Last updated on December 11th, 2017 at 04:50 pm
General Mills today announced a new global organizational structure that the Minneapolis-based company says will support growth and drive greater efficiency by streamlining the company’s leadership, maximizing global scale and increasing operational agility. The new structure is expected to impact approximately 400-600 positions worldwide, subject to consultation with employees and employee representatives in locations as required, according to the company.
As previously announced, Jeff Harmening, president and COO, has assumed global operations responsibilities reporting to Chairman and CEO Ken Powell. As part of this new structure, the company is eliminating the position of international COO. Effective Jan. 1, 2017, four business groups will report directly to Harmening, each led by a group president:
• North America Retail (U.S. Retail & Canada) led by Jon Nudi
• Europe & Australia led by Bethany Quam
• Asia & Latin America led by Christina Law
• Convenience Stores & Foodservice led by Shawn O’Grady
“As we wrap up our 150th anniversary year, we are ready to take the next step in our journey to truly operate as a global company and fully resource our best ideas to drive growth,” said Powell.
In addition to the four business groups, the company is aligning its current dairy strategic brand unit (SBU) to this new global organization structure. The Dairy SBU, based in France and led by Olivier Faujour, will report to Harmening and will work with the group presidents to explore further opportunities to drive growth and innovation for the dairy platform globally. General Mills holds No. 2 positions worldwide in both yogurt and super-premium ice cream, with brands including Yoplait and Häagen-Dazs.
The company says it also will enhance its growth capabilities in several areas, including strategic revenue management (SRM), e-commerce and marketing innovation, and intends to augment its current talent with external expertise in these areas over the next several months. The new global revenue development group, which includes SRM and e-commerce, will report to O’Grady, who also is SVP, global revenue development. The company intends to name a new global CMO/marketing innovation leader, who will report to Harmening.
Global operations functions, including innovation, technology and quality and supply chain, will continue to report to Harmening. Global corporate functions, including finance, legal, human resources and external relations, will continue to report to Powell.
“We continue to prioritize both growth and returns,” said Harmening. “The structural changes announced today will help us unlock global growth opportunities and go after them by efficiently restructuring our teams and processes. In addition, the capability investments and savings generated by these changes will help us deliver our fiscal 2018 adjusted operating profit margin target of 20 percent.”
