General Mills: Principles of Management Study
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General Mills, originally two flour mills in the 1860s, has grown into one of the largest food companies in the world, known for brands such as Pillsbury, Cheerios, and Häagen-Dazs. The company generates significant revenue across various segments, including U.S. retail and international markets, and has received recognition as one of the best multinational workplaces. Despite facing legal challenges, General Mills employs strategies focusing on social responsibility and has successfully adapted to market demands while maintaining a robust competitive advantage.
General Mills: Principles of Management Study
- 1. BUS230-1 Taylor Delver, Jesse Dresselhaus, Kolbe Face, Henry Donato
- 2. Company Profile General Mills, like most companies started out small. In the 1860’s they were simply two flour mills. However they immediately took stride, pulling ahead of their competition by producing flour with superior baking properties. General Mills Head Quarters is located in Minneapolis MN, and is one of the world’s largest food companies. In the 1960’s they were already expanding their market to childrens toys. Ex. Play-Doh, Monopoly, and Nerf. Fun fact. General Mills has expanded so far that they even designed and built the three person submarine that explored the sunken Titanic.
- 3. Company Profile Cont. General Mills is now a very large company, producing 60 million servings of cereal, 27 million servings of Yoplait Dairy products,14 million Nature Valley bars, 5 million Pillsbury cookies, 2 million pounds of Green Giant vegetables, and 1 million servings of Haagen- Dazs ice cream General Mills is one of 25 global companies named twice as the “Worlds Best Multinational Workplaces” They are currently ranked number 17.
- 4. Financial Information Sales are categorized mainly into three different segments: U.S. Retail $10.5 billion, International $4.2 billion, Bakeries & Foodservice $2 billion.
- 6. Key People Kendall J. Powell – Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer Donal L. Mulligan – Executive Vice President; Chief Financial Officer Christopher D. O’Leary – Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, International Y. Marc Belton – Executive Vice President, Global Strategy, Growth and Marketing Innovation Ian R. Friendly – Executive Vice President; Chief Operating Officer, US
- 7. Products Known primarily for its No. 1 selling flour in the U.S, Gold Medal Flour Top brands include Pillsbury (dough and bread), Green Giant (frozen vegetables), Cheerios (cereal), and Betty Crocker (baking) Other diverse brands include Haagen Dazs (ice-cream), Yoplait (yogurt), Progresso (soup) snack brands such as Nature Valley and Chex, and a variety of cereals such as Lucky Charms, Trix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Wheaties.
- 8. Industry and Competition Prepackaged and Processed Food Industry Top competitors include Kelloggs, Kraft and Seneca Compared to its top competitor Kelloggs, General Mills has a higher net profit margin, about double the earnings per share, and much lower debt GM also attributes its success to its joint ventures and partnerships with other industries within the company such as J.M. Smucker, Nestle, Haagen-Dazs in Japan, and Sodiaal in France.
- 9. Lawsuits Fruit Roll-Ups: Youplait YoPlus: ◦ Settled lawsuit with ◦ Probiotic Yogurt Center for Science in the (February 2013) Public Interest (CSPI) ◦ California class action December, 2012 lawsuit ◦ Claim was that General ◦ Accused of making Mills was exaggerating misleading health claims healthiness ◦ General Mills settled for ◦ Settlement: $8.5 million Pictures of fruit must ◦ Payments to made to correspond with customers presence, not just flavor “Made with Fruit” claim ◦ Un-related to Greek- must be backed up with Yogurt lawsuit (April a percentage of fruit 2012) label. Claim: Contained unacceptable ingredients for yogurt, sent to FDA
- 10. Management Topic Integration Defensive Strategy of Social Responsibility: ◦ General Mills generally takes this strategy when dealing with conflicts ◦ They do what they need to do to both protect their product, but also their social image. ◦ Example: In both lawsuits explored, General Mills decided to settle out of court rather than let a court decide, but didn’t go out of the way to make lots of changes Sustainable Competitive Advantage ◦ General Mills has been working to combat higher production costs as a way to minimize passing rising food costs onto consumers. Thus far this hasn’t negatively effected revenue, and is a successful way to maintain competitive advantage with the likes of Kellogg, Kraft, and Sara Lee.
- 11. Management Topic Integration Cont. General Mills Departmentalization Strategy ◦ Product Departmentalization: organizes work and workers into separate units responsible for producing particular products or services ◦ Geographic Departmentalization: organizes work and workers into separate units responsible for doing business in particular geographic areas Global Management: Consistency Vs. Adaptation ◦ The ice cream brand Haagen-Dazs has experienced significant success, especially internationally in Asian countries such as China and Japan ◦ Haagen Dazs has kept its marketing and production fundamentally and culturally consistent in these countries, using the high-end, Western brand image to its advantage ◦ However, Haagen-Dazs has adapted to the cultural sensativity of the food market, by introducing unique flavors exclusively to certain cultural areas
- 12. Summary If we don't already, we will all eventually work for a business, so this project was helpful in the fact that we were able to learn about all the different aspects that go into successfully operating and managing a company like General Mills. We were also able to gain insight into company structure, legal procedures, origins, product differentiation, and financial growth. These are crucial areas that a manager must be able to understand to succeed in a corporation.
- 13. Work Cited http://www.generalmills.com http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=GIS http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=74271&p=irol-irhome http://www.startribune.com/business/184878301.html?refer=y http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=b954ceac-07b0- 4420-9a84-0d623d44fcf5 http://www.cnbc.com/id/100587610 http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/blog/law/2012/12/general- mills-yoplait-greek-yogurt-fda.html http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2011/general-mills- tops-competition--gis-kft-k-sle-cpb0329.aspx http://seekingalpha.com/article/660391-general-mills-versus- kellogg-finding-the-breakfast-producer-of-champions http://media2.intoday.in/businesstoday/images/Haagen-Dazs.pdf
Editor's Notes
- #7: Powell joined General Mills in 1979. He was elected CEO in September 2007 and chairman in May 2008. Mulligan joined General Mills in 1998. He was named his current position in August 2007. O’Leary joined General Mills in 1997. He has been his current position since 2006Belton joined General Mills in 1983. Current position in 2011.Friendly joined the company in 1983. Current position in June 2006.