Mean business by Albert J. Dunlap

Author:Albert J. Dunlap
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Corporate turnarounds., Corporate turnarounds -- United States -- Case studies.
Publisher: Times Business
Published: 1996-11-13T16:00:00+00:00

148 Dunlapping the Corporation

One problem in exploiting the potential of moist tissue was inventing a dispenser that handled both dry and moist toilet tissue but fit into a traditional dry-only toilet paper dispenser. I told my marketing and R&D people that when they figured that out, the home marketplace would be at our feet.

They agreed and immediately created prototypes and began consumer testing.

The bigger problem was that Scott couldn't afford to effectively market new products such as these as long as it was pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into capital projects such as S.D. Warren and the Mobile, Alabama, co-generation energy plant. (See Chapter Five, "Rule 3: Know What Business You're In" for more detail.)

Scott had reached a point where it couldn't afford to invest and improve its branded products, which exacerbated their decline. It was like having an artery cut on your arm. You bleed and bleed, getting weaker and weaker. All of a sudden you can't run anymore, then you can't walk anymore, then you die.

While I worked on unloading costly assets and redirecting capital toward value-added endeavors such as product exploitation, Nicolosi reapplied core competencies in the areas of leadership, marketing, business strategy, and analysis. He also recognized that we were spending way too much in trade or co-op funds and rechanneled about $100 million into advertising and consumer promotion efforts without spending an extra dime in total. Instead of giving money directly to retailers in the hope that they might market our product (a common retail practice), we did the advertising and drove the demand ourselves. Then it was up to retailers to either meet consumer needs or lose business to stores that did. We took moneys we were already spending and spent them more wisely and more strategically.

o o o

Some things, like developing advertising for a brand, or new package designs and market positioning, take more time than others. Even before we had a strategy, we appointed new global advertising agencies and assigned our brands to packaging-design houses so

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