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Connections Leadership Series Podcast

We created the Connections Podcast to help you connect to some of the most admired leaders and legends in the marketing, media and advertising industry. Many of the people who we look up to all started somewhere and this podcast aims to help connect the dots that got them to where they are.
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Now displaying: November, 2016
Nov 27, 2016

My conversation with John LeBoutillier, who is the President & CEO of Unilever Canada, was very thought provoking. This interview has some really good tactical advice for people at all stages of their career. 

This Podcast is brought to you by Exact Media, which works with brands to sample their products using the excess space in eCommerce parcels. Companies like P&G, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, L'Oréal, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have all used Exact Media to reach consumers in their homes. Learn more at www.exactmedia.io.

We talk about important leadership lessons, approaches to integrating yourself into a new organization after a career change, and his views on work-life balance. John got to the top by simply outworking everyone else, and he covers that story in-depth throughout this interview. 

These are just a few of the highlights from our chat: 

- He believes that he has an average intellect, but he compensates for this by outworking everyone else. He couldn’t talk until he was four years old and couldn’t read until he was in third grade. Growing up, people used to call him stupid and even his mom, at one point in time, thought he wasn’t smart enough to go to college. This created an internal drive to prove others wrong.

- John was hustling at a young age. He started mowing lawns and trimming hedges, then got into house painting in high school. John got so good at it that he was making $7,000 to $10,000 dollars in cash a summer. This was a lot of money back in the 80s. He stuck with that business every summer, which initially was a concern of his when graduating Harvard, as he was one of the few students who didn't have a "professional" internship. John eventually realized that this was an asset, as he was one of the few people who had experience managing a team and working with paying customers.

- He started his career off at Ogilvy which at the time was hiring some of the best talent in the industry. At the time, Ogilvy hired top talent from the best colleges. This was still the era where agencies were making 15% commissions which allowed them to develop top training programs to attract the best graduates.

- One of the most important lessons he learned in leadership was at Ogilvy. Early in his career, he messed up on a project, so his boss brought him to the client to explain the mistake. John thought that his boss was trying emphasize to him the mistake he made, but the real lesson was to show John that they always operate as a team and stand up for each other. In the meeting with the client, his boss explained the mistake as an overall Ogilvy error, never mentioning John as an excuse for what went wrong. It was clear that at Ogilvy, they never throw each other under the bus.

- One of the main drivers behind his professional success is the use of a career coach. He lucked out while at Kraft where his coach took him on while he was still a Director. Typically, his coach only worked with Presidents and CEOs. His coach is ruthless and rips him apart after every performance review he receives at work, all in the pursuit of making him a better leader.

- He enjoys turning around failing businesses, the ones that people tend to overlook and give up on. He did this with turning around Tang, Balance Bar and most recently Knorr.

- After 15 years, he moved to Unilever to accelerate his learning. He would get an opportunity to learn from a European-style company (Unilever's HQ is in the UK), and a chance to figure out how to integrate a new business, as Unilever was moving their Ice Cream business across the country from Green Bay, Wisconsin to New Jersey. 

- When he moved over from Kraft to Unilever, he had to get use to a major culture change. Kraft was very aggressive and high adrenaline. Unilever was very collegial and people were very nice. He had to get over a period of disbelief because people were so nice. But as the saying goes, it’s not the organ that rejects the body, it’s the body that rejects the organ. It was important that he found a way to adapt.

- He moved to Canada because his boss told him that he would be of limited use at Unilever given that he had a lifetime of experience in just food; Unilever was primarily a personal care business. And so John was tasked with learning both parts of the business, while learning how to operate his own company.

- On advice he’d given to his 20 or 30 year old self, it would be that he could’ve gone away with only doing 70% of the things that he did. The things he would cut are worrying and having anxiety over stupid things that were out of his control such as “getting another promotion”. Instead he would just focus on the task at hand and trust the organization and people around him. The other things he would cut would be drilling down further than necessary on issues.

 

Nov 21, 2016

I recently interviewed Javier San Juan who is the President of the Latin American region at L’Oréal. I first met Javier several years ago when he was the President & CEO of L’Oréal Canada. He’s incredibly entertaining and always puts a humorous spin on things. After doing this interview, I couldn’t help but notice that he’s probably experienced more adventures in one lifetime than most people will have in multiple. For all those who are aspiring for the top job, this interview can be of great value.

 This Podcast is brought to you by Exact Media, which works with brands to sample their products using the excess space in eCommerce parcels. Companies like P&G, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, L'Oréal, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have all used Exact Media to reach consumers in their homes. Learn more at www.exactmedia.io.

 

Here are a few snippets from the interview: 

- At the age of 10, he would regularly monitor the stock market while waiting at the bus stop. As a child, he didn’t want to be a soccer player or a firefighter, instead he wanted to be a stock broker.

- His first job was not in the Consumer Goods industry. He was a junior tax professor. After switching from Arthur Anderson with a job in finance, he worked for Sandoz (now Novartis). His career in the Consumer Goods industry did not start in marketing but instead in finance.  

- He interviewed with L’Oréal and Novartis at the same time but elected to go with the latter because of a boss who he really admired and looked up to. Eight months into the job at Novartis in Switzerland, he was asked to move to Japan to be the assistant (to the assistant, to the assistant) of the Finance Director. Two weeks before leaving for Japan, they changed their mind and asked him to move to the Philippines instead.

- While in the Philippines, his father paid him a visit and ended up getting kidnapped. This was just one of the many adventures that he experienced while in the Philippines.  

- L’Oréal kept an eye on him as he rose through the ranks at Novartis. He was also growing frustrated by the limitations of not being able to switch out of finance and into another division. When L’Oréal came knocking on the door asking what role he wanted, he responded by saying that he wanted to one day be the President and CEO. They shared that it was possible but that he would have to follow and trust their process. This meant that he would have to start at the bottom. He traded a private driver and the top finance job at Novartis in the Philippines and ended up in a sales role driving around in a Renault 5.  

- He set two conditions when he started at L’Oréal. The first condition was that he did not want to be in Eastern Europe, Pakistan and South Africa. The second condition was to not be in a finance role. And so when the first international opportunity was presented to him, L’Oreal offered him a posting to be the COO and CFO in Russia. They were clearly trying to make him uncomfortable but he had to respect the process.

- One important lesson he picked up while in the Philippines and Russia was to have zero tolerance with corruption. If you get into the cycle of corruption, you will eventually lose all control of the business. In exchange for the zero tolerance on corruption approach, he had to live with bodyguards who gave him protection and surveillance for 24 hours a day. It was the personal price that he had to pay for making that choice.

- He was very honest in saying that he didn’t have any mentors. Instead, he had people who took a risk and placed a bet on him.

- In terms of how he has approached his career, he’s convinced that things have to be done well and he refuses to take shortcuts. While he probably could have done certain things in his career to move faster, he doesn’t think that he would have necessarily gone further. 

 
 
Nov 15, 2016

I had the privilege of interviewing Martine Reardon, who was most recently the CMO of Macy’s and spent more than three decades at the company. In this interview, we talk about how she got into the retail industry, what it was like being a female leader, how she managed her time, career setbacks as well as the story of how Macy’s grew into the being the largest department store in the United States. Martine was very honest about the sacrifices that she had to make in order to get the top marketing job at Macy’s.

This Podcast is brought to you by Exact Media, which works with brands to sample their products using the excess space in eCommerce parcels. Companies like P&G, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, L'Oréal, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have all used Exact Media to reach consumers in their homes. Learn more at www.exactmedia.io.

Here are some of the highlights from our conversation:

- Started her career off as an intern at Abraham & Straus (now part of Macy’s) in the events and PR department.
- One of her most important mentors, Doris Shaw (an executive at Abraham & Straus) created a role for Martine after college. That role kickstarted her career in retail. Had it not been for Doris, Martine might have ended up working on Wall Street to help pay off the large debt accumulated from college.
- She knew that the pursuit of becoming the CMO of Macy’s was going to be difficult and made the personal choice to not have children. While there are certainly examples of women who were able to pursue both a successful career while raising children, she felt that it was necessary to focus on her professional career and that it would be too challenging to do both.
- One of the tougher moments in her career was being passed for the CMO job twice at Macy’s. The first time they hired an outsider and the second time they promoted someone more senior internally into the role. Similar to my last interview with Vineet Mehra, Martine was given the advice to bloom where you’re planted. She had to wait her time, gain experience in different areas but the patience paid off and she eventually was selected for the top job.
- She was always an early riser. Tuesdays and Thursdays were her gym days at 5:30am and she would not set meetings before 8am (yes, she said before 8am). - On other days, she would get into the office around 6:30am to have quiet time so that she could catch-up on work and to get ready. Sundays were usually an important day for her to get prepared for the rest of the week.
- One advice she would give to her 25 year old self would be to sit back and listen more. Don't be so quick to make decisions and to jump into something without looking at all of the available options.

Nov 15, 2016

I really enjoyed my conversation with Vineet Mehra who is the Global President of the Baby Care business for Johnson & Johnson (J&J). As a fellow Canadian, it's always a nice bonus to hear the story of someone who started their career in Canada. Vineet now oversees a massive global business at J&J. There's a ton of practical and useful advice in this conversation and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

This Podcast is brought to you by Exact Media, which works with brands to sample their products using the excess space in eCommerce parcels. Companies like P&G, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, L'Oréal, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have all used Exact Media to reach consumers in their homes. Learn more at www.exactmedia.io.

These are just a few of the highlights from our chat:

  • Grew up with a Tiger Dad (not mom). Strict upbringing where his parents had incredibly high expectations of him.
  • Got into the packaged goods industry in high school when his entrepreneurship teacher told him about a company called Procter and Gamble. He then went to the high school career services office to look for the Universities where P&G hired.
  • One of his first business endeavors was selling candy in high school at an 80% margin. That was probably one of the first signs that he was destined for business and the packaged goods industry.
  • Never planned to be a lifer at P&G. P&G was an incredible training ground but he always had the curiosity to look at different points of views.
  • Lived in 11 different homes in the last 13 years. If you have plans to run a global company, you have to be willing to work in multiple regions and it's incredibly important to have a life partner who is willing to support that.
  • Vineet and his wife lead a dual track career and both incredibly busy but they keep their life organized using a shared calendar. This is something I'm hoping to get my own wife signed for but she never accepts my calendar invites.
  • Bloom where you're planted. What this means is, wherever you land, make sure to kill it. Accept the challenge that you've been given instead of always thinking three steps ahead.
  • Curate the village – you can't do it alone and it's important to build the right team around you in order to be successful.
  • On giving advice to his 25 year old self, he would recommend learning to live with losing from time to time. Lose with grace and don't take those losses so seriously.
  • On rituals or routines, if he's in town, he will make sure that he has dinner with his family.
  • He lives in a clutter free life – no filing cabinet and doesn't keep paper around him both in the office and at home. This enables him to think clearly.
Nov 14, 2016

I was fortunate enough to meet David Sable over a lunch that we hosted almost a couple of years ago. David is the Global CEO of Y&R, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies with over 16,000 employees around the world.  

This Podcast is brought to you by Exact Media, which works with brands to sample their products using the excess space in eCommerce parcels. Companies like P&G, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, L'Oréal, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have all used Exact Media to reach consumers in their homes. Learn more at www.exactmedia.io

Here’s a sneak peak and some of my favorite moments from our conversation: 

  • Was the son of a rabbi and so because his dad was always in the spotlight, he always had to be careful of his actions. 

  • Incredible mentors were critical to his development. People such as Edward Chapman III, Harold Burson and Lester Wunderman. Getting mentors was serendipitous and never planned. 

  • Career was never planned and was non-linear. Instead, he chased after opportunities where he could constantly learn and grow. There’s a Yiddish term called Bashert which means "It was meant to happen". If you don’t grab the opportunity, it’s not going to happen. 

  • Nearly botched a major advertising campaign for Kinney Shoes (now Foot Locker) because CBS decided to change the date that they were going to air The Wizard of Oz. 

  • Huge proponent of reading. He recommends reading the classics like Shakespeare and Harry Potter as there's a reason why they have survived through so many generations.  

  • Being in the ad industry during the period of Mad Men was not always easy. There were projects that people wouldn’t give him because he was Jewish and "different". He shared some of those stories on the PBS special, The Real Mad Men of Madison Avenue.  

  • On spending time with family, he believes that if you’re present 100%, it covers the times that you’re not able to be there. 

  • As part of practicing Sabbath, he disconnects from all devices from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. It’s an incredibly powerful way to practice mindfulness, read and listen more. It can almost feel like you’re on vacation once a week. David wrote about this in one of his posts for the Huffington Post. This is something that another leader in the marketing world, Gary Vaynerchuck (4x NYT Best Seller, CEO of VaynerMedia) also practices with his family time. 

  • Always wanted to be an astronaut. He’s scared shitless of heights but would still love to be able to travel to space one day. 

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