30 words summary
Gillette was acquired by Procter &Gamble in 2006. The changed distribution
model of P&G resulted in a restructuring in which almost 300 employees became
redundant. Chitra Ram and Neha Mohunta from Grow Talent recount how
Gillette helped its employees to successfully deal with the transition.
100 words summary
On 28 January 2005. Procter & Gamble announced that it had signed a deal to
acquire 100% of Gillette Company. The transaction was valued at approximately
$57bn making it the largest acquisition in P&G history. While this acquisition was
a win-win for both organizations, Gillette in India faced a critical task of managing
this integration. Along with this, it also wanted to ensure that the employees who
transition out continue to have a secure future.
Keywords
Chitra Ram, Neha Mohunta, Gillette, Procter &Gamble, consumer durable,
merger, acquisition, restructuring, distribution, transition, campaign, Dabur,
Wrigley, Henkel, Pantaloons, RPG, Cadbury, Reckitt Benckiser, Tata Aig, HDFC
Bank, Reliance Communications, Nestle, ICICI bank, Hutch, Airtel, placement,
networking support, FMCG, marketing, human resource
Author summary
A post graduate in Psychology, Chitra Ram currently works with Grow Talent
Company Ltd. She is a part of Career Transition Centre of Excellence and takes
care of new product development, project delivery and market development in
India. She has also handled assignments on the implementation of HR systems
in a manufacturing firm, leadership assess-ment for a staffing firm and career
transition at a FMCG firm which received the DMA Erehwon Innovation award.
A commerce graduate, Neha Mohunta is currently pursuing her post graduate
program at the Indian School of Business. She has been a member of the core
team that manages the 'Great Place to Work' survey in India. Proficient in client
relationship management she has handled one of the largest career transition
projects in the consumer durables industry, one that also received the DMA
Erehwon Innovation award.
career transition
by Chitra Ram & Neha Mohunta
Gillette was acquired by Procter &Gamble in 2006. The changed distribution
model of P&G resulted in a restructuring in which almost 300 employees became
redundant. Chitra Ram and Neha Mohunta from Grow Talent recount how
Gillette helped its employees to successfully deal with the transition.
On 28 January 2005. Procter & Gamble announced that it had signed a deal to
acquire 100% of Gillette Company. The transaction was valued at approximately
$57bn making it the
largest acquisition in P&G history. While this acquisition was a
win-win for both organizations, Gillette in India faced a critical
task of managing this integration. Along with this, it also wanted
to ensure that the employees who transition out continue
to have a secure future.
a bit of history
For over a hundred years, Gillette has been known to transform innovative ideas
into consumer products that engender strong
and enduring consumer brand loyalty around the world. The
company employed nearly 30,000 people globally and operated
31 manufacturing plants across fourteen countries. In India
alone, Gillette had a turnover of Rs. 4.32bn (432) crores with a
CAGR of 20%.
Gillette was the market leader in male grooming, a category that includes blades,
razors and shaving preparations. Gillette also held a
strong position worldwide in select female grooming products, such as wet
shaving products and hair epilating devices. In addition, the
company held the world leader position in
alkaline batteries and was recognized for its
Oral-B in manual and power toothbrushes.
The combination of Gillette and P&G, the
two best-in-class consumer products companies created a stronger brand
portfolio, opportunities for further innovation, faster sales growth, cost savings
and revenue synergies. This acquisition
was unique because both the companies:
n were built on leadership brands. P&G portfolio had brands worth $16bn. Gillette
brought five more and created a stronger portfolio of $21bn worth brands.
n had a strong heritage of innovation to
delight consumers.
n had global scale with their products being marketed around the world.
n placed a high priority on growth in developing markets.
n had complementary expertise in health and personal care.
integration dilemma
As a consequence of the acquisition, a decision
was taken to design a best-in-class and most
cost effective sales and distribution model for
India. P&G in India followed a different "go to market" model which is their
"golden eye distributor model". In this model, the organization operates through
thirty key distributors across India. Sales officers were not on the rolls of the
organization but were a part of the distributor's team. All retail outlets were
approached by the distributors directly. Gillette on the other hand, operated
through
a direct front line field force approach. Sales officers of Gillette
were on the pay rolls of the company. Unlike the P&G structure, Gillette worked
with almost 700 distributors.
As a part of the integration, the company decided to operate through the 'golden
eye' distributor model. This resulted in restructuring which meant that close to
700 distributors had to
be disengaged and the roles of close to 190 employees became redundant.
These employees essentially comprised of territory
sales in-charge and area sales managers' from the four
divisions - north, south, east and west.
Gillette was also known to be a world class employer where employees enjoy an
enriching work environment, it was even
ranked 10th in the "Best Employer Survey 2003". Both organizations were a benchmark in the space of employee satisfaction.
Gillette wanted to ensure that the employees who had to
transition out continue to have a secure future, and made every plausible effort
towards the same. Over and above the severance package that Gillette provided
it engaged in providing transition support. Gillette also wanted to ensure
minimum impact on the business and successful distributor disengagement.
a helping hand
While Gillette globally signed a contract with Right Management Consultants to
provide career transition services, the challenges
that Gillette faced in India were unique to the Indian context. The project was
handled in India by the Indian partner of Right Management: Grow Talent.
key observations: The key challenges were to help employees
gain back their confidence, build capability and prepare them to
face the job market. A shift in focus to realize personal vision
was required. 60% of the employees had started their career
with Gillette and the rest had spent a reasonably long tenure.
Most had not attended a job interview in years. There was a
high level of anxiety to secure a new job as soon as possible. The employees
had to be kept motivated during their remaining
tenure so as to ensure successful completion of the task at
hand: distributor disengagement.
engagement model: Career Transition Support was provided to
the employees using 'Right methodology'. The model of Zeroing In Process (ZIP)
was used.
coaching line manager's workshop
The ZIP process was preceded by a coaching
line manager's workshop. This was organized
for the supervisors/managers of the affected territory sales in-charges' and
intended to provide
a guideline to help managers to:
n plan and conduct the separation meetings
n handle employee reactions
n manage employees during the transition process, keeping in view that they still
had to disengage the distributors successfully with minimum impact on the
business and
n support the re-employment campaign
workshop output
Keeping these in mind career transition support was customized for the impacted
employees
and it included emotional support, intellectual support and landing support in the
following ways:
n emotional support: self positioning was done
to help the employee manage the change around job loss. Further, employees
were counseled on
how to communicate the news to their family, friends and relatives. It also
prepared the mana-gers to deal with placement consultants/friends who
approached them with new opportunities. The best part was
it helped managers to develop a ‘thirty second commercial' - a brief introduction
of himself
n landing support: managers strengths and skills were analyzed
to help determine career directions and career assessment. Psycho-metric
analyses were conducted to provide valuable insights which were then used for
development purposes which helped a manager to improve his performance.
These analyses provided feedback on
an individual's leadership skills, influencing skills, problem solving ability,
execution skills, interpersonal skills, time management skills and personal
organization skills.
Further the process also identified areas of development to act as
a platform for undertaking skill enhancement workshops. e-learning initiatives
were introduced and employees were given access to 'Right from Home' web
link. Managers were also provided help in writing effective resumes and plan a
'personal marketing campaign'.
n intellectual support: Managers were coached to improve their marketability.
The program enabled candidates to identify their network and understand how to
leverage the same. Managers
were encouraged to work closely with placement companies in assisting the
impacted employee in job search. Managers were
prepared for interviews, salary negotiations and taking job
decisions. They were also encouraged to use their strengths
effectively and remove personal blocks to become successful in the next
organization.
To facilitate this, ten workshops were conducted across four locations in India. In
addition one-on-one coaching support was made available on an individual need
basis.
workshop output
Completed résumés were ready for circulation. Managers were well equipped
with self
marketing plans to approach the visible and
hidden job market and were given hands-on
practice to handle interviews. There was also a provision of feedback on each
résumé and a
coach was assigned for each candidate
In addition to the program offerings of Right Management Consultants, Grow
Talent also introduced the 'career fair' practice and 'placement and networking' support in India.
career fair
It was organized with an objective to help
man other organizations with Gillette's highly competent talent pool that had to be
outplaced. Structured programs were designed in partnership with Gillette and close
to 37 best employers were contacted in India, across
various sectors such as FMCG, banking, insurance, retail and telecom to ascertain their
hiring requirements. Interested organizations
were invited to the career fair which provided
the prospective employers an opportunity to acquire high caliber talent at zero
cost of hiring
in a short time frame.
A three day career fair was held across four locations wherein 23 companies and
190
employees interacted under one roof. Orga-nizations conducted interviews with
the candidates, made spot offers and employees
had to confirm their intention of joining. Organizations that participated in the
career
fair included companies such as Dabur, Wrigley, Henkel, Pantaloons, RPG,
Cadbury, Reckitt Benckiser, Tata Aig, HDFC Bank, Reliance Communications,
Nestle, ICICI bank, Hutch
and Airtel.
placement and networking support
Placement agencies were identified, which had opportunities that the territory
sales in-charge and area sales managers could explore.
There were certain companies which could not participate
in the career fair and networking support was extended by
ascertaining the requirements of such organizations. Résumés of
the candidates were shared with them and prospective employers were brought into contact with the candidates.
A survey was conducted to identify the causes which were
acting as road blocks in securing a new job. Analysis of the results helped
identify areas of development and with that as a basis, workshops were
conducted to overcome such barriers.
critical success factors
The critical factors that acted as enablers in making this initiative
a success were:
01 open communication: Gillette ensured that at each stage
the employees were kept informed. The employees were given
a rationale behind the business decision and they were regularly updated with
information about the steps the organization
would take to ensure a secure future for them, updates on when
the workshops were being organized, the companies contacted
for the career fair, kind of opportunities in the market, placement consultants in
the market etc.
02 trust: The employees had a high degree of trust on the manage-ment. The
management was found to be approachable and
accessible. The employees were confident that the management would keep the
best interest of the employees in mind.
03 counseling: The leaders - be it business leaders, area sales
managers or HR; both at the corporate and divisional level
provided tremendous support to their teams. Over and above the Grow Talent
consultants who were accessible to each and every employee and the internal
mentors at Gillette played a critical role
in guiding employees to make right career choices, in dealing
with anxiety, handling the transition news with friends and
family. Even at the peer level despite the pressure, employees
supported one another wholeheartedly. It truly reflected the organization culture
that Gillette had build over the years. It
seemed to operate like a family with members looking out for
each other. Former Gillette employees who
heard the news of the transition were gladly
willing to counsel, guide and even look for opportunities that the transitioning
employees could take up in their organization.
04 management commitment to outplacement:
The initiative was one of the first of its kind
in the FMCG world. Although with no benchmarks to guide it, Gillette was committed to ensuring that the employees well
prepared for
the future. They also wanted to ensure that majority of the employees had at
least one job
offer in hand when they left the organization.
They set an internal target for themselves - at
least 80% land in new opportunities. Much like other targets that Gillette often
succeeded in achieving and exceeding, the management drove this project
aggressively and with utmost levels
of commitment. For this all senior members of
the management personally pitched in inviting organizations for the career fair,
counseling employees, addressing all queries, networking
for opportunities for the candidates and en-couraging employees by making them
realize
their market value (while being realistic).
05 unique partnership between client and consultant: The relationship that Grow
Talent
and Gillette enjoyed was one built on trust, transparency and commitment. At
each stage
both were synchronized and equally committed in arriving at the best results for
the transitioning employees. Consultants stationed themselves at the Gillette
corporate office itself and were often mistaken as Gillette employees. The drive,
empathy and enthusiasm at crossing each mile-stone or undertaking key
initiatives were reflected by both client and consultant.
outcome of career transition at Gillette
The career transition support enabled and
prepared employees to face the job market. While the career fair acted as a
catalyst, people who
did not find suitable opportunities were supported right till the
end through placement agencies, networks etc. The end result was
n for the employees: There was 100% placement. Employees
were placed with blue chip companies with higher salaries:
average salary increase being approximately 29% and close to
35%. They also joined at higher levels of responsibility. This in turn created a
league of strong brand ambassadors for Gillette.
For the organization, this process enabled seamless transition
to best-in-class model, ahead of its time. Satisfied employees and distributors; All
700 distributors settled two months ahead of plan with no litigations. There was
No loss to business momentum.
Career transition at Gillette India was quoted as one of the
best transitions handled within Gillette globally. The career fair
practice was leveraged in other geographies.
To summarize, the initiative created a win-win for all stakeholders and set a fine example in today's dynamic business environment
preparing HR professionals for challenges that they
are likely to face in the future. It further goes to show that HR
no longer plays a dormant role and is emerging as a strategic
business partner where key initiatives undertaken have significant business
impact. n.