|
Bad News Folders
Keep a constant eye out for trouble. Business was good at Colgate-Palmolive during the 1990s--so good that CEO Reuben Mark began worrying about what might go wrong. So he decided to install an early-warning system to flag problems before they blew up into company-wrecking crises. Each day at Colgate, half a dozen or so clear red plastic folders land on the CEO's desk, as well as the desks of other top execs. Inside each is a "situation report," a form that regional managers fill out to describe brewing trouble of any sort--from factory slowdowns to worker injuries. On a recent day, one folder mentioned the robbery of one of the company's delivery trucks in the Dominican Republic. Another reported the discovery of counterfeit toothpaste tubes in a South African market. Local managers handled those issues. But when a report alerted Mark that officials in Baddi, India, had questions about how a plant treated wastewater, Colgate quickly involved an engineering team to avoid potential embarrassment. Another perk of the process? Its self-policing power. "No one is going to report a problem," a company executive says, "and then not do anything about it. You can say it's boring, but process does make the world go around." -- H.C. |
| NEXT» |