“But we do believe that this pricing muscle that we've built is going to be lasting.”

In context

“e company today? Maybe how it compares to where you were a couple of years ago? And if you think that it's sustainable as we move into a less inflationary environment going forward? Karen Parkhill: Yes. Thanks for the question. As you've heard us talk about, we have been building a pretty strong muscle around pricing. And we're focused on ensuring that we price for the value that we deliver. Typically, historically, pre-COVID, we would experience up to 200 basis points of pricing pressure every year. And we've been able to neutralize that these last couple of years, including this quarter. We obviously have had VBP pressure this year, and last year, we were able to neutralize that as well at the total company level. By quarter, it may not be fully neutralized depending on how VBP hits us. But we do believe that this pricing muscle that we've built is going to be lasting. And we fully intend to continue to track, monitor, talk about pricing, so that even as we move into a lower inflationary environment, we're focused on continuing this pricing muscle that we've built. Geoff Martha: I just want to reemphasize that last point there on kind of -- we'll start on margins. On gross margins, and there was a question earlier, Karen went into detail, I'm not going to repeat that. But on gross margins, the pricing muscle that we've been building. I think we intend that to be enduring. And then Karen mentioned the cost of goods sold improvements that we're making, productivity around our cost of goods sold line, really driven by our new structure, strategy and capabilities in our global operations and supply chain. That will all help gross margin. And as you get down”