Good morning.
Companies change their names for a range of reasons. Sometimes, it’s intended to convey a break with the past, such as with Altria (Philip Morris) or Meta (Facebook). Other times, it may be prompted by a corporate marriage (Stellantis) or, more often, a split (Alphabet or GE (Vernova). Unlike a redesign, as PepsiCo famously did to Pepsi and Tropicana, creating a new identity is permanent.
That can make choosing a name an emotional exercise. You want a word that captures where you’re going while capitalizing on the brand equity you’ve built. It should feel accessible and yet ownable—that is, less likely to get you sued for trademark infringement. This explains the macron, a symbol most of us learned in first grade to identify long vowel sounds, on Mondelēz. Ideally, it feels authentic, unlike the aristocratic-sounding surname my college friends picked out of a phone book when they married. (They were both into The Lord of the Rings. It could have been worse.)
Steve Cahillane seems to have got it right. Having joined Kellogg Company as CEO in 2017, he’s now almost a year into being chairman, president, and CEO of Kellanova. That’s the fast-growing part of Kellogg that includes snack brands like Pringles, Pop-Tarts, Cheez-It, and Carr’s, as well as frozen foods, noodles, and international cereal—about 82% of the total portfolio. The North American cereal business, which made up the rest, became WK Kellogg Co. When the company split in October.
Why shelve Corn Flakes, Fruit Loops, and other iconic cereals in a separate company? “It’s been in a long-term decline,” says Cahillane, noting that the spinoff was not just about creating “a faster-growing, higher-margin business, but giving the cereal business the opportunity to flourish by being a singularly focused company that just focused on that one occasion, mostly the breakfast occasion. But the versatility of cereal makes it an opportune time for snacking and other things.”
I spoke with Cahillane about his plans and the finer points of rebranding for the latest episode of Coins2Day’s Leadership Next podcast. Is it working? Well, the company just reported strong earnings and Mars is now apparently in talks to acquire Kellanova.
Also in this episode, I spoke with Jason Girzadas, the CEO of Deloitte U.S., which sponsors this podcast, about the results of the Coins2Day/Deloitte CEO Survey. While optimistic about how their companies are prepared to succeed, Girzadas said, “CEOs are having to prepare for a very wide array of potential outcomes.” The challenge is doing it. “How do you create an energetic and resilient workforce and organizational culture that prepares for and sort of accepts this level of disruption as the new normal?”
For leaders like Kellanova’s Cahillane, you start by taking risks—including with your own brand: “You can’t follow the herd.”
More news below.
Diane Brady
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This edition of CEO Daily was curated by Nicholas Gordon.
