Ten minutes into the first job interview, Wendy Chang Smith knew that Glanbia was the right fit for her. As someone for whom company culture, values and learning experiences are paramount, Wendy was bowled over by the “wisdom and experience” of the two colleagues on the panel and felt like she had known them for years – “ I was sold, I was ready to join this company.”
But the idea of taking on the role of CFO of Glanbia Performance Nutrition was also very compelling from a business perspective. The company’s main brand, Optimum Nutrition, has been around for over 35 years, is sold in more than 90 countries, and recently became Glanbia’s first billion-dollar brand. Yet despite being the world’s number one sports nutrition brand, its growth potential in major markets like the US is very significant, and this was a challenge that excited Wendy.
In this episode of The EY Podcast: CFO Outlook Podcast, Wendy Chang Smith, CFO of Glanbia Performance Nutrition, joins Jonathan Healy to talk about working in some of the world’s biggest multinationals, her vision for the future of sports nutrition, and why company culture is so important to her.
They also discuss:
· The three qualities of a highly effective business strategy
· Why she believes that risk-taking is important for generating additional value for the company
· Wendy’s role as global sponsor for the Glanbia Women’s ERG and why Diversity and Inclusion is so important to her
· Glanbia’s investment globally in Research & Development
· Wendy’s time working in with major multinationals including Amazon, Johnson and Johnson, Procter and Gamble, and Kellogg’s.
· Adapting to Irish weather and culture, and why an encounter with a dead jellyfish made Wendy and her family realise that moving to Ireland was the right decision !
Ten minutes into the first job interview, Wendy Chang Smith knew that Glanbia was the right fit for her. As someone for whom company culture, values and learning experiences are paramount, Wendy was bowled over by the “wisdom and experience” of the two colleagues on the panel and felt like she had known them for years – “ I was sold, I was ready to join this company.”
But the idea of taking on the role of CFO of Glanbia Performance Nutrition was also very compelling from a business perspective. The company’s main brand, Optimum Nutrition, has been around for over 35 years, is sold in more than 90 countries, and recently became Glanbia’s first billion-dollar brand. Yet despite being the world’s number one sports nutrition brand, its growth potential in major markets like the US is very significant, and this was a challenge that excited Wendy.
In this episode of The EY Podcast: CFO Outlook Podcast, Wendy Chang Smith, CFO of Glanbia Performance Nutrition, joins Jonathan Healy to talk about working in some of the world’s biggest multinationals, her vision for the future of sports nutrition, and why company culture is so important to her.
They also discuss:
· The three qualities of a highly effective business strategy
· Why she believes that risk-taking is important for generating additional value for the company
· Wendy’s role as global sponsor for the Glanbia Women’s ERG and why Diversity and Inclusion is so important to her
· Glanbia’s investment globally in Research & Development
· Wendy’s time working in with major multinationals including Amazon, Johnson and Johnson, Procter and Gamble, and Kellogg’s.
· Adapting to Irish weather and culture, and why an encounter with a dead jellyfish made Wendy and her family realise that moving to Ireland was the right decision !
George Deegan: Welcome to the EY CFO Outlook podcast. In this series, we feature some of Ireland's finance function leaders sharing interesting perspectives on a range of topics, from driving growth in their business to leading major finance transformation. I'm George Deegan, a partner and sponsor of our CFO agenda programme here at EY. In this podcast, I'm delighted to welcome Wendy Chang Smith of Glanbia Performance Nutrition. Focused on helping consumers meet their performance and lifestyle goals. Their brands are sold in over 100 countries worldwide, making them the number one sports nutrition company in the world and part of the Glanbia Group. Jonathan, over to you.
Jonathan Healy: Wendy Chang Smith, you're very welcome. Thank you for joining us.
Wendy Chang Smith: Thank you, Jonathan.
Jonathan Healy: Tell us a little bit, first of all, about your role. What are you doing right now?
Wendy Chang Smith: Great. Thanks for that question. And first of all, Jonathan, it's great to be here with you today. And about my current role, I'm the chief financial officer for Glanbia Performance Nutrition and we are one of the divisions for Glanbia. And Glanbia is a company that delivers consumer brands and science and ingredient solutions for nutritional needs.
Jonathan Healy: It is an incredibly fast growing sector and we're going to get to that in a little while. But I'm intrigued by your accent. It tells me you didn't grow up in Ireland. Would I be right?
Wendy Chang Smith: You're absolutely correct. I was born in Taiwan and lived there until I was 12 years old, and then my family moved to America.
Jonathan Healy: So what kind of a household did you grow up in?
Wendy Chang Smith: I had a mother and father, and then I also have an older brother who was about eight years older than me. So a lot of times I feel a little bit like a single child at home sometimes just because he's a little bit older.
Jonathan Healy: And what did your parents do? Were they in any kind of a similar area to what you're in now?
Wendy Chang Smith: Not at all. Actually, they were both educators. In fact, my mother was a college professor. My father was a high school principal. So personally, growing up, I actually wanted to get into education.
Jonathan Healy: What stopped you from doing that? Because if you were surrounded by that as a child, inevitably the question would be asked, well, why don't you follow Mom and Dad?
Wendy Chang Smith: That's a great question. In fact, I had aspired to do that. And I'll tell you a little story here. When I was in college, I actually aspired to be a math professor. I've always been a very analytical person and really enjoy studying math and was pursuing my PhD, in fact. And maybe one of those early stories about, you know, someone when you're young and could have an epiphany, sort of happened to me. I was in a graduate mathematics class, and it was one of those situations where the professor was very... a bit of an arrogant man, but he was very smart. But he came into the class almost the first day and told us, you know, here's the final grade for you. If you can fix this problem right now for me, then you could just walk out of the class without even sitting through the next four months and none of us could solve it. So he said, okay, you better stay and do your lessons. And during those classes, we usually do... if you remember those textbooks in college, Jonathan, you know how the questions are in the back of the chapter and they're usually your homework studies. And in fact, he assigned us one question in the back of the chapter every month. We would go through one chapter per month. And he assigned number one for every single month. And then there was one month he actually gave us a compliment. He said, hey, guys, you know, we're getting through this question quicker than I thought. So let's move on to number two. Question number two in the back of the chapter. And I did this look around in the room like, well, okay. He assigned number one. I didn't do number two. And I quickly realized that my colleagues in the room had all done all of the questions in the chapter because, you know, they loved the subject they were studying because it was something that they were passionate about versus, you know, the teacher told me.
Jonathan Healy: You were going through the mechanic. They were going through it for passion.
Wendy Chang Smith: Exactly. Well, I think I was pretty good at it but I realized that I was not necessarily passionate about it. And, you know, if you're going to pursue a PhD, it should be something you have absolute passion for. So I decided to shift my studies to more business.
Jonathan Healy: So how did you do that? And was there a particular area of business that you were attracted to?
Wendy Chang Smith: Definitely. I think given my more quantitative background and kind of my propensity towards mathematics, I certainly was very familiar with, you know, analytics and mathematics. So I really kind of geared towards finance. So that's where I am today - in finance.
Jonathan Healy: What was your first job in finance?
Wendy Chang Smith: My first job in finance I worked for Procter and Gamble and this was, I was based out of Cincinnati, Ohio, and worked there for nearly ten years. And it was a great training ground for any finance professionals. Really had a great experience there.
Jonathan Healy: Procter and gamble, big, huge company. It's easy to get lost in a large company like that. How did you avoid that?
Wendy Chang Smith: Oh, that's a great question. I think like any young professional, you go into a company, you try to figure out what it is that you can really make an impact. And P&G was such a well-established institution. There was a process for everything that anyone could think of. It's almost difficult to try and come in and reinvent something new. But the one thing that I always thought about is, one thing I do like to give people feedback is, you know, how do you achieve breakthrough in your position? And breakthrough sounds like a fancy word, but the way I think about it is, can you improve something slightly better than what it was yesterday? And then you've provided value to the company. So that's kind of my philosophy always, even if it's a simple month end report that we usually do in finance, could I make it, you know, a little bit more insightful for my business partners? Could I do it, you know, 5% less time than I did last month, then I would achieved a little bit of breakthrough that I can provide extra value. And that's kind of what I always focus on in all of my assignments. Could I make this thing a little bit better than what I did yesterday?
Jonathan Healy: Your career has obviously benefited from that, and people will have seen the advantage that you were bringing. So from P&G, did you stay in that kind of, let's call it a consumer space more than anything else?
Wendy Chang Smith: I did mostly. So Procter and Gamble is mostly a consumer products company. So I had a really great time working there, worked in health care, beauty care and also in their pharmaceuticals division for a short time. But after a while, just more on the personal side, my husband and I decided to move from Cincinnati, Ohio to California. We were based in the States at the time, and so I was willing to part ways with P&G, but they actually offered me to work from home for about a year and a half, and it was a great time, but there was just a lot of traveling. So I ended up actually joining Johnson and Johnson while I was staying in California.
Jonathan Healy: These are, again, big firms, big names. When you're coming in like that, you were coming in with your experience, not the experience you have now, but the experience you had then. Was it intimidating to join these big firms for a number of reasons, being, you know, new to an area, being a female executive coming through. How did you deal with those challenges?
Wendy Chang Smith: That's great. I think one of the reasons I joined these companies, first of all, was a lot about the value and culture they had. And also I always look around me and say, are there colleagues around me that I could learn from? Learning is something that's really important to me as a professional. And I have to say, when I was thinking about leaving P&G, I actually had multiple choices to go into other companies, and the reason I chose Johnson and Johnson, the main reason, I would say, is probably all of the executives I met during the interview process, I felt like I could learn something from them. They were all very impressed to me in different reasons, and I was really looking forward to having the opportunity to work with people like that.
Jonathan Healy: Have you brought that with you? Because then as you moved on in your career, you were the one doing the interviews. Did that experience stay with you? The idea, this person, I'm not just recruiting them, they're recruiting me.
Wendy Chang Smith: Oh, I love that. That's exactly how you should think. I think the talent agenda or the talent war, if you would. All the companies are always trying to attract the best talent for their companies. And it's funny, when I worked for Amazon for a short stint of time, we always talked about the candidate experience because we were always trying to hire new people from the outside, and I personally really believe in that. You know, what we need to show during the interview process is not only to dive into the candidates experience, but also what we can bring as a company to help that candidate continue to grow in their career.
Jonathan Healy: At what point did Ireland come on to the agenda? You obviously, you grew up in Taiwan. You went to the United States. You were living in California where the weather presumably was lovely. I know you moved on further elsewhere. Was Ireland ever on your radar before you came here?
Wendy Chang Smith: We had always had good friends that had Irish heritage, so they spoke fondly of Ireland but I never really thought I would end up here, to be frank, but a little bit... maybe just a quick stop in between; after Johnson and Johnson, I actually, my last position with Johnson and Johnson, I was based out of Asia Pacific, so I was based in Singapore and I was the CFO for their consumers division for that area. And it was a really wonderful time having, with my Asian heritage, it was great to be there with my children as well, so that they get some immersion with the Asian culture. So we really had a great time as a family. But during that time, I just happened to answer a call from a recruiter who was representing Kellogg, and they had their European CFO role open, and it happened to be based out of Dublin. So very luckily I was able to move to Dublin between 2015 and 19.
Jonathan Healy: What was your reaction when you came here? Because obviously Dublin is different to Singapore, it's different to California, it's different to Cincinnati. So what was your reaction when you got here? Presumably you had preconceptions coming in.
Wendy Chang Smith: Preconceptions as far as understanding the Irish culture, how warm and welcoming the culture was. So I was really looking forward to the experience. But I have to say, everything you read about how wonderful Ireland is ten times better once you actually arrive. So we were very welcomed by all the people we knew. Our neighbours and friends were extremely open minded and really welcomed us into the community. But most importantly, I think it's just, it's just a great place to raise a family. You know, it's relatively safe. It's really great educational systems. We just felt really lucky to have a chance to be here when we were as a family.
Jonathan Healy: It was a brilliant opportunity for you. How did the family feel about it? Because I'm sure that, you know, particularly children, they don't like change much. And if they, how did they feel about coming to a slightly grey, dreary Dublin, perhaps in the winter months?
Wendy Chang Smith: That's great. Now I have to say, I'm very supportive, first of all, that my family, the kids really love me and they really are supportive of my career and my husband is very supportive as well, so I feel very blessed by that. But we have to say, when we announced to the kids that we were moving from Singapore, which as you know, is about 30 degrees year-round to Ireland, where there's a lot more fluctuation to the weather, the kids were a little bit anxious about it. But I tell you a silly story, Jonathan. We were literally at the house-hunting trip. We were over there at Portmarnock beach and as we were walking on the beach, it's a beautiful day, sunny day. We saw a boatload of dead - I believe they were dead - jellyfish on the beach. And that was it. The kids thought, this is the coolest place on earth because they found loads of jellyfish, so silly. Kids were still young at the time, but then, you know, they really got, they were always very sporty anyway, I've got three boys. So once they got into their soccer clubs, I think we were pretty much set.
Jonathan Healy: We need to tell Tourism Ireland that jellyfish could be a big selling point if they're trying to convince people to come here! And on your journey through Irish culture, you've encountered the GAA because you're after engaging in the big sponsorship with the GAA.
Wendy Chang Smith: Well, thank you for mentioning that, Jonathan. In fact, Optimum Nutrition is the official sports nutrition partner of the GAA and works with GAA county boards all over Ireland to support adult players with nutritional needs throughout the GAA season. And I'm also very happy to say that we're the official sponsor of Kilkenny camogie.
Jonathan Healy: Right. Do you understand the GAA a bit better now that you've seen some games? It must be quite the experience for an American visitor.
Wendy Chang Smith: Oh, it's been fabulous to watch some of the matches. I know all about the curse of Mayo, so. But in all seriousness, we're all Leinster supporters because we live in Dublin, but we're looking forward to it.
Jonathan Healy: When did Glanbia then come into the equation? Because, obviously, Kellogg - huge brand working out of Dublin. Glanbia, had you heard of Glanbia? Did you know what the business was about?
Wendy Chang Smith: Yes, when I was in Ireland, of course I knew very well about Glanbia, just because from various professional conferences, associations, I've met a few people. Now between Kellogg's and Dublin and Glanbia, excuse me, I actually had a chance to move back to the States. I worked for Amazon for two years. I think I really enjoyed my experience at Amazon. I really learned a lot, but it's one of those things that within the first few months there, I kind of realized it may not be a place where I want to have my long term home. I enjoy the experience, but I was really willing, really looking forward to maybe working for a smaller company where I could contribute more. So very lucky for me, Glanbia had this opportunity open and I have to say, in my very first interview with Glanbia, I spoke with Hugh Maguire, who is now our incoming CEO and also at the time, our Chief people officer for the performance nutrition business, and her name is Sue Swaine. And I have to say, within the first ten minutes, I felt like I've known those two colleagues for 15 years. We got along so well. The executive chemistry was fantastic. And you remember Jonathan, I just talked about looking around at my colleagues to see if there are people I could learn from, and I saw the kind of wisdom and experience those two had. And I was I was sold, I was ready to join this company.
Jonathan Healy: You said something very interesting there about wanting to work for a smaller organization where you felt you'd have better input. Not only were you moving to globally what was a smaller organization than Amazon, but you were moving into an area that was relatively new and untested, which was performance nutrition. Was that a risk?
Wendy Chang Smith: That's a good question. So I think performance nutrition has been around for quite a long time. You know, even though it's more of a niche area, it is becoming more and more widely known. And then if you think about, in fact, our main brand Optimum Nutrition, recently became our first billion dollar brand for Glanbia. And it's a brand that's been around for more than 35 years. We're sold in over 90 countries. So it's the number one sports nutrition brand in the world. And I have to say though, it is one of those areas where once you really learn about it and get into it, you wonder why everybody in the world isn't using sports nutrition, because it's not just for people with athletic pursuits. It's really a great source of protein. If you think about it as a serving of protein, it costs, you know, slightly more than a euro versus, you know, meats and other sources of protein that might be more expensive. But when you're talking about the space, honestly, I actually looked at it almost the way you were thinking about it is, it's different than the huge consumer products categories that I used to be with. And when I looked at Optimum Nutrition, which is already a leading brand that's been sold in over 90 countries and we only had 4% household penetration in the United States. You look at that and say, this is a wonderful brand, and we know that we could be much more. And the growth potential is fantastic. And that's what really attracted me.
Jonathan Healy: It really is huge. It's probably one of the most successful Irish brands that people still haven't heard about for some reason. When you're looking at it now with the benefit of time working with Glanbia, like, how big could this be?
Wendy Chang Smith: It could be, I think we're excited about that. You're absolutely right. There's various ways we can continue to expand the brand. I talked about in the States. We're very big in the United States right now, Optimum Nutrition. But if it's at 4% household penetration, you can only do the math and imagine we could be much bigger. And our second largest country is the U.K. And you think of all these other countries, our sales and our potential is still quite limited. So it's really, I think the only way is up.
Jonathan Healy: Can I ask you about strategy? You're a huge fan of strategy, making sure that it's in place. What do you look for in a strategy?
Wendy Chang Smith: I think what I really look for, for a strategy is probably three big things. You know, number one is, is it a growth strategy? Is it something that's really going to generate growth? The second thing is really make sure that strategy is externally focused. I think a lot of companies and you may have heard about like the Kodaks and, you know, things in the past where strategy, when they're internally focused, instead of being thinking about the outside competition or how the world is changing could really hurt yourself. And then finally, I think strategy needs to be long term. So it has to be a long term, externally focused and really something that challenges the company.
Jonathan Healy: But if you list all the companies that you've worked with, you've worked with J&J, you've worked with Procter and Gamble, you've worked with Amazon, you've worked at Glanbia. At some point over that time, you've seen mistakes happen in front of you, and people get caught up in mistakes as much as they stare at themselves. What's important about when you make a mistake?
Wendy Chang Smith: It's really a great question, Jonathan. In fact, we're always going to make some mistakes. The most important thing is how do you quickly learn fast, fail fast, and then quickly take those learnings onto your next endeavour? That's one of the things we always said is, how can you fail quickly? Because sometimes you have to test the boundaries and try to find ways to generate additional value for the company. And if you're not willing to take some risk and never make mistakes, that's probably not the best way to go either.
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Jonathan Healy: We're speaking with Wendy Chang Smith. You've talked about the importance of connecting with your colleagues. You are still in a minority of female leaders at the position of CFO. How have female mentors been important to you over the years?
Wendy Chang Smith: Oh, that's a great question. And I would say, Jonathan, I've been very lucky in my career to have both male and female mentors. But I would like to give an example of a female mentor who, when I worked at Procter and Gamble, she was the vice-president of investor relations. And I remember she gave me one of the best advices I still use every day. At the time, I was offered a rotation within P&G and I had gone to complain to her about it. I said, oh, it sounds like a really administrative role. I'm not sure it's not the fancy, you know, one of those fancy assignments that everybody else wants to do. But then when she told me was, you know, in all of her career, she always accepted those challenges, and what she wanted to do is make sure that she does the best job in the position and create, you know, new value that she can generate herself instead of letting the position limit her. She really tries to always do her best, and I think that was really just the best advice. Instead of complaining about it, you know, I should do something about.
Jonathan Healy: A lot of people just take the role, grumble about it, and try and get out as quickly as possible. You don't learn from that.
Wendy Chang Smith: Not at all. And her point was, why don't you just do the best you can and try to reinvent and generate the extra value that you can do in that position, which was really great advice.
Jonathan Healy: As if being the CFO wasn't enough, you're also the D&I global sponsor for Glanbia. It would be easier not to do that role, I would hazard, so why did you take it on?
Wendy Chang Smith: So maybe just a little bit of clarification there. Within D&I for Glanbia we actually have multiple employee resource groups. So we have one that's the Glanbia women's group. We have also one for our LGBTQ colleagues. And then we have also one for multicultural colleagues. I happen to be the global sponsor for the women's group.
Jonathan Healy: That's a lot of D&I, if you don't mind me asking.
Wendy Chang Smith: Yeah, we're really excited about the journey that Glanbia is taking on. We really understand that diversity and inclusion is so important in business and for our colleagues, and we really wanted to do more there. And I'm really proud of the journey that our company is going in. So the group that I'm personally involved in is the women's team. And I tell you, Jonathan, somebody always says, you know, if you're working for a job that you love, it doesn't feel like work. And I have to say, my sponsorship of the women's team is not work at all. It's something I'm passionate about and I'm always happy to spend time.
Jonathan Healy: When you see junior colleagues under pressure - and that happens - what's your instinct? What do you do?
Wendy Chang Smith: Well, usually I really try to give them some advice and just say, you know, and you know, a lot of times in work we talk about work-life balance. That's absolutely important. And in the end it's really it's a customized plan. I would say for each person, you know, what is really important to that colleague? Whether they're male or female, or junior or senior, you know, what is really important in your personal, professional and maybe community endeavours? And what does that balance look like? You know, I always draw this, if we had a piece of paper I'd draw for you three circles that are interlinking. One circle is your professional life, one is your personal life. And finally, the third circle is your community involvement. In a given time, given moments in your life, one circle might be larger than the others, but at the end of the day, it's your personal choice on how to customize that and make it the right balance for yourself at the time. And I think that's important for all of us to take a back seat sometimes and look at that and make sure we have a right balance.
Jonathan Healy: It can be really hard to get that balance, though. We all have competing attractions, if I could put it that way. How have you managed it?
Wendy Chang Smith: Well, I think the most important thing is, you know, first of all, don't do everything yourself. I think a lot of times people offer you help - please take it. And secondly, I think it's very important to set expectations with your workplace and understand what your personal priorities are. You know, the joke is always when somebody's on their deathbed, they never said "I wish I spent more time, you know, working on that PowerPoint presentation." It's usually something about their loved ones, right? So, what's most important to you in your life as well as in your career? You need to just make those choices and make sure that you can stick with them and make sure, you know, utilize all the help you can.
Jonathan Healy: Glanbia nutrition is an incredible success story. It's only going to become more successful given the direction of travel that you're on right now. Is there a possibility it could outgrow Ireland?
Wendy Chang Smith: That's a great question. So Ireland, as you know, is where Glanbia is headquartered. We have, I think, over 600 employees in Ireland. But at the end of the day, I think our performance nutrition business is a global business. I mentioned earlier, we're sold in over 90 countries. We'll continue to do that. We'll continue to increase on our global footprint but we love Ireland. I think Ireland is what's special about our business and our cultural heritage, our company heritage here, and we're always going to be proud of that.
Jonathan Healy: Is it something uniquely Irish that is allowing this business to grow in the way it has? Having started out, if we go back far enough in history from the farm, from the Irish farm and the simple business that that used to be.
Wendy Chang Smith: Oh, absolutely. When I think about the Glanbia values that we have - things like performance matters, things like working as a team and winning together. We talk about doing things, you know, finding a different way. I really think that culture and that heritage of our Irish heritage, frankly, really drives the value of this company. And when you have, you know, people with similar standards and values working together, you know, the possibilities are endless.
Jonathan Healy: One of the key elements of investment is research and development. We've learned that the hard way in Ireland in many ways. It's something that we always expected to happen elsewhere. But in recent years we've been doing here. So first of all, what's the R&D pipeline like? And second of all, do you just greenlight everything that comes your way if it's a good R&D project?
Wendy Chang Smith: Well, there's always priorities we make but look; we are really proud of our scientific knowledge and competency in the company. We have about 17 R&D centres all over the world. In my specific division, we have one in Chicago and one based out of Middlesbrough in the U.K. and for our other division, which is Glanbia Nutritionals, they've got centres in China, in America, in Singapore. So it's really robust. I think, like any good CFO, I'll tell you every single project has to have its own return on investment. And depending on those returns on investment, we then rank, you know, our all of our projects together and try to prioritize them.
Jonathan Healy: It must be exciting for you, though. I mean, you're coming at this from a financial perspective rather than the scientific perspective, but you get to see all the cool projects coming through first and decide to either greenlight them or send them back for more review. Does that give you a certain amount of confidence and excitement about what you're doing?
Wendy Chang Smith: Oh, absolutely. And I think also it tells you that our growth ambition is something that we can definitely achieve if we continue to work on our R&D pipeline. But at the same time, though, I think we're very lucky to be in an industry - we talked about earlier that Optimum Nutrition is the number one sports nutrition company in the world. So we have the brand power, and then if we are able to understand those consumer insights and drive after the things that they really need and provide the consumers with the products that they want, then it's really a great marriage.
Jonathan Healy: One of the things that's quite obvious from listening to your story is that you know when it's right to move on. You knew when it was right to move on from all the other companies you knew Amazon didn't give you the challenge that you felt. What's the key factor in making that decision for you?
Wendy Chang Smith: A couple of things. The number one is I really want to, I guess, respect and have fun at work with the people that I work with. So the cultural fit is really important to me. And then the second thing is, I think I mentioned earlier, Jonathan, that I'm a learning animal. I really enjoy having a challenge for myself. So wherever I can be in an environment where I can have fun while I'm learning, I'm always happy to take that next move. And I really feel like Glanbia is a great home for me. We've got wonderful colleagues that I could always learn from, and it's certainly a place where we think about the sense of fun and we really we take our business seriously, but we don't take ourselves seriously.
Jonathan Healy: Did you ever have that Irish experience anywhere else in the world? Is it something that you can always create in another company, or is it definitely different working for the Irish?
Wendy Chang Smith: It's definitely, I think the main part here is the humility of the Irish culture, as well as the open mindedness of the Irish culture has just been so impressive. And even though I'm relatively new to the company, people were looking for my experience and they were happy to listen to my new ideas, whether they agree with it or not. We might work together and compromise that idea in the end, but I felt like we can create something better for the company. So I really believe that humility and that open mindedness is going to help the business do better.
Jonathan Healy: We have a rapid fire round to finish, Wendy, if that's okay. So steady yourself. Here we go. Apple or Android?
Wendy Chang Smith: Oh, Apple all the way.
Jonathan Healy: Books or e-reader?
Wendy Chang Smith: I have to go with my e-reader.
Jonathan Healy: E-reader? Controversial! Cash or contactless?
Wendy Chang Smith: Contactless, please.
Jonathan Healy: Cash is out the door. In terms of sport, don't know your preference. Soccer or rugby?
Wendy Chang Smith: It has to be soccer. May I, do I dare to admit that I'm a Man City fan.
Jonathan Healy: I'd rather you didn't. What's the best advice you would give your 18 year-old self?
Wendy Chang Smith: Well, I would, you know, I would tell myself that sometimes it's faster to move ahead by slowing down a little bit.
Jonathan Healy: If you weren't a CFO, what would you be doing?
Wendy Chang Smith: Okay, you'll laugh at me now. I would love to be an actress. I really enjoy performing arts.
Jonathan Healy: I just thought you were going to say mathematician there. You could have done that too. It's never too late to be an actress. And finally, when you retire, and it's a good bit away yet, what legacy do you feel you'll have left behind you?
Wendy Chang Smith: I would hope, Jonathan, if I'm lucky enough to have left behind colleagues and people that I would have impacted, really growing the next generation of talent would be a privilege for me, and would be an honour to be able to make that happen.
Jonathan Healy: Wendy Chang Smith, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thanks for joining us.
Wendy Chang Smith: Thank you, Jonathan.
Jonathan Healy: And thank you for listening. You can catch up with all the interviews in the EY CFO podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to rate, review and most importantly, to subscribe. Until next time, thanks for listening.