How Employee Engagement is Driving Bottom-line Success at Campbell Soup

Campbell Soup Company President and CEO Doug Conant has been lauded by BusinessWeek magazine for making the company “one of the food industry’s best performers.” In this interview, Conant discusses his views on the value of talent to an organization, and connection between exceptional employee engagement and increased shareholder returns. He also talks about his personal leadership philosophy and how he has applied that philosophy since assuming his role in 2001.

How Employee Engagement is Driving Bottom-line Success at Campbell Soup
[Total Running Time: 13:25 | Size: 12,586]
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Interviewer:
Craig Irons, DDI Senior Writer

Thought Leader: 
Douglas R. Conant, President and CEO, Campbell Soup Company

Douglas R. Conant was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Campbell Soup Company in January of 2001.  He also was elected a Director of the company at that time.  Mr. Conant is Campbell's 11th leader in the company's nearly 140-year history.  Under Conant's leadership over the past 5 years, Campbell has reversed a precipitous decline in market value and employee engagement.  The company has made significant investments to improve product quality and packaging, strengthen the effectiveness of its marketing programs, and develop a robust innovation pipeline.  Campbell also has improved its financial profile, enhanced its relationships with its customers, and consistently improved its employee engagement through investments in its organization.  Today, Campbell is delivering total shareowner returns in the top tier of the global food industry and displaying ever-improving employee engagement levels.  As a result, the company is well on its way to achieving its mission of building the world's most extraordinary food company by nourishing people's lives everywhere, every day.

Conant joined Campbell with 25 years of extensive food industry experience from three of the world's leading food companies:  General Mills, Inc., Phillip Morris Companies, Inc. (Kraft), and Nabisco.  A native of Chicago, he earned his bachelor of arts degree from Northwestern University and his master's degree in business administration from the J.L.Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern.