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 1060’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. Key People Cont.
Rodrick A. Palmore – Executive Vice President; General
Counsel; Chief Compliance and Risk Management
Officer and Secretary
Mark W. Addicks – Senior Vice President; Chief
Marketing Officer
James H. Murphy – Senior Vice President; President
Big G Cereals
Shawn P. O’Grady – Senior Vice President; President of
Sales and Channel Development
Kimberly A. Nelson – Senior Vice President of External
Relations; President of General Mills Foundation
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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
11. 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.
12. 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
13. Summary
Since we will all be working for a business one day (if
we don’t already) this project was very helpful so that
we could learn about all the different aspects that go
into successfully operating and managing a company
like General Mills. We were 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.
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.
Palmore joined the company in 2008 with current positionAddicks joined the company in 1988. Current position in June 2007Murphy joined the company in 1992. Assumed current position in 2012O’Grady joined the company in 1990. Current position May 2010Nelson joined the company in 2000. Assumed senior vice president role in September 2010 and leadership of the foundation in June 2011.
