CURT HUDSON / For The Daily News
Denise Morrison: “The best thing you can do as a leader when people are pressed is get the obstacles out of their way.”
Big ideas and the people behind them
Denise Morrison
A Campbell Soup president is putting the company’s soups on a low-sodium diet.
The big idea: Putting Campbell's soups on a low-sodium crash diet.
Since 2006, the Camden company has reformulated more than 85 recipes. By August, 48 varieties - including the children's favorite Chicken & Stars - will be "healthy" under FDA labeling laws, with 480 mg of sodium per serving. The key was a unique sea salt.
She could tell you more, "but then I'd have to kill you": The catalyst for the big soup overhaul was the discovery, somewhere on Earth, of a sea salt with about half the sodium of other salt.
Campbell has exclusive access to the magical crystals, and where they come from is a closely held secret. The company will not divulge the sea salt's country of origin, or even its continent. "It comes from the sea," Morrison said.
But let her tell you about her family: Her sister Maggie is chief executive officer at Citizens Communications Co. Another sister, Colleen, is an executive vice president for Expedia Inc. Their other sister, Andrea, recently retired at age 40 from a vice president's post at AT&T Wireless.
The four Jersey girls, from the Shore town of Elberon, have been known since childhood as "the Sullivan sisters" and were the subject of a Wall Street Journal feature last year.
"It was a nice tribute to my parents," Morrison said - and personally humbling. The national story divulged that she had not made the cut for her high school cheerleading squad, but went on to captain the marching band's twirlers, performing with flaming batons.
Helicopter-siblings: Morrison calls the three other Sullivans often during her drive to work from Princeton, where she lives with her husband, Tom. "I have the hands-free," she said. "I talk to my parents a couple of times a week. I talk to my daughters every day."
Her grown daughters, Michelle and Kelly, are in sales and marketing, respectively.
Liberal arts edge: While Morrison is a champion of executive education - she has been through the Kravis Leadership Institute, among others - she does not have an M.B.A. She studied economics and psychology at Boston College, then rose through the ranks at Procter & Gamble Co., PepsiCo Inc., Nestlé S.A., Nabisco and Kraft Foods Inc. before joining Campbell.
"I actually use the psychology more," she said. "Or, I should say, they have equal play."
The psychology of pedal-to-the-metal: Her self-appointed chore during the breakneck recipe renovation was to clear roadblocks - a frustrating software system was one - so the staff knew she had their backs.
"The best thing you can do as a leader when people are pressed is get the obstacles out of their way," she said. "It felt like we were in it as a team, including me."
More motivation, from the bottom line and the top dog: The revamped soups posted $650 million in sales in 16 months. Campbell president and chief executive Douglas R. Conant called the lower-sodium push his company's top strategic priority.
Non-soup idea she wishes she'd had: Post-It Notes. "I really wish I'd thought of that."
