the great atlantic & pacific tea company and kroger were both old companies heading into the...
TRANSCRIPT
Confront the Brutal Facts(Yet Never Lose Faith)
• The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company and Kroger were both old companies heading into the 1970s
•After society recovered from the World Wars and the Great Depression, the grocery store industry started to change.
•Kroger faced the facts of the changing industry and launched a campaign to revamp its business model to create value for its customers
•A&P ignored these brutal facts
Kroger, A&P, and the marketCumulative value of $1 invested1959-1973
Notes:1.Kroger transition point occurred in 1973.2.Chart shows value of $1 invested on January 1, 1959.3.Cumulative returns, dividends reinvested, to January 1, 1973
http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:sH3_IQilpEIJ:kimboal.ba.ttu.edu/MGT%25204380%2520SP%252009/094/Raynee%2520Bradley.ppt+good+to+great+kroger+A%26p&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Notes:1.Kroger transition point occurred in 1973.2.Chart shows value of $1 invested on January 1, 1973.3.Cumulative returns, dividends reinvested, to January 1, 1998
Kroger, A&P, and the marketCumulative value of $1 invested
1973-1998
http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:sH3_IQilpEIJ:kimboal.ba.ttu.edu/MGT%25204380%2520SP%252009/094/Raynee%2520Bradley.ppt+good+to+great+kroger+A%26p&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Adressograph
• “When you turn over rocks and look at all the squiggly things underneath, you can either put the rock down, or you can say, ‘My job is to turn over rocks and look at the squiggly things,’ even if what you see can scare the hell out of you.
•Addressograph fell victim to strong leadership.
•“I…had no need for cheering dreams. Facts are better than dreams.”
-Winston Churchill
9/11 and the Shipping Industry Terrorism, political upheaval, natural
disasters, accidents and other large scale disruptive events are happening more frequently, and they are having a more significant impact than in previous years.
9/11 made evident the fact that the shipping industry is extremely delicate, and that a disruption can be measure in the trillions of dollars.
Transportation security initiatives that focus on security in the context of a firm’s specific business imperatives have the most potential to create a real return on security investment.
Visibility
A firm’s reputation for delivering services and performing under difficult circumstances is intimately tied to its perceived brand equity
Supply chain visibility is a powerful tool or businesses to keep customers fully informed of the status and condition of their shipment
Visibility
The ability to identify movement in the value chain.
The ability to identify this movement can represent a measure of success and differentiation from one’s competitors where business processes are concerned.
FedEx famously revolutionized package delivery by providing clients the ability to know precisely where packages were and if they’d been delivered.
Climates Where the Truth is Heard
Motivating people Finding motivated people to begin with It’s about not demotivating motivated
people. Stop kidding yourselves
Visionary style vs. truth style.
Four Parts of Truth
Leading with truth Using questions, not answers Dialogue and debate Autopsies without blame Red Flag mechanisms
Leading with Questions
Circuit City CEO Alan Wurtzel The prosecutor
Avoiding group think Group think is always bad
“Yes-men”
Dialogue and Debate
Nucor Absolutely horrible Began by seeking questions▪ Furious debates
Socratic method▪ B. Law with Kelly Clark▪ Dialogue rather than monologue
Autopsies Without Blame
Analyzing failures without placing blame.
Philip Morris Acquired Seven-Up Company. Complete fiasco.
EBay Acquired Skype. Working to spin it off.
“Red Flag” System
Developing a set of controls and measures Stanford Business School Know what is wrong quickly
Lockheed Martin Their Earned Value Management System EVM▪ Allows for an early warning of poor performance▪ Keeps project members focused
Six Sigma Quality Control
Unwavering Faith Amid the Brutal Facts
Scott Paper
• Was the leader in the paper-based consumer business until late 1960s
Procter & Gamble
•Enters the paper-based consumer business in the late 1960s
Unwavering Faith Amid the Brutal Facts Continued
Procter & Gamble
• Procter & Gamble takes over and becomes the leader in the market
Scott Paper
•Scott Paper resigns to staying second in the market and gives up without a fight•Tries to protect what it has
Unwavering Faith Amid the Brutal Facts Continued
Kimberly-Clark “I want everyone to rise in a moment
of silence. That was a moment of a silence for P&G.”
Viewed competing against P&G as an asset, an opportunity to make them better and stronger
Unwavering Faith Amid the Brutal Facts Continued
• Good to great companies leave themselves stronger and more resilient
• “We will never give up. We will never capitulate. It might take a long time, but we will find a way to prevail.”
Kimberly Clark
P&G
Scott Paper
Unwavering Faith Amid the Brutal Facts Continued
Robert Aders of Kroger “There was a certain Churchillian
character to what we doing. We had a very strong will to live, the that we are Kroger, Kroger was here before and will be here long after we are gone, and, by god, we are going to win this thing. It might take us a hundred years, but we will persist for a hundred years, if that’s what it takes.”
Compared to A&P talked about earlier
Unwavering Faith Amid the Brutal Facts Continued
International Committee for the Study of Victimization
(looked at people who had suffered serious adversity-cancer patients, P.O.W’s, accident victims)
People fell into three categories:1. Those permanently dispirited by event2. Those who got their life back to normal3. Those who used the experience as a defining event that made them stronger (good-to-great companies were like this group, with the “hardiness factor”)
Unwavering Faith Amid the Brutal Facts Continued
David Maxwell and Fannie Mae; Began transition in early 80s
Had $56 billion in loans Never had the goal to merely survive but to prevail as a
great company Never entertained the possibility that they would fail Six Million Dollar Man-didn’t use the fact that Fannie
Mae was bleeding and near death as a pretext to restructure the company, but used it as opportunity to create something much more stronger and powerful, rebuilt the entire business model around risk management
Eventually generated stock returns nearly eight times the market over fifteen years
The Stockdale Paradox
Every good-to-great company faces significant adversity along the way to greatness. Gillette and hostile takeover battles.
Accept reality but commit to prevail. “I never lost faith in the end of the
story.” –Stockdale
“This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”-Admiral Jim Stockdale
Take Away
Why Kroger and Pitney Bowes succeeded. Winston Churchill and strong leadership. Total Security management.▪ Creating Value with visibility.
Group think and the Circuit City example.
Good to great companies remain strong and resilient.
Stockdale Paradox. Retain faith but stay concise to the
reality.