Hood unveiled: H.P. Hood Inc. readies plans for an ESOP, the final step in a multifaceted restructuring program - employee stock ownership plan

Dairy Foods, Oct, 1993 by Gail Rosenbaum Doeff

"I treated the company like a patient in the intensive care unit in 1990," Keller says wryly, but he recognized the importance of pushing the decision-making process down in the organization as soon as Hood's recovery was underway. Keller nurtures his staff's entrepreneurial tendencies by allowing them to make their own decisions. "I don't need to tell |anybody~ on a monthly basis, 'You're not doing too well.' If they don't know that, then I've got the wrong person anyway."

Keaveny agrees that the more freedom employees have to make decisions, the more ownership they have in the company's success. "As long as people keep meeting goals and objectives, we'll let them go where their imagination and entrepreneurial spirit takes them," he says. "Just don't make any big mistakes."

With his open management style, it's not surprising that Keller is a firm believer in total quality management (TQM), and he is quick to stress the importance of the quality aspect. Hood is currently experimenting with several quality programs: The company's Newington, Conn., ice cream mix plant employs TQM from a statistical quality angle, and the Suffield, Conn., ice cream plant has undertaken more of an employee empowerment program, with work groups and practices like coding operators' identification numbers on the packages they are responsible for. Hood management is currently evaluating both programs, and all plant managers will be strongly encouraged to select and implement the one they feel best suits their facility and employees.

A traditional core

Although Hood has necessarily embraced many contemporary practices like TQM, the dairy acknowledges its New England heritage and takes pride in the traditions that created its quality reputation over the years. For example, Hood maintains a home service business with 115 independent home delivery route salesman serving more than 30,000 New England families, one of the largest remaining home service operations in the country.

"We stick to the things that have made us successful," Keaveny explains. "We never change our emphasis on the quality of our products. That's paramount." Hood's long presence in New England has also created significant brand equity as well as consumer trust. "We never want to let that trust down, and in that regard we're very traditional," he says.

Keller and Keaveny agree that Hood's employees are its fundamental strength. "The raw materials |we use~ are available to everyone," Keaveny says. "The products we make aren't 'high tech,' good manufacturing practices are common knowledge, and the |processing~ equipment is available to all our competitors. The only ingredient that makes us different from the competition is our people. They're key." Keller recognizes that communicating his vision for Hood is paramount to employee understanding and enthusiasm for the new organization, so he and Keaveny have traveled to every Hood facility personally to explain the company's new organization as well as the ESOP. It hasn't always been easy.