James Kilts was the first outsider to become CEO of Gillette in 70 years. He was brought in to do a turnaround. Like many great executives, Kilts possessed the ability to cut through the noise to focus on the small handful of things that truly mattered. Unlike most great executives, though, Kilts took time to explain how he did this, in his 2007 book Doing What Matters.
From this case study, I understand what potential options Jim Kilts nixed quickly. But I’m not really grasping what problems he didn’t focus on, which seems to be the point of the case. What problems did he assert were second-order? Detailed marketing analyses (was that a problem)?
The one area that’s I assume was not a focus was appeasing Wall Street analysts. And I suppose appeasing Gillette institutionalists by going slow.@cedric can you elaborate on what “others-assumed-were-burning-problems-but-probably-weren’t” problems he didn’t focus on, and how he decided those were “non-priorities”?
I agree that identifying the non-priorities is one of the important skills to master, but … it’s also an exceptionally hard skill. It’s an area I’d like to get better as a business decision maker.