Name: Philip Morris CEO believes the world can be smoke-free in 10 years
Uploaded: 2022-01-21
Duration: 5 min 57 s
Description: CEO Jacek Olczak: 'People will remember me that I had the vision to fully unsmoke them.'

 CEO Jacek Olczak: "People will remember me that I had the vision to fully unsmoke them."

Philip Morris CEO believes the world can be smoke-free in 10 years

Jacek Olczak - CEO, Philip Morris International

Leadership

PMI CEO believes world can be smoke-free in 10 years

Yeah, thank you so much for joining us to talk about your company Philip Morris. You know, it's interesting that when you became Ceo seven months ago, you launched a big marketing campaign urging people to stop smoking cigarettes and you ran a bunch of full page newspaper ads where Philip Morris wants to, I'm quoting you unspoken the future. You know, many people just don't buy into it. It's hard to believe that a company like Philip Morris would do such a thing given that you're one of the biggest cigarette companies in the world. What do you say to the skeptics? Well, judge asked by our results, 30% of our revenues already are coming from a non combustible products, So called reduced risk products within the 70 market. So we walked the talk every day and we're helping smokers to make a better choice is obviously the best choice is to stop smoking as in our, as is in our adverts. But the second best based choice if they don't stop smoking is to as fast as possible adopt or convert fully to the new products. We mean that one day we should uh forgot about the cigarettes and cigarettes will be just the past to the benefit of smokers society and others they called it. So what's your plan for getting to a world that is smoke free, go faster and be more innovative. We still have to work on the products which really can be made accessible to the people in, for example low income countries and I continue the current expansion. But everything what we have done so far is actually brings us Squarely into the trajectory to reach the 50% of our revenues coming from an un combustible product by 2025? Let's fast forward to 2025. And let's say you do hit those financial goals that you were just describing. How do you think the public and public health officials will view Philip Morris will, will your company's reputation change even though Philip Morris will still be selling cigarettes, but just not as many. Well, definitely the smokers will be like that thankful to Philip Morris that you know, we had the courage uh, to find a solution to the problem of smoking were already here today here, you know, a lot of positive statements coming from a small curse, literally they're saying that, you know, our product has changed their lives And it's very encouraging and I believe more and more people will recognize our efforts that you know, very important for us is the impact of our product on the society. We take it very seriously. We work hard for the last 10 years, science technology, etc to solve that problem. I personally think that they welcome the time soon, but I will have to remind the audience that Philip Morris International is the company who used to sell cigarettes, but it's no longer selling figures. Yeah, you talk about that a lot. You say that you can picture a world without cigarettes? Do you have a date in mind. Do you have like a timetable? When is that going to happen? Well, I think that evolved the the stars were properly aligned Within 10 years. In many, many countries in the world you could essentially closed once and forever the chapter of smoking conventional cigarettes. You're saying that it's conceivable in 10 years that this will be a world without uh cigarettes. So you're saying nobody is going to be selling cigarettes, no marbles for sale, is that right? That's right. I actually think it would be a lost opportunity if we don't achieve that demand in the next 10 years. And actually you said that you want to get into businesses that have nothing to do with nicotine. And since you took over as ceo, you've already made two acquisitions for certain and victoria. These are small companies but they are specialists in inhalation technology, respiratory and pharmaceutical products of all of the options available to you to branch out into a new business. You chose these? Why is that? What's the attraction here? The attraction is that over 10 years, over the last 10 years we've been building a new Philip Morris based on science and technology. We've learned a lot about the human respiratory system. I think we really have a big huge capability in the assessment of the various products delivered to the human body via, via inhalation. And I believe acquisition of these two companies further extends our capabilities so we can realistically dream about bringing the products which are addressing gunmen, human patient, consumer needs and have a net positive impact on a society. So it's a logical extension of the capabilities and the knowledge which you have built while solving the problem of smoking. Now we can repurpose this for the other applications. Yeah, you've spent nearly 30 years at Philip Morris. It's basically most of your career now as ceo you seem serious and determined about transforming the company away from cigarettes. So what do you want people to say about your contribution? Your legacy? Well, I would be very accomplished if I moved the company beyond the mark of a 50% revenue coming from the new product, the person who marked the company presence in beyond nicotine, a category that I accelerated the progress the company is making in a solving the important problem of smoking. I think also there will be a country by this time when people will remember me that I had the vision to fully and smoke them. And then I have delivered on that vision. This would be a nice accomplishment on my side