A conversation with Maile Carnegie, Managing Director Australia ...

FACETIMEThinkCreativeA conversation with Maile Carnegie,Managing Director Australia and New Zealand,Procter & Gamble“MY NAME, MAILE, COMES FROM AFLOWER WHICH GROWS ONLY INthe Hawaiian island of Maui.That’s where I was born. It’s a little whiteflower that is used to make a special kind oflei which is traditionally presented on veryspecial occasions,” she says. “My parentswere presented with maile leis when I wasborn and that was how I was named.”So begins a conversation with Maile Carnegie.Her name is pronounced Miley and she grinsas she suggests that her name was an absoluterarity until “Miley Cyrus made off with it”.Standing tallStanding well over six feet in her heels andlooking somewhat young for a CEO of a majormultinational company, Maile Carnegie laughseasily and flits effortlessly from subject to subjectas she talks to C&I about her twenty year careerin a company that is now 175 years old.“Procter & Gamble is comparatively young inAustralia but it’s huge internationally,” she says. “Ithas so many divisions and operations in so manycountries that it’s really not necessary to leave thecompany in order to broaden your experience.That’s one of the great things about working at P&G.“I was born to American parents who met in WestAfrica while they were working for the PeaceCorps, and I came to Australia with them when Iwas just four. They were both teachers and, after abrief return to the USA, we settled in Australia forgood. We lived in the north west of Sydney and Ispent six years in the pink uniform of CheltenhamGirls High School. I was always tall and a latedeveloper, so a girls-only school was good for me.Early days - education“Dad had a masters degree in education specialisedin teaching children where English was theirsecond language. Mum worked teaching deafchildren after originally training as a nurse and latergaining her masters degree in education as well.“My parents wanted the broadest possible educationfor my sister and I and insisted on a stronginvolvement in sport, music, reading and the otherextracurricular things that you find in a typicalstate high school. It seemed that they wanted mysister and me to turn out to be what some mightcall renaissance women. Renaissance women weweren’t, but we certainly received a broad education.“We were a working class family on a workingclass income, but my parents never made money16February / March 2013 | C&I | www.c-store.com.auREGISTER NOW FOR C&I 2013 | MELBOURNE | 13-14 MARCH 2013

ADVICE FOR SUPPLIERS• Work to better understand shopper differentiation in this channel. That wayyou can help retailers to understand why shoppers are actually in the store.• Coordinate plans with retailers to generate genuine category growth.Retailers are not interested in a pie that stays the same size.• Define more clearly what your point of differentiation is, with shoppersas well as with retailers, and start to generate some insights.ADVICE OR RETAILERS• The convenience channels represent a major growth opportunity, not just inAustralia, but globally. No-one is saying it’s easy, but retailers should focuson the opportunities that the impulse and convenience channels offer,rather than worrying excessively about risk, pressures and downsides.• Focus on your shopper. Become “shoppercentric”• Find your point of difference in the retail landscape anddon’t lose sight of it. That is your key business driver.“I did a lot of history and science atschool and enjoyed a diversified rangeof subjects later at university. I alwaysenjoyed the practical aspects of thingsand was fascinated by the balancebetween the analytical and creativeapproaches to solving problems. Thesedays in business, BIG DATA often takesover and we often find that people getso tied up in data analysis that theyforget about creativity. In marketingterms, it’s easy to lose sight of thecustomer. I think you need creativity ifyou want to get to any new worthwhileplace. Gender and ethnicity areproxies for diversity of thinking, whichis the starting point for creativity.“I was fairly average at school, OK butnot great until my final year, whenI made a real effort. So I scored wellenough for all the universities andCareer path“My fist job with P&G was as atwenty‐two year old brand assistant.The company had been in Australiafor only six years at that stage andwas still quite small. But the familyback in the USA were terribly excitedabout me snaring a job with anorganisation that was a householdname in America and had such awonderful reputation, especiallyfor their social responsibility.“My path through P&G was fairlytraditional, becoming assistant brandmanager after a year or two, thenbrand manager for Olay after that.Then associate director for Vicks,Pringles and some other brands, beforebeing transferred in 1999, pregnantwith our first son, to Cincinnati asan issue. We just made do with whatwe had and there was never anysuggestion that my sister or I shouldenter the business world. It was awonderfully pleasant childhood.“Mind you, by the time I was ateenager I had become fiercelyindependent and I don’t think careeradvice from my parents would havegone down too well anyway. I wasadamant about what I wanted to be.As it turned out, we were encouraged,but never pushed. We were alwaysencouraged to develop a socialconscience. It was great preparationfor me in parenting our own twoboys as well as in my career.Social conscience“Procter & Gamble has always beena major supporter of charities worldwide and the company supportsquite a number of programshere in Australia including Savethe Children. That’s somethingI am very happy about.”Maile Carnegie is a director onthe board of the Australia Food &Grocery Council (AFGC) as well as theadvisory board of the University ofTechnology Sydney (UTS). She alsohas a history of supporting childrenrelated causes, having spent manyyears on not-for-profit Boards andas a patron of education programs."... as well as being one of the world’s biggest soapmanufacturers, P&G produced and sponsoredthe first Radio and TV serial shows"settled on a double major in businessadministration in economics andmarketing at the University ofTechnology in Sydney. Being theindependent type, I Ieft home assoon as I could and worked parttime to support myself though uni.“So there I was, working two or threedays a week, with my own apartmentand paying my own rent. It was toughbut I think I ended up with a broaderlife experience than the typical unistudent. In my last year I picked upa no-strings scholarship with P&G.marketing director for the newlyacquired Tampax brand. I looked afterthe USA, Puerto Rico and Canada.Oppportunities“It was early days in figuring out howto leverage the internet in marketingand we broke new ground with agreat website www.beinggirl.comwhich was a wonderful resourcefor girls and is still popular today.“Then I got moved to a P&G start‐upcompany called Tremor (nowREGISTER NOW FOR C&I 2013 | MELBOURNE | 13-14 MARCH 2013February / March 2013 | C&I | www.c-store.com.au17

FACETIMEVocal Point). We provided marketing servicesto major clients like Coke, Dreamworks, WarnerBrothers and so on and I was head of creativedevelopment and client services. This goes backto what I was saying earlier about not having tomove companies to broaden your experience.This job came at a good time for me.“It’s not generally known how broadly P&G isdiversified internationally. As well as a rangeof chemical, household and personal carebusinesses, it also produces TV shows and moviesand was responsible the origin of the term SoapOpera. That’s because, as well as being one ofthe world’s biggest soap manufacturers, P&Gproduced and sponsored the first Radio and TVserial shows. They were dubbed Soap Operas.I’ll bet not too many C&I readers know that!International roles“Later I ran the hair care business Herbal Essencesin North America and internationally when P&Gacquired Clairol from Bristol Myer. By early 2006,we were keen to come back to Australia. We’d beenaway a long time and Charles and I were missingour families. Two years after landing in Australia,we were off to Singapore where I was head ofmarketing and design for the rapidly developingAsia region. I also picked up responsibility fora BRIC focused beauty care business whichwas fun as I could work in developing markets.Two years later, in July 2010, we were backin Australia with me in my present role.Charles and I met while he was working at P&G.He left quite soon after we met and established asuccessful consultancy and software business.We have always been very supportive of eachother’s careers and have constructed a veryplanned and contained life for ourselves inorder to make it all work. Part of that was alwaysmaking sure we got the support we needed andI can well remember the days when all of myafter tax income was spent on child care.Home and holiday“These days, we love to entertain at home, where Ienjoy cooking on weekends, but we don’t overloadourselves socially. Charles and I are very focusedon the family and we’re both very protective ofthe precious 6.00pm to 8.00pm time slot, whenwe all sit down to dinner as a family. I can gooff early or log on to the office late; but dinnerwith the family, apart from when I’m travelling,is an absolute must. So are fixed calendar datesfor family things that we all look forward to, likebirthdays and a traditional family Christmas.Maile says she loves travel andrefuses to use a travel agent.“I am the Holiday Queen and enjoy planningholidays in every detail. We entertain at home a lotand Charles and I share a serious reading addiction.Over the last few years we have spent a lot of timerenovating our house. And or course Matthew andNicholas, now ten and thirteen, keep us busy asthey prepare to enter life’s Man Cave. I honestlynever imagined that I’d find myself saying to achild of mine: ‘Go and speak to your father’.“I love being back in Australia but who knows wherecareers will take you. We’ll see what the future holds.But wherever I am I love working on businesses thathave growth opportunities like the conveniencechannel. So wherever I am convenience isone of the channels I definitely want to be in.”18February / March 2013 | C&I | www.c-store.com.auREGISTER NOW FOR C&I 2013 | MELBOURNE | 13-14 MARCH 2013