Of course you wouldn’t. But Sara Lee has a dueling dilemma of high commodity costs and a lack of focus among its portfolio of businesses as outlined in the July 23rd edition of The Wall Street Journal’s Marketplace Section.  Sara Lee’s CEO Brenda Barnes is facing significant cost inflation for commodities in categories that don’t respond well to price increases.  If this problem wasn’t enough, Ms. Barnes has inherited a conglomerate of a variety of businesses that lack focus, as Sara Lee’s product portfolio ranges from cheesecake to underwear to shoe polish. Sara Lee’s margins for its food products are among the lowest at 7.7%, compared to 17.5% for General Mills and 15.5% for Heinz.  Although sales grew by 10% in its fiscal 3rd quarter, Brenda Barnes is still concerned about its sagging stock price, which is down 35% since she became the CEO.

Remember Cameron Diaz in Any Given Sunday? As the owner of a professional football team in Miami, she barks at Al Pacino, the team’s long time coach, “Where’s your intensity?!”  I ask Sara Lee, “Where’s your intensity? Where’s your focus? Where are you going?”  Because General Mills and Kellogg have strong brands, they “have been able to weather high commodity costs without hurting volume and margins as much.”  Both these brands have a high quality/good value focus, and they communicate this proposition to their targeted consumer groups effectively.  Sara Lee is just as capable of creating focus and value around their brands, but how?

Sara Lee
Brenda Barnes
Any Given Sunday
Advanced Market Strategies
High Commodity Costs
Target Consumer Groups
Turbo Tagger