Pivot for Success. Amy S. Hilliard

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Название Pivot for Success
Автор произведения Amy S. Hilliard
Жанр Поиск работы, карьера
Серия
Издательство Поиск работы, карьера
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781119780984



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fall by the wayside as bills needed to be paid. I urge you, however, not to discount the power of purpose in challenging times. It is what we all are gifted to do. Finding Your Purpose is listed as the first Pivot Point because I believe that operating from a sense of purpose can be the foundation for so much of what you do in life.

      What's interesting for me is that inspiring others doesn't mean that I'm always sharing stories of triumph or of “knowing it all.” Not by a long shot. In 1986, when I was a relatively new product manager at Gillette, I was given the job of managing two of the oldest brands in the Personal Care Division, Adorn and White Rain Hairsprays. I guess they figured I couldn't mess up those highly profitable brands—just keep shipping them, right? Well, obviously this was before the days of social media, and I was getting about 10 letters a week from customers who remembered the old White Rain Shampoo that Gillette marketed in the 1950s and 60s. I couldn't believe it. I figured if that many people were taking the time to write to ask a company to bring back a product, lots of customers might want it to come to back. Gillette had tried a “new and improved” version of White Rain Shampoo in the 1970s; it was fruit scented in various colors and didn't do well. These customers wanted the original, crystal‐clear version back. So, I had to inspire my management to let me bring back this product. It was a process, and I needed to draw on my Purpose to carry it out.

      I had assisted on new product launches at Gillette while climbing the ladder, but those were well supported with major budgets and long planning times. This was very different—I was now the project lead with a super short planning window. I knew it was a major career risk, and we had to make it a success. Knowing I had to light others up with the idea, I called a meeting of everyone who would be involved to jump‐start the project—Manufacturing, R&D, Packaging, Sales, Market Research, Advertising, and Art Design. When we were all in the room, I told them, “Congratulations! I've been getting a ton of letters from customers asking to bring back the clear White Rain Shampoo. Management has just given us the green light to relaunch it! I'm not sure how to do it. But I know you all do. I want to hear from each of your areas how we can do it fast and profitably. We only have six months to get it out the door on and on the shelves. So, let's get started!”

      White Rain Shampoo was relaunched in six months with much success and went on to help grow the White Rain franchise from $25 million to a $100 million business. I was asked to write up the launch process we used. The New Products Development process at Gillette was changed: starting with bringing the subject expert teams together at the beginning of the process instead of much later on. In addition, the work of my team to get this done was chronicled in a case study for the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

      My 10 years at Gillette were a pivotal time for me and provided incredible opportunities to use Finding My Purpose as I developed in my assignments there. I say this because people often think that you need to be working in your purpose as the total sum of your job or career. For some, that is possible. But as long as you can use your purpose consistently within your endeavors, it can still provide major satisfaction, and steer you as you pivot forward. This worked for me at Gillette.

      This advocacy led me to a career pivot I never envisioned. By Finding and using my Purpose to inspire others, I was instrumental in helping Gillette recognize that the Black hair care market was exploding, and they didn't have a piece of it. A couple of years later, they asked me to be a part of the acquisition team to acquire a Black hair care company. Although I took a finance course at Harvard Business School and liked it, I was not schooled in acquisitions. But the next thing I knew, I was flying all over the country asking the premier owners of Black hair care companies if they wanted to sell to Gillette. In many cases, it was just me. And them. Over lunch or in meetings in their offices. Or in one case, at the Lustrasilk Corporation, over dinner with the owners, and then during a tour of their state‐of‐the‐art manufacturing plant while it was closed so the employees would not know of our discussions.