Name: Kellogg CEO: 'We Have Great People, We Have a Great History'
Uploaded: 2019-04-23
Duration: 4 min 51 s
Description: Steve Cahillane believes that Kellogg will continue to succeed in the new era of changing consumer tastes.

[ MUSIC ] Steve, when you became CEO of Kellogg about a year and a half ago, you said that we have to have a turn around plan. So talk us through the steps of that plan. You arrive at headquarters in Battlecreek, Michigan Huge company. More than 30, 000 employees. Operations in 200 countries. Where did you start on day one? So day one I arrived very early and we have a little cereal cafe in the building on the ground floor. I went straight there and I poured myself a bowl of Apple Jacks. And I sat there just waiting for something to come talk to me, and eventually a few people came and started talking to me. And what did you say? I'm your new CEO? I'm you new CEO and I'm here to listen at the beginning because you all know this company, you come with different perspectives and you come with the perspectives of being a consumer, as well I wanna hear what's on your mind. And that was the beginning. We've launched a town hall that very day. And I told everybody don't expect me to come up with an answer in a week or two. I'll have input and it'll be a two- way dialog but I really wanna hear what is on everybody's mind. Actually, I heard that you went around for the beginning. And talking to everybody at the company, all around the country. What kind of questions did you ask? I understood you had a list of them. I did and I had a lot of questions for everybody. Traveled all around the world and I said, ultimately, a couple of things. What do you love about this company and what do you wanna make sure that stays part of the fabric of this company. What do you want to change about the company? What are we missing? Why is the company not growing? If you were me, what would you do? What stands in the way of success? And then finally you dream forward. What do you want the company to be ten years from now, or 20 years from now? So what did you learn? What were some of the things they told you? They told me that there was a hunger to grow this company again. So there's this yearning to what is the future going to be? And how do we get to grow? And what I ultimately came back and said if you come with the same committment and passion to right size this business and to whip its cost into shape and you apply that to growing that top line and winning with brands We can win. You said you asked some of them, what would you do if you were me? What did they say? All sorts of different things. Many people said, please don't change the values of this company. Please keep this company as a heart and soul. Please keep our philanthropic committments in place. Many said we're not investing enough. We're cutting costs but we're not really plowing it back into brand building. We've got great brands. When's the last time we saw Tony the Tiger really come to life? What surprised you the most from what you heard? I think what surprised me the most was how much passion there really was, and how much faith there was in the future of the business despite it being a challenging environment. So you have all this new information. How long did it take you to come up with the plan that you call deploy for growth strategy? It was about two and a half months where we launched it. So I spent that first two months literally traveling around the world, asking all those questions. ingesting it all, really thinking about it. Then I sent my direct reports, the executive committee, and there was no consultants involved. I have nothing against consultants, but I want this to be our plan. But in those early days when you launched this new plan, what did it take for you to get people to follow you and believe in what you were doing now that you had a plan? I think you have to keep painting a picture. Painting a picture of something that is worth going for. If you can paint that picture that we are gonna be one of the winners, and then you give them the reasons to believe, because we have great brands, because we have great people, because we have a great history. And then you have to just be a relentless cheerleader and you have to choose the people who you know can do it and you know believe it And the others have to get off the bus. What was the hardest part? I think the hardest part is sometimes you feel like you're by yourself, right? And you have to build a team. So, building the team that you really know and believe is going to be the team that takes you there is the hardest part. It's the hardest work. It's the most important work. I know that you're still going through this transformation process. But when you look back on how far you've come so far, what's the most critical leadership lesson that you've learned through this process that you wish somebody had told you before you even started. My favorite word is stick- to- itiveness, right? It's if you believe it. You have to chase it and you have to overcome every single barrier along the way. Because there's gonna be moments when things go wrong. And they go wrong to the point where it can create doubt in your own mind and people around you. Do we really know what we're doing? Is this really possible. And you have to plow through that. You have to plow through that with a relentless belief that you can overcome. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Kellogg CEO: "We Have Great People, We Have a Great History"

Leadership

Steve Cahillane believes that Kellogg will continue to succeed in the new era of changing consumer tastes.