Creating an Accountability Culture at ConAgra Foods

1
Creating an Accountability Culture at ConAgra
Foods

• Nicole Bianchi
• Beth Haley
• Krystal Sautter

2
Introduction to Accountability

• Nicole Bianchi
• Director Human Resources

3
Accountability Introduced

• October 2005, Gary Rodkin became President and
  CEO of ConAgra Foods
• Built leading brands and winning teams and
  General Mills, Tropicana, and Pepsico
• Bachelors from Rutgers MBA from Harvard
• One of his first communications was to introduce
  his vision that CAG is a great company with a
  bright future

4
Accountability Introduction

• Rodkin immediately introduced three guiding
  principles
• Accountability
• Simplification
• Collaboration
• Im looking for people who can take these
  principles to heart, who live by them, are
  already evaluating everything they do against
  them and helping others in their organization
  embrace them.

5
Accountability

• We live up to our commitments
• We agree on goals, objectives and strategies
• We commit to budgets and metrics
• We drive for flawless execution
• We dont offer excuses
• We offer solutions

6
Accountability

• Rodkin
• Accountability is really about trust. It begins
  by making sure you have the right people with the
  right skill sets in the right jobs. Then you
  agree on the strategies, objectives and metrics,
  and give people the tools they need to get the
  job done and trust them to go out and do it. As
  our organization evolves, were going to be
  sharing accountability, which makes it important
  for us to get the wiring right, to understand
  what our roles and responsibilities are and how
  we can team up to get results.

7
Accountability

• Rodkin
• After his first year
• Feels the best about accountability
• 6 on a scale of 10
• Core of accountability is trust
• Has seen cultures based on Im going to tell you
  what to do mentality where leadership doesnt
  trust people to execute
• It takes time to break out of that mold to begin
  to trust enough to hold them accountable for
  meeting clearly communicated expectations
• Good people respond to accountability it
  empowers them to get the job done

8
Accountability

• Rodkin included the three principles in the merit
  process

9
Accountability at the Supply Chain

• Beth Haley
• Sr. Manager OD Learning

10
Accountability - Supply Chain

• Includes
• Customer Service
• Sales Operations Planning
• Finance Transformation Planning
• Transportation
• Distribution Warehousing
• Data Governance Maintenance

11
Accountability - Supply Chain

• Create a structure that best positions our people
  for success
• Eliminate layers and increase spans of control
• Goal
• Change the way we operate to ensure CAG can
  generate and sustain profitable growth
• Focus on fundamentals and get processes right

12
Accountability - Supply Chain

• Metrics drive our actions

13
Accountability - Supply Chain

• Taking the lead in accountability
• Attacked cost structure
• Large capital investment for 4 supply
  chain-focused systems
• Each provides tools to
• Help cut costs
• Improve planning
• Deliver lowest TDC (total delivered costs)
• Better manage finished goods inventory
• Reduce working capital

14
Accountability - Supply Chain

• Progress and results tied to
• Thinking
• Acting
• Behaving
• as one team
• Communication is critical and expected
• Drives unity and collaboration

15
Accountability in a New World

• Krystal Sautter
• Director Consumer Affairs

16
Accountability in Consumer Affairs
92 of U.S. consumers form their image of a
company based on their experience with the
contact center Purdue University, Center for
Customer-Driven Quality

• A typical business hears from only 4 of its
  dissatisfied customers the other 96 leave, 91
  for good
• Jim Barnes, Secrets of CRM

17
Accountability in Consumer Affairs

• Vision To increase consumer loyalty through our
  brands and the relationships we build with our
  consumers
• Strategy Enhance and reinforce our relationship
  with consumers by providing information,
  education and incentives that will link with our
  ConAgra portfolio of brands that span every
  eating occasion
• Tactic To own each and every interaction with
  our consumers

18
Accountability in Consumer Affairs

• Aspects of operations we assumed
• Hiring
• Training/Coaching
• Turnover
• Employee Engagement
• Scalability of service levels
• Technology
• Productivity
• Type level of connectedness with consumer

19
Accountability in Consumer Affairs

• Placing accountability at the front-line
• Compensation levels
• Assume ownership past first contact
• Individual decision-making
• Recommendations for improvement
• Manage set their own schedules
• Determine their office set-up
• No home visits
• Access encourage reps to listen to their own
  recordings

20
Guiding Principles in Consumer Affairs

• SIMPLICITY
• In-house vs. managing an outsourcer/contract
• COLLABORATION
• Increased collaboration across the company
  through new training model
• ACCOUNTABILITY
• Through our trust and pushing accountability to
  the front-line, our at-home employees feel they
  own the relationship with the consumer

21
Results of Accountability
OPTIMIZE . . . 1m annual savings increase in
consumer wallet share EXCEED . . . the
expectations of our employees the expectations
of our consumers NOURISH . . . our
employees our passion for consumers
22
Summary

• Accountability begins at the top level
• Accountability needs to be defined
• What am I accountable for?
• Goals and objectives, along with metrics
• What are the consequences?
• Good and bad
• We are pleased, but not satisfied