BUSINESS

STRATEGY
REVIEW

Family owned, globally successful what marks Mars out from the corporate crowd?
Stuart Crainer talks exclusively to fourth generation family member, Pamela Mars Wright

t the end of the 1980s, I

spent an afternoon with
the great management
thinker Peter Drucker.
He recounted stories of
encounters with Sigmund Freud when
he was a child in Vienna, coming to
London to work with The Economist
and his first break working with General
Motors when he settled in the United
States. He told me of his love of Trollope
and of rereading Jane Austen every year
to remind himself what great writing
is. And, talking about his books, he
observed that there was one big book
that everyone in the business world
aspires to write: How to Make a Million
and Still Go to Heaven.
Druckers joking suggestion of a book
title has a serious point. Greatness and

goodness lie at the heart of many of the

discussions about how best to manage,
lead and shape corporations.
At times, the two appear mutually
exclusive. Business greatness in terms
of financial results is regularly achieved
at the expense of any notion of ethical
behaviour. Companies can appear, feel
and be amoral, sometimes pursuing
unethical means to achieve their
commercial ends.
At the same time, we have all
encountered organisations whose
pursuit of goodness and a moral
agenda has limited their commercial
achievements. Truth be told, even
in this age of corporate social
responsibility, employee engagement
and much more, the number of
companies achieving commercial

Food giant
Forrest E. Mars Sr joined the family firm in 1929
and outlined the companys objective (right) in 1947

Mars a day, Mars timeline

1882
Frank C. Mars is
born in Hancock,
Minnesota. He has
polio, so his mother,
Alva, home schools
him in the kitchen
and also teaches him
how to hand
dip chocolate.

34 I S S U E

1911
Frank makes and sells
butter cream candy
from his home in
Tacoma, Washington.
1920
Frank moves to a
larger HQ in
Minneapolis.

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1922
Now known as the
MAR-O-BAR Co, the
company turns over
less than $100,000
a year. But the
MAR-O-BAR proves
too delicate to stand
up well under
transportation.

1923
After three years of
research, the MILKY
WAY candy bar is
introduced and is an
instant success. Sales
increase to $793,000
and full-time sales
staff are hired.

1929
Mars, Incs 200 workers
relocate to Chicago,
Illinois. Franks son
Forrest E. Mars Sr
joins the business.
1930
SNICKERS brand
is launched.

1932
Forrest E. Mars Sr
moves to the UK with
a dream of building
a business based
on the objective of
creating a mutuality
of benefits for all
stakeholders.

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success through enlightened working

practices and policies within clear
ethical guidelines remains painfully
small in number. Think of some names
of the corporate great and good and they
are likely to number less than the fingers
of one hand.
While a selection of companies
may come to mind, the name of Mars
Incorporated is probably not one of
them. Some companies trumpet their
CSR initiatives and overall goodness,
and positively blast out any glad
commercial tidings, but the food
manufacturing giant has long gone
about its business with a minimal
amount of fuss. It prefers engaging
meaningfully with stakeholders to
media puffery.
This starts at the companys HQ in
McLean, Virginia. It unassumingly
houses a mere 80 people. You would
imagine it to be the HQ of a mediumsized local business that is prosperous
and successful without being globally
ambitious. There are no executive
parking spaces. Inside, there is no
expensively assembled art collection
(Cubism doesnt help sell chocolate).
There is no lavish atrium. No helipad.
The global giant eschews the usual
corporate largesse for studied
understatement.
It helps, of course, when a company
is privately owned. Mars is now the
third largest privately held company
in the United States (behind Cargill
and Koch Industries). Mars can keep
details of its business performance,
organisation and ambitions to itself.
And so it has.
Commercially Mars has a lot to shout
about. Its chocolate brands include
M&MS, SNICKERS, GALAXY, MILKY
WAY and TWIX. Then there are its
chewing gums, from ORBIT to EXTRA
under the Wrigley name (acquired
by Mars in 2008), UNCLE BENS,
DOLMIO et al in the food market and
not forgetting its hugely successful pet
food brands, including WHISKAS,
ROYAL CANIN, SHEBA and KITEKAT.

1934
On April 8, Frank C.
Mars dies.
1935
Mars enters pet care
business as Forrest
E. Mars Sr acquires
makers of CHAPPIE
canned dog food.

W W W. LO N D O N . E D U / B S R

1936
MALTESERS
chocolate balls
introduced.
1939
Cat food, KITEKAT,
is first advertised in
the UK.

All this adds up to net annual sales of

more than $33bn for the company that
has over 72,000 employees Associates
in Mars-speak.
Sweet beginnings
Mars began life in 1911 when Franklin
C. Mars made the first Mars candies in
his kitchen in Tacoma, Washington. In
the 1920s, Forrest E. Mars Sr joined his

father in business and together they

launched the MILKY WAY bar. In 1932,
Forrest moved to the United Kingdom
with a dream of building a business
based on the objective of creating a
mutuality of benefits for all stakeholders.
He took with him the recipe for the
MARS bar, and established his business
in a rented factory in Slough. At that
time, solid chocolate blocks were

1940
MARS candy bar
is produced for
troops in the UK.
Forrest E. Mars Sr
returns to the US and
establishes M&M Ltd
in Newark, NJ, USA.

1947
Forrest E. Mars Sr
documents his
objective to build a
business that creates
a mutuality of
benefits for all
stakeholders.

1941
M&MS launched.
1942
Mars opens first
commercial rice
parboiling plant in
Houston, Texas. It
becomes Uncle Bens
Inc. in 1959.

1954
PAL food for dogs
launched in the UK.
1955
Mars Drinks
provides office
drinks to businesses
around the world.

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popular and the MARS bar with its soft

caramel and nougat filling was unique.
Made entirely by hand, the MARS bar
sold locally for tuppence a time.
Word of the remarkable confectionery
bars soon spread and Forrest had
to double his staff in just six months.
The MILKY WAY bar was introduced to
the British in 1935, and was followed
a few years later by another MARS
classic, MALTESERS.
The business was later run by Forrest
Mars Jr and the family is still actively
involved. Pamela Mars Wright is the
great granddaughter of the companys
founder and daughter of Forrest Mars Jr.
She was Chairman of the company
from 2004 to 2008 and is now on the
companys board and chairs Banfield
Pet Hospitals, which Mars owns a
majority share in. She is also the family
ambassador for Wrigley and for the
ROYAL CANIN brand.
To the outsider, it seems obvious
that a member of the family would
gravitate towards working for the family
business especially one so successful.
Not so, says Pamela Mars Wright: I
didnt actually think I would work in
the business. It was never a conscious
thought. Her childhood was international.
She lived in the Netherlands and
France, where her father worked for
some time. I thought my father went
to work at a factory and thats what he
did, she says. I really do not have any
recollection that I knew what my father
did as a job until I came to the United
States. She graduated from Vassar, a
liberal arts college in New York, and
then worked for an advertising firm.
She joined Mars as an operations
supervisor in 1986, later becoming a
plant manager and manufacturing
director of Mars Australia.

competitive. We want to win. We want

to beat our competition. We want to be
number one. Absolutely. But at the
expense of everything else? Absolutely
not. Doing things simply because they
are going to return us more money?
No. Its more about doing it because we
love what we do and were passionate
about it and its fun.
Looking at the expanding family and
the growing family business, the capacity
for divergence appears enormous. As a
family we have to work to make sure
that we all stay somewhat aligned, that
we all have the same goals, the same
mission, and the same desires because
its easy to let the differences rule you
rather than the similarities, says Mars
Wright. Maintaining this alignment is,
she says, a matter of communication,
clear objectives, shared values and
working at it.

Whiskas and whispers

Being a family member in any familyowned business raises issues. Fellow

workers treat you differently. And, then

there is your own family. People always
say wouldnt it be exciting to be in a family
business and I say, yes it is. There are
lots of advantages to family businesses.
Theyre lots of fun. You have people who
understand what youre going through.
Theres all those kinds of things, says
Mars Wright. On the other hand, I ask
people to think of their brothers, sisters,
cousins, parents, aunts and uncles and ask
whether they would like to work with
these people every single day? Families
are families. This is my reality and I just
dont think people think about it like that.
Being family-owned usually comes
with a continuing whispering campaign
that the family is thinking of selling out.
Such whispers have rarely been heard
around Mars even though it is now
led by a non-family member Paul S.
Michaels and only one family member
is on the management team.
I asked Mars Wright if there had
ever been any doubt over the years that
being a family-owned business was the
right way forward for the company?
No, she replies with certainty. There
have been times Associates might have
worried, but not us. I think people are
very happy with where we are and how
things are run. I never get the feeling
that theres this kind of underlying
worry about the family.
What, then, are the advantages of
family ownership? The number one
thing is that it gives you an amazing
amount of freedom to run your business
the way you want, she says. We have
normal family dynamics but, then
again, I would argue that theres lots
of managers who have the same issues.
We want to keep it private. Thats
important to us because it means we
can do the things we want to do. If we
want to allow our Associates to go and
become involved in volunteer
programmes we can.
Dont get me wrong. Were very

1958
Mars enters the cat
food business with
launch of WHISKAS

1973
First ever in-cup
drinks machine
developed by KLIX.

1982
Mars Center for
Cocoa Science Health
in Brazil opens to
develop sustainable
farming techniques.

1985
Chilled pasta
launches in the UK
under the name
ALORA, later
DOLMIO.

1984
Mars, Inc. moves to
McLean, Virginia.

1986
Mars enters frozen
snack business.

1959
The main office of
Mars, Inc. moves
from Newark to
Washington, D.C.

36 I S S U E

1960
The advertising
slogan, A Mars a day
helps you work, rest
and play is first
used in the UK.
1969
Forrest E. Mars, Sr
retires.

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1982
SHEBA cat food
in an aluminum
tray is launched in
Hamburg, Germany.

Principles with realism

Mars general understated air can suggest
a slightly old fashioned business. But
the reality is that, with its leanly staffed
HQ, open offices and lack of the normal
corporate hierarchical airs such as
executive parking spaces and dining
areas Mars has been behaving like a
sexy Silicon Valley company for years.
Internally, Mars communication is
clear and direct, built around adherence
to its Five Principles quality,
responsibility, mutuality, efficiency and
freedom. The Principles are available in
book form and are given to all Associates.
Of course, many companies have similar
statements of what matters to them
values, missions, goals, and so on fill
the flimsy walls of corporate buildings
throughout the world. Most are as
decorative as they are generic.
Countering such cynicism, Mars
Wright injects a note of realism.
It would be unfair to say that other
companies dont exercise their principles,
she says. They do. I dont by any stretch

1997
Mars enters organic
food business with
purchase of Seeds
of Change.
1999
Forrest E. Mars,
Sr dies aged 96 in
Miami.

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STRATEGY
REVIEW

of the imagination want to say that Mars

is so much better than other companies.
You can always find things that you talk
about that you dont practise as well as
you should. At the end of the day,
businesses are still run by human beings
so, as a result, we make mistakes, but we
really do practise our Principles and
expect our Associates to practice them.
Mutuality and freedom stand out
from Mars Five Principles as slightly
different not what you would expect.
But, how do the principles inform
major business decisions? People
will make mistakes with or without the
Five Principles, says Mars Wright.
Sometimes our decisions will not be
popular. This is business. We have had to
shut factories down from time to time. It is
a horrible thing but we use the Five
Principles in making that decision.
Mars has occasionally strayed from
the Five Principles. Mars Wright recalls
an employee survey done at the
company a number of years ago that
brought the Five Principles back on to
the agenda. The survey came back
and basically it was horrible. It was
a wake-up call, she recalls with a
shudder. We werent falling apart at the
seams or anything like that, but what
was evident was that we werent living
the Five Principles. We werent the
company we thought. We werent the
company we thought our Associates
thought we were. So, they were five
words up on a wall. Everybody could
repeat them. Anybody can repeat five
words. Its not that complicated, but we
werent living them. So we decided, to
go back to the Five Principles and to
really focus on them.
In 2013, the company instituted an
annual survey to understand how well
the Five Principles were showing up in
the day-to-day business. The results from
2013 were decidedly better than the
original piece of work. The company
believes that more important than the

results of any one survey year is using the

survey as a trigger for making the Five
Principles part of business conversations
and daily experience for Associates.

2000
M&MS chocolate
candies become The
Official Candy of the
New Millennium.

2007
Mars becomes the
first food company
to voluntarily stop
advertising food and
snack products to
children under 12.

2001
Mars acquires
ROYAL CANIN
pet foods.

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2004
KLIX Outlook
vending machine
launched in
UK, France and
Germany.
2005
Launch of in-home
FLAVIA system

Great places
The Five Principles are the cornerstone
of Mars culture and management.
It is repeatedly recognised as a
far-sighted employer. Most recently
Mars was selected as one of the Worlds
Best Multinational Workplaces by
Great Place to Work. The ranking,
the worlds largest annual study of
workplace excellence, identifies the
top 25 best multinationals in terms of
workplace culture.
Among other things, Mars is lauded
for increasing the proportion of women
in management roles by one per cent
each year to maintaining 38 per cent
globally. At Mars, we think an
important part of our success is having
a team of Associates that mirror the
diversity of our consumers around the
world. This diversity also gives us the
perspectives we need to look at business
challenges and opportunities from
multiple angles and points of view,
comments Mars President Paul S.
Michaels. We want Mars to be a place
where Associates can enjoy long,
rewarding careers working on fun and
iconic brands; making a difference in
our communities and tackling some of
the challenges that Mars and society
share; and pursuing lifelong learning
and personal development.
We need to give Associates the
opportunity to grow and learn
otherwise they will leave, observes
Mars Wright with forceful simplicity.
Associates new to the business are
embraced through an Essence of Mars
course, which aims to provide the
foundation for early success in their
careers at Mars. Training courses are
available globally in 22 languages and
aim to support associate development

2007
Mars enters natural
petfood segment with
acquisition of NUTRO
Natural Petfoods.
Mars acquires
ownership stake in
Banfield Pet Hospital.

and understanding of how to apply

Mars Five Principles to their work and
business decisions. More than 40 per
cent of Mars Associates every year
participate in learning programmes
worldwide through Mars University.
This is equivalent to 400,000 learning
hours every year.
Other key programmes include
the Mars Volunteer Program where
in 2012 more than 12,500 Associates
volunteered more than 50,000 hours.
Additionally, the Mars Ambassador
Program (MAP) enables up to 100
Associates to spend between one and
six weeks all over the world improving
Mars communities and developing
their own leadership skills.
You make money to put it back into
the company to do other things. It is never
just about making money. When we
invest in a sustainability project there
are other returns, says Mars Wright.
I see all of our Associates as family
members. I want them to see the
company as their legacy. I walk around a
factory and find people who are very
proud of what they do. Thats very
humbling and thats what gets me out
of bed in the morning.
I dont need anyone in the world
to say that Mars is a great company but
the best thing in the world is when an
Associate says this is a great company to
work for or when I encounter people
who are the second or third generation
of Mars Associates in their families.
Goodness, greatness, Mars.

Mars partners with London Business School on its

High Performance Business School programme, a
customised Executive Education programme. Mars
is also a member of the Schools flagship Global
Business Consortium, which brings together senior
delegates from a diverse range of organisations
to explore different business models, in different
industries and in different territories around the world.

2009
Mars announces
its commitment to
make its operations
sustainable in a
generation (zero
carbon, water and
waste impact by
2040).

2010
Mars shares first
results of its efforts to
sequence the cocoa
genome to develop
higher yielding, more
drought and disease
resistant varieties,
helping cocoa farmers
make a better living.

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