Nielsen overhaul. (A.C. Nielsen Co.)

Crain's Chicago Business, August, 1993 by Lashinsky, Adam

Confessions and a new run at rival IRI Sometimes, it takes an outsider to bare a company's soul and confess its sins. For the venerable A. C. Nielsen Co., George Garrick is that outsider. "Nielsen's been getting their butts kicked for the last several years," says Mr. Garrick, the newly installed president and chief operating officer of the Northbrook-based company's Nielsen Marketing Research USA unit.

Nielsen's U.S. research unit, which provides companies with data on how their products are selling in retail stores, has annual revenues of about $350 million. "There hasn't been any clear vision," he says. "As a company, it's been dysfunctional." Mr. Garrick can take some pride in the problems he's inherited. For 12 years, the 41-year-old executive held...

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