Learnings from Leaders: the P&G Alumni Podcast

“People are interconnected in India, there's an interdependence that doesn't exist here — a connectedness, a togetherness.” To continue our series on travel - we’re going to (talk about) India, with co-hosts Sharad Lal and Rajiv Satyal, who also happen to be of Indian origin. At the turn of the century, many said India had gone through more change in 20 years than the West had gone through in a century. And now we’re another 20 years later. India is an emergent superpower on the world stage - some would argue a swing vote on the geopolitical map — with all the same sort of wonder people have romanticized over decades, but now also with all the social and political growing pains one would expect from such a...colorful country.

David Taylor & A.G. Lafley are two of P&G's Emeritus CEOs, who joined the recent recent P&G Alumni Global Conference in Washington DC for a candid conversation going beyond their personal stories - or even the stories of the day - to discuss their approaches to some of the broad challenges we have to face together, to meet the moment...

“There's a better way to live and work — Dan showed you can be effective and have a good time doing it.” “For someone to be in a rock band and talk like a rock star, and still have the command and respect of your business partners — it showed that you can get beyond stereotypes and be successful.” Dan Hamilton was a longtime friend and mentor to many - an experienced marketing, media, and creative leader - who passed away suddenly last December of 2022. This is the second of two conversations with friends and colleagues who knew Dan - this one with two fellow P&G Digital Alums: Bob Arnold, now a Media Innovation leader at Google, and Aaron Fetters, now CEO of Transparent Partners.  https://adage.com/article/opinion/ocean-spray-remembers-dan-hamilton/2459791 Dan Hamilton was a dreamer, a mentor, and someone who had a passion for coloring outside the lines and breaking all the rules, and bringing us along for the ride. Dan was a bandmate, a father, and a friend. He was born in Seattle in 1969 to Valerie and Vernon “Bud” Hamilton. Bud is a fellow P&G Alum who retired after 37 years as a VP in Sales, Marketing, and Governance, and one of the reasons Dan came to P&G. Dan grew up in Cincinnati later studied journalism and jazz guitar at the University of Cincinnati and CCM, he co-founded the band Spookfloaters, which he toured with, then went back get his Masters of Computer Science from Miami of Ohio, after which he joined P&G as one of the earliest digital marketing managers, starting in the beauty business on Olay. Dan quickly changed the game in digital, rising to become media leader of Olay, arguably one of P&G’s most innovative brands in marketing and media during Dan’s tenure. Over nearly 15 years Dan worked across Olay digital, Olay media, Olay design, P&G’s corporate brand, and personal care. Dan spent another seven years in Colorado as a marketing, media and creative leader @ WhiteWave Foods, as it later merged with Danone. In 2021 he joined Ocean Spray as the company’s Head of Marketing Center of Excellence.  Across his entire career, Dan was a friend and mentor to the many who had the privilege of working with him. He was always one of the Alums we wanted to reconnect with on this Learnings from Leaders podcast, but we regret missing our chance. So to capture some of the “Learnings from Dan” - we wanted to share a few stories from those that knew him well. Got a Dan story? Please send an email or voice memo to pgalumpod@gmail.com - we’d love to hear it, and share with the many friends and family who survive him. We know you’ll enjoy this candid conversation about our good friend Dan.

“Don’t give up on the things that you believe are worth fighting for - Dan had this endless optimism - if you fought hard enough that you could make anything work.” Dan Hamilton was a longtime friend and mentor to many - an experienced marketing, media, and creative leader - who passed away suddenly last December of 2022. This is the first of two conversations with friends and colleagues who knew Dan over the years - this one with Monisha Dabek, Chief Commercial Officer of Ocean Spray Cranberries, who was one of Dan’s friends and partners in his most recent professional adventures at Ocean Spray and Whitewave. https://adage.com/article/opinion/ocean-spray-remembers-dan-hamilton/2459791 Dan Hamilton was a dreamer, a mentor, and someone who had a passion for coloring outside the lines and breaking all the rules, and bringing us along for the ride. Dan was a bandmate, a father, and a friend. He was born in Seattle in 1969 to Valerie and Vernon “Bud” Hamilton. Bud is a fellow P&G Alum who retired after 37 years as a VP in Sales, Marketing, and Governance, and one of the reasons Dan came to P&G. Dan grew up in Cincinnati later studied journalism and jazz guitar at the University of Cincinnati and CCM, he co-founded the band Spookfloaters, which he toured with, then went back get his Masters of Computer Science from Miami of Ohio, after which he joined P&G as one of the earliest digital marketing managers, starting in the beauty business on Olay. Dan quickly changed the game in digital, rising to become media leader of Olay, arguably one of P&G’s most innovative brands in marketing and media during Dan’s tenure. Over nearly 15 years Dan worked across Olay digital, Olay media, Olay design, P&G’s corporate brand, and personal care. Dan spent another seven years in Colorado as a marketing, media and creative leader @ WhiteWave Foods, as it later merged with Danone. In 2021 he joined Ocean Spray as the company’s Head of Marketing Center of Excellence.  Across his entire career, Dan was a friend and mentor to the many who had the privilege of working with him. He was always one of the Alums we wanted to reconnect with on this Learnings from Leaders podcast, but we regret missing our chance. So to capture some of the “Learnings from Dan” - we wanted to share a few stories from those that knew him well. Got a Dan story? Please send an email or voice memo to pgalumpod@gmail.com - we’d love to hear it, and share with the many friends and family who survive him. We know you’ll enjoy this candid conversation about our good friend Dan.

“Things that are outside your control, be transparent — because oftentimes those collisions of change can create innovation.” Carol Fusek is a Neuroleadership Institute brain-based coach who works with individuals, organizations and families to help them thrive. Currently based in Singapore, Carol was P&G’s Asia’s Associate Director of Customer Service & Logistics, where during her 26-year career with P&G she held various leadership roles. As a coach, Carol’s coaching is influenced by brain science and how it can shape leaders and teams. In this candid conversation, we discuss how brain based coaching can bring about lasting change. Carol shares about the SCARF model — which involves five domains of human social experience: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness — a powerful neuroscience based model for coaching. We explore hot topics - inclusion, psychological safety, trust. We talk about how leaders and organizations can prepare for change and a lot more. This is a continuation of our series with P&G Alumni Coaching where leading Alumni will dive deep on relevant topics. Just as professional athletes have a coach to help them perform at their best, coaching can help you thrive in career and life life, through powerful questioning, exploration, and action planning. P&G Alums can learn more and sign up for their first free first session @ coaching.pgalums.com.

Thanksgiving’s always been special because it combines two universally loved things, being around friends and family, and food — some of the very topics we talk about on another podcast (of Raman's): MODERN MINORITIES, where we share minority voices for all our majority ears. So we decided to revisit of our favorite questions with some of our favorite FrieMMds of the Pod over the years: Raman Sehgal (UK edition), Jieun Kirtley, Justin Richmond, Tyanne Benallie, Andres Barragan, Paris Hatcher, Steven Wakabayashi, Mira Jacob, Jonathan Hill, Gina Brillon, Ian Haddock, Dani Goulet, Gene Luen Yang, Sara Alfageeh, Bhavik Kumar, Aaliyah Habeeb, Tolentino, Seif Hamid, Nidhi Chanani, Victor Luckerson, Chirstina Lee, Sung Kang, and Mandi Sehgal So enjoy some delicious - and not so delicious recos as you make your final run to pick up some last minute cranberry sauce (or chutney!). We hope you’re making the time to be with folks you care about, and find a moment to enjoy some great food with them. Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours...

“Don’t look for conflicts — look for issues. Because every issue or problem is an opportunity to learn and grow.” Kshitij Mulay is currently Sephora’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Asia - enabling the prestige beauty retailer win in digital, eCommerce and data in the omni channel world. Kshitij is a commercial tech leader with over 20 years experience across APAC in local, regional & global capacity. Prior to joining Sephora, Kshitij was the Global CIO for SK-II and has also served as P&G India CIO and Shared Services Leader. At P&G, Kshitij was a master trainer for the “Corporate Athlete” and “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” training programs in the company. An engineer & MBA by qualification, Kshitij is married with 1 daughter residing in Singapore. You’ll enjoy this candid conversation about the need for passion, honesty and a growth mindset - all in service of growing as a leader and finding purpose at work.

“Just realize every decision you make is a prediction and act like it - figure out what it is implicitly predicting and make that explicit.” Annie Duke is an author and a consultant in the decision making space, as well as a former professional poker player. Annie is the only woman to have won the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions and the NBC National Poker Heads Up Championship. Prior to becoming a professional poker player, Annie was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship to study cognitive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Annie is the co-founder of the Alliance for Decision Education, a nonprofit whose mission is to improve lives by empowering students through decision skills education. My discussion with Annie focuses on her recent book, “How to Decide, Simple Tools for Making Better Choices.“ But Annie is not exactly a P&G Alumni, so what’s the deal? Alongside our partners at P&G, we’re thrilled to share another episode of P&G’s “More Than Soap” podcast - available exclusively each week to P&G Employees at GetMoreThanSoap.com. On “More Than Soap,” P&G shares weekly conversations with Inspiring guests, unique perspectives, and unconventional ideas. “More Than Soap” is P&G’s official internal podcast - available to all 100,000 P&G employees worldwide, and hosted by Dorion Positano, P&G’s Director of New Business and Content Innovation and AI Integration Strategy. Interested in learning more about P&G’s “More Than Soap” podcast, or P&G Studios, can reach out directly to Dorion on LinkedIn. GetMoreThanSoap.com

“It's not about how you get results from yourself but learning how you're going to get results through other people and how you bring other people along.” Kenneth Chan is a seasoned CEO and Organization Leader with over 30 years experience in Fortune 500 companies such as P&G, McDonald’s, PepsiCo, and Singapore Airlines. Kenneth was McDonald’s Chief Executive Officer for China and Division President for the Greater China region between 2009 to 2015. Kenneth led an organization of 150,000 employees and oversaw the fastest period of expansion at that time — opening over 1,000 restaurants in the span of 5 years. Kenneth was awarded the prestigious "Overseas CEO Award" at the Singapore Business Awards (2014), as well as the "Leading CEO Award" by the Singapore Human Resources Institute (2007). Kenneth He now serves as a strategic advisor and executive mentor. You’ll enjoy this deep, humble conversation on creating one’s authentic leadership style, how Asians can become strong leaders, and importance of values during adversity.

“If somebody tells you no, from their perspective, they see ‘N-O’ — but from my side, I see ‘O-N’ — meaning it just turns me ON to try to say, ‘How can I prove somebody wrong?’ ” Sophia Toh is a Professional Certified Coach with 20 years of experience in corporate finance, accounting, strategy, organizational, and entrepreneurial leadership. Sophia has worked for multi-billion brands leading organization development and transformation. Sophia served CFO of P&G’s subsidiary, Walker & Company Brands, and VP of Financial Transformation at Kraft Heinz. As a Coach, Sophia is credentialed by the International Coaching Federation, a certified coach by the Gallup Clifton’s Strengths organization, Coach Diversity Institute, and Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder-Centered Coaching Center. She is also a certified trainer in the Four Stages of Psychological Safety™. Sophia is passionate about giving back to the community - volunteering in nonprofit organizations and alumni networks, mentoring and providing coaching pro-bono for students and early career professionals, leveraging her expertise and experience to pay forward and impact the world positively. Her company, Illuminate U Coaching was featured by ManageHR Magazine in 2022 as one of the top 10 emerging leadership development companies in the US.After hundreds of coaching sessions and clients, Sophia had the honor of witnessing incredible success stories – helping individuals find their voice, step into their confidence, and taking giant leaps toward their dream roles.  This is a continuation of our series with P&G Alumni Coaching where leading Alumni will dive deep on relevant topics. Just as professional athletes have a coach to help them perform at their best, coaching can help you thrive in career and life life, through powerful questioning, exploration, and action planning. P&G Alums can learn more and sign up for their first free first session @ coaching.pgalums.com.