Gillette's vision has inspired more than years of innovation to bring you the best shave in the world. Gillette has the revolutionary idea of disposable blades so thin and so strong they were deemed impossible to forge by MIT-trained scientists. The first adjustable razor with three settings was introduced for light, medium, and heavy beards.
Over time more settings were added, totaling nine. It meant that the user would no longer have to touch the blade. There was great public anxiety about the arrival of socialism in America and increased attention paid to the gap between a company's CEO and its lowest-paid worker.
KCG abhorred competition in business. At one point in The Human Drift, he wondered if Satan invented capitalism as a way to bolster population numbers in hell. It is — and he pontificates at length here — evil. What Gillette would make of his brand's iron grip on the contemporary shaving industry is, again, information we cannot know, and it's probably not worth thinking about anyway. The most important thing to do, wrote Gillette, is dissolve all industry over the American populace, giving each citizen more or less the same stock options.
Commerce would be comprised not of separate operations but vertically organized industries. One "company" for eggs, another for elevators, another for shoelaces. The book eventually transitions from a quasi-socialist manifesto into a series of dreamily painted landscapes of an equitable American future: Gillette described his metropolis, sprawled from Niagara Falls to just outside of the Finger Lakes, with hyperspecific instruction, including porcelain-faced brick for his story apartment complexes, circular buildings ridged like gears so each unit could receive equal sun exposure.
And yet, just shy of a decade after The Human Drift was published, Gillette filed a patent that would result in his namesake billion-dollar corporation. Symons, formerly head of European operations, and developed new ad campaigns to emphasize the more profitable shaving systems over disposable shavers such as its own Good News. In October , Gillette unveiled the Sensor shaving system, which featured thinner blades mounted on springs by lasers so they could follow contours.
Sensor's touted superior shave was a huge success with consumers, and the product garnered several awards. Gillette made another effort to expand its presence in shaving when it attempted to buy the U. The Justice Department blocked the sale of Wilkinson's U. Despite the Wilkinson setback, the s proved to be extremely fruitful years for Gillette thanks to an aggressive program of new product development coupled with the pursuit of targeted acquisitions.
Mockler, who had had a very successful term as CEO and chairman and who planned to retire at the end of , died unexpectedly in January of that year. Alfred M. Zeien, Mockler's heir apparent who was president and chief operating officer, replaced Mockler in both of his positions.
Also in Gillette launched another award-winning product, the Oral-B Indicator toothbrush, which had bristles that change color to show when a new toothbrush is needed. This popular feature was added to all Oral-B toothbrushes the following year. Significant new product introductions and a major acquisition highlighted The company announced the acquisition of Parker Pen Holdings Ltd.
The addition of the Parker brand to Gillette's Paper Mate and Waterman brands moved the company into the top position worldwide in writing instruments. About 2, jobs were eliminated as a result of the reorganization. Just four years after the debut of Sensor, Gillette in late launched in continental Europe and Canada its next-generation shaving system, SensorExcel, which promised even closer and more comfortable shaving based on its skin guard made of "five soft, flexible microfins.
Other and product introductions included Braun's FlavorSelect coffeemaker; the Oral-B Advantage toothbrush, which was designed to remove plaque better than other toothbrushes; and Custom Plus men's and women's disposable razors with pivoting heads. Gillette returned to acquisition mode in and In late Oral-B's position in Latin America was bolstered with the purchase of the Pro oral care line. Near the end of the year Gillette acquired Thermoscan Inc.
Thermoscan promised to provide a base for Gillette to expand into the rapidly growing personal home diagnostic products area. Gillette thus added its first major product line since the purchase of Oral-B; in fact, batteries immediately became the company's second-leading product line in terms of sales, trailing only razors and blades.
Duracell batteries had been underdistributed outside the United States, so Gillette planned to achieve sales growth by leveraging its existing marketing channels, which reached more than countries by the mids.
In the company also launched more than 20 new products, including SensorExcel for Women. That year, a whopping 41 percent of Gillette sales came from products that debuted during the previous five years, a testament to the company's new product development strength. And an improvement on the SensorExcel was already in the works. Gillette introduced a significant innovation in shaving technology--the first major innovation in safety razors since the beginning of the s--with the Mach 3 in The new safety razor system introduced a third blade into the twin-blade system that had dominated the wet-shaving market for the previous quarter-century.
The blades were set at an angle so that each blade shaves closer to the skin, allowing shavers to use fewer strokes to get the same close, comfortable shave.
The shaving cartridge was set on a pivot, allowing the head of the razor to move with the angle of the jaw and skin. In addition, the cartridge itself was designed to facilitate cleaning, and the handle was ergonomically designed to make the razor more comfortable in the hand. As a result, the corporation set the price for replacement cartridges about 35 percent more than its previous best-selling razor, the SensorExcel.
Marketing strategy was slanted to persuade current Gillette product users to trade up their previous equipment in favor of the newer, more expensive models because of their improved performance, offering a closer shave with fewer nicks and cuts.
Despite or perhaps because of the expense of the expense of introducing the new razor, Gillette saw its worst economic performance in almost a decade in Sales during the third quarter of the year alone dropped 15 percent.
In October, Gillette management announced staff cuts of 4, jobs, about 11 percent of its total workforce. Lowered sales in key markets such as Brazil, Germany, and Russia also contributed to the loss of income, and share prices dropped by 11 percent virtually overnight. Gillette's underperformance continued in and , in large part because of currency-exchange differences.
Its stationery and small-appliance businesses showed the greatest losses and the battery and toiletries businesses provided most of the profits. Kilts, who joined the firm during its centennial year, in January Kilts, who had earned a reputation as a fixer of troubled companies, needed all his skills.
Gillette's battery business, which had dominated the top of the market, lost market share to other brands Energizer and Rayovac that offered similar performance at a lower cost. In addition the company lacked fiscal discipline and used an antiquated quarterly tracking system.
As a result of these and other expensive practices, Gillette's earnings continued to perform below expectations. Stock prices fell by about 60 percent in the months between early and late Gillette's control of the toiletries market was threatened early in when rival Schick-Wilkinson Sword introduced the Quattro, the world's first four-blade shaving system.
It would have been downright dangerous, in the lavatory of a rumbling train, for Gillette to shave with the type of straight razor used by most men at the time.
However, the safety razor did share a major shortcoming with standard razors: the blade had to be sharpened frequently on a leather strop; and even so, the blade eventually became too worn to sharpen.
One morning in , Gillette, now living in Boston, had a revelation. If he could put a sharp edge on a small square of sheet steel, then he could market a safety razor blade that could be thrown away and readily replaced when it grew dull. Gillette visited metallurgists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT , who assured him his idea was impossible. For the first time, razor blades were sold in multiple packages, with the razor handle being a one-time purchase.
Production began in Gillette won a patent for his product the next year. Competition was fierce from the start, for two reasons. First, virtually half of the world's population was a potential customer.
0コメント