As part of his summer travels this year, Jack Oakes was able to help set up and attend a meeting with Jaya Kumar, Chief Marketing Officer at Frito-Lay, and Bob Bruner in Dallas. Here are his reflections on the meeting…
Walking through the offices and seeing the memorable ads, packaging, and displays reminded me of all the great reasons some students choose to work in product marketing where you can touch, see, and, yes, taste, what you have created!
The discussion with Jaya and Bob focused on a number of aspects of Frito-Lay’s ongoing needs for MBA talent and ended with an agreement to build a “thought-leadership” relationship between Frito-Lay and Darden.
While there will be reports later on about the components and goals of that relationship, I wanted to share some reflections on other topics that came up during the course of our conversation:
Corporate America’s emphasis on sustainability will accelerate quickly and achieve stunning results…
Jaya Kumar reviewed a number of sustainability initiatives that Frito-Lay is undertaking, among them efforts to reduce usage of water and power. The results to date are eye-popping…(as described on the website)
· Since implementing water recycling and conservation efforts in 1999, we’ve reduced the amount of water we need to make our product by more than 1 billion gallons of water per year. Efforts like recycling the water used in making our potato and corn snacks have reduced the amount of fresh water used in these processes by 35% to 50%.
· Frito-Lay also has a variety of programs in place to reduce solid waste. For example, we reuse the cartons that transport bags of chips an average of five times before they are recycled, reducing the demand for paperboard by nearly 120,000 tons a year. This recycling effort saves 5 million trees from being harvested for our needs alone and diverts about 56 million pounds of cardboard away from landfills each year.
And, Jaya emphasized that the best paths into sustainability-related work continue to be the core businesses themselves which are the best places to have great impact – seeing sustainability as a corporate add-on or as a separate career path to pursue will not be productive.
Some of the best leaders are those who approach their roles as “servant leadership”…
Jaya was quite articulate in reviewing his style of leadership which is typified by working with his team to set strategic direction and goals and then to “remove obstacles to achieve the objectives.” He sees himself as a “servant leader,” helping to ensure his team has the resources and unobstructed paths to reach their goals. While there are a wide variety of approaches to and styles of leadership one could consider, I believe thinking through one’s choices and then purposefully adopting one (or even blending a few) is critical for success in leading not only others but one’s self.
Frito-Lay wants to have “muscular brands” and makes “no apologies” for having strong brands which will compete vigorously with others…
While Jaya’s comments clearly focused on Frito-Lay’s products, the phrase “muscular brand” is an intriguing one and reminded me of the importance of personal branding for success in career search. Perhaps you have heard of Peter Montoya’s and Tim Vandehey’s 2003 book The Brand Called You. Using time-tested marketing and business management principles, the authors wrote it to be “the definitive training manual and sourcebook on Personal Branding – the process that takes your skills, personality, and unique characteristics and packages them into a powerful identity tool that lifts you above the crowd…” As the recruiting season fast approaches, it will be critical for you to think through how to position your skills, personality, and unique characteristics to meet the needs of recruiters. How would you describe your brand? Is it a “muscular” one, if it you think it needs to be? How would your friends and colleagues describe the key essence of your brand, and would those descriptions be in line with your own thoughts and strategies?
Though The Brand Called You is intended for those who manage their own businesses, the advice and tips are equally relevant for those embarking on searches for new careers, whether just for a summer internship or for full-time employment. You may want to review it as parts of your final summer reading…see you in August!