Campbell Soup's owners called in an outsider CEO in 2001 and the brand came back

Campbell Soup was built on a food-science breakthrough: in 1899 the company perfected a method for canning condensed soup, developed by chemist John T. Dorrance, who went on to lead and eventually own the firm. Family stewardship ended in management terms when John T. 'Jack' Dorrance Jr., the last Dorrance to run Campbell, died in 1989; his three children, including Mary Alice Dorrance Malone, shared roughly a third of the company. Professional executives ran Campbell through its 1990s expansion, which ended with the 1998 spin-off of Vlasic and Swanson and a refocus on four core areas.

By the turn of the century the flagship was leaking. Soup sales were falling, Campbell was losing market share in the category it had invented, and the chief executive's office had a revolving door. In 2001 the board turned to Douglas Conant, president of Nabisco, a brand-builder with a record of double-digit growth who nonetheless had never been a CEO. The same season, Campbell spent $900 million buying European dry soup and bouillon brands from Unilever, betting its future on the category's revival.

Conant's playbook was structural and unglamorous. He split the North American business so soup had its own dedicated organization, separate from beverages, sauces and snacks; announced a sweeping transformation plan in July 2001; increased U.S. advertising spending; modernized products such as cream soups; and reinvested in factories and technology. By 2002 the shelves carried convenience lines like microwavable Soup at Hand and new Chunky and Select varieties. Soup sales kept falling through 2003, but snack foods carried the results, and the stock was rising again by early 2004.

Campbell's stock was rising again by early 2004 under Conant's three-year plan, while the founding family kept its anchor stake in the renewed company.

The heirs' wealth was concentrated in Campbell stock, so the family's incentives pointed toward renewal rather than a breakup or sale, and it could afford patience through a three-year plan.

The revolving door of chief executives had left the organization without direction, so a single credible outsider with Nabisco's brand-building record reset expectations immediately.

Conant's cross-functional team method, proven at Nabisco, attacked the real problem — brand neglect — instead of the symptom of falling soup numbers.

Separating soup into its own division ended the internal competition for resources that had let the core brand drift.

When a founding family can no longer supply management, its power is to hire well and hold still: Campbell's heirs provided legitimacy and patient capital, then let an outsider run the turnaround.

Campbell's own assessment of the July 2001 plan was blunt satisfaction: the company said it had been renewed, revitalized and reinvigorated, and put back on a growth track, with the next phase labeled 'driving quality growth.' By early 2004 the share price was climbing, helped by strong cookie and cracker sales, and the Dorrance family stayed central to the company's ownership while professional managers ran the business.