Kick Butt. Do What's Right. Go Home.

Best day you’ve ever had in business?
MM  One of them was a Green Giant day. When I came to Minneapolis, the Green Giant business had not made money for a long time. There were all these people who were working really hard, but feeling like total losers. We changed the strategy on how we thought about the business. Between that and some lucky things, we delivered a phenomenal year of this new strategy [in the mid-1990s]. We had this all-day employee meeting and people were celebrating all this pent-up pride they had in their work, in the business.

And at CNS?
MM  CNS was joy after joy, once we got it turned around and on track.

The worst day in business?
MM  I was at Fraser Valley Foods, a Pillsbury acquisition, in British Columbia. The company had 850 employees, three unions, and five bargaining units that had settled only once without a strike in their entire history. For the first time in my life, I’m leading a labor negotiation. I get back to the office and call my boss at 7:30 at night. He’s in Toronto. I tell him how the negotiations went, and he responds that ‘you have single-handedly destroyed the company.’ 

What’s next for you?
MM  I’ve started the work of what’s next. I think I’ve got another gig or two left in me. There are a bunch of CNS folks who would love to do it again if we can find the right thing. I’ve spent some time thinking about whether I want to consult. But I just thrive on getting my hands dirty all the way up to my armpits. And I love the involvement of figuring out how to make something successful and then putting the pieces in place.

At A Glance: Marti Morfitt
Age: 50
Education: BS, business, University of Western Ontario; MBA, York University
Career:
1979–82 Market analyst, Tenneco Automotive
1982–98 Marketing and management positions at Pillsbury
1998–2006  President, COO, and later CEO at CNS
Board Service: Outside director for Graco (Minneapolis) and Thermage (Hayward, California)
Personal Life: Running, family (two teenagers), golf