Banking on a taste for sweets

Oreo cookies on the shelves of a supermarket in Nantong, Jiangsu province. [Photo / Provided to China Daily]

Reducing costs, product variety will mean success over long term

Irene Rosenfeld hardly has the air of being one of the world's 50 most powerful women. Watching her rolling a suitcase to the boardroom one could easily mistake her as one of the several executives getting ready to pop in for a quick meeting or a conference call at the Mondelez International Inc office in Shanghai.

But beneath her soft demeanor, Rosenfeld is the no-nonsense and straight-talking chairwoman and chief executive officer of global foods giant Mondelez International that owns global brands like Oreo cookies, Trident gum and Cadbury chocolates. She can charm one and all with her immense industry knowledge and gentle voice.

Known as someone who likes to shake things up, Rosenfeld wants Mondelez to be a leaner, more focused and nimble global snacking company. She said the company is well on track to achieve its goal, as it has been able to cut costs significantly with its new organization model and five other initiatives.

According to Rosenfeld, the Chinese market, with annual revenues of about $1.1 billion, is already the third-largest emerging market for Mondelez and a key player in the global transformation.

She said that her belief in sustained growth stems from the company's strategic focus on snack foods. In May, Mondelez and D.E Master Blenders announced their intention to combine their coffee businesses to create the world's leading pure-play coffee company, with annual revenues of more than $7 billion. "This will allow Mondelez to focus more on snack foods," she said, adding that about 90 percent of its estimated revenue from China will come from snack foods.

The second plan hinges on reinventing the supply chain to make it more efficient so that it can lower costs, Rosenfeld said.

Last June, Mondelez announced plans to expand its biscuit plant in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. The company plans to invest $85 million and complete the expansion by the end of the fourth quarter. "Making these kinds of investments will help Mondelez to produce high-quality products for consumers in China at lower costs."

In addition, Rosenfeld said the company is also rolling out plans to transform operations. "We are introducing a new model by which we want to run the company, using categories rather than by country," she said. "The benefit of such an approach is that we can quickly adopt the learning from one part of the world to other markets."

Citing an example, she said that when Mondelez launched its Stride Gum in China this year, it incorporated experiences of making the gum and the bottle from other markets.

"The display unit for Stride, developed in China, is now exported to other markets. We call it to capture the power of big and small," said Rosenfeld. "It is our opportunity to use the power of the fact that we are a global company and we can also operate as a small company and get the best of both of that."

Rosenfeld said sports had always been a big influence in her life. Her father taught her all kinds of sports and encouraged her to be a tough competitor. "The competitive instinct that I developed in sports has stood me in good stead in the corporate world," she said. "It gave me confidence, taught me teamwork, discipline and perseverance."

She considers athletics a good equalizer. Early on in her career, not many women were business leaders. The men usually had either military experience or had played sports. "Sports allowed them to acknowledge me and allowed me to compete side-by-side," she said.