BGMT 364 Exercise #1 3 PAGES, APA

Great Start Nutrition Company Profile

Welcome!

The assessment projects for this class will examine different facets of the leadership of

Great Start Nutrition, Inc. You will be exploring leadership within Great Start Nutrition

Company Profile with the driving question of “what skills does a Great Start Nutrition

leader need to lead the company now and in the future?”

History

Barney Pfife was a young apprentice working for Andrew Griffith, owner of a small apothecary shop in Yonkers, New York. During his apprenticeship, Pfife created a general energy elixir that was based on a home remedy of his mother’s back in England. The elixir was produced specifically for many of Griffith’s special customers. Made of all natural ingredients the elixir provided B12 and other vitamins to promote a healthy immune system. The energy boost was noticeable after only a week’s use. The reputation of the elixir grew. In 1922, Pfife took over Griffith’s apothecary shop renaming the business, Pfife’s Apothecary. At that time, Pfife decided to bottle his elixir and sell the formula to everyone rather than selected customers. Pfife also gave bottles of the elixir to local peddlers who sold the product along with their wares receiving a commission on each bottle sold. By 1929, the product was well known in Sherrill, New York. Encouraged by the success in Yonkers Pfife decided to branch out to New York City. In 1932, Pfife built a small manufacturing plant near the store where he mixed and bottled the elixir for sale. By 1934, Pfife expanded sales by putting the elixir in a quarter of the apothecary shops in New York City. Sales were booming and customers inquired about other products that Pfife’s had. In 1936, Pfife started a new product called Rest Assured, another of his mother’s recipes. This product offered relief from night sweats and anxiety caused by menopausal symptoms or nerves. When this product proved a “secret success” with the ladies, Pfife decided to bring his mother, Clara, from England, and put her to work making new natural products. With his mother’s help, Pfife grew the business into a small but successful manufacturer of natural products. The name of the company was changed to Pfife’s Elixirs and Remedies. The business continued to grow and with his mother’s death in 1938 the company had a gross revenue of $210,000 a year. The depression took a toll on company profits but people wanted a boosts to their health and were able to afford Pfife’s products as opposed to the medicine offered by doctors and hospitals. During World War II the company supplied the troops with a natural caffeine (Wake Up) product that would keep soldiers awake for long periods of time and heighten their mental alertness. Government contracts derived from Wake UP boosted the revenue of the company considerably and ushered in a new wave of interest of natural products. By 1950 Pfife turned over the reins of the daily operations of the business to his children

but remained on the Board of his family owned company. By this time, the company had expanded its manufacturing plants and sales nationally to include Dearborn, Michigan, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Plainfield, Illinois and Jacksonville, Florida. The revenue of the company was now close to $3 million. In the 1960’s the social climate in America had changed and pharmaceutical companies took on greater importance in the treatment of people’s health. The discovery of new drugs and better health care shifted the confidence in the American perspective away from natural products to traditional western medicine. Although the counter culture of America still supported natural supplements, popularity for Pfife’s products waned. In 1965, Barney’s granddaughter, Beatrice, took over the Research and Development Department (R&D) after receiving a degree in chemistry from Harvard. She had been trained as a child by her grandmother, Barney’s mother, and knew how the recipes should look. However, she had new ideas and with the approach of the 1970’s, was ready to join the “Anjolie perfume commercial” lifestyle depiction of a 70’s women that “they could bring home the bacon and fry it up too.” Due to the downturn in sales by 1970, the company turned to other countries for its sales base. Starting in Belgium and other European countries where natural products are highly credible, Pfife began to license the sale of the company’s products to local manufacturers. Name recognition grew and by the 1980’s the company was grossing over 4 million dollars in gross sales. The company moved operations and manufactured o v e r s e a s t o t h e Netherlands. Barney Pfife died in 1982 shortly after seeing his first grandchild, Warren Pfife, take over the President’s positon of the company. Studying the trends in the 1990’s about the resurgence of natural health products Warren decided it was time for Pfife’s to focus on the new interest in homeopathic and natural products especially at home in America where sales were static. In 1996, Warren Pfife, wanting to get a sleeker and more modern feel to the company’s products changed the company name and logo. No longer was Pfife’s a mom and pop operation but an international business. Pfife’s Elixirs and Remedies was now Great Start Nutrition Company. While the products would continue to show the old Pfife logo, for name recognition the new logo would take prominence on the packaging. By 2000 the company was grossing about 1 billion in sales with an increase in market share. By 2012, Great Start Nutrition had a 20% market share of the supplement business with approximately $25 billion in sales. The company is now interested in expanding into infant formula.

. Currently sales for the company are at $32 billion. Warren Pfife is still President and CEO. The stock is still held by the family and all senior management positions are held by family members.

Current Company Vision: To help consumers achieve the healthiest life possible way. Current Mission: Our products ensure healthy living and healthy people.

Current Fact Sheet

World Headquarters Yonkers, NY

President Warren Pfife

2018 Employees 42,500 in 7 countries worldwide

MANUFACTURING

OPERATIONS

United States Dearborn, MI; Santa Fe, NM; Plainfield, IL:

Jacksonville, FL

Asia Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

South and Central America Valparaiso, Chile

Canada Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

Europe Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland

Product Lines Protein and Fitness: Personal Care: Vitamins and Food

Supplements; Infant Formula (pending)

Major Competitors

Protein and Fitness: Vitamin Shoppe

Personal Care: Sanofi, Colgate-Palmolive, Alberto-

Culver

Vitamins and Food Supplements: Amway; Pfizer,

Treerly Nature’s Bounty, Caribbean Lines

Current Business Philosophy

Great Start Nutrition has determined its long-term planning pattern should be no longer than three years. Three years seems more flexible than the seven year planning pattern previously used as change in the business climate has made it imperative to be more flexible. Gaining a competitive edge and the need for innovation are the main focus for the next three years along with the company’s commitment to socially responsible. The company has a strong image for producing natural products and has a strong connection to the community. Protection of suppliers and control over product quality is critical to doing business.

Current Growth Plans Business and Sales Great Start Nutrition is looking to expand and is exploring the opening of a new manufacturing, sales, and distribution facility in the next year. Currently, products are sold throughout the US and the European division but there is a great demand for its current product in Malaysia and China. It was decided by senior leadership to explore a potential manufacturing and sales presence in these areas, which would potentially

increase sales and would fall under the control of a new Executive Director. As in keeping with the all-natural products, the company wants to bring a greener footprint to its new facility going beyond what many competitors have in place. This is an opportunity to gain market share while introducing a new product line. This effort would provide an excellent test case for new products that would position Great Start Nutrition as a leaders in innovative infant products. Product Development The company has recently expanded and is now interested in pursuing infant formula.

Current Eco Sustainability Commitments Currently, Great Start Nutrition has commitments to build housing for several communities in New Zealand and India where natural pharmaceutical ingredients are produced.

Innovation and Adaptability

Changes to organizational structure and organizational culture are being planned to introduce more collaborative decision making as well as shared resources and communication. This emphasis is to encourage the exchange of ideas, create an environment that fosters new ideas and makes change easier to implementation initiatives. Great Start Nutrition is concerned that the stateside organization is driving the overseas divisions and that new ideas stem from cultural differences between employees. Customer innovation workshops run by the various divisions have highlighted that R&D in Europe and Vietnam see differences in consumer preferences from US consumer preferences, and there is a push to incorporate this knowledge across current and future facilities. It is believed that US controlled resources are ignoring these product preferences and is impeding overseas sales. Corporate leaders are interested in addressing any cultural gap that exist.

Current Corporate Culture Pfife’s new image has made the c o m p a n y less cohesive since the business owners seek to be people builders who cultivate the next generation rather than power players who dominates every aspect of the business. Still the family leaders are committed to keeping the family history as a symbol for the company. It is believed that the family’s cultural connection gives support to collaborative decision making something the Company has been successful in promoting throughout the organization. It is also seen by the owners that their family and employees makes up the company’s customers. The family wants to encourage a customer centric culture, one that allows employees to see everything through the perspective of the customer and to make decisions with the customer’s view always paramount. Furthermore, there would be a companywide accountability to the customer in all departments. The owner wants a workforce that gives an extraordinary customer experience in every product it makes.

Current Organizational Structure This company has a geographic divisional structure. However, within each division is a functional structure with production and sales at the hub. R&D, HR, IT and Finance have

small staff in each division whose primary job it is to liaison with headquarters to implement decisions made by the division.

Heading all the divisions is the President and CEO, Warren Pfife. Housed at headquarters is the R&D, HR, IT, and Finance Divisions