The 25 Most Influential: June 2003

6/1/2003

The definition of influential, according to "Encarta World English Dictionary" is, "Having a great deal of power to change something, especially people's behavior."

This definition befits the following consumer goods executives profiled for this year's Top 25 Most Influential, nominated by vendors, retailers and the CGT staff.

Why? All finalists had a difficult time accepting kudos for the overwhelming IT projects they initiated, and most diverted credit to the teams they empower. A few individuals deserve additional recognition.

Randy Benz, CIO, Energizer and CGT Editorial Advisory Board Member is knee deep in the massive IT unification of his company's acquisition of Schick. Jim Noble, global CIO for Altria Group Inc., receives a bonus nod for nabbing the most votes.

Following the Top 25 is CGT Visions 2003, a special section that provides a glimpse into the future by some of the leading technology providers.

Rick Oberhofer
VP of Channel Development
Canadaigua Wine Company

Harnessing the convergence of IT and analytical insight creates a winning situation for the consumer, retailer and supplier. It was precisely this formula that Rick Oberhofer developed over the past 18 years of his 26-year career in the consumer goods industry, first at Lever Brothers (now part of Unilever Home & Personal Care), and today with Canandaigua Wine Company, a division of Constellation Brands.

Constellation Brands is the largest single-source supplier of beer, wine and spirits in the world. Oberhofer leads the Channel Development division, a group that mandates the improvement in quality, speed and accuracy of category management and consumer analyses. The company is in the midst of a JD Edwards implementation, which will provide the means to improve corporate reporting and strategic planning. Oberhofer is also integrating database and reporting processes that will merge sales data with distributor depletions and retail scan data from stores.

"Clearly, information technology has become a critical enabler of our ambitious growth strategy," says Oberhofer.

Jeri Dunn

CIO

Tyson Foods

Thanks to the massive integration with IBP Meats in 2001, Tyson has grown into a protein powerhouse. At the helm of the integration effort is Jeri Dunn, who mapped out her strategic vision for the "New Tyson" in the April 2003 cover story of CGT. Dunn, a member of the CGT Editorial Advisory Board, arrived at $24 billion (sales) Tyson in July 2002 from her previous post as CIO of Nestle USA. Creating a team called "Project Won," an effort designed to determine what the company needs to stay competitive, Dunn is continuously weighing her company's IT options.

"We're making technology decisions even as we speak," observes Dunn. "This is an extremely exciting project to be working on."

Tyson processes 42 million chickens every week. To make alterations within the supply chain, Dunn would have to backtrack a staggering 18 months.

"I have had so much to learn," says Dunn. "Some of the technology we have in our factories that automates the process is just incredible."

Dunn says customer-facing technology is a part of Tyson's future. In fact, RFID discussions are underway with Wal-Mart. "From my perspective it's all about being externally focused and satisfying our customer requirements," says Dunn.

Jeff Morgan

SVP

Cadbury Schwepps

Jeff Morgan, senior vice president of Cadbury Schweppes' Americas Regional Information Center, has a lot on his plate: IT responsibility for several of the world's most cherished food and beverage brands (Cadbury, Mott's, Snapple, Dr. Pepper), integration of the recently purchased Adams business (which added Trident, Halls and Dentyne Ice) and ensuring that the IT organization's structure and staffing is aligned with the company's business structure and agenda.

Morgan joined Cadbury Schweppes in the UK in 1974, Morgan rose through the organization quickly, landing in the post of application development director for Cadbury Beverages North America in 1985. As Mott's vice president of IT from 1997 to 2000, he directed the brand's on-cost and on-time "big bang" SAP implementation.

When asked about the late-March acquisition of Adams for $4.2 billion, Morgan is upbeat and says simply that his team has started the integration process.

"As business and technology continue to change, this year's structure and priorities need to be developed into next year's," says Morgan. "You must challenge your team to anticipate the future."

Thomas Fisher

VP, Global IT

Applica Consumer Products

Thomas Fisher has worked in the information technology field for approximately 22 years. Prior to joining Applica Consumer Products in July 2001, Fisher worked with the Microsoft ASP and .Net strategy, was former CIO of Long Distance International, CIO of First American Acceptance Corp., and held various technical and management positions with AT&T.

In 1997, Fisher was awarded his Doctorate in Business Management from Columbia University after a successful dissertation on Business Process Reengineering.

Applica is a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of consumer products, specialty products and personal care products that include Black & Decker, Littermaid, Belson, Jerdon and Windmere. Fisher has initiated plans to incorporate a standardized global platform to reach the company's 18,000-employee base.

"We have a best-of-breed tech strategy to replace our core financials and integrate all of those best of breeds into the financial applications," says Fisher.

Fisher is leading the transformation of Applica's technology, supply chain and manufacturing environments from a legacy application base into Web-enabled, fully integrated solutions. His future vision for Applica is to simplify, standardize and globalize the technology.

"I don't think companies and business units should act independently," says FIsher. "The need for real-time integrated data is key."

Paul Hamilton

VP of Supply Chain

The Pepsi Bottling Group

Hamilton joined The Pepsi Bottling Group, the world's largest manufacturer, seller and distributor of Pepsi-Cola beverages, in June of 1986. Over his 16 years with PBG, Hamilton has served in a variety of manufacturing, transportation, logistics and sales operation roles, leading to his current position. In this position, which he began in October of 2001, Hamilton is responsible for all selling technology, integrated supply chain planning and satisfying customer requirements, all while striving to build a strong partnership internally between the IT and business functions.

Hamilton has exhibited significant influence within PBG with the development of a sales force automation tool that puts powerful devices into the hands of the company's 12,000 frontline selling and delivery personnel. With much of the PBG sales force making multiple visits each week to the same retail store, this new device will arm the workforce with relevant and easy-to-access real-time information. This new technology will support PBG's vision to drive selling capability, enabling it to reduce the points of pain involved in a direct-store-delivery environment, such as out of stocks. Sales reps will have visibility into account-specific execution opportunities, which will help them overcome the challenges that accompany new products and new packaging introductions.

PBG intends to remain a leading innovator within the beverage category, continuing to invest in technology across its sales force.

Dan Bowen

Mt. Olive Pickles

What makes a better pickle? According to Dan Bowen, vice president of Mt. Olive Pickles, the largest privately held pickle company in the nation, it's all about accurate information.

"Getting the right information in the hands of the right person at the right time to make the right decision is my team's objective," says Bowen. "Does that make for a better pickle? Ultimately, I think it does."

Bowen was hired as controller of Mt. Olive Pickles in 1990 and was promoted to vice president and chief financial officer in 1997. During this time, Bowen was responsible for the implementation of a deduction management information system to track and clear promotional expenditures deducted by retailers at the time of payment. The effort reduced outstanding deductions by 80 percent and the time lag between the dates of the deduction from 120 days to 30 days.

Looking ahead, Bowen wants Mt. Olive to be at the forefront of real-time business and the company's recent implementation of a demand management solution from HAHT brings Bowen closer to his real-time vision. By managing data in its customer's systems, Mt. Olive will have the ability to control the entire process of aggregating, cleaning and sharing information in a variety of formats.

Jim Noble

Global CIO

Altria

Few professionals in the IT business boast a resume as diverse and teeming with big-name companies as Altria Group vice president/chief information officer Jim Noble - and even fewer used to pilot military jets and race cars professionally. Prior to arriving at Altria (whose family of operating companies include Kraft Foods and Philip Morris USA), the native Scot served as AOL Time Warner's senior vice president and chief information officer. Before that, he earned a reputation as one of the automobile industry's top IT minds while working for General Motors Corp. and GM International as chief information officer. Other past employers include CAP Gemini, Trafalgar House and General Electric.

Since joining Altria Group in March of 2002, Noble has attempted to improve IT by running it as a business, placing internal IT shared services on a solid business footing and thus keeping them keenly competitive with the marketplace. He believes that IT should make a major contribution to the bottom line of any business by helping drive business-process optimization. He also believes it could contribute to the top line by acting as the catalyst for technology-rich innovations in mainstream business products and services. His prediction: over the next three years, radio frequency chips on pallets, cases and items will cause major changes in supply-chain processes and information systems.

"Consumer products companies have never been seen as leaders in technology," says Noble. "With the new concepts around electronic product codes, technology will force a totally new view on how processes will work through the entire supply chain. This is a very exciting time to be in technology at a consumer products company."

Barry Sanders

Vice President of Sales

Scotts Company

John Carne

CIO

The Holmes Group

The Holmes Group, Inc. manufactures kitchen, lighting and personal comfort products under well-known brand names such as Bionaire, Crock-Pot and Slow Cooker. As the $700-million company continuously strives to deliver innovative products to meet consumer demands, John Carne, CIO for the Holmes Group, sticks to a formula that helps keep the company on track: Programs, process and people.

"As we're driven down a path of a much higher degree of automation, helping people adapt to the new process is the most important thing of all," says Carne. "We chose SAP because it gave the broadest scope of functionality."

In 2002, Carne installed a global implementation of SAP that consolidated the company's back office. "Now we're taking other pieces of SAP and pushing them out into other areas of the business," says Carne. New PLM and CRM initiatives, for instance, will put more power and capabilities in the hands of users so they can accomplish more with our customers and vendors.

For the future, Carne keeps a watchful eye on RFID.

"If RFID takes off, we could curb our third-party logistics costs quite a bit," Carne says. "In theory, you can run an inventory at any point in time and know where everything is."

Colleen Berube

Director of IT

Palm

Colleen Berube's name has been a mainstay on lists of top IT executives since she accomplished more in her first year at Palm than many IT pros pack into two: building the company's enterprise applications team from the ground up, directing an ERP software search and delivering a full-suite enterprise system. And she hasn't slowed down much since then. A senior director in Palm's IT group responsible for worldwide applications, Berube manages the systems that support Palm's back and front-office operations. Among the areas under her watchful eye: global operations, finance and human resources, and sales and marketing.

Since arriving at Palm in early 2000 -- when the company was in the midst of its spinoff from 3Com Corp. -- Berube has also implemented systems to support a reengineering of all aspects of Palm's supply chain processes and systems.

"At Palm, we value our ability to successfully execute and deliver on IT initiatives in aggressive time frames," she notes. "We have built a solid foundation of core applications to support Palm and we drive low total cost of ownership by sticking to this streamlined architecture."

George Muller

VP and CIO

Imperial Sugar Company

Imperial Sugar Company is one of the largest sugar companies in the United States with annual sales of approximately $1.2 billion. George Muller started with Imperial in 1997 as director of information systems, was promoted to chief information officer in 1999 and recently promoted to vice president. Muller has reduced IT expenditures at Imperial Sugar by consolidating four data centers into one, three HR/payroll systems into one and three financial systems into one. The Wharton Business School recently selected Imperial Sugar as one of five finalists in recognition of the change and business transformation brought about by Muller's IT team.

"In a commodity business like sugar, decreasing cost and becoming the low cost producer is an economic advantage," says Muller. "Focusing on the customer and making it easier for the customer to do business with us is what our value proposition is all about."

To achieve these lofty standards, Muller standardized on one ERP system with PeopleSoft, one hardware partner with HP/Compaq and enhanced the company's extranet so customers can place orders 24 hours a day.

"The success we have had with our extranet has made it possible for us to use technology to competitively differentiate ourselves from other sugar and consumer package goods companies," says Muller.

Chris Moye

VP of Strategic Planning , Global Supply Chain

Campbell Soup Company

Prior to joining Campbell, Moye was a principal at a private equity fund based in Detroit as well as principal with A.T. Kearney Management Consulting where he led engagements focused on assessing and improving operating efficiencies through increased asset utilization, strategic sourcing and continuous process improvement. This experience came in handy when Moye joined Campbell Soup Company in mid-2001 as vice president of strategic planning, global supply chain.

"The supply chain has been focused more on productivity and efficiency as opposed to an enabler of competitive advantage," says Moye. "We are seeing a significant change in channels that is requiring us to think of the role of the supply chain quite differently."

In response, Campbell is pushing hard to optimize its performance, and depends on the internal parameters of OPI -- operations performance improvement. Moye says OPI is a team effort that allows Campbell to continuously tweak performance in any area of operations in an effort to "commonize technology around certain platforms."

"The partners that I have in the supply chain extending across to individuals in IT and the marketing department in Campbell have enabled us to move forward," says Moye.

Jerry Wolfe

VP & CIO

McCormick & Company

Adding some spice to the life of consumers and the shelves of retailers is the goal of McCormick & Company. Helping the Fortune 500 company's information systems run smoothly and efficiently is the goal of Jerry Wolfe.

Like a lot of consumer goods companies in the late 1990s, McCormick found itself with a lot of different technology platforms operating throughout different segments of its business.

"There were a lot of different pipes we were trying to connect, and what we ended up with was a lot of plumbers," Wolfe says.

Realizing that McCormick could not achieve its growth initiatives without a solid platform, the company launched a business transformation program, labeled Beyond 2000. Wolfe was given responsibility for the multiyear, global effort to optimize business processes, improve the effectiveness of the supply chain and increase collaboration with key trading partners. Benefitting from a solid background in technology, Wolfe has done more than fix the pipes at McCormick.

Looking ahead, Wolfe's work in integrating different systems will likely come in handy, as McCormick announced last month an agreement to purchase Zatarain's, a leading brand of New Orleans-style cuisine.

Craig A. Moughler

SVP and Managing Director,

Valvoline International

Craig Moughler became senior vice president and managing director for Valvoline International, Inc., a subsidiary of Ashland Inc., in October 2002. Moughler was previously vice president, business transformation, for The Valvoline Company from 2001 to 2002. In this role, he was responsible for driving improvement across the company's entire business processes, including e-business initiatives. Moughler believes Valvoline's IT vision begins with the company's overall vision. One of its four commitments is to "provide superior value to its consumers." The Valvoline Instant Oil Change (VIOC) MVP system, for instance, is the first and only one of its type in the quick-lube industry. MVP allows Valvoline to instantly match consumer car care needs with owner's manual recommendations. Another Valvoline vision commitment is to "create unique solutions that enable our business partners to succeed with us."

In this case, IT helped Valvoline create a new business called enVision, which helps retailers and distributors improve efficiencies in the supply chain. "Any company's IT vision must inextricably be connected to its overall long-term vision, which assures customer focus," says Moughler. "This produces IT systems designed to provide unique solutions for external customers and partners. The net result is enhanced shareholder value."

Ellen Martin

Vice President

VF Corp

Ellen Martin's 33-year consumer goods career kicked off at clothing manufacturer Blue Bell before it was purchased by VF Corp. in 1986. Martin has worked on both sales chain and supply chain systems over the last 26 years and has been dedicated to supply chain systems since 1985. VF Corp. initiated a business reengineering project in 1995 when the company realized that without system support, certain best practices could not be enabled. VF selected SAP in 1995 as the common system ERP backbone. Since then, Martin spearheaded a best of breed initiative in an effort to adapt to a rapidly changing supply chain and apparel landscape. VF's software lineup includes: Logility for forecasting, i2 Supply Chain Planner for production planning, i2 Demand Fulfillment for available to promise and Gerber WebPdm for product development specifications.

"Identifying long-term players and forming necessary partnerships, whether with retailers, suppliers or vendors is critical," says Martin. "The partnership must provide value and benefit to both parties, with a tangible ROI. My goal is we should be able to go forward with acquisitions or brand growth with seamless support of information systems."

Joe Wisdo

Sr. Director of B2B Consumer Commerce

Pfizer's Consumer Healthcare

Joe Wisdo has 30 years of experience in the consumer products industry and has held various positions in logistics and information services. He has been with healthcare manufacturer Pfizer since 1999 and is currently responsible for developing and executing business strategies that improve supply chain efficiencies with Pfizer's customers. This year's merger with Pharmacia Corporation expands Pfizer's global pharmaceutical leadership, broadens its product base, and bolsters its research and development capacity. In addition to pharmaceuticals, Pharmacia enlarges Pfizer's portfolio of leading consumer healthcare brands to include Pediacare, Dramamine, Rogaine and Nicorette.

"I wouldn't say we're leading edge or bleeding edge but we are early adopters in a lot of cases," says Wisdo. "We take a more valued approach."

Part of that approach might involve future use of RFID technology, of which Pfizer has been a sponsor since December of 2000.

"We stay very close to it," says Wisdo. "Over time as it matures it's going to impact our supply chain processes. If we can improve the efficiency of the shelf stock, that's where we want to be."

Mark Leposky

SVP and COO

TaylorMade-adidas Golf

Prior to arriving at TaylorMade-adidas Golf, Mark Leposky worked for two of the world's pre-eminent brands: Coca-Cola and United Parcel Service. And largely due to Leposky's efforts, TaylorMade-adidas has established itself as both a technology powerhouse and a top brand. Don't believe it? Ask any golf aficionado.

Leposky, the company's chief operations officer/senior vice president, oversees IT as well as global supply-chain management for all product lines. His group's responsibilities include everything from procurement and engineering to transportation and logistics.

Over the past three years, Leposky's team has played a pivotal role in the consolidation of four different TaylorMade-adidas operating units into a single global management structure. The results were immediate and impressive: revenue increases of 35 percent in 2000, 24 percent in 2001 and 37 percent in 2002.

"I strongly believe that one of the key factors to TaylorMade-adidas Golf's growth and success over the past three years has been our transformation of the supply chain into a competitive weapon," says Leposky. "Technology is a key enabler to this end, and we're partnered with the world's leading software vendors to integrate and make our supply chain visible for our business partners, from suppliers to customers, in real-time."

Randy Papdelis

President COO

Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc

Randy Papadellis, who is currently reporting to the Ocean Spray Board of Directors as Interim CEO, responsible for the overall day-to-day operations of the agricultural cooperative, has clearly shown the ability to lead during challenging times. Despite increased competition, market share for Ocean Spray's core line of cranberry beverages in the U.S. juice aisle has risen more than five points to 53.5 percent over the past two years, driven largely by the company's introduction of a white cranberry juice line.

Before joining Ocean Spray in July 2000, Papadellis was senior vice president of marketing for Welch Foods Inc., where he and the company won several advertising awards. Prior to his tenure at Welch's, Papadellis had also held senior positions with Frito Lay and Cadbury Beverages North America. As the company emerges from a reorganization, Papadellis believes technology, especially analytics tools, will play a key role in the company's future growth.

"These information technology tools will allow our sales organization to make decisions in real-time and take action while they are in a buyer's office," says Papadelis. "In addition, consumer intelligence tools will allow us to take the next step of targeting key consumers who are heavy users."

Mike O'Shea

Director of North American Logistical Alliances

Kimberly-Clark

To say Mike O'Shea has been busy during his tenure with Kimberly-Clark is a gross understatement. In 1991, he merged the Canadian operations with the U.S to form a North American Customer Service and Logistical Alliance team. With Kimberly-Clark's acquisition of Scott Paper in 1995, O'Shea and his team were responsible for the massive integration of the two customer service organizations. The logistical alliance team has been involved in numerous other key programs and services, including vendor managed inventory, CPFR, rapid replenishment and activity-based management. O'Shea says the company will continue to be aggressive with information technology to support its business processes. Activity based management, according to O'Shea, helped Kimberly-Clark better understand its business processes and the true costs in the supply chain while CPFR and supporting technology has helped the company and its trading partners take collaboration to the next level. What does the future hold? "Auto-ID and RFID will help bring visibility to the supply chain and impact it like nothing before it," says O'Shea. "RFID will bring about steep change in how we make and sell product, how retailers better meet consumer needs and how consumers shop and interact with the products they buy and use."

Ed Toben

CIO

Colgate- Palmolive

Toben joined Colgate in 1990 as vice president, information technology. In that post, he attempted to position the company as one of the industry's most forward-thinking IT disciples by initiating an overhaul of Colgate's U.S. information systems. Shortly thereafter, he played a pivotal role on the team that implemented SAP in the United States. He was also one of the forces behind an effort to decommission legacy systems, which resulted in significant annual cost savings for Colgate-Palmolive.

Promoted to vice president, global information technology in 1996, Toben guided Colgate's global implementation of SAP. One of his major successes was the creation of the company's Centralized Data Center in Piscataway, New Jersey, an entity that consolidated 50 similar sites around the globe into one. The center, considered to be one of the most state-of-the-art facilities of its kind within the consumer goods industry, is the technological hub for Colgate's global IT operations.

Looking forward, Toben hopes to further leverage the company's core investment in SAP. Given that approximately 70 percent of Colgate's business exists outside the United States, completing the global IT reengineering remains a top priority as well.

"The core learning for us was that you cannot jump over the base infrastructure," says Toben. "Without a solid base, you simply cannot move forward."

Robert D. Scott

Vice President, IT for Global Market Development Organization

Procter & Gamble

Robert D. Scott has a lot to think about. He currently retains global responsibility for leading the application of information technology and business analytics to support the customer and consumer strategies of P&G in markets around the world. Before assuming this role, Scott resided in Brussels, Belgium, first serving as regional IT leader (covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and, more recently, as the global IT Vice President for the fabric and home care business unit (a $14 billion business). Scott says his focus is to help create holistic IT innovations that connect P&G to consumers and customers to increase speed, reduce costs and provide tangible shareholder return. "In P&G, our information technology strategy focuses on the fundamental principles of integration, standardization and enabling linkages with our retail trading partners," says Scott. In an adaptive, integrated supply network, Scott believes the act of a consumer buying a product should trigger real-time, simultaneous movement of relevant demand information to all network partners including stores, warehouses, retailer headquarters, manufacturers and suppliers. "The bottom line is that information technology will play a major role in implementing a supply chain vision that substantially improves on P&G's current successful systems for putting the right products in the right places at the right time and at the right price," says Scott.

Robert Reinckens

CIO

Coty Beauty Americas

Before joining Coty in 1995, Reinckens was a senior manager at Coopers & Lybrand, a global consulting firm serving Fortune 1000 companies. In that role, Reinckens was responsible for all consulting engagements including project approach, client deliverables, team staffing and work plans.

At Coty, Reinckens is spearheading a CRM solution for the company's worldwide account-planning initiative. The new solution, provided by CAS, will automate the company's account planning process in the short-term and support future sales and marketing functions.

CAS integrates with the company's existing ERP system and provides executives consistent views of customer and trading partner interactions through a standardized platform. Reinckens chose CAS because "it has a consistent data model that is built around consumer products."

Other leading CRM vendors, according to Reinckens, are still entrenched in call-center or opportunity-based solutions. This custom-tailored

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