Larry Solomon- Executive Vice President of Human Resources
Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages
Interviewed by Bryan D. Moszer
Management 309
Dr. M. Abelson
Fall 2007
Name: Larry Solomon
Organization: Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages
Formal title: Executive Vice President for Human Resources
Years working for this organization: 22 years
Years at this position: 9 years
Years experience managing others: 22 years
Years experience in this industry: 22 years
Size of the organization for which they currently work:
20,000 employees
$6,000,000,000 annual turnover
Formal education: commercial artist, HR training at the South African Institute of People Management, MBA from UT Dallas.
Briefly describe the products/services this organization offers: CSAB formulates, bottles, markets and distributes beverages in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Some examples include: 7-up, Dr. Pepper, Mott’s, A&W Root Beer, Canada Dry, Crush, Energade, I.B.C. Root Beer, Nehi, RC Cola, Schweppes, Snapple, Squirt, Sunkist, Welch’s, and Yoo-Hoo.
“Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages (CSAB) is a subsidiary division of Cadbury Schweppes…one of the largest producers of soft drinks and premium beverages in the Americas” (About Us).
In the last eighteen months CSAB has undergone a tremendous expansion through the acquisition of brands and bottlers in North America. It is currently positioned as the number three beverage company in the United States behind Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola. Shaping the vision of CSAB’s employees during this growth is a remarkable man named Larry Solomon, the Executive Vice President for Human Resources.
Larry Solomon has been with Cadbury Schweppes companies for twenty-two years and has the distinction of being the youngest manager, director, and vice president in the company’s history. His career first began as a commercial artist in South Africa, where he is from. He transitioned into training after studying at the Institute of People Management. Afterwards he began working in labor relations, taking advantage of his interpersonal skills. Mr. Solomon then headed sales for 2 ½ years leading a force of about sixty associates. This opened the door for him to work in London for 3 years, before coming to the U.S. where he has been in Texas for the last 9 years.
While in Plano, Mr. Solomon headed the HR department for Dr. Pepper / 7-up, Inc., and oversaw the integration of Mott’s and Snapple Beverages, the Dr. Pepper / 7-up Bottling Group and Bebidas Mexico into one fully integrated business unit. Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages.
When asked to compare his job description to what he actually does, Solomon asks, “Do you know what an elevator speech is? Suppose I get in an elevator, and before the door closes Bill Gates gets in. He notices my name tag, introduces himself and asks what I do. At most I have 30 seconds to make an impression on him. Here’s what I’d say: I create a sustainable, competitive advantage through people.”
Reciting his job description would take longer than 30 seconds and probably not sound very enticing. However, his major responsibilities include handling labor relations, benefits compensation, recruitment, talent management, succession planning, training and development. These and other activities create his sustainable, competitive advantage through people. By creating, he adds value to his company’s productivity. By being sustainable, his creation cannot easily be copied by his competitors such as Pepsi and Coke. His competitive advantage is in creating something unique to his organization, providing customers with the products and services they desire. Finally by doing this “through people” he develops the human talents of the organization necessary to achieve its goals.
Considering the growth of CSAB in the last eighteen months, and its increasing market share vs. Coke and Pepsi, it is easy to see that Mr. Solomon has been successful at his job. When asked how he managed to motivate others in the workplace, to work in the best interests of CSAB, Mr. Solomon pointed to another great leader, King Solomon, who said “Where there is no vision, the people will perish.”
Larry Solomon understands that we all want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, and he does his best to paint a picture of the “preferred future” for CSAB. Once he has described that vision, he helps create the link as to how employees can contribute to that vision. By helping to define their role he “mobilizes” people behind the agenda, putting them into action. As for those who refuse to share the vision, those who would rather maintain the status quo where they have become comfortable, and especially those who try to undermine the vision, Solomon recommends swift action. It is possible to talk one-on-one with them to try and understand their point of contention, and help them get over it, but if they continue undermining the vision there is no place for them in CSAB.
Part of the vision Mr. Solomon has developed at CSAB is to provide a customer centric framework. In a low margin, high volume business like beverages, customer loyalty is vital and can be easily lost. In a customer centric function such as this it is imperative that his company does what it claims it can do, because it may be put to the test. Customers expect consistency, value and character in the products they buy. If a product is not available when they want it, they can easily get a competitor’s product instead, and they may never come back. This attitude requires that his team deliver results when they say they will. He has created a high performance team that focuses on delivering value to the company and living up to their word. Failure to do so may leave them “hoisted by their own petard.” In other words they must think through the implications of their words before offering them. For Mr. Solomon, you will either do what you say, or explain why not.
Describing the culture of CSAB, and how he fosters it, Larry Solomon says Cadbury Schweppes is extremely performance driven and dedicated to breaking down politics. He points to 6 factors:
crystal clear accounting
total honesty & transparency
zero blame fixing
courageous decision making
customer centric approach
inspecting what we expect
These factors are heavily weighted towards honesty (1-3) which is extremely valuable in a world scarred by Enron, WorldCom and Tyco blunders. Courage comes into play when tough decisions need to be made, and in fighting Goliath(s), there is always a need for people with vision to exercise their courage. To “inspect what we expect” is the best way to get off of the wrong path. Through reviewing performance, coaching and feedback, Mr. Solomon ensures his team will continue to work towards the vision he has described. These factors all help CSAB implement a customer centric approach.
At CSAB they are fighting against the giants. It is always David vs. Goliath. In this environment it is important to “differentiate yourself.” CSAB is in the process of spinning off of Cadbury Schweppes into its own beverages company that has yet to be named. This is differentiating “from the top.” This new company will no longer have the Cadbury Schweppes name and will be clearly pitted against the cola companies. One advantage it will have is their non-cola beverage diversity. In a society that is increasingly looking for alternatives to cola drinks, CSAB is well positioned for growth.
When asked to describe a failure he has experienced, and what he did to turn it around, Mr. Solomon points to his time in South Africa. They had a very good product called Energade, which had to compete with Gatorade, Powerade, and Sports Plus. But as he stood over the last twenty cases of product, he saw the cans leaking all over the place. He knew that if they were going to compete with those brands they couldn’t continue to have these production quality failures. His first order of business was to get the entire leadership team behind the brand. He knew they had to have confidence in the product, and confidence that they could fix the quality problem. They rebottled Energade, and upped the price. The repackaged Energade became a success because Mr. Solomon had been able to align the leadership team to a common goal. He did this with clear communications, while developing appropriate incentives. Then he held people accountable. Energade is now the most successful sports drink in South Africa. Mr. Solomon claims his ability to align leadership teams, provide clear communications, create appropriate incentives, and hold people accountable has contributed the most to his personal success. There is every reason to believe Larry Solomon will continue to succeed.
While discussing what his greatest challenges as a manager of people, he points to a sense of entitlement, a lack of common sense, and a lack of pragmatic creativity. Many people feel that they are entitled to a job and don’t understand that it is a privilege. As a result, their work shows a lack of passion and polish. These are also often the people who are not likely to share the company vision. Entitlement and apathy are often caused by a lack of common sense. Voltaire said, “Common sense is not so common,” and it seems that he is right. Along the lines of common sense is what Larry Solomon calls pragmatic creativity. People who can find practical solutions to problems need this, and Mr. Solomon needs people who can find solutions.
Mr. Solomon also describes the greatest challenges to CSAB. First is cost containment. Commodities such as fuel and aluminum are causing the cost of business to rise for CSAB and this is forcing them to cut costs, redesign processes and streamline procedures to become more efficient. Additionally shifting consumer preferences away from cola’s has motivated CSAB to diversify its beverages into alternatives such as juice and water. Another challenge is to differentiate their products from each other as well as from the competition. Innovation in distribution, manufacturing and category management are helping to differentiate CSAB from Coke and Pepsi.
Larry Solomon has some great advice for new graduates who are preparing to move into the business world. Employers are looking for graduates with these qualities:
emotional intelligence
accountability to deliver
effective persuasive skills
engagement
pragmatic creativity
communication skills
Technical skills may qualify them for a job, but having people skills and the ability to influence make them much more valuable. Graduates need to leverage the strengths of both hemispheres of their brain. Everyone has their “spike of excellence,” but top managers will also work on the skills that they are not normally excellent at, overcoming weaknesses that can compliment their skills. This is leveraging the strengths of both sides of the brain. Also, graduates who have “environmental radar” will not only be able to understand the environment they are in, but be able to adjust to it to be engaged and effective. Finally graduates should be results orientated. When starting a new job, they find out how to make a quick impact to improve business. Nothing impresses quite like results.
Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages provides leadership and a nurturing environment to develop skills and processes in its human resource pool to create the behaviors CSAB desires. Larry Solomon provides a clear vision for his people while showing them how they can be effective in working towards this goal. The “People Guy” as he has called himself, understands how important relationships, communication, and environmental awareness are to achieving success. Mr. Solomon strives to improve the quality of his human resources by breaking down politics, providing coaching, reviewing performance, and giving feedback. He has the courage needed to make tough decisions, and he is not afraid to let someone go whose actions do not support their words. Not only does Larry Solomon enjoy “fighting the giants,” he is good at it.
