Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: Fielder's Choice: Wrigley

Click here for an archive of Cramer's "Mad Money" recaps.

---

"All week I've been giving my list of transformational CEOs," the bankable managers that change the route of their respective companies, Jim Cramer told viewers of his "Mad Money" TV show Thursday.

As part of the weeklong segment, the next transformational manager Cramer called out was William Perez, the CEO of William Wrigley (WWY Quote).

Some of the other transformational CEOs Cramer named earlier in the week, such as Honeywell's (HON Quote) Dave Cote or Hewlett-Packard's (HPQ Quote) Mark Hurd, faced the challenge of turning companies around from previous bad management. Cramer owns H-P for his charitable trust, Action Alerts PLUS.

However, Perez faced no such challenge, Cramer said.

Perez's problem, he said, was how to break Wrigley out from its "cozy position" of doing just enough to make money without ruffling the feathers of Executive Chairman Bill Wrigley. Perez managed to do this in a short time, and now the growth at Wrigley is accelerating.

Perez took the "sleepy" company and re-energized it without upsetting the Wrigley family, Cramer said. The reason he believes Perez was able to do this is because Perez previously held the position of CEO at another family-run business called S. C. Johnson & Son. Perez had the experience of dealing with a family-run company, Cramer said.