Campbell Soup Reviews

Pros

Friendly working environment. Respect people. Work life balance is well maintained. Many opportunities in supply chain.
Nice new building, Cafe, Company store. Free parking.

Cons

too many chefs in the kitchen.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire and keep the people who really know how to get things done.
Less intuition more analysis in strategic decision making.

Pros

Fantastic work/life balance
Vacation time when you want
Great people and culture
World known brands
Home office
Company Car
Great Benefits
Make your own hours
Autonomy - It's great to work without a boss hovering over your every move
Call the shots in your territory - you are empowered to make decisions to better your territory
Best job of my life

Cons

Laid Off
Sales Team eliminated
Campbell's decided to go broker
Depression after being laid off due to losing a job I loved so much

Advice to Senior Management

Bring back the sales force. We did a great job and specialize in Campbell's products only unlike a broker.

Pros

The people are great. Very collaborative culture.

Cons

Job advancement is somewhat difficult because there are no available openings. Somewhat of a bottleneck at some levels.

Pros

Company has a very loyal workforce, many multi decade workers still present. Compensation is very competitive within peer group companies

Cons

Progress is hard to come by in R&D, and is gained more by those willing to play politics, or from the old school network

Advice to Senior Management

Keep looking at what your competitors are doing to grow their business, and be willing to invest to keep relevant to your changing consumer market

Pros

Campbell is very dedicated to employee engagement, providing development opportunities and generally having clear communication from top to bottom. Senior leaders are involved and willing to share their time.

Cons

Even though there is a high degree of camaraderie, there is also a relatively strong degree of "up or out" mentality in certain functions. Bonuses have been negatively impacted the past couple of years, which has been tough on morale.

Advice to Senior Management

The strategic course that has been outlined makes a lot of sense, especially a focus on international growth. Please take the time to help US employees understand the role that they will play in the broader company as the importance of the US market decreases relative to historical levels. Also, don't layoff a lot of people and then give C-level folks "retention" bonuses in the millions of dollars.

Pros

Relatively stable, traditional company
Recognizes importance of workplace diversity
Historically strong cash position
Employees demonstrate great pride in the Company's products

Cons

Marketplace reality vs. growth expectations of management in a challenging consumer environment
New management and changes in direction TBD following retirement of Doug Conant, a well established and much respected CEO

Advice to Senior Management

Its all about the people - set clear expectations and establish a reward system that drives intended behavior
Stay the course when it comes to strategic objectives
Establish realistic goals

Pros

Great employees and great products. Good benefits.

Cons

Constant uneasy feeling about the future of your position. Company restructures regularly. New upper management team will have a hard time filling Doug Conant's shoes. He was a personable guy who cared about his employees. New team - not so much.

Advice to Senior Management

Employees are distracted by feeling of impending doom. Hard to work in this environment.

Pros

Good benefits, pension plan, flexibility and treats employees well. Compensation above average. If you are admin you will have an easy life through retirement.

Cons

Stock at $55 in 1998 and at $34 in 2010. Compare the P&Ls for both periods.

If you are an action-oriented manager that wants to get things right you will face a happiness versus achievement trade-off. Goals poorly deployed and lack of management accountability but the big guys still get their bonus.

Advice to Senior Management

Make sure the right people get rewarded.

Pros

Campbell's vision and mission, the challanging and rewarding work, the support I had by management as my career progressed and the feeling of pride in our products, customers and coworkers.

Cons

Sometimes too many layers, managing by objectives and being asked to force rank my direct reports. Working in the city of Camden.

Advice to Senior Management

Mid level management needs to develop trust skills for the non-management employees. Value is there and is untapped at times - begin to build a relationship and when review time comes - do not let the one or two errors distract you from seeing the hundreds of positive happenings.

Pros

given lots of responsibility
friendly helpful people
work life balance
lots of soup

Cons

somewhat disorganized within R&D - not always easy to find the info you need

Advice to Senior Management

keep those summer hours :)