Todd Stitzer’s Strategic Test

A short, but terrific piece in the Times today outlines the strategic challenge for the CEO of Cadbury - Todd Stitzer. Highly recommended for A2 students looking at business strategy…

The strategic path taken by Cadbury in the last few years seems to have been a textbook example of making the right choices:

- Demerged its drinks business to become properly focused on the global confectionery market
- Reduced operating costs as part of the plan to achieve the corporate objective of a 15% net profit margin
- Invested in building market share in the fast-growing emerging markets (e.g. India, Brazil)

The along comes a bid from Kraft Foods which brings Cadbury’s corporate strategy front-of-stage. Can Stitzer and his Board fight off the Kraft bid and potentially other predators who might be tempted to have a go? The challenge for Stitzer and his team is to convince Cadbury’s institutional shareholders that they can deliver better value for shareholders by remaining independent than might be on offer from from one more bidders. It will be a battle that A2 students can learn a huge amount from over the coming weeks