Marie
Hello Kim, thank you so much for joining me on the Companies that Care podcast.
Kim
Hi Marie, thanks for having me. I'm delighted to be here.
Marie
I'm really excited for our conversation. And before we started recording our podcast, I read your LinkedIn and I love the way you open your LinkedIn, which is, “I'm living proof that you can get paid to change the world.” That's such a great descriptor and so first of all, why don't you tell our listeners what your title is and what you do for a living?
Kim
I would be happy to, so I'm actually senior director of global sustainability at Kellogg.
Marie
And why don't you tell our listeners how you got here in your life will lead you down this career path?
Kim
Yeah, it's funny because you and my mom are the two people who definitely read the about me on my LinkedIn. I have always been really passionate about brands and about social impact and my first job after I graduated from college, I drove the Oscar Mayer Wiener mobile. And as we say, it was buns of fun.
Marie
Oh wow. Did you sing the Oscar Mayer song too?
Kim
Yeah, actually, That first summer you go to Hot Dog high school and they teach you all about public relations and marketing and social impacts, marketing in philanthropy, and I loved it. We went to from grocery store to grocery store, and we were in parking lots. And we learned how to drive the wiener mobile.
But beyond that, promotional marketing, cause marketing, which was a really big part of that brand in its identity, really connecting back with consumers and then beyond that, you know, we looked for the next child to star in the next television commercial. And so we did a lot of guerilla marketing. It was pretty fun.
Marie
Wow, what a great way to get exposed to social impact at such a young age.
Kim
Yeah, I was wonderful and it really just kind of wet my whistle for it and so I then went on to work for the Girl Scouts where I leveraged my communications background as a spokesperson for them and I also worked in the Comms department for them. I ended up kind of meandering to lead box tops for education, and then you know that was school fundraising, which was really important to me as the daughter of teachers. And then I most recently, before I arrived at Kellogg, led philanthropy for Amway. They have those really cool program. It's called the power of five campaign and it's really predicated on helping to reduce malnutrition in children between the ages of two and five. And so I traveled the world with Amway, and I worked with their Amway business owners to really embed philanthropy in their sales function and it was just the job of a lifetime. And so now here I am. You know I came to Kellogg and I couldn't be happier to be here because our better days agenda is well established and it's a core part of the fabric of who we are as a company and how we operate.
Marie
And what's so interesting to me about your background is that we both have these strong communications and sustainability backgrounds. Yeah, it's unusual to find somebody else who has that kind of you know combination of skills.
Kim
I think this great thing about being a sustainability professional today though is that no two people have come to this work from the same path.
Marie
Right, right, the way I got into sustainability is when I worked for CH2M HILL, this global consulting firm, I was leading a group of publications professionals, communicators, and we got tasked as a leadership team to pilot an environmental management program. I was always really interested in activism and in the environment, but that's how I got exposed to it. It became real passion for me. Yeah, kind of a back door. It's very interesting.
Kim
It's addictive work though, right? Because I think once you really see the power that small actions and one person can take, it really becomes just the way that you want to operate? The way that you want to embed purpose and all that you do, and it companies are looking for people to really help them do the right thing.
Marie
Absolutely, and that's why I started this podcast. Because it's a way to combine my passion for social impact and environmental management with you know people who are actually building companies that build that into their mission and their purpose. Fascinating to me, large and small companies that are doing that so, so the way that I discovered you was that I read an article. I think it was about Tianna Conley and it was about Black women at Kellogg and I, you know, did some research. And I was so impressed with how many Black executive leaders you have at Kellogg, which is really pretty unusual in corporate America.
So can you tell us a little bit about your experience working as a Black woman in corporate America? And how is Kellogg different from other places you've worked?
Kim
You know, I think following the murder of George Floyd, right? I think everyone has a heightened consciousness of the role that Black people play in corporate America, and how different their experience tends to be. And as a Black woman, I even am always amazed to see the research that sort of comes out behind the question. What's it like to be Black? And Black women in corporate America and last year McKinsey and Lean In produced this really great study. So if you haven't seen it, please please please check it out. It is all about lack of sponsorship, lack of support, and just the challenges that black women in particular, face. Because they have fewer mentors and fewer sponsors. And it's actually pretty ironic that you found both Tiana and myself, because we have a co-mentorship relationship, and so we meet every week. And you know one of the things that helps all people succeed. But especially black people is having mentors and sponsors. Tiana is a mentor of mine and she is phenomenal. You know, I think the very best mentors that you ever have are going to be the people who are going to make time to make sure that you are heard, that you are valued, that you are appreciated, that you have a safe space to perform, ask questions, and really seek guidance. And so you know, Tiana is certainly that person for me.
And, you know, as a senior woman at Kellogg, for myself, you know, I also try to reach back and lead a mentorship circle as part of our Kellogg African American Employee Resource Group, and so each month I dedicate time out of my day to make sure that I'm really doing what I need to do to give back to these six Black women and have a safe space for them to network with other people throughout the company that they might not typically meet.
Making sure that I'm here around to answer questions helps ensure that they have a career map so that they're thinking not just about doing well in their job today, but what success and happiness looks like that for them in the future.
Marie
That's so important.
Kim
You asked me about how's Kellogg different and I would say you know Kellogg is great and that they have also really invested in making sure that African American employees are successful. And so I participate in two leadership programs that the company participates in. One is a program called Caliber, and it's a global Leadership development association, and the whole intention behind Caliber is to really accelerate senior leadership readiness so that African American mid level professionals like myself are really prepared for those senior level roles for board appointments. For all of those things that come down the pipe. For you, as you continue to become successful in your career.
And then the other program that I'm a member of and that Kellogg has really made a big part of my development is McKinsey’s Black leadership program.
And again, that's another program where McKinsey is quite famous for its frameworks and for the conversations that they facilitate. We have conversations about wel-being and wellness and sponsorship. And really, what does your personal board of directors look like? And all of the things that I learned from those two programs are wonderful resources for me to take and share with my mentees back at Kellogg.
Marie
Oh yeah, that's incredible because so many companies, when they start working on diversity equity inclusion, they're so focused on hiring and not on creating welcoming spaces in the company and the culture, and then also not giving women and people of any minority background a road map to success.
Kim
The other thing that is really telling, I think that following the murder of George Floyd, I remember reading a year later that only maybe 32%. It's not going to be exactly right. But or so companies actually even made a statement about his murder, and when you think about that and you think about how difficult it is and how underrepresented black women in particular, but Black people in general are at Big Fortune 500 companies, I feel very lucky that I had the opportunity to work at Kellogg during that time. Because, you know, our leaders, our CEO are, you know, head of comms all of those people have the North American business were all very visible. Really demonstrated the importance of allyship and were relentless in the fact that there's no place for racism at our company.
Marie
That's really great. Yeah, the other thing that I saw a statistic that I saw I didn't heard the 32% number, but a lot of the companies that did stand up and say yes, we're going to pour all this money into, you know, diversity programs, etc. A lot of them did not follow through with the same dollar amount that they committed. So really disappointing.
Kim
Also great for companies that you know, create a culture where transparency and you know really making sure that when we say we're going to do something, we do it as the norm, it's the standard.
Marie
Yes, so let's talk a little bit more about Kellogg. Can you describe how the company was founded and how are you a company that cares about people on the planet?
Kim
Kellogg is just such a great place. Our founder was WK Kellogg, William Keith Kellogg and he was an early conservationist. He was a leading philanthropist. And internally we like to call him one of the original well-being visionaries, because in 1906 he founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company. And I know that because when you join the company you receive a little box and it's the original box of cereal that WK. Kellogg created the toasted cornflake box, then a cool cool fact about the box is that in 1906 the box was actually made of recycled materials.
Marie
Oh my gosh, really. Yes, 1906, that's amazing.
Kim
So we always say that you know Mr Kellogg was a man ahead of his time, and you know the principles that people like me are responsible for delivering to the business today are really the same principles that the company was founded upon in 1906. So you asked about why do we care, and I would say that again goes back to Mr. Kellogg by the time the mid 20s rolled around, he was cereal King of America. He was very wealthy and like many wealthy people, Warren Buffett today, right? You know, he decided that he wanted to dedicate the final third of his life to philanthropy. And so he funded lots of charities throughout Battle Creek and Michigan. And then he ended up creating a foundation and the foundation was started to really make sure that Mr. Kellogg was able to direct his wealth to improving health care and the education of children and so today.
Our company, really, you know, lives that same mission through our global purpose platform, which we call better days. And the principles that we you know exemplify and execute today are many of those same principles that Mr. Kellogg held here. It's pretty cool to work in a place where the legacy has been consistent from the start, and we're executing many of the same principles and the same vision that our founder had back in 1906.
Marie
So let's talk a little bit about your better days commitment. You say you're going to create better days for 3 billion people, is that right?
Kim
Yes, by 2030 So it's an ambitious goal.
Marie
By 2030. And how do you plan to do that?
Kim
Yeah, we have five key issues that we're focused on. You know, nourishing people with our foods is really important to us. Feeding people in need, particularly children, and making sure that people who need food have food, so making sure that we're donating food to food banks and also supporting child feeding programs.
We're also responsible for nurturing our planet, which is the work that my team does and we do that by working with farmers to implement sustainable agricultural practices and protecting the Earth's natural resources. You know. And of course, sustainable packaging is a part of that as well, and then you know, we also make sure that we are supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion by living our founders values.
And we do that throughout our supply chain, so those are the ways that we deliver on our commitment to better days, and then obviously that's some pretty ambitious work, so we know that we can't do that by ourselves, so we collaborate with key partners to make sure that we're always advancing that agenda, always thinking about how we can deliver that commitment to help end hunger and create better days for 3 billion people by 2030, which feels imminent right, it's coming soon.
Marie
Yes, yes it does.
Kim
And so all of those things are the ways that we deliver those next generation commitments. And I say next generation because when I first arrived at Kellogg in 2017, now you know we took a look at those commitments and we always measure our progress against our goals and we kind of said you know what. We're achieving these goals actually a little ahead of schedule and it's not enough to like achieve the goals we want to continue to push and stretch ourselves and so we reset the commitment and we then put the goals out that you see today. Those better days goals for 2030. But I love the fact that we were not content to be leaders. And that we always want to make sure that we're thinking of? So what does excellent look like, not what does good look like.
Marie
Yeah, I was taught through the sustainability reporting process that it's really important to set ambitious goals and then even if you don't achieve them, the importance is to be transparent about that and why you didn't achieve them. You know, I think that a lot of times, companies, whatever kind of goals they set around social impact, often are looking to set goals that they can achieve, you know instead of being ambitious, so I like your thought process.
Kim
Thank you.
Marie
And speaking of ambitious goals, you also have a serious, ambitious goal to alleviate hunger. Aiming to feed 375 million people, so can you talk a little bit more about how you help alleviate hunger and what you're trying to do there?
Kim
Sure, we collaborate. We're definitely committed to the sustainable development goals and so there are 17 of their goals as most of your listeners likely know and goal #2 is called 0 hunger and its ambition is to end hunger and help achieve food security and improve nutrition. And of course promote sustainable agriculture. And so we know, especially being in the food space, that one in nine people face hunger on a global level. So even though there's enough food produced. To feed everybody who might need food. One in nine people still face hunger, and in the US, more than 42 million people face hunger due to the pandemic and 13 million of those people are kids. And so when you think about those numbers, and especially the number of children who face hunger, that's a devastating number.
And it creates a lot of secondary issues, right? So think about delayed development, chronic illness, behavior problems. All of those things and hunger is preventable. And so. It's a problem that we can all work together to solve and so there are a lot of ways that we help to fight hunger.
We collaborate with partners like Global Food, Banking, Network feeding, America no kid hungry and we rely on those partners to help us provide the right solutions to hungry people.
So whether it's doing things like funding things like clean rooms or my good friend Stephanie Slingerland leads our philanthropy and I remember during the pandemic one of the things that she collaborated with Global Food Banking network to do was to get bikes to teachers in Korea because they wanted to make sure that teachers were able to have the tools that they needed to deliver foods to hungry children. So it's all about making sure that we're good partners. I know we also partner with World Food Program and we do that to make sure that we're helping people understand the actual issue of hunger.
So publishing papers that are going to help people from academia or NGO's, other NGO's or even other partners like ourselves continue to stay abreast of the actual issue and then. Last but not least, I think disaster relief is a big part of our hunger work. And you know, recently we donated about 2.2 million servings of cereals, bars, crackers to help people who were affected by hurricanes or the recent earthquake in Haiti. You know there are wildfires. There's no shortage of natural disasters.
The wonderful thing about the foods that I mentioned is that they have affordability element and so when you are displaced, having a portable food that you know and that you can rely upon and is familiar, it's a really meaningful part of that.
Marie
Cereal is a great thing. You don't have to worry about refrigeration or stuff like that, so great solution.
So let's talk a little bit about your commitment to climate, positive regenerative agriculture. How do you work with farmers to ensure that?
Kim
That's one of my favorite parts of my job. So I'm glad you asked about it. Yeah, when you think about it more than half of the US land base is actually used for agriculture. Agriculture is a really important part of our impact because we know fruits come from good soils and the more that we can collaborate and partner with farmers and really help them think about training and technical assistance. And candidly, just listen to them and figure out how we can help them produce better foods. And really, you know, implement some of those sustainability practices that are really important to us as a company, but also they're new to many farmers, right?
So we want to collaborate with partners like The Nature Conservancy. To make sure that we're providing the right technical assistance that we're helping to really listen to farmers and improve their productivity and then invest in programs that are going to regenerate soil health and then help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Because we want to make sure that we're always thinking about farmers as partners, leaders in the process and when we do that, you know we're able to really make sure that we build a relationship that's based on trust.
And again, we know where our foods come from, and I think that's really one of the things that people are typically pretty surprised by when you know I talked to them about the work that we do with farmers.
And partners like The Nature Conservancy is that in if you look in store, many of our retailers will actually have displays that feature Kellogg and ARF. Farmers and we have a really cool program. It's called supporting US farmers and we tend to share and showcase at retail images of different farmers within our supply chain and the commodities that they produce, whether it's wheat or rice or what have you and the stories behind their family farms or the stories behind the production, a really meaningful way for us to sort of bring some of the things tThat we believe to be like the differentiators in our business and in our sustainability practice to life.
Marie
That's wonderful. It's interesting because the woman that I worked with very closely at CH2M HILL.Her name is Brandy Wilson and she like both of us kind of got into sustainability when she was working as a technical editor and one of my favorite stories about my career was she actually reported to me as a technical editor when I managed the publications group and then she applied to become the manager of the environmental Management System program and then ended up becoming the Global Sustainability director for CHM HILL. And then I reinvented myself as a communications manager, and that I reported to her. Yeah, it's very cool. That was the kind of company that it was.
She left CH2M HILL before we were acquired by a larger engineering firm, the Sustainability program, Unfortunately, that was really a global benchmark really was getting torn apart. Sad story, but she ended up leaving the company and now she works for Simplot in Idaho. What's really interesting about that is she grew up in Pocatello, ID. So now she's back working with farmers. I think she really is enjoying what she's doing.
It's simple, was a global project management engineering problem management firm and so now she's actually back with farmers. It's kind of interesting.
Kim
That's so cool, and I think it's so interesting because sustainability is really one of the few careers where you can come full circle where you can reinvent yourself based on your passions and is an evolving practice as you sort of have mentioned. I mean, it's a great place to build a career based on your personal passions and.
Marie
Absolutely yes, and so I'm really impressed with your sustainability commitments and your GRI conformance. Just for our listeners who don't know GRI… GRI stands for Global Reporting Index and it's like the gold standard for sustainability reports, and you also have a materiality matrix, which also for our listeners is how a company decides what areas to prioritize based on the interests of its stakeholders. Not every company has that, so of course I recognized it. And can you explain the history of Kellogg's commitment to environmental and social impact reporting?
You did talk about how your founder was obviously committed to it, but when did Kellogg decide to like set up an official sustainability program and start reporting on your progress?
Kim
In general, we are committed to transparency, right? Just from the very very beginning, and as long as I have been here, obviously we've produced a CR report. But if you look at our website from a public reporting point of view, which is one of the things that you're touching upon.
We not only publish a CR report every year and we do so because we're really committed to making sure that we hold ourselves to a very high standard and our key stakeholders demand transparency.
But we believe in it too. But our website also has an archive of the past CR reports dating back to 2008. And we want to make sure that we're always publicly reporting what our progress is across our goals. And then making sure that there are even deep dive you know tabs for you to find out more about things you might be curious about. So one of the wonderful things that we have done is we had a really wonderful relationship with consumers, so we've had open for breakfast, which is a website where consumers and ask US questions and we answer them. It's a really great searchable tool too, because if there's something that you're interested in or you know want to know more about, you can search to find the answer.
But we also have on our cloud company website a section called the physicians, Policies and Milestones Reporting page, and that page is something that we update annually. So you've mentioned the GRI index and what people are interested in learning more about from a materiality point of view, but the positions, policies and milestones, reporting page is really unique in that we talk about our commitments to responsible sourcing and human rights, employee safety, climate and we have subject matter experts who publish annual data on those specific topics, and they kind of complement what the last year we we decided that we needed to have information in a little bit more of a digestible format.
We created a PDF that's also an executive summary of our corporate report, and we did that in lieu of sort of a 50 page PDF that we had done in the past. And then embedded it with lots of hyperlinks that offered lots of storytelling so that people could not only see what our commitment to climate might be, but also, you know, click through to find out more about a farmer that we might work with or and a subject matter expert who might lead that work on behalf of the company. All those things are very important, and they're important because we want to make sure that we're really ensuring that we're transparent.
But we also, I think going level deeper and have that click down on the position to policies and milestones page where we really take that extra step. And offer more in-depth information about some of the things that can be found within the GRI index and also you know, avail ourselves to questions from people who might have them about you know how does Kellogg feel about this specific issue? Or you know what does your progress look like on this? And can you tell us more?
Marie
Now, could you talk a little bit about what is the general employee culture at Kellogg?
Kim
You know, it's funny because before the pandemic I would always tell my friends that it reminds me of those ESPN commercials where you see like the characters walking around the office. Because it's just. Uh, you know we we have the luxury of having this great brand. And we're always doing things to engage and inspire our employees and our characters, of course, are a big part of that. So you know, be four times in 2019 you would walk around the office and it would not be unusual for you to like run into Toucan Sam or Tony the tiger literally and somebody in the costume walking around going to do something, either philanthropic or food packing events were a big part of our culture then and now in in the virtual world.
I feel like those things were wonderful investments and have made our culture, you know withstand the test of time and this pandemic living our founders values is fundamental to our deploy for both business strategy and when you think about the corporate culture or the employee culture at Kellogg, we've enhanced our equity diversity inclusion strategies I mentioned when I talked about our business employee resource groups. But our leadership, our employees, and our partners are really committed to making sure that we operate within a paradigm that's respectful where we apply all rules objectively and thoroughly, and we provide each other feedback with as it pertains to sort of the what and the how that we operate so all employees received midyear before performance evaluation and also an annual performance evaluation and we think about how we show up as it pertains to strategic mindset as it pertains to courage. Courage is a key enabler to being successful at Kellogg because we want to make sure that we're always doing what needs to be done, saying what needs to be said, but also doing so with bravery and beyond that treating people with like respect and making sure that we're always seeking and bringing diverse viewpoints to life and to the table. It's been a really great experience for me. I have found that people tend to act with a lot of humility. But also tend to exercise courage in moments where you might not necessarily always expect it, and it's been pretty rewarding.
Marie
As you know, women are leaving the workplace in droves, especially during the pandemic and what is Kellogg doing to get women back into the workplace and have them feel challenged and valued?
Kim
I’m going to go back to our business employee resource groups because I think they're really so strong at Kellogg. One, our female business employee resource group is called WAK, And it's women of Kellogg, and it's a global employee Resource Group founded to really help empower women engage men as allies. Because of course you know it's great to have women as members of WOK, but we actually have a lot of engaged men who are advocates for gender equity in the workplace, and they're enthusiastic members of it.
Two, we really aspire to achieve gender equity like 5050% gender equity by 2025. And it's something that all of our teams around the world are working on, and it's something that you can see when you are inside of the walls of our company. WOK in particular is just a phenomenal business employee resource group. They bring in internal partners to think about how we can get to that goal and then they also bring in external partners and they really also think about women as a sort of collaborative cohort. So what are the experiences women color in the workplace? What are the experiences of working mothers and how do we maintain work life balance? How do we take care of aging parents? How do we show up in a way that offers mentorship and sponsorship and support of each other? How do we engage?
So all of those things are part of the women of Kellogg's agenda, and what I think is truly spectacular about women of color in particular is that it’s global and so there are a lot of ways that we come together and International Women's Day is one that comes to mind where walk does just a phenomenal job of really exercising its global muscle and thinking about how we can all sort of fall behind one theme and demonstrate tThe power of gender equity.
As a company, I do think that there are a lot of things that companies can do to make sure that they're not only retaining women, but also making sure that they feel challenged and valued and from my point of view, I think we do a pretty amazing job with that at Kellogg because we have the women of Kellogg Business Employee Resource Group, which is not just lip service, it's a global employee resource group and the expectation is that we engage all employees in making sure that gender equity is a part of how we operate and it's a goal that we work together to achieve.
Marie
It is really important to have those male allies because my earliest mentors in my career, many of them, were men. They were the ones who pushed me out of my comfort zone you know?
Kim
Yeah no it's true. Yeah, I think people forget how important it is just to have allyship in general, right? You know, for the African American resource group, some of the biggest and most enthusiastic supporters of that are not in it. African Americans are going to be the allies who are going to help pave the way to, you know, open doors to be sponsors and mentors and I would say the same is true of WOK.
Marie
I think it's really important for people to have champions that are going to get them on the boards, get them around the conference room table and we need to have white men saying who's missing at this table. And they they're not always wired to think that way. That's why these employee resource groups are so important and the education. So important, yeah, just getting them to ask that question. You know, it's an obvious question. But it's not always the first thing that comes to their mind.
Let's talk about your new chef and residency program for black chefs.
Kim
Following the murder of George Floyd, we as a company started to think about what role could we play in enhancing food justice and opening doors. And so the chef residency program is a new program and it was created to open doors for minority chefs and provide them with real life training and professional development.
And it was created because we know that there need to be more opportunities to bring more diversity. And so the program is a year long and it's a paid post graduate fellowship that brings 2 chefs, 2 minority chefs, to Kellogg to work at our Center for Innovation, and so these chefs are brought to Battle Creek, MI. They have the opportunity to work alongside of our global research and development teams. It gives these chefs this opportunity to really support and explore and intertwine and preserve the history of foods that have been pretty prevalent in black communities for years, and it's really fun to watch because the chefs are they're bringing their own special, I don't want to say special sauce 'cause that sounds sort of funny. They're bringing their own experience and their own flavor to the kitchen.
It doesn't seem like a pun, but it's a really cool program because it allows these experts to embrace the concept of sustainability. They learn more about our position on Food and Agriculture and it helps to build this really necessary pipeline of quality chefs who are qualified who have exposure to how big companies produce food. And then it also helps inform the way that we show up and also give back and so it's a pretty cool program and we started it because we wanted to make sure that our commitment to food, justice and underserved communities wasn't just something where we were writing a check, right?
We wanted to make sure that we were actually investing in real people and at Kellogg when I first arrived there was a cConference room and one wall of the conference room was a quote from WK Kellogg. That said, I will invest my money in people, and so when I think about the Chef Residency program, I think it really belies that quote, right?
Because we're not just writing a check or bringing people in for a day really investing time and money in making sure that we are building a meaningful pipeline and providing real world training that's going to give back to people who can then take that back and improve outcomes and improve the work that they do on behalf of culinary around the world.
Marie
Interesting, have you watched that show High on the Hog?
Kim
Yeah, Oh yes.
Marie
So interesting to think about the history of black foods.
Marie
And yeah, fascinating documentary. And I was just curious about like you talked about the influence of Black food over through the history and how they could possibly use that in this chef in residence program. Would they suggest new flavors for Kellogg? Or is that kind of the idea, yeah?
Kim
Of course we know that you know 86% of the foods that we produce globally are plant based, and so we are committed to making sure that we are doing all that we can to continue to innovate with plant based foods too? Right? Because we know they're great for the planet that we can't really be dependent upon corn, wheat, and rice as an ongoing, it's not sustainable, So what are the other grains and what are the other things that we should be thinking about from a consumer perspective.
And so chef Michael has been working to think about all kinds of different creative things he can do with that grain and demonstrating that grain might be able to be used to support our business. But he's also bringing you know things that he's learned by cooking in the kitchen with his mother, his grandmother, his family, do our experimentation online and I think it's really important because there's so many foods across the diaspora that African Americans cook with so many techniques that we have either pioneered the way that we eat food the way that we really experience food, and those are things that chef Michael and Chef Chanel are going to be able to bring to our teams and enhance the diversity of the perspective that's at the table, enhance the way that we think about how we might want to enjoy the food. Serve the foods you know. Just create the food and also move beyond sort of those staple ingredients that you might think about today.
Marie
Yeah, that's really exciting. So what advice do you have Kim for people who want to create companies that care?
Kim
I think authenticity is everything. When I think about Kellogg, like why It works to me, it just goes back to WK Kellogg, right? And he was this philanthropist and conservationist, and people like me who are more than 100 years later still doing this work are able to do so in a way that is meaningful because it's authentic to his vision. The vision at Kellogg is that we have a just world, the good and just world where people are not just fed, but they're also fulfilled. And I think about that in terms of making sure you know when you think about a company that cares, you can only really demonstrate to people that you care if you're authentic and transparent.
I mean you mentioned at the top of the interview that you have a 15 year old. And I think that kids and Gen Z, especially teens, young people, They can smell the truth spot the truth. They have a ******** meter, right, that is just like a mile long, and so if you're not authentic, if you're not offering transparency, if your compass is not intact, they're going to know.
Marie
Thank you.
Kim
And they're going to run from brands and companies that don't mirror their values.
Marie
Absolutely, it's interesting because with the Black Lives Matter movement and other social justice movements, you know a lot of young people use the word performative. I have three sons and my middle son that just started college on the East Coast, and he was really involved in all the Black Lives Matter protests here in Portland last year, and he would throw that word around constantly. And it was almost like okay, not everything is performative.
I mean, you have to obviously put your commitment to what you're saying, but I think that it's a very useful measuring stick because last year I wrote an article and invented a new term called BLM washing. BLM washing is a new greenwashing right?
Kim
Yeah, yeah.
Marie
Because we all know what greenwashing is. But that's the same thing with Black Lives Matter. It's like what we talked about earlier that some companies who are taking a stand or not following it through with action. So I totally agree with you on the transparency of authenticity and the action.
So you have to follow through. You can't just make it performative, whether it's sustainability or racial justice or whatever you commit to.
Kim
Yeah no I agree. And I think you know, as value driven marketers, right? I think one of the things that is incumbent upon us is not only living our values, but making sure that we're holding ourselves to a standard where the work that we produced, the programs that we put forward are always going to be something that we believe in too.
But people sometimes forget. A lot of people who are creating these programs their moms, their dads or aunts or uncles? Their cousins and friends and we have a responsibility to each other. I think the pandemic, if it's taught us any one thing. It's all we have is each other and so making sure that you're always authentic and transparent is just table stakes at this point.
Marie
So what gives you hope about the future and the work that you do?
Kim
You know you, you just mentioned that you have sons and I have a son too and I think as a parent of a teenager it's impossible to not be hopeful about the future. When you see all of the inspiring things that young people expect and demand. The performative things that you just said about your son.
Marie
Right?
Kim
But I mean we're laughing about it, but it also is it makes you proud and hopeful too, right?
So the world that I am leaving that I've taken over and inherited the legacy that I'm leaving is going to be extended by these people who these young people who really have high expectations for their future that they are inheriting from us.
There's a quote and it's something like children are the living messages that we send to a time that we will not see and I think about that right.
Marie
Oh wow.
Kim
Like you talk about your son and his expectations for the future. My son, I asked him one Friday. What are you doing this weekend? He's in college. And he's like oh, actually funny, you should ask. He's like I'm going to be running in the tunnel to the towers 5K. And you know, yeah, and I mean in college.
Marie
Wow, yeah.
Kim
Would I have been participating in the tunnel to towers 5K? I would have been, but maybe, but you know.
Marie
Right, right?
Marie
Where does he go to school?
Kim
He's at West Point, but I think you know he has tons of options for how he wants to spend his Saturday and that's what he.
Marie
That's right.
Kim
And I, you know from what you said about your boys, it seems like they probably are every bit as active and is inspirational and aspirational and so what gives me hope for the future is definitely young people.
Marie
One thing that I think about is like the way my kids view the issues are transgender LGBTQI issues and also racial justice…things like that, that they are so far ahead. I learned who Ruby Bridges from my young child. You know what I mean? I mean, they're teaching better. They're teaching much more diverse curriculum in schools. Right, but also they are just so normalized. It's like, yeah, they just get it way beyond other generations.
Kim
I think the children of today also have the benefit of the Internet too, right?
Marie
Right, right?
Kim
So they had the benefit of not only being students, but also being curious researchers and learning what they're in, developing their own opinions based on all of the information that's available to them.
Marie
Yes, totally. One of my signature strengths is input, so I mean I'm one of those types of people that if something comes up in a conversation or if I'm watching a show and a word comes up or an image, I always Google it. I'm sure you're probably similar as a communicator.
Kim
Oh yeah, I mean in phones, right?
Marie
Yeah, right, right?
Kim
I am an expert Googler.
Marie
Me too me too.
Marie
I remember hiring this woman years ago when the Internet was just kind of starting out, she had become this expert on how to search things on the Internet and it was such a big deal back then I was like oh how do we search things on the Internet? 'cause people didn't really know, right? I'm aging myself.
Kim
Well, I do remember when there was no such thing as Google and we had encyclopedias.
Marie
Oh yeah, yeah we did. I grew up with encyclopedias. I know so funny. So is there anything else you'd like to share?
Kim
No, I think we've covered it. I mean, I think there's been a wonderful interview and thank you, it's actually, you know, serving the purpose of inspiring me? And making me think about, gosh, you know what's next, right?
You know we're getting ready to do our 2022 planning at Kellogg and this interview has been really phenomenal for me. So thank you Marie because I think you have the benefit of working at a great company and sometimes you forget all of the cool things that are just a part of the daily life that you take for granted.
Marie
I think that is so true. I've really been impressed with what I've read about Kellogg, and I think the other thing that is a good reminder is that if we do not share the amazing things that our companies are. I mean, this really comes down to communications because I didn't know Kellogg was doing all these amazing things until I happened on an article on LinkedIn about Tonya, right?
Kim
That is so cool. I mean, I'm glad you found it and it's funny too because we put so much work into, you know Kelloggs.com and transparency. But it's also one of those things where we do so many great things that finding time to talk about. It also feels like you know, oh we're so busy doing great things we don't have time to talk about it, yes.
Marie
Absolutely, but I think that it's great for companies like Kellogg to be on LinkedIn and beyond and some of these other communication channels because to be perfectly honest, I don't eat a lot of cereal. I mean I used to, but lately I have not been as much. Then I'm intermittent fasting as well, so I often don't have breakfast and honestly, a lot of times people have byproducts, but they don't always go to the website right to look up like I want to learn about Kellogg, you know. So it was really great for me to happen upon this. And yeah, learn about this company and all the amazing things you're doing so it's great.
Kim
Well, a little tip for you. My favorite afternoon snack. I usually eat a snack around 3:00 o'clock. So right about now it’s frosted mini wheats? I love them.
Marie
Oh really, huh?
Kim
And I don't eat them with milk. I eat them as a snack, like chips and I eat them and they make me full until dinner and they're delicious.
Marie
Oh OK, I will try that.
Kim
Highly recommend Frosted mini wheats is a delicious snack.
Marie
I don't think I've ever had frosted mini wheats, so then I'm going to have to go try them. I mean I grew up on Cornflakes, obviously. Like half the world did, yeah.
Kim
Well, let me know. Ping me after you have them for your afternoon snack one day.
Marie
OK I will thanks so much. Thanks so much for this chat Kim. It's really been fun and I really enjoyed getting to know you and I hope you can stay in contact in the future.
Kim
Oh yes, Marie. Thank you so much.