Pivot for Success. Amy S. Hilliard
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Название: Pivot for Success

Автор: Amy S. Hilliard

Издательство: John Wiley & Sons Limited

Жанр: Поиск работы, карьера

Серия:

isbn: 9781119780984

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ can be spontaneous and it can also be strategic, or a combination of both. I used a combined strategic and spontaneous inspirational approach I call “Hallway Management” for gaining approval to relaunch White Rain Shampoo at Gillette. What's that, you may ask? Well, whenever I saw my boss, the VP, or the president of the division at the water cooler in the hall, I'd tell them about all the letters I received asking to bring back the original White Rain Shampoo. It was a casual, excited, but determined and purposeful way of inspiring them to see the potential in bringing back that product. Finally, after several hallway encounters and additional mentions in more formal meetings, I was given the green light. I was told I could launch the product with the following parameters: I had a six‐month timetable and no increase in my budget. I had inspired a “yes.” Next, I had to inspire the team to make it happen.

      I had assisted on new product launches at Gillette while climbing the ladder, but those were well supported with major budgets and long planning times. This was very different—I was now the project lead with a super short planning window. I knew it was a major career risk, and we had to make it a success. Knowing I had to light others up with the idea, I called a meeting of everyone who would be involved to jump‐start the project—Manufacturing, R&D, Packaging, Sales, Market Research, Advertising, and Art Design. When we were all in the room, I told them, “Congratulations! I've been getting a ton of letters from customers asking to bring back the clear White Rain Shampoo. Management has just given us the green light to relaunch it! I'm not sure how to do it. But I know you all do. I want to hear from each of your areas how we can do it fast and profitably. We only have six months to get it out the door on and on the shelves. So, let's get started!”

      White Rain Shampoo was relaunched in six months with much success and went on to help grow the White Rain franchise from $25 million to a $100 million business. I was asked to write up the launch process we used. The New Products Development process at Gillette was changed: starting with bringing the subject expert teams together at the beginning of the process instead of much later on. In addition, the work of my team to get this done was chronicled in a case study for the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

      My 10 years at Gillette were a pivotal time for me and provided incredible opportunities to use Finding My Purpose as I developed in my assignments there. I say this because people often think that you need to be working in your purpose as the total sum of your job or career. For some, that is possible. But as long as you can use your purpose consistently within your endeavors, it can still provide major satisfaction, and steer you as you pivot forward. This worked for me at Gillette.

      This advocacy led me to a career pivot I never envisioned. By Finding and using my Purpose to inspire others, I was instrumental in helping Gillette recognize that the Black hair care market was exploding, and they didn't have a piece of it. A couple of years later, they asked me to be a part of the acquisition team to acquire a Black hair care company. Although I took a finance course at Harvard Business School and liked it, I was not schooled in acquisitions. But the next thing I knew, I was flying all over the country asking the premier owners of Black hair care companies if they wanted to sell to Gillette. In many cases, it was just me. And them. Over lunch or in meetings in their offices. Or in one case, at the Lustrasilk Corporation, over dinner with the owners, and then during a tour of their state‐of‐the‐art manufacturing plant while it was closed so the employees would not know of our discussions.

      While the Lustrasilk plant was state of the art, the bookkeeping and sales data were not. The books were kept by hand, as was the sales data. I literally spent weeks inputting sales data unit by unit into a computer so I could track trends and begin making future plans. In the meantime, Gillette was pressing for new products to boost sales. There was no brand management team, just the loyal team at Lustrasilk. We had to move fast to get things going with new products. Based on what I learned from the White Rain Shampoo experience, I leveraged Finding My Purpose and called a meeting with all the subject matter experts and asked them what we could launch quickly. A similar process happened. The head of R&D had a product he was convinced would beat the most popular oil moisturizer on the market. He'd been working on it for years, but the owners didn't see it as a priority. The manufacturing and packaging teams could produce it with no problems. I came up with a name on a flight back from Boston and legal cleared it. The advertising agency knew the power of radio and came up with a brilliant creative strategy to drive distribution. The team was inspired to make it happen and happen it did. When the radio ads broke all over the country, they were so successful that consumers were in stores begging for “Moisture Max.” We met our sales and distribution goals, and Gillette was pleased. I was super proud of the Lustrasilk team and, importantly, they were proud of themselves. Finding and using my Purpose was a unique way of inspiring others, and it was transferable. It was another important lesson. Fingerprints are indelible—something else to remember.

      Another СКАЧАТЬ