Posted by: McQ on Saturday, May 03, 2008 After 5 years of flat sales with their Oreo brand in China, you'd think Kraft would either pull it or change it. But the latter choice, in the top-down, corporate climate that previously was Kraft, wasn't possible for the field. But Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld is changing that and injecting a bit of the entrepreneurial spirit into the company by allowing the field to react to market conditions as they exist where they are and do something about it. If you've never had Chinese 'sweets', you'd find they would taste pretty bland to you. The problem with Oreos in China, then, was they were too sweet (not a problem I've ever heard my grandson's complain about concerning any cookies they can get their hands on). Oreos, then, were reformulated to Chinese tastes (although, given some of the feedback in the story, the new Oreo may still be too sweet from some Chinese taste). The point though is decentralization of decision making is important in organizations if they want to remain viable. If you can't trust your directors and managers to make those sorts of calls, you're doomed to the results of centralized planning where all problems have a single solution. Of course, you not only have to give managers the authority to act, but they have to accept the responsibility for their actions. That has a tendency to keep things from getting out of hand. It also has a tendency to produce intelligent and flexible organizations which can identify and solve problems at the lowest possible level (and, usually, at the lowest cost as well). And that makes for successful and profitable companies. |
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