100 days in PMI: the challenges—and bright spots — of a unique transformation

Now that the ‘honeymoon’ is over, I can reflect on having taken up the offer to join one of the world’s leading tobacco companies, after serving healthcare clients as a consultant for 20+ years. After 100 days as an insider, I have a fuller understanding of the challenges ahead. But I can also more clearly comprehend the exciting breadth of opportunities that exist within Philip Morris International (PMI) and the tremendous energy the staff lend to its ongoing transformation, as well as the diversity of people, opinions and approaches, all contributing to our business transformation.

So here is my take….

It is not often you join a business that is going through such fundamental change while getting so many things right out of the gates. It makes assimilating into its new ways of working easier, and helps you pick out the short-term actions you can implement, as well as the longer-term ones. By now, we have a good handle on what our commercialization engine should look like. The successful countries already have a model that is performing, but they and the other markets will benefit from the systems and processes we will implement, as well as the playbooks we will share to lift the tide for everybody.

Of course, the nature of the challenges in a market, or indeed a business function, will differ. But with the talent that exists within these areas, alongside the working practices and prioritization introduced, we will continue to advance our transformation, and drive through standardization. We cannot be insular within a function; we need to be prepared to trust this new way of working, and throw ourselves into it.

Challenges of a transformation

Naturally, as changes within a business take effect, challenges develop. It would not be right to discuss the successes we have had so far without first mentioning some of these challenges:

Scalability

How do we do the things that need to be done, in order to deliver the right consumer experience for legal aged smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke to switch to our smoke-free portfolio, correctly, and consistently all the time, everywhere? It is a fundamental challenge that our standardization processes are geared to tackle. However, despite the good pockets of strength we have in the business, variability—across some markets and functions—is still high. As our transformation takes pace, we will continue to work to address this. This is probably the one thing that keeps me up at night.

Cross functional, project-based working

In any business, it is hard to overcome functional silos, and PMI is no different. We need to tackle this challenge by coaching and incentivizing those who work in this new way to join us and buy into our way of working. We must look at how functional priorities work in conjunction with corporate priorities, and how the two can marry. No one function or market can do the job alone. A mindset shift in our people is required; we must believe that an agile and project-based working model is a valid concept. I continue to walk the talk, one project at a time.

Organizational fatigue

The transformation of PMI has been on-going for two or three years, and there’s still much more to do. We need to embed the ethos within the various business areas and markets that transformation is the new norm. We need to acknowledge that fatigue exist in areas going through constant change by encouraging adoption and learning. Reconfiguring needs to be a fundamental part of how the business will function going forwards. And we need to more often take comfort in our progress and down a proverbial ‘Red Bull’ which gets me to my next section…

The bright spots

Opportunity to celebrate large and small wins

For every challenge we face in our transformation, there are success stories, both large and small. As a business, we don’t often take time to look at our wins and celebrate them, but it is important to do this, as each one is another step towards our end goal.

Existence of a single “north star”

Unsmoking the world, by encouraging adult smokers to quit smoking and nicotine altogether and those who do not stop smoking to switch to better alternatives, is the bold and exciting objective of our transformation. Putting the consumer at the core of everything we do—from our scientific research and development through to market delivery—is the vision that will help us deliver our smoke-free future. This drives every action the business takes, and gives us the ability to focus on the “how” more than the “what” or “why”. We have a simple yet powerful message: If you don’t smoke, don’t start, if you smoke quit and if you cannot or do not want to quit change (see #unsmoke for more info). 

A strong culture

People, personal relationships and trust matter at PMI, especially when we need to test and learn. A lot of the changes we are making requires people to take a leap of faith, balancing the need to deliver business results with a change in the way we operate. Having a strong work culture is vital to delivering our vision; a work culture where people can believe in the systems or processes we are implementing, as well as in the abilities of all of us to deliver with and for each other. I find PMI to be more inclusive and less political then I have seen in most of my clients over the last 20+ years.

Working with the markets

Getting the balance between HQ and the markets right is important. The markets are our approximation for our adult consumers, as they are the closest link. This is something we are doing well, but we need to continue to ask questions about whatever central efforts we undertake, and understand if and how it helps the markets better engage adult smokers.

Driving transformation from a position of strength

Our transformation is based on our robust science and product development. We are transparent with our results, and share them for peer review. We set ourselves high scientific, regulatory and commercialization standards. This gives us the confidence and ability to continue to invest in our new business model, and allows us to be decisive and yet responsible as we continue to drive change. We are proud of the notion that PMI is the market-leading incumbent driving the movement.

The next 100 days

Part of the cultural heritage of PMI is that it is built on relationships. These need to be earned, but they allow people to be more supportive to each other, approach challenges with a collaborative effort, and take pride in their successes. Part of our transformation is reframing what equals success, to ensure that people take pride in the smaller victories as much as the larger ones.

I have had lots of positive experiences since taking on my role, such as witnessing the motivation and energy of nearly 80,000 people driving with a shared intent in the same direction. We could do things faster, and be even more decisive, but in a business of this size and scale, with its added responsibilities, it is impressive to see what we are already accomplishing.

As we move forward, we should continue to take things one step at a time, enjoying the day-by-day progress, without losing sight of the bigger picture. Before I started, I did not have enough appreciation of how things could be “on the other side”. Looking back now, joining PMI at this point in my career was the right decision. My wife tells me that I have more energy and smiles on my face than I had for a long time. I take it as a compliment.