Speaker 1: You're listening to Math and Magic production my heart radio
Speaker 1: for me, my humanity came out more than ever through
Speaker 1: the pandemic. And maybe it was the combination of COVID,
Speaker 1: but also what was happening with George Floyd and kind
Speaker 1: of the awakening that the world was having to racism.
Speaker 1: I think I was more myself than I had ever
Speaker 1: been and bringing my full self to work. I am
Speaker 1: Bob Pittman, and welcome to Math and Magic. Stories from
Speaker 1: the Frontiers and Marketing. We explored marketing and business from
Speaker 1: the analytical side, math and the creative side magic. Today
Speaker 1: we have someone who stepped into the CMO job just
Speaker 1: as COVID was beginning to hit and had to reimagine
Speaker 1: marketing in the pandemic, both the math and the magic.
Speaker 1: She's the CMO of three m Raymie Kent. Raymie was
Speaker 1: born in the seventies grew up in Atlanta, influenced by
Speaker 1: right brain and left brain parents, giving her that special
Speaker 1: blend of analytics and creativity that makes strong marketers. She
Speaker 1: has an alum of p And, where she had her
Speaker 1: first big successes. She has much to share about growing
Speaker 1: up in environments where she was minority and also where
Speaker 1: she was the majority, and what we can do in
Speaker 1: American business to help achieve racial justice and address racial
Speaker 1: opportunity gaps. She also can share her lessons about marketing
Speaker 1: through the pandemic and the permanent changes to her craft
Speaker 1: as a result. She was named one of forty under
Speaker 1: forty marketers by ad Age, and Savoy magazine named her
Speaker 1: one of the most influential women in Corporate America. Raymie, welcome.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. Bob. I'm truly honored. Well,
Speaker 1: we are delighted to have you, and we're gonna dig
Speaker 1: into some meaty stuff. But before we do that, I'd
Speaker 1: like to do you in sixties seconds. Are you ready?
Speaker 1: Do you prefer early mornings or late nights, late night?
Speaker 1: Introvert or extrovert, introvert, Scotch tape or Scotch liquor Scotch tape,
Speaker 1: meeting or email meeting? Cats or dogs? Dogs? Salty or
Speaker 1: sweet sweet. It's about to get harder. Smartest person you know,
Speaker 1: Sundar Ram secret talent. I'm a pretty good writer. Favorite
Speaker 1: city Atlanta, Georgia. Your first job I was a library
Speaker 1: page favorite app um, probably the posted app favorite book.
Speaker 1: I haven't been reading much lately, But I would have
Speaker 1: to say the Bible, childhood hero, my mom, she could
Speaker 1: do everything. Let's jump in. I read that when you
Speaker 1: stepped into the three mcmo job, which was I think January,
Speaker 1: you were all set to get out, hit the road,
Speaker 1: go see the markets worldwide. When did you realize that
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna happen and how bad did you think this
Speaker 1: was going to be? Well, in January, I think it
Speaker 1: was just kind of a caution that was thrown out
Speaker 1: in terms of the pandemics. So I still had plans
Speaker 1: to visit all of my global counterparts across the world.
Speaker 1: And then I would say by February, I knew that
Speaker 1: I was not going anywhere, and I knew that life
Speaker 1: was dramatically about to change. So I would say by
Speaker 1: the end of February, it was very clear that we
Speaker 1: were in this for longer than a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: So talk to me a minute about how your job
Speaker 1: changed as a result of the pandemic. What became your
Speaker 1: key metrics? Well, Bob our key metrics actually did not
Speaker 1: change vastly. We still focused on brand awareness, sales, growth,
Speaker 1: conversion and traffic and engagement it and overall r O
Speaker 1: I S to make sure that our dollars were being
Speaker 1: spent effectively and we were driving the right outcomes. But
Speaker 1: what I think we really did is focused even more
Speaker 1: deeply on keen understanding of consumers and getting that voice
Speaker 1: of consumer into our marketers hands. Really understanding the sentiment
Speaker 1: and how needs were changing post COVID was really really important,
Speaker 1: and it became our focus area. So that consumer understanding
Speaker 1: just elevated itself during this time. Three M has in
Speaker 1: ninety five respirators pandemic hits. Tell me that story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I kind of breathe in as you asked the question,
Speaker 1: because there's nothing more critical than working at a company
Speaker 1: that is responsible for in I have mass and we
Speaker 1: are the number one producer, and there's a pandemic, and
Speaker 1: mask and PPE are the things that are keeping people safe.
Speaker 1: It is a tremendous responsibility. I couldn't have been prouder
Speaker 1: of the company, and especially Mike Roman's leadership in saying
Speaker 1: we have a responsibility here. This is not about making money,
Speaker 1: This is not about anything beyond keeping people safe. And
Speaker 1: he took the creativity and the innovation and then know
Speaker 1: how of three M R S and he focused it
Speaker 1: towards production of those masks, and we delivered about two
Speaker 1: billion mass in. Well, we all thank you because you
Speaker 1: really did step up. So how did your role as
Speaker 1: a leader changed during the pandemic. All of us were
Speaker 1: handling work and home and everything was melding together and
Speaker 1: people were scared. I think people were going through dramatic
Speaker 1: changes depending upon what their home lives were a lot
Speaker 1: of my people have young kids that they had to manage,
Speaker 1: and so my leadership style, I would say, I consider
Speaker 1: myself a human centered leader. I had to really really
Speaker 1: make sure that I showed up that way, and that
Speaker 1: was making myself more accessible. I tried to be as
Speaker 1: clear as possible. I tried to remove busy work or
Speaker 1: excess work that was not focused. I tried to just
Speaker 1: have real conversations with people and check in and let
Speaker 1: them know that it was okay not to be okay,
Speaker 1: and be relatable. That was really important, and so I
Speaker 1: think that's how my leadership shifted. I think people started
Speaker 1: to know more about me, and I started to know
Speaker 1: more about others. I think all of us suddenly found
Speaker 1: ourselves as a work from home company, which most of
Speaker 1: us never imagined we would do, and it certainly turned
Speaker 1: our world upside down. What surprised you about it that
Speaker 1: you would not have anticipated. What surprised me the most
Speaker 1: was that for me, my humanity came out more than
Speaker 1: ever through the pandemic. And maybe it was the combination
Speaker 1: of COVID, but also what was happening with George Floyd
Speaker 1: and kind of the awakening that the world was having
Speaker 1: to racism. I think I was more myself than I
Speaker 1: had ever been and bringing my full self to work.
Speaker 1: Do you think as a leader, and you you have
Speaker 1: had a great career that you before this pandemic that
Speaker 1: you had to sort of suppress your humanity, put a
Speaker 1: face on it, put a mask on, and that somehow
Speaker 1: the pandemic changed that. I think what the pandemic did was,
Speaker 1: of course, when there is something that is a threat
Speaker 1: to you or your family or your well being, you
Speaker 1: really think about what's important. And for me, love is important.
Speaker 1: People are important, and so that's what brought that to
Speaker 1: the forefront for me. And I just think that as
Speaker 1: I've matured as a leader, I know that to be
Speaker 1: most effective in the magic that I bring to my work,
Speaker 1: the more I can be more human, be more myself,
Speaker 1: accept the good and the flaws and fully embrace myself
Speaker 1: and others. Just the better work I do and the
Speaker 1: more high performance teams I build, It's more and more
Speaker 1: people are vaccinated and the economy comes roaring back, And
Speaker 1: it does look like it's roaring back. How is it
Speaker 1: changing your priorities and how you work for me? One
Speaker 1: of my number one priorities and what I lead in
Speaker 1: my organization is the data and digital transformation and really
Speaker 1: trying to accelerate e commerce. Um, It's always been there,
Speaker 1: but I would say that it's super charged. And then
Speaker 1: I would say the other is really making sure that
Speaker 1: as we're building our brands, we are getting closer and
Speaker 1: closer to the consumer. So how are we building those
Speaker 1: one to one meaningful relationships with consumers and understanding what
Speaker 1: information really is driving their decision making. So let's go
Speaker 1: back in time. I want to get some context on you.
Speaker 1: Let's go to the early years that shaped you. You
Speaker 1: were born in the mid seventies, born in Atlanta. Can
Speaker 1: you paint the picture of that time and place and
Speaker 1: how it impacted you. I was an only child. My
Speaker 1: father is from Sara Leone, West Africa, and my mother
Speaker 1: is from Knoxville, Tennessee, and they met in college, and
Speaker 1: we had a small family. And because my father was
Speaker 1: from sarah Leone, West Africa, he grew up and came
Speaker 1: from small beginnings but really had a yearning for more
Speaker 1: opportunity and saw education as the way to get there.
Speaker 1: And so what I would say in my younger years,
Speaker 1: especially with my father's influence, education was really really important
Speaker 1: to me. So I spent a lot of time studying
Speaker 1: and reading. What'd you like to read? I almost I
Speaker 1: feel like I read everything. I mentioned that I my
Speaker 1: first job was a page in the library, and I
Speaker 1: would pick up nonfiction, I'd pick up fiction. I loved mysteries.
Speaker 1: I loved it all. I really love to learn, and
Speaker 1: so that that means any book is kind of of
Speaker 1: interest to me. You know, it's a shame that people
Speaker 1: don't spend more time in the libraries. Now we have
Speaker 1: this point of connection which I didn't know that I
Speaker 1: actually worked in the library in my small town in Mississippi,
Speaker 1: and I saw so many books and discovered so many
Speaker 1: ideas just from going that looks sort of interesting and
Speaker 1: opening and thumbing through even a few pages and taking
Speaker 1: a few of them home. It's one of those jobs
Speaker 1: you would never think that it would have a value
Speaker 1: to you, but it's it's funny how it does. UM
Speaker 1: talk about your early aspirations, you know you were in
Speaker 1: this environment. Clearly education was important, your parents valued it.
Speaker 1: They spent a lot of time focused on you. What
Speaker 1: did you aspire to be and how were they helping
Speaker 1: you achieve those aspirations. I when I was younger, I
Speaker 1: really thought that I was going to be a lawyer.
Speaker 1: I loved English, and I was told that I was
Speaker 1: pretty persuasive, So that really is where I was tilting.
Speaker 1: And my parents were just highly supportive. In fact, they
Speaker 1: never told me what type of occupation I should have.
Speaker 1: And as I got older, and then when I chose
Speaker 1: to go to Florida A and M, I saw that,
Speaker 1: you know, Florida A and M had a program which
Speaker 1: was an MBA program, and I did the undergraduate piece
Speaker 1: and I said, oh, you know, I'll focus because English
Speaker 1: is too limiting. I'll get a business degree and then
Speaker 1: maybe I'll get an m b A. And then maybe
Speaker 1: I'll go to law school. And so what I learned
Speaker 1: as I was getting interested in marketing curriculum, as I
Speaker 1: was going through school, I felt like I was able
Speaker 1: to bring the persuasive aspects that I loved about being
Speaker 1: a lawyer, looking at multiple sides or views of things
Speaker 1: and then coming to a clear point of view, and
Speaker 1: then being able to persuade others to that. I really
Speaker 1: just started to love marketing, and that's the path that
Speaker 1: I chose. So let's jump on college for a minute.
Speaker 1: I read that you had first decided you wanted to
Speaker 1: go to an HBCU and then set out to figure
Speaker 1: out which one. Talk to us a little bit about
Speaker 1: your thoughts on the power and value of the HBCUs.
Speaker 1: And oh, by the way, Florida A and m Useiversity's
Speaker 1: marching band is unbelievable, world famous, and they were actually
Speaker 1: featured in our I Heart HBCU homecoming celebration last year.
Speaker 1: Oh that's awesome. They are fantastic. I really grew up
Speaker 1: and I felt like I had a lot of experiences
Speaker 1: where I was the minority. I mostly um went to
Speaker 1: predominantly white schools, and I moved into a neighborhood that
Speaker 1: was predominantly black right into high school, and I realized that,
Speaker 1: you know, I felt like I could use more of
Speaker 1: the black experience to be totally honest, and so I
Speaker 1: think my parents thought I was going to go to
Speaker 1: school at Duke or Emery, and I really decided for
Speaker 1: myself that I wanted an HBCU. And the way I
Speaker 1: chose Florida A and M University was that my counselor
Speaker 1: at the time spoke very highly of the business school,
Speaker 1: and I said, Okay, I'll go, and it was close
Speaker 1: to home. It was four hours away, and it felt
Speaker 1: like it was the right choice for me to really
Speaker 1: immerse myself with people that looked like me on a
Speaker 1: daily basis as I matriculated, and it's one of the
Speaker 1: best choices I've ever made. So you leave college, you
Speaker 1: have an undergrad degree, you have an m b A.
Speaker 1: And you land at bell South and that was before
Speaker 1: it was acquired by A T and T. What attracted
Speaker 1: you to that business? You know? It was funny. I
Speaker 1: I definitely always have loved technology, and so when the
Speaker 1: opportunity came up for bell South number one from family,
Speaker 1: I really wanted to get back to Atlanta. So that
Speaker 1: recruitment was great because it allowed me to do so,
Speaker 1: but then also to be in the technology sphere of
Speaker 1: things UM at the time, Bell South was really getting
Speaker 1: into its bundling of your home phone, your internet, your
Speaker 1: cell phone. That was of interest to me, and so
Speaker 1: I was only there for a short period of time
Speaker 1: before I then went to PNG. But it was great
Speaker 1: to be home and it was great to be UM
Speaker 1: at a company that was kind of in Atlanta steadfast
Speaker 1: if you will. Well. PNG is certainly the mecca for marketers,
Speaker 1: and so many brilliant marketers and business people have done
Speaker 1: their time at P and everybody wants to get their
Speaker 1: huge demand for a limited number of jobs. How did
Speaker 1: you get there and why did you get there? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was actually quite different in my route of PNG
Speaker 1: at the time. Um. This was in two thousand. Really
Speaker 1: PNG only recruited from schools, so it was either you know,
Speaker 1: you had an m b A and they took you
Speaker 1: straight from your m b A. And there were not
Speaker 1: experienced workers at the time. And my ex husband was
Speaker 1: actually still at FAM you interviewing with PNG, and he
Speaker 1: proposed at the same time he was interviewing and really said, Hey,
Speaker 1: my fiance needs to look at opportunities and she's a
Speaker 1: great marketer, would love for her to talk to marketing.
Speaker 1: And I got to take the PNG tests. So I
Speaker 1: took that and I passed, and I interviewed. I remember
Speaker 1: interviewing with marketing as well as purchasing, and my purchasing
Speaker 1: interview was the first day went really well. They gave
Speaker 1: me the offer at the end of the course of
Speaker 1: maybe talking to four people. My marketing interview was pretty rigorous. UM,
Speaker 1: I had some great people that I'm still in contact
Speaker 1: with today that interviewed me. But at the end I
Speaker 1: left and they didn't give me the offer. And everybody
Speaker 1: knew that if you didn't get extended the offer, you
Speaker 1: weren't getting a job. And so I was checking my
Speaker 1: voicemail and the HR person was like, you weren't supposed
Speaker 1: to leave the building. We would like to extend you
Speaker 1: an offer. And that's how I went into marketing. So
Speaker 1: it tells us for a second about why PNG is
Speaker 1: such a great education for marketers. What I would say
Speaker 1: that PNG does really well is we say it's a
Speaker 1: great education for marketing, but what it is is really
Speaker 1: a great education for business leadership and marketing mastery. And
Speaker 1: so at PNG uniquely brand building. So owning the brand
Speaker 1: and driving demand for that brand is in concert with
Speaker 1: owning the p n L and the multi functional leadership
Speaker 1: that ives that p n L and you orchestrate it
Speaker 1: like a general manager. And what I think PNG does
Speaker 1: really well is that it has a growth mindset in
Speaker 1: its organization, where even if you do really well the
Speaker 1: year before, it's always about how do you step change
Speaker 1: your performance? And I think by really driving excellence year
Speaker 1: on year, training their people in not only the creative
Speaker 1: aspects of marketing, but the measurement and the analytical aspects
Speaker 1: of marketing, it just makes you a really great business leader.
Speaker 1: And I'm thankful for the opportunity more Mathew Magic right
Speaker 1: after this quick break, welcome back to Math and Magic.
Speaker 1: Now let's hear more from my conversation with Raymie Kent.
Speaker 1: So by two thousand and five, you had you had
Speaker 1: risen to become the brand manager of ol A Skincare
Speaker 1: you lad that brand to remarkable growth with sales up
Speaker 1: nine and profits up thirty? How did you do that?
Speaker 1: One of the things that I love is to reimagine brands,
Speaker 1: and Ola really had been known as kind of your
Speaker 1: mother's brand. And Michael Krensky at the time was my
Speaker 1: general manager, and he had this great vision for we
Speaker 1: are going to reinvent this brand. And so what we
Speaker 1: really started to look at is what were the superior
Speaker 1: technologies that we had in anti aging and how do
Speaker 1: we position those two be very different And so one
Speaker 1: of the first launches that um I was on the
Speaker 1: brand for was the launch of Total Effects, and that
Speaker 1: skincare brand was compared to department store skin care products
Speaker 1: and you know, at a fract and of the cost.
Speaker 1: And then we followed with the launch of ol A Regeneras,
Speaker 1: which I had the responsibility for. We reframed that brand
Speaker 1: against cosmetic procedures and really we're able to show superior
Speaker 1: skin results. And so by really understanding the consumer and
Speaker 1: what was happening in the marketplace, the buying of prestige products,
Speaker 1: and then we created mass stage with Total Effects and
Speaker 1: then the move to well I don't want a cosmetic procedure,
Speaker 1: but I would love to have the results of a
Speaker 1: cosmetic procedure. By providing products that came close to those
Speaker 1: gold standards really changed the trajectory of growth on l A.
Speaker 1: Why does P and G do so much socially responsible
Speaker 1: and focused community programs? Why is it good for them?
Speaker 1: And why did they do it so well? Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: that's a good question for Mark Pritchard. I really feel
Speaker 1: like he has led the way um in that and
Speaker 1: and knowing him, I would say that PNG's brands are
Speaker 1: when you think of them, they are brands for the people, Right, Tied, Pampers, Allay,
Speaker 1: these are leaders in the categories. And so at the end,
Speaker 1: if your goal is to really attract a consumer and
Speaker 1: build loyalty and love they have, Yes, you want to
Speaker 1: provide superior products, but you also want to do good
Speaker 1: while you're doing it. And I think we all have
Speaker 1: a responsibility with that, and I think what Mark Saul
Speaker 1: was that, yes, our responsibility is to build brands and sales,
Speaker 1: but we also can move and change what right looks
Speaker 1: like for brands and for companies. And I think that
Speaker 1: they've played a leadership role in that and I've been
Speaker 1: proud to watch it, and I think what it does
Speaker 1: is clearly tells consumers that not only is this a
Speaker 1: brand that's going to meet the utility that I have,
Speaker 1: but it's also a brand that understands me as a consumer.
Speaker 1: And I think that's a winning formula. You know, you're
Speaker 1: you're so right. And by the way, at our company,
Speaker 1: we've done a lot with P and G and always
Speaker 1: find them to be a remarkable partner and always willing
Speaker 1: to go that extra step to do something important for
Speaker 1: the community and as you say, defining what right is.
Speaker 1: And by the way, we have Mark Pritchard has been
Speaker 1: on Mathemagic, So anyone listening right now, you can go
Speaker 1: back and look at the library there and find the
Speaker 1: episode with Mark who who does get into these Uh,
Speaker 1: these topics are very enlightened. Guy in you joined three
Speaker 1: mst Global Brand and Strategy leader of the Consumer Business Group. Uh.
Speaker 1: How how did you wind up at three M and
Speaker 1: what excited you about three M. I actually came to
Speaker 1: Minnesota with PNG. We had to make a choice for
Speaker 1: our family to stay in Minnesota, and you know, I
Speaker 1: had a short list of companies here that I would
Speaker 1: be interested in, and of course three M has a
Speaker 1: wonderful reputation of innovation and reliability, and at the time,
Speaker 1: there was the opportunity to really come and lead the
Speaker 1: frameworks for the iconic brands that we had, And what
Speaker 1: I did was spend time really building the brand purpose
Speaker 1: and a lot of the fundamentals for each of these
Speaker 1: wonderful brands on their own. But really tightening their equities
Speaker 1: and making sure that they had a real reason for being,
Speaker 1: a purpose that would lead them to growth in the future.
Speaker 1: And that job excited me, like I wanted to work
Speaker 1: on the brands posted scotch Um, had a passion for
Speaker 1: them and thought that they were in a place where
Speaker 1: they could really be reimagined and continue to grow for
Speaker 1: years to come. So I was honored to take the opportunity. Well, everybody,
Speaker 1: of course wants to know about post it, because that's
Speaker 1: got to be the hot brand and the one with
Speaker 1: that incredible backstory. You were alluding to this how do
Speaker 1: you keep it relevant? Uh? And can you talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about how you made it digital? Yeah, So
Speaker 1: I wish I could say that I came up with
Speaker 1: that brilliant idea, but I didn't. The post it app
Speaker 1: launched in two fourteen, but what happened was it launched
Speaker 1: then we didn't let anyone know about it, so we
Speaker 1: really did not bring marketing to bear to bring it
Speaker 1: to life. And so in seventeen I re launched it
Speaker 1: and really connected it to our physical products, so things like,
Speaker 1: you know, making sure that people understood that there was
Speaker 1: an app available when they bought the products, so on
Speaker 1: the packaging, the posted apps present, really building out the
Speaker 1: functionality of the app and making sure that not only
Speaker 1: could you capture the physical note, but creating a digital
Speaker 1: note and really being able to share that to anybody
Speaker 1: that you wanted to organize it and then brainstorm over time,
Speaker 1: um or over space, I should say, with whoever you
Speaker 1: wanted to. And so it was simply reading through the
Speaker 1: consumer inputs. When we talk to people. The number one
Speaker 1: reason that LAPS users stopped using their post it note
Speaker 1: was because that they were using a digital choice to
Speaker 1: keep notes. But what they complained about was it didn't
Speaker 1: have the tactile nature of the three by three the
Speaker 1: physical They couldn't write things down, which often helped them
Speaker 1: to remember. And what we saw was the opportunity was
Speaker 1: to bridge the two. It's not either or. It's not
Speaker 1: physical or digital, it's both. Let's move You talked about
Speaker 1: George Floyd earlier, the other big major event of and
Speaker 1: let's go back there for a minute. UM, I mean
Speaker 1: an awful murder. It's captured on video. All of America
Speaker 1: really came face to face with the issue of racial injustice.
Speaker 1: You're a black woman in a major American Corporation. How
Speaker 1: did you use your position at three M to make
Speaker 1: a difference and how did it affect you? This has
Speaker 1: been interesting and frankly continues to be an interesting daily challenge.
Speaker 1: So your question of about how did I use my position?
Speaker 1: Number one? I think I have a responsibility as a
Speaker 1: black woman to be the voice for others that maybe
Speaker 1: don't feel heard or don't have the ability to speak up,
Speaker 1: especially in corporate America, as to how racial injustice shows
Speaker 1: up for them every day in their workplace, and so
Speaker 1: really using those moments to listen first hear kind of
Speaker 1: what our workforce is saying, and making sure that we're
Speaker 1: talking to those underrepresented people in the workforce, black and
Speaker 1: Hispanic and really getting their true experience and being willing
Speaker 1: to listen even when it I think when you talk
Speaker 1: about racism, often the word just evokes rejection, right. I
Speaker 1: think people want to say, well, I'm not racist, and
Speaker 1: so that defense often gets in the way of hearing
Speaker 1: real life experiences for people. So what I used my
Speaker 1: role to do is is to definitely speak up myself
Speaker 1: and then be a conduit for others then actively saying
Speaker 1: what are we gonna do about it? So I sit
Speaker 1: on my CEO Advisory Council UM and really really helping
Speaker 1: to provide input as too. Corporate America has a responsibility
Speaker 1: here and we need to get our house in order first, right,
Speaker 1: and so what does that look like? Are we are
Speaker 1: we clear on the data? Are we disaggregating the data?
Speaker 1: Are we publishing the data and making ourselves accountable? And
Speaker 1: so really being a partner in that and frankly being
Speaker 1: a safe place for people to bounce things off of that.
Speaker 1: You know, there's the fear of saying the wrong thing,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to be a person who could have
Speaker 1: that exchange and hopefully that person walk away better educated.
Speaker 1: And so it's been tiring, but it has been These
Speaker 1: conversations have to happen, and I think it's the only
Speaker 1: thing that leads to change people listening to this episode.
Speaker 1: How can people have an impact? What can they do
Speaker 1: that maybe they're not doing now? Yeah, the first thing
Speaker 1: that I would say is, um, you have to educate
Speaker 1: yourself on systemic racism. And that can be daunting in
Speaker 1: itself because it's hard to acknowledge. Wow, maybe I've been
Speaker 1: a part of this. It hasn't been my intention, but
Speaker 1: maybe I'm a part of this system, right, And so
Speaker 1: there are many books out there, there are many talks um,
Speaker 1: there are many ways to educate yourself without asking another
Speaker 1: black person, right, And so I say job number one
Speaker 1: is educate yourself on what exists in this country and
Speaker 1: the way the country has been built. And it's everything
Speaker 1: from the education systems to the home ownership, to police
Speaker 1: to corporate America. It runs deep. And so then I
Speaker 1: would say it is really about an act. A small
Speaker 1: act can make a difference. So and when I say
Speaker 1: small act, when you are at work and you hear
Speaker 1: someone saying something inappropriate, correct them, have the courage to
Speaker 1: correct them. And that's a small act. But if everybody
Speaker 1: just takes on one small act or multiple small acts,
Speaker 1: that's where change happens. And so you know, my small
Speaker 1: act is I've brought women together, black and white women,
Speaker 1: and I am taking the opportunity to have what we
Speaker 1: call courageous conversations. And it's a intimate setting where we
Speaker 1: are trying to allow people to say what gets in
Speaker 1: the way of breaking down racism, what the beliefs are,
Speaker 1: what the stereotypes might be, what the situations maybe and
Speaker 1: by allowing those conversations. I am hoping that people learn
Speaker 1: and then they go out and make a change, And
Speaker 1: so that would be my advice. Well a song. We're
Speaker 1: on the subject of advice. Let's let's keep going here.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about some advice you have as a senior
Speaker 1: corporate executive. How do you build corporate cultures to support
Speaker 1: your brand and marketing goals? Bob, This is a good question,
Speaker 1: and it's an important one, and I am in the
Speaker 1: midst of it. I I think building culture is one
Speaker 1: of the most important things we can do as a leader.
Speaker 1: And I don't know that there is a recipe for it,
Speaker 1: but I think it starts with being the culture that
Speaker 1: you want to see and really making sure that that
Speaker 1: culture is set. But then also, I hate to use
Speaker 1: the word governance, but I'm going to use it rewarding
Speaker 1: and recognizing those who exhibit the cultural attributes that you
Speaker 1: are setting forward and really really bringing visibility to those
Speaker 1: behaviors broadly. And so I would say that you know there,
Speaker 1: culture is important. Um when we think about the talent
Speaker 1: that we want to attract, when we think about the
Speaker 1: teams that we want to build, when we think about
Speaker 1: the brands the business that we want to build. I
Speaker 1: think culture is one of the single most things that
Speaker 1: we can do that's going to make a difference and
Speaker 1: set us out to win. So in this when you're
Speaker 1: building this culture, how do you keep everyone from playing
Speaker 1: it safe? Especially in a company like yours where you've
Speaker 1: got these big brands. I'm sure people are scared to
Speaker 1: death to to to take risk on some of these
Speaker 1: How do you make that okay so that you can
Speaker 1: keep innovation going? Yeah, I wish I had a silver
Speaker 1: bullet on that. I am trying to figure that out myself.
Speaker 1: I think one of the things that I have seen
Speaker 1: work effectively is really really putting test and learned dollars
Speaker 1: and investment and allowing people to try some things at
Speaker 1: a smaller scale to demonstrate results and then grow with
Speaker 1: So I would say that that's the number one thing
Speaker 1: that I've seen have people lean in, especially when they're
Speaker 1: not having to bet everything on what they're doing. It's
Speaker 1: a small, calculated risk, and I think people will step
Speaker 1: into that. Good people will step into that. We end
Speaker 1: each episode with a shout out to the great marketers
Speaker 1: of the world. Business people too. We we you've seen
Speaker 1: many you've studied even more, who is the best if
Speaker 1: we think we're thinking math and magic now, so as
Speaker 1: we think about it, who's the best marketer you can
Speaker 1: think of looking at it from the analytical side, the math,
Speaker 1: the mathematician, and who do you think is the best
Speaker 1: from the creative side, the magician if you will mhmm,
Speaker 1: you know, I will say that, Um, I won't name
Speaker 1: a name because I think it's a lot of people,
Speaker 1: but I will say from a mathematicians standpoint, I would
Speaker 1: say that what Netflix is doing with data and under standing,
Speaker 1: in their programming, in their customization, in how they delight
Speaker 1: you with kind of what you need at the right moments,
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty interesting and so I've been really
Speaker 1: impressed there. Okay, so give it to us on the
Speaker 1: creative side, on the magician's side. Yeah, I'm gonna say so.
Speaker 1: I may tilt this a little bit, but I'm anna
Speaker 1: same magician, and I don't know if I would call
Speaker 1: it creative as much, but it definitely is magic by
Speaker 1: what Amazon has been able to do, and not so
Speaker 1: much that they are an incredible logistics company and they have. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I feel like they're taking over the world for sure.
Speaker 1: What I really love about what they've been able to
Speaker 1: do is I think, as a consumer and customer of Amazon,
Speaker 1: when you do not get a package on your doorstep,
Speaker 1: there is a psychological trigger that's happening that almost feels
Speaker 1: like something's wrong, that your behavior is not right. Once
Speaker 1: you've gotten into that kind of fly will of getting
Speaker 1: packaging whenever you need it with whatever items you need,
Speaker 1: and when it doesn't happen that way, it feels off.
Speaker 1: So they're becoming the norm, and I think it's magical. Raymie,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining us and congrats on all your success.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for the opportunity. It's really been
Speaker 1: fun to talk to you. Here are a few things
Speaker 1: I picked up in my conversation with Raymie. One, when
Speaker 1: responding to a crisis, leaders have to consider more than
Speaker 1: the bottom line. During a pandemic, three M symmetrics for
Speaker 1: success shifted from growth and innovation to consumer safety, and
Speaker 1: consequently made the decision to reality a production resources to
Speaker 1: deliver in ninety five mass to be a human centered leader.
Speaker 1: When COVID nineteen hit, Raymie's leadership priorities changed. Not only
Speaker 1: did she make sure she was accessible to her team
Speaker 1: and created a more flexible work environment, but she also
Speaker 1: communicated that it was okay to not be okay. Three.
Speaker 1: The secret to big ideas is often to start small.
Speaker 1: As Raymie says, one effective way of fostering innovation is
Speaker 1: to let smaller groups within the company experiment. These tests
Speaker 1: and learn opportunities create a sense of ownership among employees
Speaker 1: and lead to accelerated progress. Four. Listen first and then
Speaker 1: speak up on how injustice shows up at work. Raymy
Speaker 1: shared that to understand the needs of underrepresented people in
Speaker 1: the workforce, leaders have to be willing to put down
Speaker 1: any feelings of defensiveness, listen well, and then take informed action.
Speaker 1: I'm Bob Pittman. Thanks for listening. That's it for today's episode.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening to Math and Magic, a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. The show is hosted by
Speaker 1: Bob Pittman. Special thanks to Sue Schillinger for booking and
Speaker 1: wrangling our wonderful talent, which is no small feed, Merissa
Speaker 1: Brown for pulling research, our editor, Derek Clements, our producer,
Speaker 1: Morgan Levoy, our executive producer, Nikki Etor, and of course
Speaker 1: Gayle Rahul, Eric Angel, Noel Mango, and everyone who helped
Speaker 1: bring this show to your ears until next time.