Clean

Chapter 4THE TONE AT THE TOP: EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

The work of cooperation is not a work of leadership, but of organization as a whole … but leadership is the indispensable fulminator of its forces.

—Chester Barnard

Ecolab purchased the Kay Chemical Company in November 1994, paying $90 million for the privately held, Greensboro, North Carolina, leader in cleaning and sanitation supplies for the fast-food industry. Ascendant CEO Al Schuman noted that the combined total available restaurant market, Ecolab's full-service and Kay's quick-service businesses, now totaled $1 billion. Not bad for a company with total sales at the time just south of $1.3 billion. Early in 1995, Schuman offered the job of running Kay to a relative newcomer to Ecolab, Procter & Gamble-trained Doug Baker. Baker jumped at the opportunity.¹

Over the next few months, Baker found plenty of opportunities, just not the type he anticipated. Kay's 1994 revenue of $65 million relied on one primary customer – McDonald's Golden Arches, with its thousands of US locations – that constituted two-thirds of Kay's business. As he adjusted to life in Greensboro and to leading a team that was going through the roller coaster of “being bought” by a much larger company, Baker headed to New Orleans for a McDonald's supplier convention. At a reception the evening before the meetings, he ran into a former colleague at P&G. The colleague offered his hearty congratulations on Doug's promotion. Then he offered his ...