Get the right people on the bus… Rosenfeld claims

“We need to make our brands relevant to local consumers while building on the lessons we’ve learned elsewhere in the world. Over the last few years, we’ve significantly grown our international business using a new ‘best of global, best of local’ approach.”

Telos: When you returned to Kraft in 2006 you said that Kraft had lost heart and soul, and therefore you started an activity that you defined rewiring. What are the rules of the road about leading a successful transformational change organisation as such?

Irene Rosenfeld: I had the opportunity to put into writing such rules in light of the 2009 World Business Forum and briefly here they are.
1. Get the right people on the bus. Under our Reframe strategy, we replaced half our executive team in the first year. Today, it combines people from both outside and inside our organization, who bring either a diverse perspective or deep Kraft Foods experience to their positions. These leaders weren’t afraid to challenge conventional wisdom and look at our business challenges with a fresh set of eyes. Getting the right people on the bus also meant raising the bar on performance across the company. After giving people ample support and time to meet new expectations, we made the difficult decision to let many underperformers go. However, rather than create an atmosphere of fear, this instilled a sense of optimism and hope because our people now clearly understood what was required.
2. Give them a roadmap. Leaders tend to focus on “what to do,” but the real issue is more often “how to do it.” We therefore provided them with a strategic roadmap. Once we were all reading from the same map, we could move forward as a team.
3. Engage their hearts and minds. People often chose with their hearts, not their heads. For too long, our people had been focused on cutting costs … and it’s hard to get fired up every day to come to work and cut costs. We reignited their passion by focusing on something far more uplifting: growth. “Let’s Get Growing!” became our rallying cry. We also worked together to redefine the heart and soul of our company through a newly articulated higher purpose and positioning. Finally, we identified the values that would guide our behaviour and embedded them in our new performance standards to ensure they will be more than just words on paper.
4. Move quickly. During a transformation, it’s understandable to be hesitant about moving too fast, especially at the outset. For example, some of the early changes we made at Kraft Foods caused people to worry that we were going to turn all the lights off and put the organization on “tilt.” However, not only have we kept the power on, we’ve lit our entire village. Major organizational changes create uncertainty, and the point is to move quickly - faster than you are comfortable - because in hindsight, you reproach yourself of not having been even faster.
5. Communicate frequently, consistently and honestly. How you manage change can make all the difference. During our transformation, we put a premium on communication from day one. This helped create an atmosphere of openness and trust. We also made a point of celebrating success … publicly and often. In business, we tend to spend a lot more time thinking about the problems than the triumphs. People need to know that what they’re doing is making a difference, and that their leaders notice and appreciate their efforts.

Where those five rules originated from? is there a story behind them?

Yes! Actually always in 2006 we began a turnaround journey by soliciting input from our employees and stakeholders around the world. They were passionate in describing our challenges and opportunities.
Then, we turned their insights into action by unveiling four strategies that provided the framework for our transformation and our return to sustainable, profitable growth.
The strategies were to: rewire our company for growth by strengthening our leadership team and decentralizing our organization; reframe our categories by making our products relevant to consumers again focusing on innovation treat sales as a competitive advantage rather than an overhead cost; drive down costs… without compromising the quality of our products.

Your professional story is of great success. Can you give us key points that young professional should keep in mind?

I have four tips that I like to share with others looking to accelerate their careers:
-  Make a difference. A business needs to be better for your having been there. One of my favorite sayings is, “If you do what you always did, you’ll get what you always got.” I’ve always challenged myself and the people who work with me to take new approaches to traditional business challenges, to push the envelope and constantly ask whether our sacred cows are still producing milk.
- Take risks. You must be ready to stand out from the crowd, to take on risky jobs or make tough decisions and face new challenges. In the beginning is a bit scary, but it trains young people to be prepared to take calculated risks and see what happens.
- Seek out mentors. A mentor should be someone who can give you an alternative point of view, help you to avoid landmines and otherwise teach you the unwritten rules of company policy.
- Ask for what you want. Some of my most significant promotions were for jobs that I had expressed a strong desire for. But that boldness doesn’t always come naturally. I can’t guarantee success - even if you ask very directly - but it’s certainly worth trying before going through the aggravation of changing jobs. I hate to see people frustrated or leaving a company because they have not had the courage to take a chance by refusing to come forward.

Speaking about new challenges. What about Cadbury?

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