There is no more competitive category of business than consumer packaged goods. And, CPG has been renowned for having some of the best and brightest CEO’s around. Last week, Unilever announced that that they had recruited Paul Polman, former top executive at Nestle and P&G to be their new CEO. In an interview with Advertising Age Mr. Polman was asked about how he felt about now being a competitor with his two prior employers, both of which “passed him up” to be CEO of their organizations. It was a loaded question ripe for a DBT (Defict Based Thinking) response that would put Nestle and P&G “on notice”. Instead Mr. Polman took the ABT high road and said the following:

“At the end of the day, it’s not about competition, but about satisfying consumer needs. … We don’t make our lives successful by having as goals making others’ lives miserable. The markets are big enough that if we all get better, I think the consumer can benefit from that.”

Now that’s classy. We need more of this kind of positive determination in our leaders….in business, government, institutions and life in general.

Stay tuned for some more examples of ABT CEO’s in Action.

Hank