Chapter 4 Case: Mars With i2,[l employees and $33 billion in global revenue, lvlars would be a Fortune tilt] company if it was publicly traded.\"2 The company remains owned by three offspring of Forrest lvlars Sr. and all six members of its board of directors are family. Mars chooses to remain private to avoid having to manage to quarterly earnings reports and to shareholder pressures. That preference is even encapsulated in Mars's core valuesor \"Five Principles\": quality, responsibility, mutuality, efciency, and freedom. These principles are shared with employees in a Elfpage booklet signed by 13 members of the Mars family. The freedom principle is explained this way: \"Many other companies began as lvlars did, but as they grew later and required new sources of funds, they sold stocks or incurred restrictive debt to fuel their business. We believe growth and prosperity can be achieved another way.\"\"\" Mars's commitment to staying private affects employees' day-to-day jobs in a number of ways. For example, the company has flat-screen displays throughout its buildings that show sales, earning s, and factory efficiency data. That level of transparency might become controversial if the company was publicly traded. its another example, managers are better able to focus on the long-term in making decisions to improve their units. \"I get the benefit of a longer learning cycle," notes l[Itch er l-lcberman, lvtars's director of Snickers and Twitcm Without stock analysts to worry about, managers of divisions are given wide latitude, so long as they maintain the five principles. It's also common for employees to move from division to division in order to build skills and spread new ideas. Unfortunately, lvlars's privately held nature has also allowed itto become well a bit too private. The nondescript corporate headquartersnicknamed \"the Kremlin'is marked as private property, with no identification and a locked front door. Portraits of family members hang inside, but taking photos of them is strictly forbidden. Those family members almost never speak in public and Paul Michaelslvtars's presidentwent four years without granting an interview. Although such privacy allows Mars to protect the \"secret sauce" of how it does business, it prevents prospective recruits and consumers from learning things about the company that they might like. For his part, lvlichaels realizes that becoming a bit more public would serve the company, and his employees. \"It's about recruiting new people and retaining talent We have to change.\" He continues, \"We're not making nuclear weapons. This is a company you're not embarrassed to tell people you work for.\"\"\" 4.1 In what ways might being privately held benefit the job satisfaction of employees? In what ways might being publicly traded benet'rt satisfaction? 4.2 If you worked in a company that valued and required privacy, would it affect your job satisfaction? What about your life satisfaction
