Slick shift: Philip Morris' future vision
Is Philip Morris' new "smoke-free" mission statement a radical reinvention of the tobacco company - or sheer hypocrisy? COO Jacek Olczak says matter-of-factly - it's a strategic no-brainer.
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Claudia Chong
THE world's biggest listed tobacco company has a vision - to completely stop selling cigarettes.
Philip Morris International, owner of six of the world's top 15 cigarette brands including Marlboro, has publicly declared that it wants to build a "smoke-free future" by replacing all cigarettes with e-cigarettes or heated tobacco products.
"A smoke-free future, if you think very broadly, is actually a response to what consumers would like to have," Jacek Olczak, Philip Morris' chief operating officer (COO), tells The Business Times. "Many consumers will tell you that they like the product. But nobody is happy to live with the consequences of consuming the product; they know smoking cigarettes is bad for health. The other aspect is that while they are using the product, they don't want to have a negative impact on the people around them."
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