Three business tips that Pepsi, Macy’s, and Salesforce executives most cherish from their mentors:
- Listening may be the single most important skill set for a great leader, said Chris Kuechenmeister, Senior Vice President at PepsiCo. “Listening turns into support and action that is valued” — an extremely important lesson learned from his mentor.
- Learning to build relationships and be collaborative with other company departments is one key to success, according to Bobby Amirshahi, Macy’s Senior Vice President of Communications.
- Understanding how to put the person who you are doing business with first is central to a successful business relationship, said Rob Garf, Vice President and General Manager of Retail at Salesforce. He learned this from his mentor because “he made you feel special,” he said.
Think about your favorite rock band. Its best-selling album is often a collection of its greatest hits. That’s precisely why CO— has gathered this collection of greatest hits from its feature series on the enormous imprints that mentors can leave on senior executives, and the business lessons learned.
Timely advice from their mentors through the years — sometimes more than anything else — is what’s led to successful critical decision-making for senior executives from big brand name companies including PepsiCo, Macy’s, Salesforce, and Oracle Netsuite.
Their strategies result from spot-on workplace advice from mentors that have influenced everything from how one major brand created a successful internal marketing campaign to how a giant retailer aligned its brand with a like-minded charitable organization.
Here’s how four senior executives discovered how to turn their mentors’ seminal advice into their own business success stories.
The mentor’s advice: Put diversity and inclusion front-and-center
Chris Kuechenmeister, Senior Vice President Communications, PepsiCo
As far as Chris Kuechenmeister, Senior Vice President of Communications at PepsiCo, is concerned, no one gave him better lessons about the workplace — and about life — than Randy Melville, former Senior Vice President of Sales at Frito-Lay North America.
Key to those lessons was the notion of making diversity and inclusion a central part of his day-to-day actions. “He taught me a lot about what it means to build diversity and inclusion into your teams, your work, and your life,” Kuechenmeister said. But it became more than a lesson. It ultimately grew into a lifetime commitment. “All of these things have sat within me and grown inside me and helped me to be a better leader and person,” said Kuechenmeister.
A mentor-inspired business win in action: Internal PepsiCo campaign that celebrated women
Through his many job titles at PepsiCo, Kuechenmeister has also overseen internal communications. One particular year, as Women’s History Month approached, his team made the inspired choice to laser-focus its message on celebrating women in frontline careers in PepsiCo’s beverage business.
“We did that by identifying women to honor across the U.S. and Canada, and putting their pictures on the sides of delivery trucks to celebrate their impact and draw attention to their frontline careers at PepsiCo for women,” Kuechenmeister told CO—.
None of this happened by accident. It happened, Kuechenmeister said, because his team collaborated with other teams to spread the positive message. But most of all, he said, it happened because of the strong mentorship influence of Melville. “Randy’s imprint drives the culture of my team,” he said.
[Read more: PepsiCo’s SVP on How His Mentor’s Guidance Made Him a Better Leader]
The mentor’s advice: Embrace your own diversity and seek out others who do the same
Bobby Amirshahi, Senior Vice President of Communications, Macy’s
Until Bobby Amirshahi met Bob Jimenez at Cox Communications, he’d never considered leaning into being Middle Eastern or openly gay. That all changed when Jimenez helped him to realize that he needed to represent the person he was — not someone else who he was supposed to be, Amirshahi said.
“Now I understand how important it is to lean into your identity to help others in the company feel safe,” he told CO— in an interview.
That notion was not particularly common in 2007, when the two men first worked together. At the time, Jimenez was the only other non-Caucasian person on the senior team. “He leaned into his identity as a Hispanic male,” Amirshahi recalled. That was a way for Jimenez to open doors for other relationships outside the company. “His comfort with that role gave others comfort in being themselves with him,” Amirshahi said.
Timely advice from their mentors through the years — sometimes more than anything else — is what’s led to successful critical decision-making for senior executives from big brand name companies including PepsiCo, Macy’s, Salesforce, and Oracle Netsuite.
A mentor-inspired business win in action: Adopting diverse mentoring as a core business strategy
Amirshahi ultimately found himself leading the charge on various diversity and inclusion initiatives at Macy’s. It should be no surprise that Macy’s social purpose platform calls itself “Mission Every One.” That, of course, means leaving no one out.
“The idea of empowering the next generation in our communities and in our nation is critical,” he shared with CO—. Macy’s decided that the most effective way to do this was to bring in mentorship partners. And so, Amirshahi said, Macy’s brought in one with a boatload of name recognition: Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBSA).
By embracing BBSA, Macy’s pumped a lot more resources into formal and informal mentoring, he said. “At Macy’s we think of diversity as a business strategy.” Proof positive: Macy’s even started the “Best Mentors of Macy’s” contest, he said.
The mentor’s advice: Get to know your customers — especially during the holiday
Rob Garf, Vice President and General Manager of Retail at Salesforce
One thing is clear: Demandware CEO Tom Ebling had no idea that his underling, Rob Garf, viewed him as a mentor. Garf told CO— that nowhere was that mentorship in a higher gear than during Demandware’s annual holiday party.
The splashy party for the company’s customers, which always took place in New York City, was when Garf most closely observed his mentor, Ebling, in action.
“Tom would memorize every customer’s name and something about them,” Garf recalled. What’s more, the CEO also took the time to personally thank every customer and acknowledge each one of them individually.
A mentor-inspired business win in action: Getting into the holiday spirit with customers year-round
Fast-forward and with Garf now overseeing retail at Salesforce, he regularly reflects on his years under Ebling at Demandware — particularly when holiday time rolls around.
In fact, he said in the CO— interview, the holiday period now encompasses one of Salesforce’s largest programs of the year. And it’s not by mistake, Garf said, that he embraces holiday time as a special opportunity to get to know as many customers as possible even better.
“Tom taught me how to be a trusted advisor and friend to every customer, not just during holiday, but throughout the year,” Garf said.
The mentor’s advice: Embrace the habit of always listening to your customers
Allison Auclair, Group Vice President of Product Management, Oracle NetSuite
It’s one thing to listen to your customers. It’s something else, entirely, to not only listen to them, but then figure out very specific ways to solve their problems.
That came into focus while Allison Auclair, Group Vice President of Product Management for Oracle NetSuite, worked for and closely observed her former boss, Jean Kovacs, who was CEO and Co-founder of Comergent (now part of IBM).“She’s the one who taught me how to be customer-centric,” Auclair said.
A mentor-inspired business win in action: Taking quick action on customer concerns
While working as a project manager at Sterling Commerce, Auclair emulated this same customer-centric technique. She visited all the key customers, she said, then asked every one of them this key question: “What keeps you up at night?”
Once she received the customer responses, she took their concerns back to the team — which immediately began working on solutions. “It created a whole new level of understanding about customer problems,” Auclair said.
She brought this same philosophy with her to Oracle NetSuite. There, business customers were very clear about wanting a payment link so their customers could simply click and pay electronically for their purchases. So, the company then met with a number of customers to find out precisely how they wanted it to work. “We were then able to create something more widely adopted,” Auclair said.
CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.
CO—is committed to helping you start, run and grow your small business. Learn more about the benefits of small business membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, here.
