28, 2023, at the company’s annual general meeting. Manz highlighted the importance of the CEO transition, emphasizing that Schneider’s tenure focused on streamlining the company’s portfolio and optimizing its operations. This period saw the divestment of non-core businesses and the consolidation of brands, which resulted in a more focused and efficient organization.
He has a deep understanding of the company’s culture and operations. He is also a strong leader with a proven track record of success. Laurent’s experience in the industry is extensive, spanning across various roles and functions. He has worked in different countries and has a global perspective. He is a strategic thinker and a problem solver.
* **Sustainable Growth: The Key to Long-Term Success**
* **Organic Growth:
* **Precision in organic growth:** This refers to the ability to consistently achieve sustainable, profitable growth without relying on short-term tactics or unsustainable practices. It involves a deep understanding of the market, customer needs, and competitive landscape. * **Consumer-centricity:** This means prioritizing the needs and preferences of consumers in all aspects of the business, from product development to marketing and customer service.
From the perspective of innovation, Manz said she sees the company shifting from “recipe-led” innovation to “consumer-led” innovation. She attributed the focus on recipes to the impact of COVID-19 on the market and the supply chain issues that followed the pandemic. Steve Presley, CEO of Nestle’s Zone North America business unit, added that capacity issues have affected the company’s growth prospects as well. “In our major categories, we’ve been capacity constrained and still just coming out of that constraint, whether it’s pet, creamers, even on coffee…,” he said. In January, Nestle announced a $100 million expansion of a coffee manufacturing plant in Vietnam, and is set to open a creamer plant in Glendale, Ariz., this year.
Presley said the new capacity coming from the Arizona creamer plant will allow that business to “bring innovation back to creamers and really get back to driving our really strong category leadership.” Productivity will be used to fund Freixe’s organic growth goals. Manz identified three “buckets” of productivity opportunity. “The fastest bucket to get is really around digitizing marketing and sales,” she said. “In the old world, we did focus groups. In the new world, we have an AI (artificial intelligence) virtual consumer that we can test a lot more against much more quickly. There’s significant efficiencies that we’re already liberating using data and AI in a very different way.”
She argues that Nestle should focus on “re-engineering” its business model to be more sustainable and efficient. This means streamlining operations, reducing waste, and investing in renewable energy sources. She believes that Nestle can achieve this by adopting a circular economy approach, where resources are used and reused in a closed loop.
