Stephen Badger, chairman of Mars, Inc., discusses his family’s multinational candy company, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018 in New York. The famil...
Associated Press
NEW YORK
Stephen M. Badger, chairman of Mars Incorporated, recently sat down with The Associated Press. The family-owned business is best known for selling M&Ms and Snickers. But it also makes Pedigree dog food and Whiskas cat food and is now expanding into veterinary services. The conversation was condensed for clarity and brevity.
Q: What advice do you have for somebody starting out in business?
A: Place a huge importance on who you hire. Do they have the skills that you’re looking for that compliment you and that you need to build your business? And then secondarily: do they have the cultural and value fit for the kind of company you want to create?
Q: What is an early career mistake you made?
A: Not listening to my gut. I think that intuition is something that should be valued and at times can be diminished in terms of how much you trust it. And if I had done that earlier in my career at times I would not made some of the same mistakes I did.
Q: How do you prevent an old company from becoming obsolete?
A: Being a 100-year-old business, we’ve actually had to reinvent ourselves any number of times. What leads us as much as anything is what consumers are looking for. And as long as I think you’re paying attention to that and keeping your ear to the ground, you’re by definition staying open.
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