In his tenure as president and CEO of the Campbell Soup Company, Doug Conant first helped steer the company to financial stability, and then set the stage for aggressive sustainability goals.
Douglas R. Conant (former CEO, Campbell Soup Company), interviewed by Nina Kruschwitz.
During Douglas Conant’s 10 years as president and CEO of the Campbell Soup Company (he retired last fall), Conant helped refocus the company. In the first half of his tenure, his goal, he says, was to bring the company from being “a poor performing company to being a competitive company to being a good company.” About five years in, “we said, We can do better, and we started to explore how we could bring what I call our DNA, our natural inclination to corporate social responsibility, to a new level, and kick it up a notch.”
By 2006 the company was studying what sustainability would mean for the business. In 2008, it recruited a specialist to head up the efforts. And in 2010, it set down what Conant calls “some big, hairy, audacious goals” to pursue–like cutting the companys environmental footprint in half.
In a new Q&A with MIT Sloan Management Reviews Nina Kruschwitz, Conant talks about his long-time practice of writing 10 to 20 personal notes a day to employees, the power that comes from the “fierce resolve” of the CEO and the “abundance mentality” that allows companies like Campbell Soup to embrace “the genius of the and instead of the tyranny of the or.”
2 Comments On: How an “Abundance Mentality” and a CEO’s Fierce Resolve Kickstarted CSR at Campbell Soup
This is a great case study in building a sustainable organization from turnaround to becoming competitive to trying to save the world. The lessons embedded in Campbell Soup’s journey and Doug Conant’s efforts tell a story of transformation through leadership, culture change, engagement, guts and good old fashioned respect.
This piece is a road map for developing a better, more thoughtful organization. So many take-away messages. The hand written letters to employees is a great example of something to start today. Why not extend this to include some key partners and stakeholders…
Genuine thought leadership and doing stuff for the right reasons. More please.