Five years ago, appliance makers Maytag
and Whirlpool both faced a
recessionary environment, intense global competition, and products
that
consumers could not tell apart. Maytag elected to hunker down and
cut
costs while Whirlpool took a different tack. Under then-CEO
Dave
Whitwam, the company launched an all-out, enterprise-wide initiative
to
develop a core competency in innovation. Not having a cookbook
to
follow, they experimented with how best to reward risk-takers
and
foster a culture where ideas were welcomed, supported, and
funded.
Now the results are in. Maytag, a once-great
American brand, cost
cut its way to near-oblivion, while a reenergized Whirlpool grew by
36
percent into a global appliance powerhouse. Whirlpool is in the
final
stages of buying up Maytag for a fraction of its former
worth.
More and more companies are embracing
Whirlpool's strategy as they
see the limits of Maytag's. Yet in attempting to drive organic
growth
to supplement acquisitions, companies routinely find they lack
the
champions and risk-takers needed to dream up and execute bold
new
ideas. “We've been operationally-minded for so long,” they tell
me,
“that we are having trouble finding entrepreneurially-minded folks
to
lead the charge.” [more]
