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    Case 1 Colgate Palmolive

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    DPS1911
    Reuben Mark took over as CEO of Colgate-Palmolive in 1984. At the time, the company was struggling with stagnating growth and poor profit margins. Mark launched a restructuring plan to change the company's culture and refocus on its core brands. He slashed bureaucracy, instituted new reward systems for innovation, and gave workers stock for cost-cutting ideas. Mark also fostered international exploration to reformulate products and learn about new markets. After 23 years as CEO, he retired in 2007 having transformed Colgate into a more efficient and profitable company.

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    Case 1 Colgate Palmolive

    Uploaded by

    DPS1911
    267 views1 page
    Reuben Mark took over as CEO of Colgate-Palmolive in 1984. At the time, the company was struggling with stagnating growth and poor profit margins. Mark launched a restructuring plan to change the company's culture and refocus on its core brands. He slashed bureaucracy, instituted new reward systems for innovation, and gave workers stock for cost-cutting ideas. Mark also fostered international exploration to reformulate products and learn about new markets. After 23 years as CEO, he retired in 2007 having transformed Colgate into a more efficient and profitable company.

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    Reuben Mark took over as CEO of Colgate-Palmolive in 1984. At the time, the company was struggling with stagnating growth and poor profit margins. Mark launched a restructuring plan to change the company's culture and refocus on its core brands. He slashed bureaucracy, instituted new reward systems for innovation, and gave workers stock for cost-cutting ideas. Mark also fostered international exploration to reformulate products and learn about new markets. After 23 years as CEO, he retired in 2007 having transformed Colgate into a more efficient and profitable company.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    267 views1 page

    Case 1 Colgate Palmolive

    Uploaded by

    DPS1911
    Reuben Mark took over as CEO of Colgate-Palmolive in 1984. At the time, the company was struggling with stagnating growth and poor profit margins. Mark launched a restructuring plan to change the company's culture and refocus on its core brands. He slashed bureaucracy, instituted new reward systems for innovation, and gave workers stock for cost-cutting ideas. Mark also fostered international exploration to reformulate products and learn about new markets. After 23 years as CEO, he retired in 2007 having transformed Colgate into a more efficient and profitable company.

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    of 1

    Christina S.

    Avendano THP-2
    BA 291.2 Professor Rodriguez / Professor Echanis
    Individual Case Paper No. 1 : Colgate-Palmolive: Company in Transition (A)

    Reuben Mark : The Man Who Put the Smile Back at Colgate

    The Colgate-Palmolive (CP) that Reuben Mark inherited in 1984 was in dire need of
    transformation. Yes, it had a worldwide sales and distribution system that was at par with Unilever
    and P&G, an advertising and marketing budget that was the stuff of which agency dreams are
    made, and a core of brands - Colgate, Palmolive, Ajax, Fab and the like - that were known around
    the world. What it did not have, though, was a good profit margin and at that time, analysts were
    describing the company’s performance as lackluster.
    In a global organization like CP, CEO transitions are major events and should be looked at as
    an opportunity for a company to evolve continually. Mr. Keith Crane, Mr. Mark’s predecessor, was
    able cure some of the company’s ills like stagnation in most markets and cash flow problems, and
    was able to restore CP back to health, however, he was not able to change the company’s culture.
    Colgate still operated on the philosophy that any problem can be solved with advertising dollars and
    trade discounts, and that any new product was worth rushing to the market.1
    A long-time CP officer, Mark took the CEO helm at 48 years old and launched a restructuring
    plan that aims to make changes in the company’s culture while raising long-range prospects of even
    better earnings growth and equity appreciation. Mark took on the leadership role with vigor and
    was viewed as a very open, people-oriented leader and a strong motivator. These qualities of a
    transformational leader have given him the upper hand to smoothly institute changes in a global
    organization like CP.
    His first order as CEO was to focus. Since CP competes in a mature market with sluggish
    growth, it can thrive only by acquiring companies with proven products that fit nicely with its own
    businesses or by introducing successful new products. He launched a divesting and diversification
    plan that led the company to concentrate on its core brands and exercise financial discipline.
    Mark clearly acknowledged that the company’s managers around the world are one of its
    major strengths. With all the changes that he intends to undertake, he must keep his workers
    pumped up and find new ways to operate the company more efficiently. One of his greatest
    concerns was how to reintroduce a spirit of independence and entrepreneurship that had once
    characterized the company’s management. He envisioned the need ranging from the contribution
    of new ideas of all kinds to the internal development of new products and even new businesses.
    Following Mark’s actions in a span of five years after he was appointed CEO, it was known that he
    slashed bureaucratic layers, instituted awards programs and compensations systems that reward
    individuality and he gave stocks to CP workers for innovative suggestions and cost-cutting ideas.2
    Colgate's international operations have always been important proving grounds for
    executives because the company traditionally earns more than half of its profits overseas. Under
    Mark’s leadership, he foster a period of exploration, of learning about consumer research, about
    market trends and about reformulating its products. After an unusually long tenure of 23 years as
    CEO, Mark retired as CEO in 2007 and has been cited many times over as one of the sterling icons in
    corporate leadership. He definitely gave Colgate a reason to smile.

    1 http://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/30/business/market-place-colgate-view-seems-bright.html
    2 http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1987/05/11/69003/index.htm

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