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Speaker 1: I ask myself three questions, right? And when everyone asks

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Speaker 1: me for career advice, I try and anchor back to

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Speaker 1: those three questions. And they are what energizes you, like

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Speaker 1: what gets you out of bed in the morning and

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Speaker 1: what makes you want to give your best for however

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Speaker 1: many hours you are at work that day. The second

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Speaker 1: one is what is it you want to learn, right?

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Speaker 1: So what is it you feel like in your experiences

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Speaker 1: you’ve had or in the roles you’ve done is something

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Speaker 1: that you haven’t quite tackled yet, right? So what’s a

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Speaker 1: brand new experience you want to step into? And then thirdly,

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Speaker 1: and also most importantly, I think, what are you going

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Speaker 1: to bring to that role? So what’s the capabilities? What’s

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Speaker 1: the skill set? What’s the experiences you’ve got that will

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Speaker 1: enable you to step into that role and deliver from

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Speaker 1: day one?

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Speaker 2: Welcome to today’s episode of Brave Commerce.

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Speaker 3: I’m Rachel Tippegraph, the founder and CEO of Micmac.

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Speaker 2: And I’m Sarah Hofstadter, chairwoman of Profitero Plus, and this

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Speaker 2: is a show that talks about what’s relevant in commerce

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Speaker 2: for the world’s biggest brands.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to Brave Commerce.

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Speaker 2: So, Christina, first of all, welcome to your first co-hosting

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Speaker 2: of Brave Commerce is a substitute for the non-substitutable.

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Speaker 4: I was going to say, it’s big shoes to fill.

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Speaker 4: I’m honored to temporarily have the seat.

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Speaker 2: If I knew Rachel to the graph shoe size, that

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Speaker 2: would be on brand, but I actually don’t know what

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Speaker 2: they are. And for those of you who haven’t been following,

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Speaker 2: Rachel is a new mom to her new baby boy, Sydney.

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Speaker 2: And so she was unable to join us due to

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Speaker 2: a well-earned maternity leave. And so she’s out. So filling

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Speaker 2: in for her for a couple of episodes, we’ve got

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Speaker 2: Christina Vale, the Chief Operating Officer of Profitero Plus. So Christina,

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Speaker 2: welcome to your first go at this.

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Speaker 4: Thank you. I’m personally just thrilled I don’t have to

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Speaker 4: answer what is the bravest thing I’ve ever done. Just

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Speaker 4: being a host and not a guest.

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Speaker 3: There you go.

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Speaker 2: Well, I actually am going to start this episode by

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Speaker 2: asking you a question because you’ve got a really interesting.

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Speaker 3: Career arc of your own.

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Speaker 2: Help us understand a little bit about where you started

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Speaker 2: because you’re the COO of Profitero. But before you got

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Speaker 2: here more than five years ago, there’s something that got

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Speaker 2: you to here.

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Speaker 3: Tell us a little bit about that.

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Speaker 4: Totally. One of the things that we’re going to hear

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Speaker 4: Neil talk about is being externally focused and meaning keeping

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Speaker 4: the customer first. I joke, but it’s completely true. I

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Speaker 4: started building Gatorade displays in Walmart stores and Jewel Osco

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Speaker 4: stores in the greater Chicagoland area. I was in a

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Speaker 4: rotational program with PepsiCo. And the whole point of that

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Speaker 4: was to keep the customer at the center, the customer

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Speaker 4: being the retailer. And how do we actually sell products?

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Speaker 4: The true north is growing sales and share. And so

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Speaker 4: for me, the through line of the different steps that

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Speaker 4: I’ve taken is always keeping customer first and understanding what

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Speaker 4: is the ultimate job to be done that we’re here

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Speaker 4: to do, which is sell more product. I started in

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Speaker 4: the field, moved into headquarter roles, and was then able

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Speaker 4: to make the jump to digital. So I was selling

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Speaker 4: granola bars on the Chewy desk at Amazon back when

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Speaker 4: food and beverage e-commerce was really early days and learning

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Speaker 4: what does it mean to grow and accelerate a digital

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Speaker 4: team in the context of CPG. After five years at PepsiCo,

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Speaker 4: I went on to management consulting and there I was

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Speaker 4: able to, I talk a lot about building your toolkit.

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Speaker 4: I was able to really grow my strategic skills. And

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Speaker 4: so I went from being an operator and understanding the

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Speaker 4: tactical of operating within a CPG to to actually understanding

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Speaker 4: the strategic side, both kind of from a private equity

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Speaker 4: and corporate standpoint. And I needed to try on everything.

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Speaker 4: I guess I should have started in that I kind

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Speaker 4: of grew up in grocery. I have some family immersion

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Speaker 4: in grocery. And I joke that I went to, my

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Speaker 4: childhood was spent at grocery store openings and that’s real.

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Speaker 4: There’s photos to prove it. And I have this love

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Speaker 4: affair with CPG and me going into management consulting was

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Speaker 4: pressure testing that love and making sure that’s where I

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Speaker 4: wanted to be.

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Speaker 5: And it is.

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Speaker 4: I’m obsessed with brands and obsessed with grocery stores. Sarah,

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Speaker 4: you and I have this in common. When we travel,

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Speaker 4: one of the first things we do is find a

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Speaker 4: local grocery store. and really feel kind of part of

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Speaker 4: what is true of that country. So all that to say,

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Speaker 4: that’s been the through line. And now five and a

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Speaker 4: half years at Profitero, I spend the vast majority of

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Speaker 4: my time with our customers. And the real empathy, because

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Speaker 4: I’ve been in their shoes, has been a skill that’s

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Speaker 4: enabled me to kind of coach our teams and partner

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Speaker 4: with clients to drive better outcomes.

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Speaker 2: And yet, when you’re looking back on your career, you

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Speaker 2: can sit there and say, You can’t actually sit there

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Speaker 2: and say, oh yeah, when I was building displays at

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Speaker 2: Jewel Osco, this is where I thought I was going

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Speaker 2: to be.

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Speaker 4: No, one of the funny things is when I was

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Speaker 4: first out of college, I think like most kids, there

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Speaker 4: was the text thread of everyone who, like all my

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Speaker 4: close friends they graduated with.

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Speaker 2: We had no texting when I got out of college.

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Speaker 3: Thanks, Christina.

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Speaker 4: For some of our listeners, you’ll understand how phones work.

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Speaker 4: So we had this text thread and.

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Speaker 3: I- Why do I keep getting all these young co-hosts?

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Speaker 4: I vividly remember sending a text like, what was my

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Speaker 4: economics degree for?

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Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.

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Speaker 4: I am literally crawling through a Walmart looking for a

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Speaker 4: box of Captain Crunch. And that’s real. That’s a real

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Speaker 4: text that I sent when I graduated school. And I

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Speaker 4: didn’t get it. I couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

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Speaker 4: I was so stuck in the trees. But now I

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Speaker 4: can look back. And there’s this great Steve Jobs point

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Speaker 4: of looking back and you can connect all the dots.

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Speaker 4: It’s clear as day for me now.

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Speaker 2: Another great story behind that is today’s guest, Neil Reynolds.

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Speaker 2: who is Global Chief Commercial Officer and Global Digital Commerce

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Speaker 2: at Mars Wrigley. And when you think through all of

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Speaker 2: the components of where you started and where you ended

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Speaker 2: up and what the things you picked up along the way,

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Speaker 2: it’s not the obvious stuff. It’s the hidden obvious. The

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Speaker 2: things that maybe that crawling gave you a greater degree

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Speaker 2: of resilience, but maybe reverse engineering things from the perspective

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Speaker 2: of the customer was the thing. But ultimately, what that

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Speaker 2: does is it teaches you a little bit more about

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Speaker 2: the power of curiosity and what needs to be true

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Speaker 2: for you to learn and grow whatever it is that’s happening.

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Speaker 3: So on that note, let’s have Neil onto the show.

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Speaker 5: Let’s do it.

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Speaker 2: Today, we have someone that I have been yearning to

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Speaker 2: get on the podcast, Neil Reynolds, Global Chief Customer and

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Speaker 2: Digital Commerce Officer at Mars Snacking. Neil, I think the

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Speaker 2: first time we met was here in Las Vegas in

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Speaker 2: this echo chamber called the Mandalay Bay. Thank you so

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Speaker 2: much for finally joining us. We’re so thrilled to have

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Speaker 2: you today.

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Speaker 1: Oh, it’s great to be with you. And, um, and

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Speaker 1: I’m so pleased that we finally got the time to

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Speaker 1: get a date in the diary and do it. You’re right, Sarah.

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Speaker 1: I think it was, um, shop talk in 2023, right?

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Speaker 1: So two and a half years ago that we first met. So, uh,

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Speaker 1: There you go. Diaries are finally aligned. Here we are

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Speaker 1: in beautiful, sunny Vegas today.

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Speaker 5: Yes.

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Speaker 2: Well, I wouldn’t know if it’s sunny. I don’t know

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Speaker 2: if you would know either. I’ve not been outdoors and

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Speaker 2: probably won’t be. We’ll be just sniffing this casino air,

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Speaker 2: keeping us awake. Christina and I were out last night.

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Speaker 2: She and I are, we’re not late night party animals.

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Speaker 2: And we were marveling at how awake we were. It

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Speaker 2: dawned on me around midnight last night.

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Speaker 3: It dawned on me as well.

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Speaker 4: I want to know what dawned on you and if

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Speaker 4: it was the same thing.

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Speaker 2: That it was the casino air that was keeping me awake. Yeah.

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Speaker 5: Exactly.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I was like, oh my God, why am I so awake?

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Well, anyway, enough about Vegas. I know all of you

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Speaker 2: guys are having serious FOMO here. So first things first,

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Speaker 2: I just hyped you up. I’m saying that you’re like

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Speaker 2: this awesome get, but like help everybody understand what your

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Speaker 2: role is because now they’re going to understand the awesomeness

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Speaker 2: of why you’re here. And then the rest of the

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Speaker 2: episode will just continue to build off there. You will

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Speaker 2: not disappoint.

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Speaker 1: You are sure building me up. So I’m privileged to

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Speaker 1: be the Global Chief Customer and Digital Commerce Officer for

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Speaker 1: Mars Snacking. So think they’re amazing billion dollar plus brands

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Speaker 1: like M & Ms, like Skittles, like Snickers. And I’m

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Speaker 1: privileged to lead the global customer capabilities in the digital

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Speaker 1: commerce team. So, I mean, our role is pretty broad,

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Speaker 1: pretty diverse, but ultimately we are building the capabilities which

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Speaker 1: will enable us to win with our customer’s build better

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Speaker 1: partnerships and build those new frontier capabilities, which will secure

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Speaker 1: our growth for the next time. Lots of stuff sits

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Speaker 1: in there. It’s from some of the core capabilities like

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Speaker 1: category leadership, like customer shop and marketing, like perfect store.

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Speaker 1: So how do we win in legacy and traditional retail?

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Speaker 1: My role and my team’s role is really to power

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Speaker 1: up those capabilities and to do it hand in hand

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Speaker 1: in partnership with all of our great sales leaders, our

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Speaker 1: one demand leaders in all of the regions and all

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Speaker 1: of the markets around the world. So what we need

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Speaker 1: to do is find those critical areas where we see

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Speaker 1: mutual value and collaboration, really get the right brains on

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Speaker 1: the right topics, and then power up how we scale

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Speaker 1: them all together.

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Speaker 3: It’s the whole thing. It’s the whole thing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. And so when the thing begins and the thing ends,

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Speaker 2: is it the reimagination of how human beings buy products

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Speaker 2: and ensuring you’re connecting the dots regardless of where the

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Speaker 2: purchase consideration begins and ends?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. So I think, you know, if there was

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Speaker 1: one phrase that we use a lot, right, it’s how

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Speaker 1: do we win across every stage of the consumer journey?

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Speaker 1: And when you say where it begins and ends, right,

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Speaker 1: it doesn’t just begin and end in sales. So I

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Speaker 1: sit in the global growth leadership team. So my peers,

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Speaker 1: for example, are the chief brand and content officer. So

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Speaker 1: we need to think about how do we really lean

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Speaker 1: into driving growth in this new world where there isn’t

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Speaker 1: a silo of marketing, a silo of sales. There is

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Speaker 1: just one well-oiled machine or getting over time better oiled machine,

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Speaker 1: which takes us in that direction.

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Speaker 4: So Neil, as you just articulated, you have this kind

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Speaker 4: of monster role, right? You cover many different bases. And

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Speaker 4: I know myself and many others who listen to the

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Speaker 4: podcast came up in a career through e-commerce and it

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Speaker 4: can be very fruitful. I’m curious for your experience, what

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Speaker 4: have been some of your learnings as you’ve navigated your

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Speaker 4: career in the space? And what are some things you

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Speaker 4: might want to share with listeners in the context of

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Speaker 4: building their career in the digital space?

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Speaker 1: One of the most exciting but also scariest moments you

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Speaker 1: have is thinking about what role you go into next.

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Speaker 1: We’re human beings. Many of us are ambitious and we’re

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Speaker 1: always trying to get on to the next thing. I

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Speaker 1: ask myself three questions, right? And when everyone asks me

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Speaker 1: for career advice, I try and anchor back to those

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Speaker 1: three questions. And they are, what energizes you? What gets

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Speaker 1: you out of bed in the morning? And what makes

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Speaker 1: you want to give your best for however many hours?

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Speaker 1: you are at work that day the second one is

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Speaker 1: what is it you want to learn right so what

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Speaker 1: is it you feel like in your experiences you’ve had

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Speaker 1: or in the roles you’ve done it is something that

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Speaker 1: you haven’t quite tackled yet right so what’s a brand

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Speaker 1: new experience you want to step into And then thirdly,

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Speaker 1: and also most importantly, I think, what are you going

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Speaker 1: to bring to that role? So what’s the capabilities? What’s

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Speaker 1: the skill set? What’s the experiences you’ve got that will

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Speaker 1: enable you to step into that role and deliver from

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Speaker 1: day one, right? Not just come in and think about, okay,

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Speaker 1: what do I learn? But also I’m bringing this. So

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Speaker 1: therefore I’ll step into this space. So when I think

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Speaker 1: about it, I always think about what did I get

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Speaker 1: from my early career experiences, which equipped me to be

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Speaker 1: successful today. And my early career was all around customer leadership.

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Speaker 1: It was all around leading customers, channels and ultimately business

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Speaker 1: units so what did that give me that gave me

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Speaker 1: great external orientation which is that’s why i’m here today

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Speaker 1: right i’m here to listen to learn and to hear

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Speaker 1: what others have got to talk about in this fascinating

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Speaker 1: world that we have in cpg and retail and how

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Speaker 1: do we all step into that space together so that

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Speaker 1: sort of external orientation i think is something that is

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Speaker 1: at my core and energizes me you know my early

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Speaker 1: experiences taught me how to run a business And talk

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Speaker 1: about the levers that you would pull to ultimately unlock

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Speaker 1: growth through a total P & L. What’s top line, right?

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Speaker 1: What’s the cost base? What’s the cash that’s coming through?

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Speaker 1: And how do I now apply those learnings to the

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Speaker 1: way that I operate through my team? And the third

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Speaker 1: one is around how do you create like a compelling

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Speaker 1: vision and a compelling purpose that people want to follow?

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Speaker 1: And I think some of my early experiences really sort

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Speaker 1: of helped me build out that skill set. So I

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Speaker 1: think about those three things. I guess where I get

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Speaker 1: to is, and to answer your question on advice, I

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Speaker 1: think it’s a fascinating… tightrope to walk around how do

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Speaker 1: you be intentional about crafting and owning your own career

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Speaker 1: but not fixated on one role or one particular area

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Speaker 1: and I think one of the unlocking thoughts for me

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Speaker 1: has been maybe quite often my next best role isn’t

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Speaker 1: invented yet right so if you’re fixated on one area

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Speaker 1: or one job or one particular line manager hey you’re

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Speaker 1: missing a whole world of stuff that’s going to come

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Speaker 1: so so how can you be open-minded but intentional at

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Speaker 1: the same time.

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Speaker 4: That totally resonates. I think Sarah and I talk a

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Speaker 4: lot about this concept of what fills your cup. And

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Speaker 4: you started with the same idea of what’s energizing.

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Speaker 2: 100%.

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Speaker 3: And you have to fill your toolkit.

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Speaker 4: I started my career at PepsiCo and a lot of

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Speaker 4: leaders there, we would talk a lot about, think about

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Speaker 4: your toolbox. And you spend a lot of years adding

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Speaker 4: tools to that toolbox and then figure out how to

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Speaker 4: deploy them. You don’t always know how you’re going to

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Speaker 4: deploy them. I think it’s so key to kind of

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Speaker 4: keep those two things in play.

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Speaker 1: 100%.

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Speaker 2: We had a guest here a couple of years ago,

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Speaker 2: AC Eggleston Bracey, who is the chief something or other

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Speaker 2: at Unilever. And she said something that was so good

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Speaker 2: that I wrote it down and it’s a sticky on

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Speaker 2: my monitor at home. And it’s what makes you tick

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Speaker 2: and what ticks you off.

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Speaker 3: And I was like that.

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Speaker 2: It’s the filling your cup. It’s the whole idea of

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Speaker 2: what gives you fuel and also what takes fuel. I’d

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Speaker 2: love to pick a little bit at your point on

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Speaker 2: jobs that haven’t been invented yet. Because if I think

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Speaker 2: about myself as probably the senior statesman on this podcast,

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Speaker 2: anything that is involved in the job that I do

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Speaker 2: right now did not exist 30 years ago when I started.

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Speaker 2: And yet, the skills that I use, those soft skills

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Speaker 2: that I used in the beginning of my career, whether

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Speaker 2: that’s storytelling or understanding reverse engineering success, those are things

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Speaker 2: that you still learn. So as you think about the

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Speaker 2: combination of the jobs that haven’t been invented yet, but

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Speaker 2: the second part of what you were saying about what

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Speaker 2: are the things that you don’t necessarily have yet in

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Speaker 2: your toolkit that you need to add as you’re looking

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Speaker 2: at your next generation of talent that’s going to be

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Speaker 2: working at Mars Snacking, what are those things that you’re

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Speaker 2: looking for that maybe are not so hard skill, but

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Speaker 2: they might be more soft skill?

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Speaker 1: It’s a great question, Sarah. What I feel proud about

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Speaker 1: from working at Mars is that we’re an organization which

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Speaker 1: I think truly invests in lifelong learning, right? So lifelong

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Speaker 1: learning can take many different paths. Becoming a great leader,

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Speaker 1: however you define leadership, is the way that we would

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Speaker 1: think about building capabilities for the future. So we think

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Speaker 1: about it through how can we continue to build the

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Speaker 1: characteristics in our future talent, which will enable them to

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Speaker 1: thrive in whatever the environment is. So that may well

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Speaker 1: be some of the things you referenced, right? Which is

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Speaker 1: how do you engage others? And when we talk about

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Speaker 1: engaging others, we think about how do you lead a team,

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Speaker 1: which might be your direct reports. How do you engage

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Speaker 1: your peers? But also most importantly at the moment, how

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Speaker 1: do you inspire leadership in terms of the big topics

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Speaker 1: that we need to get after? So engaging others is

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Speaker 1: one critical competency that we would think about investing in.

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Speaker 1: We would think about also how do we drive clarity

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Speaker 1: And how do we have crucial conversations in the right way?

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Speaker 3: Oh, could we talk about that? Yeah, yeah, of course. Okay, sorry.

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Speaker 2: You’re picking on something that is one of the most

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Speaker 2: critical things that I think is required for anybody who

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Speaker 2: wants to, I guess, feel good about their job.

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Speaker 3: Let’s just kind of put it out there.

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Speaker 2: If you feel like you are not on the receiving

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Speaker 2: end of crucial conversations or feel psychological safety to deliver

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Speaker 2: or instigate crucial conversations, that’s what makes a company political, right?

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Speaker 2: People talk about like all the different training that they

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Speaker 2: have at their companies. Like you get all of your

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Speaker 2: either hard skills training or soft skills training. You get

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Speaker 2: all of the HR stuff. You probably have 17 different

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Speaker 2: classes on how to use AI. But ultimately, something like

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Speaker 2: having crucial conversations becomes so, that’s either an enabler or

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Speaker 2: a blocker to success.

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Speaker 3: You’re in a global role.

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Speaker 2: As you think about having crucial conversations, there’s so many

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Speaker 2: cultural nuances that go into that. How have you learned

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Speaker 2: to navigate that?

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Speaker 1: You triggered a thought for me, right? So through one

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Speaker 1: of the last strategic transformations we’ve been through as a business,

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Speaker 1: we reaffirmed the behaviors, the leadership behaviors that we wanted

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Speaker 1: people to step into. And we had one which, you know,

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Speaker 1: we’re now on the next stage of our evolution, but

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Speaker 1: it was called come from reality. So that’s how I

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Speaker 1: think about it, which is quite often in a conversation,

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Speaker 1: there may well be reluctance to step into the hard nuance,

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Speaker 1: the hard center of the debate, right? But if you

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Speaker 1: do it as, okay, it’s our role here to come

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Speaker 1: from reality together. You do it through facts. You do

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Speaker 1: it through data. You do it through information and it’s

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Speaker 1: not about the person or their attempts to try and

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Speaker 1: move something further forward. So we would anchor back to,

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Speaker 1: and I would quite often start a conversation with my team. If,

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Speaker 1: you know, if we’re having one of those around the

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Speaker 1: edges where everyone’s politely dancing around the edge of the issue,

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Speaker 1: I would go, okay, time out now, let’s just come

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Speaker 1: from reality.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: And that just creates, I think, an environment where people go,

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Speaker 1: that’s a really good point. Actually, sales have been going

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Speaker 1: down for the last five months.

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Speaker 3: Why is that?

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Speaker 1: And really trying to use that mindset and trigger that

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Speaker 1: sort of change in direction, which I think is really powerful.

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Speaker 1: particularly when you’ve got a group of leaders who might

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Speaker 1: come from different geographies. So you start to play into

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Speaker 1: different cultural nuances as you referenced, different levels of seniority,

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Speaker 1: different levels of knowledge and experience. I think it just

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Speaker 1: is a nice level set. So that’s the way that

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Speaker 1: I would try and trigger it.

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Speaker 3: Love that.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, same.

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Speaker 4: She has a phrase for it, but it’s not podcast appropriate.

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Speaker 3: We’ll cut that.

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Speaker 4: So Neil, we’ve talked about soft skills and the criticality

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Speaker 4: of honing those to make sure that you can kind

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Speaker 4: of get the most out of yourself and out of

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Speaker 4: your team’s We’re at grocery shop and it’s 2025. I’m

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Speaker 4: recording a podcast. So I have to ask you about AI.

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Speaker 3: It’s required.

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Speaker 4: How do you think about practical ways that Mars can

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Speaker 4: deploy AI, whether it’s personalization, supply chain, how can it

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Speaker 4: be deployed in a practical sense to best influence customers

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Speaker 4: and outcomes, both in store, in retail and online?

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Speaker 1: I mean, that is the $ 64, 000 question, right? I went

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Speaker 1: to some of the content yesterday and I’ll be in

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Speaker 1: lots more today. And, um, I think everyone’s wrestling with

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Speaker 1: the same question. Everyone’s wrestling with the huge promise, the

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Speaker 1: fantastic future, but actually the multiple steps and probably missteps

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Speaker 1: we’re all going to have to go through to get there.

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Speaker 1: So the way we think about it is how could

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Speaker 1: AI start to transform how we work and the jobs

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Speaker 1: which people are doing now, which might be the low

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Speaker 1: value added jobs, right? They’re the toil jobs. They’re the

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Speaker 1: jobs where, you know, someone goes, oh my God, I’ve

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Speaker 1: just got to get my head in that spreadsheet and

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Speaker 1: try and get to this number. How might AI be

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Speaker 1: a solve to get to those insights more quickly? So

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Speaker 1: transforming some of the jobs, which are probably pretty ingrained, right,

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Speaker 1: in our sales and our demand teams and have been forever.

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Speaker 1: We specifically think about how could AI help us get

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Speaker 1: to clarity around our next best action more quickly, more concisely,

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Speaker 1: with more granularity. So how can we go from trying

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Speaker 1: to trawl through data to try and work out what’s

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Speaker 1: the next best opportunity on the digital shelf, for example,

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Speaker 1: or what’s the next best opportunity in this fragmented trade

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Speaker 1: outlet in X market, through to here’s some clarity around

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Speaker 1: five things that you should do at this moment in

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Speaker 1: time to drive the highest value and putting some science

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Speaker 1: behind that. So we think about it through that way.

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Speaker 1: We also think about it from how can we fuel

425
00:18:50,280 –> 00:18:53,400
Speaker 1: and unlock capacity in areas where we’ve been capacity constrained.

426
00:18:53,880 –> 00:18:56,560
Speaker 1: So creating content for the digital shelf, we have people

427
00:18:57,190 –> 00:19:00,590
Speaker 1: who are manually creating content for digital shelf, locked in rooms,

428
00:19:01,040 –> 00:19:05,240
Speaker 1: in Word, and then manually syndicating onto retailer platforms. How

429
00:19:05,300 –> 00:19:08,060
Speaker 1: might AI be an opportunity to step change and fast

430
00:19:08,080 –> 00:19:10,740
Speaker 1: forward there? So we’re really excited about getting to insight,

431
00:19:11,359 –> 00:19:15,140
Speaker 1: really excited around how do we create capacity for better execution?

432
00:19:15,680 –> 00:19:18,290
Speaker 1: And the final one is, and we’ve just begun this conversation, right?

433
00:19:18,350 –> 00:19:20,930
Speaker 1: How can we use AI to build capabilities in different ways?

434
00:19:21,410 –> 00:19:24,770
Speaker 1: And we have a Mars University Sales College, which runs

435
00:19:24,790 –> 00:19:27,750
Speaker 1: a range of various different programs from how to negotiate

436
00:19:27,790 –> 00:19:30,820
Speaker 1: the Mars way through to category leadership the Mars way.

437
00:19:31,119 –> 00:19:34,160
Speaker 1: They tend to be programs which are two, three days, right?

438
00:19:34,240 –> 00:19:38,600
Speaker 1: Either virtual or physical location ones. And the learning journey

439
00:19:38,780 –> 00:19:41,140
Speaker 1: is fantastic, right? It truly is, but it’s not powered

440
00:19:41,160 –> 00:19:43,750
Speaker 1: by AI. So how might we create, for example, sales

441
00:19:43,790 –> 00:19:46,770
Speaker 1: coaching agents? How might we think about building category knowledge

442
00:19:46,790 –> 00:19:49,090
Speaker 1: and expertise in different ways through AI? We see tons

443
00:19:49,109 –> 00:19:52,070
Speaker 1: of opportunities. I is to go from 100 ideas to

444
00:19:52,130 –> 00:19:55,040
Speaker 1: three or four use cases and really move those forward

445
00:19:55,150 –> 00:19:57,960
Speaker 1: and then get to scale at pace makes a.

446
00:19:57,960 –> 00:19:59,460
Speaker 4: Ton of sense we spend a lot of time at

447
00:19:59,500 –> 00:20:02,140
Speaker 4: profitero making sure we’re anchored in the business problem because

448
00:20:02,160 –> 00:20:04,560
Speaker 4: it can be quite tempting to get like distracted by

449
00:20:04,580 –> 00:20:06,199
Speaker 4: the shiny object like oh we could we could do

450
00:20:06,260 –> 00:20:08,250
Speaker 4: ai for that or for this but anchoring on what

451
00:20:08,270 –> 00:20:10,350
Speaker 4: do we need to accomplish as a business and for us,

452
00:20:10,410 –> 00:20:12,109
Speaker 4: both kind of from a ways of working standpoint and

453
00:20:12,150 –> 00:20:14,170
Speaker 4: for our customers to get to that next best action.

454
00:20:14,210 –> 00:20:16,750
Speaker 4: How do we make AI that solution to get from

455
00:20:16,970 –> 00:20:19,710
Speaker 4: problem to outcome in a faster, more efficient way? So

456
00:20:19,730 –> 00:20:20,670
Speaker 4: it makes a ton of sense.

457
00:20:21,619 –> 00:20:22,060
Speaker 3: It does.

458
00:20:22,260 –> 00:20:24,919
Speaker 2: And I think one of the things though, if we

459
00:20:24,940 –> 00:20:27,619
Speaker 2: talk about confronting reality, I think Christina and I are

460
00:20:27,680 –> 00:20:31,820
Speaker 2: totally stealing that with attribution, of course. When we think

461
00:20:31,859 –> 00:20:34,040
Speaker 2: about confronting reality, I think it’s one of those things

462
00:20:34,100 –> 00:20:36,020
Speaker 2: where If we talk about it in a way that

463
00:20:36,060 –> 00:20:38,080
Speaker 2: says we’re not looking to replace your jobs, we’re actually

464
00:20:38,160 –> 00:20:41,000
Speaker 2: looking to save you from having to go into that spreadsheet.

465
00:20:41,060 –> 00:20:44,590
Speaker 2: We’re trying to figure out how to elevate the kind

466
00:20:44,609 –> 00:20:46,750
Speaker 2: of work that you do and use your brain, not

467
00:20:46,770 –> 00:20:51,810
Speaker 2: your fingers on your keyboard, to help you advance. And

468
00:20:52,150 –> 00:20:55,649
Speaker 2: it’s not just about the positioning. It’s about confronting reality.

469
00:20:56,640 –> 00:21:00,680
Speaker 2: If I look back to, again, Before I even started working,

470
00:21:00,720 –> 00:21:03,139
Speaker 2: when people were doing slides on transparencies and when there

471
00:21:03,180 –> 00:21:06,100
Speaker 2: was an error, you had to start writing those transparencies

472
00:21:06,119 –> 00:21:08,699
Speaker 2: all over again. Did people lose their jobs? No, they

473
00:21:08,720 –> 00:21:11,369
Speaker 2: just learned PowerPoint and they became better at their jobs.

474
00:21:11,740 –> 00:21:13,530
Speaker 2: So we have to look at that whole idea of

475
00:21:13,570 –> 00:21:16,310
Speaker 2: confronting reality and say, okay, well, now what needs to

476
00:21:16,350 –> 00:21:17,930
Speaker 2: be true? What are the skills I need to have

477
00:21:17,950 –> 00:21:20,510
Speaker 2: for my job in order to make that successful? So

478
00:21:20,530 –> 00:21:22,889
Speaker 2: it requires a tremendous amount of, this is probably the

479
00:21:22,930 –> 00:21:25,090
Speaker 2: worst segue I could come up with, but it requires

480
00:21:25,109 –> 00:21:26,150
Speaker 2: a lot of bravery.

481
00:21:26,410 –> 00:21:26,830
Speaker 3: Seamless.

482
00:21:27,330 –> 00:21:32,180
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. In order to connect those dots is to say, yes,

483
00:21:32,340 –> 00:21:34,960
Speaker 2: there is this thing called AI. Yes, people are either

484
00:21:35,060 –> 00:21:38,160
Speaker 2: running to it or running from it. But it requires

485
00:21:38,180 –> 00:21:40,480
Speaker 2: a lot of bravery for leaders to say, this is

486
00:21:40,520 –> 00:21:43,170
Speaker 2: very important and we are going to be very thoughtful

487
00:21:43,250 –> 00:21:45,790
Speaker 2: about it. What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever done?

488
00:21:46,400 –> 00:21:47,700
Speaker 1: Seamless segue, Sarah.

489
00:21:47,880 –> 00:21:48,340
Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.

490
00:21:48,440 –> 00:21:52,040
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. This is why Rachel always asks the last question.

491
00:21:53,100 –> 00:21:56,300
Speaker 3: Sarah’s pretty direct. We’re just going to get right to it.

492
00:21:56,420 –> 00:21:56,740
Speaker 5: Okay.

493
00:21:56,900 –> 00:21:58,760
Speaker 1: So I did think about this, right, ahead of our

494
00:21:58,800 –> 00:22:01,940
Speaker 1: conversation today. I assume you mean other than doing this podcast,

495
00:22:01,960 –> 00:22:03,310
Speaker 1: because that’s a pretty brave thing.

496
00:22:03,380 –> 00:22:04,770
Speaker 3: Oh, we are scary people.

497
00:22:04,790 –> 00:22:05,490
Speaker 1: You are very scary.

498
00:22:05,550 –> 00:22:07,790
Speaker 3: We are very scary people, not remotely approachable.

499
00:22:07,970 –> 00:22:09,530
Speaker 1: Cool. So when I was thinking about this on the

500
00:22:09,570 –> 00:22:12,030
Speaker 1: way over, right, there’s quite a few functional examples I

501
00:22:12,050 –> 00:22:14,970
Speaker 1: could pick up around, you know, technology choices we’ve made

502
00:22:15,050 –> 00:22:18,410
Speaker 1: or customer investment strategies, but probably reflecting on it, right?

503
00:22:18,450 –> 00:22:20,910
Speaker 1: Let’s go back to the conversation we had earlier around

504
00:22:20,950 –> 00:22:23,630
Speaker 1: career choices. And if I think back to probably around

505
00:22:23,670 –> 00:22:25,770
Speaker 1: about six years or so ago, I was faced a

506
00:22:25,790 –> 00:22:27,570
Speaker 1: bit of a crossroads in terms of the next best

507
00:22:27,590 –> 00:22:30,070
Speaker 1: move for me. And I was offered two opportunities. One

508
00:22:30,090 –> 00:22:32,310
Speaker 1: was to pretty much carry on down the same path

509
00:22:32,350 –> 00:22:35,230
Speaker 1: I was, which was running a business, running a local

510
00:22:35,270 –> 00:22:39,900
Speaker 1: business in a market, running an established operating model, in,

511
00:22:39,920 –> 00:22:42,989
Speaker 1: I guess, a playing field which felt very familiar. Bigger scale,

512
00:22:43,050 –> 00:22:46,950
Speaker 1: bigger numbers, more people, more NSV, but not really new

513
00:22:47,290 –> 00:22:49,830
Speaker 1: and not really different. And I was offered a second opportunity,

514
00:22:49,970 –> 00:22:53,149
Speaker 1: which was actually when I rejoined Mars back in 2019.

515
00:22:53,150 –> 00:22:54,869
Speaker 1: And I still talk about this now, which was it

516
00:22:54,950 –> 00:22:57,280
Speaker 1: was a brave move because it was so, so different

517
00:22:57,320 –> 00:22:59,560
Speaker 1: in three different ways. The first one was I’d only

518
00:22:59,619 –> 00:23:02,440
Speaker 1: ever done local market roles before. I’d only ever worked

519
00:23:02,580 –> 00:23:06,619
Speaker 1: in markets, leading customers, leading businesses. This role was a

520
00:23:06,640 –> 00:23:10,520
Speaker 1: global role, right? Suddenly with global perspective, having never really

521
00:23:11,060 –> 00:23:13,619
Speaker 1: played on the global playing field before. The second one

522
00:23:13,660 –> 00:23:16,439
Speaker 1: was I’d always run operations. And the brief here was

523
00:23:16,480 –> 00:23:22,389
Speaker 1: to come and create from zero a global portfolio transformation initiative,

524
00:23:22,770 –> 00:23:25,650
Speaker 1: which quite frankly, there was varying different levels of energy

525
00:23:25,670 –> 00:23:27,730
Speaker 1: and engagement around the organization. And so how do you

526
00:23:27,750 –> 00:23:30,490
Speaker 1: really marshal a ton of people and the great power

527
00:23:30,530 –> 00:23:33,030
Speaker 1: of Mars behind this initiative? And the third one was

528
00:23:33,190 –> 00:23:35,200
Speaker 1: I’d only ever been a demand guy, right? I’d worked

529
00:23:35,240 –> 00:23:37,060
Speaker 1: in sales. I’d worked a bit in marketing. I’d worked

530
00:23:37,119 –> 00:23:39,630
Speaker 1: in strategic sales. This role was to come and sit

531
00:23:39,710 –> 00:23:42,109
Speaker 1: in the global supply chain leadership team. So when I

532
00:23:42,150 –> 00:23:44,810
Speaker 1: look at that, it was really different on those three lenses.

533
00:23:45,369 –> 00:23:47,090
Speaker 1: And I remember, right, my wife was telling me the

534
00:23:47,109 –> 00:23:48,990
Speaker 1: other day, she says, when you told me that that’s

535
00:23:49,010 –> 00:23:50,950
Speaker 1: the role you wanted to do six years ago, she said,

536
00:23:50,990 –> 00:23:54,379
Speaker 1: I went, not so sure about that, right? But actually,

537
00:23:54,450 –> 00:23:56,520
Speaker 1: how much have you learned from it? So I think

538
00:23:56,600 –> 00:23:59,679
Speaker 1: that dimension of, Taking a big bold leap through those

539
00:23:59,720 –> 00:24:01,520
Speaker 1: three lenses, but also at the same time, right, thinking

540
00:24:01,560 –> 00:24:03,760
Speaker 1: about what I could bring to it, I think hopefully

541
00:24:04,080 –> 00:24:06,660
Speaker 1: has really powered me on. And genuinely, I look back

542
00:24:06,700 –> 00:24:08,600
Speaker 1: every day and I’m thankful that I made that call.

543
00:24:09,030 –> 00:24:11,520
Speaker 2: Well, I think Mars is super thankful that they made

544
00:24:11,540 –> 00:24:14,600
Speaker 2: you that offer. Because if we look at what’s happened

545
00:24:14,640 –> 00:24:19,140
Speaker 2: since 2019, there could not have been somebody more well-suited

546
00:24:19,660 –> 00:24:22,970
Speaker 2: for a role like that that ultimately has led to

547
00:24:22,990 –> 00:24:26,870
Speaker 2: at least the more recent evolution of your career. I mean,

548
00:24:26,970 –> 00:24:29,770
Speaker 2: who else would be better to be in this kind

549
00:24:29,790 –> 00:24:31,750
Speaker 2: of a role and advancing the way that you have

550
00:24:31,770 –> 00:24:36,379
Speaker 2: been advancing than somebody who comes from with those ingredients.

551
00:24:36,880 –> 00:24:38,580
Speaker 2: Mark saw the perfect recipe and that was right before

552
00:24:38,600 –> 00:24:39,040
Speaker 2: COVID hit.

553
00:24:39,180 –> 00:24:40,560
Speaker 1: Thank you. You say the nicest things, Sarah.

554
00:24:40,869 –> 00:24:41,770
Speaker 3: I really don’t.

555
00:24:42,130 –> 00:24:47,290
Speaker 1: We’ll confront reality later.

556
00:24:48,490 –> 00:24:50,600
Speaker 2: Neil, thank you so much for joining us today on

557
00:24:50,619 –> 00:24:54,960
Speaker 2: Brave Commerce, live from Grocery Shop. This is Sarah Hofstetter

558
00:24:55,000 –> 00:24:55,740
Speaker 2: and Christina Vale.

559
00:24:55,840 –> 00:24:56,139
Speaker 1: Thank you.

560
00:24:57,670 –> 00:24:58,790
Speaker 3: Well, that sure was something.

561
00:24:58,950 –> 00:25:02,609
Speaker 2: We sure learned a lot, not just about career arcs,

562
00:25:02,710 –> 00:25:07,480
Speaker 2: but obviously the criticality of crucial conversations and so much more.

563
00:25:07,700 –> 00:25:09,980
Speaker 2: If you liked what you heard, there are actually a

564
00:25:10,100 –> 00:25:14,270
Speaker 2: number of phenomenal guests that we’ve had from Mars Inc.,

565
00:25:14,580 –> 00:25:19,350
Speaker 2: whether that was Gabrielle Dallas-Wesley or JP in Pet Care

566
00:25:19,480 –> 00:25:23,700
Speaker 2: or Matt Graham in Mars Food, Anton Vincent. So many

567
00:25:23,940 –> 00:25:26,700
Speaker 2: that you can listen to, as well as a number

568
00:25:26,850 –> 00:25:29,189
Speaker 2: of other folks who have grown up in different parts

569
00:25:29,310 –> 00:25:32,690
Speaker 2: of the CPG world and are now sitting in the C-suite.

570
00:25:32,930 –> 00:25:36,840
Speaker 2: If you like this episode, please share liberally, tell a friend,

571
00:25:37,420 –> 00:25:39,500
Speaker 2: and please leave us a review. We’d love to know

572
00:25:39,520 –> 00:25:41,080
Speaker 2: what you think. Thanks for listening.

573
00:25:51,050 –> 00:25:52,600
Speaker 4: Thank you.

574
00:26:05,660 –> 00:26:09,650
Speaker 5: Hi, I’m Jackie Cooper, Global Chief Brand Officer at Edelman

575
00:26:09,670 –> 00:26:12,429
Speaker 5: and the host of Touch of Truth, a new podcast

576
00:26:12,490 –> 00:26:15,929
Speaker 5: launching on the Adweek Podcast Network. My dad gave me

577
00:26:15,970 –> 00:26:19,649
Speaker 5: this incredibly smart piece of advice. Meet everyone once. As

578
00:26:19,690 –> 00:26:21,990
Speaker 5: a result, I’ve met some of the most fascinating and

579
00:26:22,070 –> 00:26:25,189
Speaker 5: inspiring people on the planet. Now on Touch of Truth,

580
00:26:25,390 –> 00:26:28,659
Speaker 5: we’re coming centre stage and sharing the mic to experience

581
00:26:28,700 –> 00:26:31,570
Speaker 5: stories of truth, insights and visions for the future that

582
00:26:31,590 –> 00:26:34,060
Speaker 5: will challenge your way of thinking. Touch of Truth is

583
00:26:34,119 –> 00:26:37,670
Speaker 5: available wherever you listen to podcasts. New episodes come out

584
00:26:37,850 –> 00:26:39,910
Speaker 5: every Tuesday. I do hope to see you there.