Town Hall Setting

In October, 2014 the CEO of the company held a town hall meeting at the Illinois campus to present the current status and future direction of the Company. The presentation was video taped and uploaded to the internal website for all employees to view. In the town-hall setting, the corporate mission and vision were presented. The mission was stated as “to become the best market-leading global industrial packaging company that creates extraordinary value for our customers, employees and shareholders” (Leadership, 2014). The presentation further went on to state the vision as “to be the global leader in industrial packaging markets that thrives on change and is known for innovation, continuous improvement and customer centricity” (Leadership,

The presentation was video taped and the information was posted on the internal website for all employees to access. It was made clear that accomplishing the goals would help ensure a successful future for the organization.

First, the business units have been charged to continue to grow top line numbers. Increased revenue generation is key for all business units. Growing customer share, product innovation, and expanding into new markets are key objectives that will help grow revenue. Secondly, the units are to build and execute earnings improvement plan initiatives (Leadership, 2014). Because of the vast product lines, each unit is responsible for identifying the objects within the unit that will help increase earnings. For instance, in some units decreasing freight costs and increasing inventory turn can help facilitate immediate earnings improvement. Finally, all units are to continue to drive cost reductions (Leadership, 2014). To assist with this goal, corporate purchasing has initiated competitive benchmarking with key suppliers in order to help facilities improve cost structures. Overall, management believes that revenue generation, earnings improvement, and cost reductions can be driven at all levels within the

Growing current customer share through expanding product line offering and through cultivating recently identified potential new markets are two objectives that have been determined to assist in increasing revenues. Additionally, revenue gains will come from sales pressure and strategies on accounts currently serviced by competitors. However, during the revenue improvement initiatives, the Nashville team has also been charged with maintaining existing business and preventing competitors from taking accounts. Due to product maturity in the existing market, this is typically accomplished through head to head price wars, often times decreasing account revenue. Additionally and at minimum, the unit must maintain margins. Because of intense competition and many accounts won or maintained based on price, margin erosion is common in the existing mature market. Therefore, expanding into new markets will help offset decreasing margins in the current industry. Finally, the unit is to have a focus on innovation for new products, new uses for existing products, and for new markets. New markets and new uses may be the toughest to