By Francisco Perez, General Manager, Clorox Chile 

The Clorox Company, the Oakland, California based home-care consumer goods company, started operations in Chile in late 1993, with acquisitions the chosen avenue for growth.  After acquiring four companies during a six-year period, Clorox Chile was still missing a common culture, it lacked cross-functional teamwork, and a significant portion of the promised acquisition synergies were not yet fully realized. 

A new team of first-line managers and I were appointed to run the company in June, 1999, and, unencumbered by the past, we set out to build what was still missing.   

We started by communicating the results for our fiscal year that ended on June 30 to our 400 employees, including all the plant floor workers.  We did this by gathering our employees into groups of 20 to 25, which allowed for frank questions and honest dialogue.  We also used the gatherings to communicate our challenges and goals for coming fiscal year, including the key objective of improving our bottom-line by 28 percent during the coming year. 

To grow the bottom-line, we undertook what we termed the Quantum Leap project.  Quantum Leap focused on improving our business processes rather than just reducing headcount since we  wanted to operate at lower cost on a sustainable basis.  To improve our processes, we had to learn to work together and to develop effective cross-functional teamwork.  We initiated workshops for first level managers and myself to better understand our own behavior, our relationships with team members, and what makes for effective communication among ourselves.  We sought to understand what motivates each member of our team and how each of us responds to pressure.     

In communicating with the many levels of the organization, we consistently sought to convey an unambiguous message about our direction and the key objective of radically improving our earnings.  It worked.  Despite a national recession and currency devaluation, we increased our profits by 59 percent compared to the prior year, and Clorox’s Latin American Division recognized our management team with a “Diamond Leadership Award” for outstanding results.  When we surveyed employees about what made the difference, they singled out cross-functional teamwork and clear leadership.  They also called for still stronger cross-functional teamwork and company leadership.   

Accordingly, we launched a nine-month program in October, 2000 to build more leadership and teamwork.  Recognizing that old habits may be hard to change and the past can be difficult to transcend, we’ve invested 60 percent of our training budget in this new initiative.  Among the opening events was a workshop lead by Rodrigo Jordan, one of Chile’s preeminent mountaineers, that conveyed the critical importance of both leadership and teamwork for reaching the top of anything.  Our intent now is to make Clorox Chile one of the most profitable company operations in Latin America, and our program in leadership and change is proving a critical ingredient for achieving it.   

Note:  Francisco Perez can be reached at <Francisco.Perez@clorox.com>, and information on  Clorox Chile can be found at <http://www.clorox.cl> and Clorox worldwide at <http://www.clorox.com>.