Irene Rosenfeld on Leadership, Transformation, and THAT takeover

Here is 10 minutes of Business Studies gold-dust for teachers and students of AQA BUSS4.

In this superb video interview with Boston Consulting Group, Kraft Foods CEO Irene Rosenfeld talks about the challenges she faced upon returning to Kraft in 2006 as it’s leader, and how she set about them. She also speaks about the the role of the takeover of Cadbury and of their success in developing business in China, supported partly by another acquisition, of Danone’s Chinese business.

Particular highlights:
* the ‘Let’s get growing’ initiative with a refocus on growth rather than cost-cutting
* the growth diamond as a simple visual tool to support this
* comments upon the acquisitions under her watch and the impressive growth in sales in China (which would make excellent research data for a Section A essay on takeovers supporting growth in to new markets)
* the changes to the top two layers of leadership team and the notion of ‘being on the bus’
* the importance of ‘moments of truth’ throughout the organisation and the limit to her direct impact as a leader
* the work done on identifying a series of values that were important to the staff at Kraft
* the challenges facing business leaders in the decades to come

To set some context in terms of share performance, Kraft’s share price was around $30 per share when Rosenfeld took the helm in June 2006. Whilst the share price did dip along the way, most notably in the height of the global economic slowdown in 2009 and again later in the year when Kraft launched it’s bid to buy Cadbury, the share price today sits at around $39 dollars.

Great watching for the leadership angle and also the mergers and acquisitions angle.

Note : You will need to register with BCG Perspectives, but this is free and easy to do.