While at Campbell's Soup Company he took the corporation public and increased its brand portfolio to include Pepperidge Farm breads, cookies, and crackers, Franco-American gravies and pastas, V8 juice (vegetable), Swanson broths, and Godiva (chocolatier).
As head of Campbell Soup, Murphy's managerial style, which prioritized lean manufacturing, fostered conflict with his workers who contested his high production targets.
Murphy firmly opposed the coordinated bargaining across his plants; divisions between the different locals limited their gains, and his managerial vision prevailed.
[1] In 1980, former president and chairman of the MIT Corporation Paul Gray presented Murphy with the Henry Laurence Gantt Memorial Medal.
In addition to serving on several government advisory panels, Murphy was a director of companies including AT&T, Merck & Co., Inc., and International Paper.