by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
Robert Hill contends corporate culture is an organization’s most powerful force.
Hill, president and CEO of Jacksonville-based Acosta Sales & Marketing, maintains that a company’s culture defines its operations.
“It’s about an organization defining its values and making sure it lives those values every day through behaviors and decisions,” Hill said in a recent interview.
Jacksonville-based Acosta Sales & Marketing provides sales and marketing services to consumer product companies. It is a privately held company founded by two Acosta brothers in 1927.
Its clients include household names, such as Nestle, Heinz, Kraft, Procter & Gamble and others.
“We have 1,000 clients and we represent probably 60 percent of the No. 1 and No. 2 brands you would see in the stores,” said Hill.
Acosta works with retailers, from big box warehouse centers to supermarkets to dollar stores, to place its clients’ products on the shelves where they make the most sense for sales.
“We make sure the right items are on the shelf, are priced correctly and are being merchandised correctly and are being marketed correctly,” he said.
“The more Heinz ketchup we sell, the more money we make,” he summarized.
Hill is scheduled to speak at the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce lunch Friday at the Hyatt Downtown. His topic is “Why Trusted Brands Trust Us.”
“Culture really matters,” said Hill. “It can be a powerful force in business.”
Hill said Acosta’s values are people, integrity, trust, teamwork, results, innovation and balance.
Hill said his presentation will focus on three areas: Acosta, his philosophy and corporate culture, and leadership lessons.
Acosta has grown to 20,000 associates in 65 offices in the United States and Canada, including 450 in Jacksonville. It began as a family run, single-market food broker and grew into a regional leader in 1974.
From 1999-2002, it quadrupled its geographic coverage, primarily through mergers and acquisitions. The company reports that its client reach is nearly 25 percent of the inventory that hits store warehouses throughout North America.
Hill will talk about what Acosta does in the grocery industry and about today’s shopper.
The second area, culture, will cover his philosophy about “what matters most at Acosta.”
“We sure have worked a lot on the values and culture at Acosta,” he said. That includes the importance of the recognition of employees and celebrating that recognition.
The third area, leadership lessons, will include Hill’s book recommendations, including “Expect to Win: Proven Strategies for Success from a Wall Street Vet,” by Jacksonville native and Bishop Kenny High School graduate Carla Harris, now a Morgan Stanley executive in New York and an accomplished singer.
Acosta works with retailers in eight channels, covering retailers that sell food items.
“We would typically be responsible in some form or fashion for about 7,000 items you find in a typical grocery store,” he said.
“The goal is to have the right items in the right space and at the right time,” he said.
“You don’t want to be on the bottom shelf,” he said. “When I go into a store on the Fourth of July, you want to see a lot of ketchup, baked beans, charcoal and pickles.”
Hill said it is a complicated formula. “We often say we just sell groceries, but it is very analytical,” he said.
To recognize the associates who embody Acosta’s values, Hill said the company features recognition programs and allows associates, customers and clients to nominate people.
Corporate culture also includes the nonprofits supported by Acosta. Those include the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Feeding America and the Wounded Warrior Project.
As for leadership, Hill will recommend several books that apply to organizations of all types, “regardless of what you may be doing.”
“I’m going to talk about the importance of making the most of individual interaction, the importance of taking risks and being authentic, avoiding arrogance,” he said.
He joined Acosta when it acquired Siler Brokerage, where He was president, in 1994. He rose through the ranks to Acosta president and COO in 2004 and became president and CEO on Jan. 1, 2009.
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