Mars reviews

The entire company (Wrigley especially but Mars as a whole) is totally lost when it comes to growth. Emphasis is on taking costs out of products rather than adding value, so great ideas get squashed or stripped of whatever makes them interesting. The focus on developing talent means that people are sometimes put in positions that aren't appropriate for their skills or mindsets because they need to be promoted or want to learn about a new area.

Once the father died and young Bill took over, things began changing for the worst and quite quickly. Upper management became a revolving door and all the people that had spent years there being groomed for their bosses jobs quickly were passed over for new unqualified people that had little to no knowledge of managing people or business. The older employees became responsible for training their new bosses and once they did, were usually shown the door or demoted to another department. Ultimately, young Bill's heart was never in the business and it wasn't uncommon for him to disappear for weeks on end. In the end, young Bill didn't know whom to trust and hired another CEO to run the business. Probably around that same time, he already knew he had lost a grip on the company and decided to take the money and run. A year after the sale, Bill Jr. took his buy out and left Chicago almost overnight.