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6 SPECTRUM BRANDS | 2007 ANNUAL REPORT
Hard at Work: A Conversation with Kent Hussey
You have been with the Company eleven years.
What fresh thinking do you bring to your new
role as CEO?
I started with the Company as CFO and then spent
many years as COO, so I know our Company inside
and out and understand the issues that each business
faces. With a fi nance and operations background,
I bring a fresh focus on profi tability and bottom-line
performance, not just top-line growth. In terms of
management philosophy, I am team oriented and place
a lot of emphasis on hiring the right people and trusting
them to do their job. My goal is to build a more
transparent organization with open internal and
external communication. Finally, my focus is on the
long term – I fi rmly believe that if you make the right
long-term decisions, the fi nancial results will take
care of themselves.
What has been the biggest challenge to achieving
the right business organization and cost structure
for Spectrum?
The operations infrastructure put in place after the
2005 acquisitions failed to produce the results we
hoped for. Our organizational structure, designed to
support all our brands and product categories through
an integrated matrix system, was ineffi cient. Costs
simply got ahead of revenues. In fact, after a year of
signifi cant integration challenges, we came to the
conclusion that autonomous business organizations
were actually more effective. While we have a portfolio
of consumer brands, our products have some fairly
signifi cant differences. The distribution of fertilizer
differs materially from the distribution of aquatic
supplies, for example. On the other hand, batteries
and electric shavers have quite a few distribution
synergies. The trick has been to identify and capitalize
on true efficiencies, while preserving the unique
attributes of each brand from a competitive perspective.
Accountability was another important objective. With
all direct costs to run our businesses embedded in the
business segments rather than at the corporate level,
we provide management with vital information to
measure results, and ultimately to make the right
decisions to grow and improve profi tability at each
of our businesses.
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Kent J. Hussey
Chief Executive Offi cer