolate. It also exist in a more healthy form in yogurt. And so we can use these brands that we have to extend them into adjacencies, what we call other snacking categories To sort of cover the whole range of snacks that a consumer might want. He's also been talking as part of your strategic plan that you want Mondelez to be more nimble, much faster, experiment more. What changes are you making to get new ideas and for people to experiment? First of all, there is a whole digital if I can say so and that means that the consumer these days, They way they get introduced to a brand or the way they relate to a brand is completely different and things can go much faster and you can learn a lot faster. So what we want to do is much more real time reacting to what is going on with the consumer on social media or experimenting with new products and so on. In innovation we going to do something called test and learn Before in the old days it was go big, try to do an innovation that works all around the world that created another big global brand. These days it's find something that really connects with consumers, a brand they really love. And we'll take it from there and see how big it gets. Well one of the innovations I heard about [ UNKNOWN ] come out with is Hot chicken wing and wasabi flavoured Oreos in china. So may be that doesn't work for the American palette, it certainly not for me. But is that the kind of innovation internationally that you are talking about? Yes. Exactly. We cannot invent what types of flavours oreo should have from Chicago. We need to let out Chinese. Our Indian or our South African teams decide on that and that's exactly what we mean, yes. Tell us a little bit about E commerce, because you've been talking more about that, getting more business from online sales, how is that growing? It's growing fast. It's growing over 40 % a year for us. We will do about $ 1 billion of sales in e- commerce around 2020. In our world, the snacking world, you need to recreate the impulse location online. Because as you go through the store, you might have written down that you wanna buy Oreo, but you see something else in the snacking aisle and you're gonna buy it. What we need to recreate in the e- commerce or in the online space Is an import, so if you gonna buy milk as you doing your shopping lets say we wanna say a pop up that says, do you want some [ UNKNOWN ] with that? As you said it is a kinda of [ UNKNOWN ] is kinda of grab and go purchase it's not thought out in advance. Can you really change consumer behavior and turn him into online shoppers? Yeah, there's always a part that is what we call pantry filling which is a planned by and many people will buy biscuits or chocolates when they go to the grocery store. As you start to buy more online you might [ UNKNOWN ] to the grocery store. So we still need to make sure that When you do that online shopping trip that biscuits and chocolates come up for you. What your [ UNKNOWN ] investors were expecting you to come in and change things up, but they were also expecting their stock to perform better too. How much longer do they have to wait to see that happen? What we're proposing to our investors is, on the one hand our bottomline will keep on increasing On the other hand, we will accelerate our top line growth and that these days commands a premium. So we expect our stock price to go up quite considerably in the coming years as we show that our top line starts to accelerate. And so we think that from 2020 you will see an accelerated growth picture for us. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Mondelez CEO Cooks Up A New Recipe for the Oreo Maker

Leadership

Mondelez is targeting consumers in China and India to develop an appetite for American snacks.

Irene, Mondelez is truly a global company. It operates in 165 countries all around the world. How worried are you about the global economy, given the ups and downs in Europe and China, and in the emerging economies? It's a challenge. I mean there's no question that this is one of the most volatile economies that we've seen in many, many years, both in terms of currency, as well as just political instability. The best thing that we can do for ourselves is focus on what we can control. So I and my team have focused all of our efforts on making sure that our portfolio is where we want it to be. 85 percent of our portfolio is in snaking, which is a growing behavior around the world. And that has kept us relatively insulated. We have focused very much on cost, because that's very much within our own control, both in terms of overhead cost, as well as in the cost in our supply chain. And we've made sure that even in these difficult times, we're continuing to invest in growth. You know, a lot of people aren't very worried about a global recession. Do you see a recession coming? We worry about that, but again, our focus remains on what is in, within our control, how we sell our products, what we do with our cost structure, and the investments that we make. And all of that together has allowed us, I think, to perform exceptionally well. We've been delivering double digit earnings growth over the last couple of years. And I think that's allowed us to perform as well as we have. Despite the fact that it's a challenging global environment. If you got a clear signal that a recession were coming, globally, what steps would you be taking? What would you be doing to prepare yourself? I think we're already taking those steps, Susie, we are focusing very much on making sure that our product offer good value to the consumers. We've been investing in making sure we can make different sizes, package sizes of our products. Smaller sizes when things get expensive. Larger sizes to give people economy offerings. And so I think we're taking all the relevant steps as well as making sure that out own cost structure. Is as low as it needs to be. So that we can continue to invest in our franchises. Even if the broader macro environment is challenging, What about China? Many people are blaming China for the malaise that we are seeing in the global markets and the global economy. I mean, what are your thoughts on that? China is a challenging market. There is no question it has slowed down relative to where it might have been a couple of years ago. But the GDP is still growing at a high single digit rate. We have a very solid business in China. We've just launched a new category of gum in the last two years. And it's doing quite nicely. It's almost a $ 200 million business for us. So there's no question we keep our eye on our category growth. We want to make sure that our inventories don't back up. But for our categories, our consumer categories and snacking in particular, China continues to be a very strong market for us.

How snacking is helping this company thrive in today's global economy

Retail

The global snacking trend helps Mondelez International.

Snacking is helping this company thrive

Irene Rosenfeld, CEO of Mondelez International, sits down with Fortune's Susie Gharib and discusses how the global trend to snack is helping the food conglomerate.

I read you mentor a lot of young women about how to get ahead and how to be a leader. What is your message to them? I start with make a difference. Whatever you're doing, regardless of what your level is in the company, regardless of what subject matter you are an expert in, it's really important that you make a difference and I think too often Folks go into companies, and they just kinda wanna keep their heads down, not make waves, and that is not the way to get to the top. As you probably know, a lot of women are very fearful of making a mistake. They wanna do everything the right way. So, what advice do you give to women that, if they're gonna make a difference, But also not to be scared off by failure. One of my favorite expressions is you can't steal second base if your foot is firmly planted on first. So you've gotta take some risks. There's no question that you have to be willing to do something to advance your agenda. And sometimes it will work and sometimes it won't. My advice to young people both male, and female, is to take prudent risks. But ultimately you have to be wiling to take your foot off first base if you're going to make some progress. You know, we've seen studies, but also a lot of anecdotal evidence that When women are presented opportunities to rise up in the ranks, to take more risks, to have more responsibilities, they pull back. They pull back, they hold back from these new opportunities. What is your advice to women? I think they have to raise their hand. I do find even in our own company that all too often we will ask a woman, Offer a woman a promotional opportunity and she sometimes will say, well, I don't feel like I'm ready, I have to go ask my husband about that. And typically when you say that to the guys they say, let's go. I like Sheryl Sandberg's approach leading in. I think the idea that says you need to know what you want. And when it comes along, you need to seize that moment. Many people say that the ultimate test of being a leader is during a time of crisis. You certainly have had your dose of those opportunities, most notably your negotiations with activist investor Nelson Peltz. Tell us, what was the most important lesson you learned From reading in a time of turmoil. I think the lesson that was most helpful is to know where you're going. Once you know where you're going, you can then get on the path, and make sure you just stay focused in getting there. There will be many many challenges that will come on along the way That will perhaps, try to throw you off the path. But once you know where you are going, that's critical in leading through difficult times You are one of a few female CEOs of a Fortune 500 company. What's they best advice that you have ever gotten when it comes to leadership? Golden rule You know that's at the heart of 16 of the world's religions. And I think it really is a fabulous lesson at the heart of business as well. Treating others the way that you want to be treated both in your dealings with your employees, in your dealings with your superiors, in your dealings with your customers In your dealings with shareholders and for me that's been a very profound lesson and it's served me exceptionally well. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

The CEO of Mondelēz International gives leadership advice in talk with Fortune's Susie Gharib.

Irene Rosenfeld: Women have to raise their hand

The Mondelēz International CEO gives leadership advice.

Mondelez International

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America's Most Innovative Companies