Leaders in REM Podcast

Today's guest is Max Rangel, CEO & Global President at Spin Master. 

Guru and Max cover lessons from all across Max's global career, from P&G, The Hershey Company, SC Johnson and now as CEO at Spin Master.

Enjoy our final episode of 2021 :-) 

Today's guest is Sandeep Dadlani, Global Chief Digital Officer at Mars Inc. 

Fun fact, Guru and Sandeep grew up in the same town! 

They cover Sandeep's 16+ year career at Infosys before exploring the story of how it led him to becoming CDO at Mars.

This week's guest is Sri Rajagopalan, Chief Omnichannel Commercial Officer at General Mills.

Sri has had an illustrious career across companies like Frito-Lay, J&J, Revlon and now General Mills, and this episodes dives deep into all the lessons he's learned along the way.

If you enjoyed this conversation, we encourage you to check out Sri's podcast at www.cpgguys.com

This weeks guest is Claudine Patel, CMO at Post Consumer Brands. Prior to joining Post, Claudine was the CMO of NA Health at Reckitt, a role she rose to just 9 months into her time at the company. Her career spans iconic brands owned by companies like Kellogg Company, Kraft Foods, and The Coca-Cola Company and this episode highlights some of the amazing lessons learned over that span of time.

Jim Sanduski started his career in the mailroom at a bank in Omaha — when he was just a junior in high school. He was an aspirational teen, juggling active involvement in multiple youth leadership and professional development organizations, and took advantage of opportunities that stretched and challenged him, like studying abroad in Japan for two years. 

It was interesting to talk to Jim and learn about how influential some of those early experiences were in shaping his career path, which led him to key roles at iconic consumer electronic brands, including Sony, Samsung, HP, Panasonic and now Sharp. Our conversation covered many great learnings on leadership, risk-taking, navigating difficult career decisions and the benefits of international exposure and experience.

Kevin George’s resume is beyond impressive—CMO of Harvest Health, President of Mosaic NA, Global CMO of Beam Suntory, to name a few of his most recent roles—but even more impressive is the path he took to get where he is. Kevin’s story proves that the journey has an immense impact on how successful you will be when you arrive at your “destination,” however high up the corporate ladder you hope to climb. 

CommerceIQ regularly brings together senior business leaders in the e-commerce space to share their story or discuss a particular topic. Prior to the pandemic, these gatherings took the form of a lively dinner. Since we haven’t been able to meet in person, we’ve held these chats online, because it's important to us to continue to play a part in building community among our industry’s leaders. The added benefit of an online venue is that our podcast audience is able to enjoy the conversion now, too.

When my team and I were thinking about who to bring in to help leaders think about navigating this post-pandemic world, we couldn't think of a better person than Hubert Joly. Throughout his career, Hubert led a number of important business transformations, most notably that of Best Buy. Now he is a Harvard Business School professor and best-selling author of the recently released book The Heart of Business: Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism.

Our conversation with Hubert centered around three main topics: the behind-the-scenes of the incredible turnaround of Best Buy, Hubert’s inspiring leadership journey and philosophy, and how these two intertwined to create a lasting legacy at Best Buy.

Kal Raman has had an illustrious career, working alongside iconic entrepreneurs like Sam Walton at Walmart and Jeff Bezos at Amazon.

In between he's started and sold a number of companies, including Founding Drugstore.com at the heart of the dotcom boom, and later jumping into the Daily Deals craze as COO of Groupon.

Kal's story is absolutely incredible. He lost his father as a teenager, forcing his mother to take care of him and his siblings on her own on what inflation adjusted would be $500 a month on a pension.

Today Kal is the Chief Digital Officer at Samsung, leading change and innovation of this iconic consumer electronics brand. 

How Doug Straton used his Founder Mentality to Become Chief Digital Officer of The Hershey Company

Doug Straton is a nonconformist who sets his own rules. This rebellious approach to life is less anti-authority and more a character trait that drives his ambition to seek innovative solutions and build them from the ground up. 

I talked to Doug about his fascinating journey from starting a fraternity at Michigan State to his post-college path through both startup and corporate cultures, and how those experiences led him to his current role as Hershey's Chief Digital Officer. 

If there’s one thing that stood out to me about Doug, it’s that his comfort zone is ever-expanding. He’ll admit when something isn’t part of his existing skill set, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t willing to do the hard work to change that. 

Ben Gadbois arrived in the United States from Canada at age 17, not speaking a lick of English. He wasn't going to let language barriers get in the way of his ambitions. He scrubbed toilets and painted homes to make money in high school, and then put his English skills to the test by waiting tables. Throughout his life, Ben has displayed a dogged determination to better himself and create professional opportunities where others were scared away by obstacles.

When you look at the progression of his career and the age he was when reaching certain milestones, it’s impressive. But when you get into the stories behind each advancement, you see the heart and business savvy that Ben put into each role. 

You'll notice Ben spends a lot of time supporting not-for-profit initiatives. 

Ben takes his family to disadvantaged areas around the world, such as Kenya, India and Ecuador, to build schools or hospitals. They spend about two-thirds of each trip within the local community so that Ben’s kids can be exposed to different ways of living. They also work with U.S. inner city programs as a family. Ben finds that this is a great way for their family to bond while helping his kids appreciate all that they have.

A local Chicago-area organization that Ben and his team at Instant Brands are fond of supporting is Cal’s Angels. This nonprofit focuses on pediatric cancer—raising awareness, granting wishes and funding research.