General Mills CEO Jeff Harmening's bold first-year bets are paying off big

Jeff Harmening said he knows his first year as chief executive of General Mills was rocky. His second was more like a rocket.

During the first, Harmening and the company made a bold bet with the $8 billion purchase of Blue Buffalo pet foods.

Some investors thought General Mills spent too much, and its stock sank. A short time after that, rising freight costs eroded profits. And the stock dropped even more. A few months after that, the company again missed a profit goal and investors grew more critical.

"At that point, I knew we were going to get a lot better or things were going to get worse," Harmening said. "We were very open with employees that