Episode 241

full
Published on:

23rd Aug 2023

Driving Sustainable Growth in the Evolving Food Industry with Wendy Jean Bennett

This week on the podcast, Brent sits down with Wendy Jean Bennett, vice president of retail commerce leadership at Tyson Foods. They discuss Wendy Jean's career in the food industry spanning over 30 years, mostly at Tyson. Wendy Jean shares her passion for food and desire to influence the company to make it better each day. They also discuss the evolving food industry landscape including trends towards convenience, sustainability and global cuisines, and how Tyson is navigating the omni-channel retail transformation. Finally, Wendy Jean reflects on the value of mentors, exposure, networking and saying yes to new challenges throughout her career journey.

Transcript
Wendy Jean Bennett:

It's interesting people ask me what I

Wendy Jean Bennett:

value the most. I value the influence I have on the company

Wendy Jean Bennett:

to be able to make it a better company every day I wake up of

Wendy Jean Bennett:

how can I make this company better, and help drive this

Wendy Jean Bennett:

organization.

Brent Williams:

Welcome to the be epic podcast brought to you

Brent Williams:

by the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of

Brent Williams:

Arkansas. I'm your host, Brent Williams. Together, we'll

Brent Williams:

explore the dynamic landscape of business and uncover the

Brent Williams:

strategies, insights and stories that drive business today. All

Brent Williams:

right, well, today I have with me Wendy Jean Bennett, from

Brent Williams:

Tyson Foods. Wendy Jean is the vice president of retail

Brent Williams:

commerce leadership at Tyson Foods. Wendy, thank you for

Brent Williams:

joining me.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

I'm so happy to be here. Brent. This is

Wendy Jean Bennett:

fantastic.

Brent Williams:

It is. I'm excited to have you here. You

Brent Williams:

know, in your role, I think you have category leadership, I

Brent Williams:

think insights, e commerce, shopper marketing, and and

Brent Williams:

you've gotten a really varied set of experiences mostly in

Brent Williams:

food. So 30 years in the food industry, most of that at Tyson

Brent Williams:

I think so. And I thought what was really interesting is maybe

Brent Williams:

going all the way back to the early part of your career, I

Brent Williams:

think you're in food service at a university?

Wendy Jean Bennett:

The old days. Yes yes.

Brent Williams:

So quite a career thus far. Tell me more.

Brent Williams:

Tell me more about your current role and would love to learn a

Brent Williams:

little bit about from your viewpoint like what did that

Brent Williams:

journey look like?

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Absolutely. I think it's important to

Wendy Jean Bennett:

understand people's journeys, at least from a business lens and

Wendy Jean Bennett:

sense and a career development, which I think is critically

Wendy Jean Bennett:

important. So currently, you nail it on the head, I have four

Wendy Jean Bennett:

disciplines, all on the retail side of the business, retail,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

meaning grocery mass retailers also includes dollar, drug, club

Wendy Jean Bennett:

channels. So all those channels of business on the retail side,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

it is category management, which is a great discipline, we are

Wendy Jean Bennett:

the advisor for many of the retailers we work with. So we do

Wendy Jean Bennett:

share and we look at the growth and what's happening in that

Wendy Jean Bennett:

category and deliver insights to those retailers. There's

Wendy Jean Bennett:

actually a firewall you might not know that, but with a lot of

Wendy Jean Bennett:

retailers, you cannot just openly talk to sales like they

Wendy Jean Bennett:

trust us we have NDAs to be able to deliver the best category

Wendy Jean Bennett:

advancement to help everyone grow. So that's that's the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

largest discipline I manage. Then as you said, we have

Wendy Jean Bennett:

insights ours is more of those insights directly related to the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

retailers. So the big questions they're asking like right now,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

what's going on with the consumer? What's going on with

Wendy Jean Bennett:

snap money, government money going away? How is that going to

Wendy Jean Bennett:

impact us in the business so our insights team really

Wendy Jean Bennett:

concentrates. It's all primary research, so not using

Wendy Jean Bennett:

syndicated to do that, our category team does use

Wendy Jean Bennett:

syndicated and we do have insights people who manage our

Wendy Jean Bennett:

syndicated tools on those sides, commerce marketing is shopper

Wendy Jean Bennett:

marketing. You're right on we changed the name because of omni

Wendy Jean Bennett:

channel,

Brent Williams:

Right

Wendy Jean Bennett:

So now because it does include

Wendy Jean Bennett:

ecommerce is on my team as well as shopper marketing. So we call

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that now commerce marketing. It's everything incorporated

Wendy Jean Bennett:

together, whether you're buying or planning offline, online when

Wendy Jean Bennett:

you go to the store, when the conversion happens. So those

Wendy Jean Bennett:

four disciplines is what I managed today.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

You asked about the journey. I always knew

Brent Williams:

Okay.

Brent Williams:

I wanted to be food. So I'm going to start old old school

Brent Williams:

story of when you people ask, what do you want to be when you

Brent Williams:

grow up? Well, my number one answer was an astronaut. You

Brent Williams:

know, I'm old. So I was drinking Tang, and I always want to do

Brent Williams:

the astronaut. But number two was I wanted to be a waitress. I

Brent Williams:

know that's really, you know, big, big job there when you're

Brent Williams:

young. And all I wanted for Christmas was the little note

Brent Williams:

pad that they used to take orders on and one of those tear

Brent Williams:

pads and I got it. And so I would take your order on the

Brent Williams:

dinner table me my brothers, sister and family. And I would

Brent Williams:

even though we only had one item like you know you had only got

Brent Williams:

meatballs tonight. That's all you're getting. But let me take

Brent Williams:

your order down. And I was I always knew I wanted to be in

Brent Williams:

food. So food was always my journey. At that point, the best

Brent Williams:

schools was Cornell which we couldn't afford to go to, even

Brent Williams:

with scholarships, and UNLV so interesting enough, I'm a girl

Brent Williams:

from New England, New Hampshire and went to Las Vegas, so not

Brent Williams:

smart always to go to a town that's open 24 hours when you're

Brent Williams:

young. But so great life experiences there but it

Brent Williams:

actually was a fantastic college. And you had all the

Brent Williams:

hotels right there that you could do internships with and

Brent Williams:

restaurants so you could specialize in hotel side or

Brent Williams:

restaurant side. I specialized in restaurants. So that's what

Brent Williams:

got me into the food business and I loved my first journey, as

Brent Williams:

you mentioned, was in colleges and university it's contract

Brent Williams:

management services. It used to be Marriott management services.

Brent Williams:

It was bought out by Sodexo. There's three big E's, Compass,

Brent Williams:

Aramark, and Sodexo. And so then I worked at different colleges

Brent Williams:

University what's so great, I love about that and what I love

Brent Williams:

about the university atmosphere and being here today is in

Brent Williams:

business, sometimes you're stuck in your internal business lens

Brent Williams:

world. And when I worked on campus, I mean, the students

Brent Williams:

would come in, and we'd have student managers and students

Brent Williams:

that worked with us, with us, along with full time employees.

Brent Williams:

And you talked about philosophy and life and things they learned

Brent Williams:

in class, and they want to apply it and what are the thoughts on

Brent Williams:

that and quantum physics and you could have such a books diverse

Brent Williams:

conversation, and keeps you young at the university campus

Brent Williams:

as opposed and gives you more diversity and inclusivity

Brent Williams:

honestly, from being in that perspective, and having that

Brent Williams:

broader lens, because I find that expanding your horizons is

Brent Williams:

the best thing you can do to open your thought process of how

Brent Williams:

you act and react to business problems in this world.

Brent Williams:

You know, and on that note, I think one thing

Brent Williams:

about the Walton College of Business that I love is the

Brent Williams:

interaction that occurs with industry, you know, and whether

Brent Williams:

it's here, whether it's out in the business community, it's

Brent Williams:

happening every single day

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Every day.

Brent Williams:

And there's a lot of magic that happens for

Brent Williams:

for both. So I think it was really, I really enjoyed hearing

Brent Williams:

from your perspective, you know, what is the value you get from

Brent Williams:

interacting with universities, colleges and our students?

Wendy Jean Bennett:

I absolutely love it. And I love that spark

Wendy Jean Bennett:

of curiosity, nothing, you know, when you hire, you look at will

Wendy Jean Bennett:

and skill. And I, I can teach someone, almost anything, as

Wendy Jean Bennett:

long as they have, what they learn here, the rudimentary

Wendy Jean Bennett:

business acumen application, and if they have the will, I'm gonna

Wendy Jean Bennett:

hire them. So that's always what's exciting to me is that

Wendy Jean Bennett:

spark of curiosity, and that will so I loved working in the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

university environment, I'm gonna skip forward. And I

Wendy Jean Bennett:

learned a lot on how to be a manager, some leadership skill

Wendy Jean Bennett:

sets, you know, and one of the core ones I would say for

Wendy Jean Bennett:

myself, is motivation and inspiration. I, you know, in

Wendy Jean Bennett:

these times, and everything we just handled with the pandemic,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

it was important to have motivation and inspiration as a

Wendy Jean Bennett:

leader, and really dig deep and project that for your team. And

Wendy Jean Bennett:

the second thing I learned right as I went from my 20s, to 30s,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

was self awareness is a skill set. I swear if I have a book,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Brent it's gonna be one of the chapters, and how do I know

Wendy Jean Bennett:

this, because I went and saw someone on stage, who was pinch

Wendy Jean Bennett:

hitting for me, because I was not feeling well. And I kind of

Wendy Jean Bennett:

had a little bit of laryngitis couldn't talk to someone who was

Wendy Jean Bennett:

pinch hitting for me, and I'm watching him on stage. And it

Wendy Jean Bennett:

was a peer. And, you know, it was a good, you know, thing. It

Wendy Jean Bennett:

wasn't very, you know, it was good. You know, like when you

Wendy Jean Bennett:

sit in the audience, and you're listening, and you're clapping

Wendy Jean Bennett:

and doing all the right things, the right right moment, and head

Wendy Jean Bennett:

nodding, but it really didn't blow me away. And it was good,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

but not great. And I see people around me looking at their

Wendy Jean Bennett:

phones. So they're not engaged. You can see it in the audience

Wendy Jean Bennett:

when you're losing them. And then he came off, and I'm like,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

how do you think it went, he goes, oh, I killed it. That went

Wendy Jean Bennett:

great. I was fabulous. And I literally had that moment of oh,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

he is completely unaware. He thinks he really did an A level

Wendy Jean Bennett:

job. I'm a big grader. I know that's bad with school. But and

Wendy Jean Bennett:

I'm like it was like a C and it really needed some improvement.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

And so it's interesting because I sometimes over analyze, but

Wendy Jean Bennett:

the second I'm done something I say how can I do that better.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

But I also think that makes me a sharper manager for continuous

Wendy Jean Bennett:

improvement. So that was a big lesson I learned in my 30s that

Wendy Jean Bennett:

context and perspective are critically important. And one of

Wendy Jean Bennett:

the most interesting classes I took at that time was body

Wendy Jean Bennett:

language. And watching people's body language it really helped

Wendy Jean Bennett:

me is then as you noticed in my career, I went into sales and

Wendy Jean Bennett:

marketing. And so I'm working with our retail partners, I'm

Wendy Jean Bennett:

working on the foodservice side, I have gone all the way to lead

Wendy Jean Bennett:

teams, some of our key retailers, like Kroger, Meijer,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Target. And it was really that nothing was more important than

Wendy Jean Bennett:

in the meeting and watching the body language of what happens.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

And sometimes people are focused on the content they need to

Wendy Jean Bennett:

deliver. And they're reading their slide or they're reading

Wendy Jean Bennett:

their notes. And they're not paying attention to the dynamics

Wendy Jean Bennett:

of the room. And I would leave and go, Oh, they're already

Wendy Jean Bennett:

going to do something with our competitor. And they're already

Wendy Jean Bennett:

moving forward with this because they totally pushed back a

Wendy Jean Bennett:

little bit and showed disinterest or they're thinking

Wendy Jean Bennett:

of that strategy. And they really liked that idea. We need

Wendy Jean Bennett:

to follow up on that. And honestly, my directors, these

Wendy Jean Bennett:

are leaders, these are directors would be like, wow, I didn't

Wendy Jean Bennett:

even notice that or I didn't even catch that. And those are

Wendy Jean Bennett:

some of the critical things that really unlock success in

Wendy Jean Bennett:

business. And they sound very elementary, but we don't always

Wendy Jean Bennett:

teach that as well or how to apply that and engage it in the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

business world.

Brent Williams:

Yeah, that's right. And that's an onload

Brent Williams:

ongoing learning process. How do you as you lead teams is in

Brent Williams:

these four different areas of the business across sales and

Brent Williams:

marketing? Well, I guess how do you go uncover those needs and

Brent Williams:

hire hopefully to do a great job getting those skills into your

Brent Williams:

organization. But how do you develop people as you think

Brent Williams:

about those needs and across your teams?

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Yeah, absolutely. A you gotta have

Wendy Jean Bennett:

strong onboarding plans. And Tyson is very good at investing

Wendy Jean Bennett:

in this and we have day long classes, people go to dow get on

Wendy Jean Bennett:

boarded, learn about Tyson get grounded in that. And then when

Wendy Jean Bennett:

they come to us, we just have to teach the basic functions of the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

team and work on that. So they job shadow is critically

Wendy Jean Bennett:

important in the process of onboarding and learning of what

Wendy Jean Bennett:

they do to learn their skill sets. And then we luckily work

Wendy Jean Bennett:

for a big company that invests in people. So we do have

Wendy Jean Bennett:

different levels of investment, we partner with many we have

Wendy Jean Bennett:

LinkedIn learning, we have Tyson University, where they learn

Wendy Jean Bennett:

about our products, and they really get hands on with our

Wendy Jean Bennett:

products and our stance some sort of some people who come

Wendy Jean Bennett:

from a CPG landscape, they're not used to dealing with

Wendy Jean Bennett:

animals, right? So it's, it's a beast, no pun intended, of

Wendy Jean Bennett:

sometimes working with a commodity that's perishable. I

Wendy Jean Bennett:

said, if I ever left Tyson, I'm going to a shelf stable product

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that can last a long period of time, as opposed to something

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that has days that it can last on shelf and you gotta get good

Wendy Jean Bennett:

turns.

Brent Williams:

You know, most of our listeners know Tyson and

Brent Williams:

most of us as consumers know, Tyson. But tell us a little bit

Brent Williams:

about Tyson, sitting where you sit maybe broadly about the

Brent Williams:

company, and how its evolved over time.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Absolutely. I you know, I'll be honest,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Tyson was a five year plan for me. When I came I it was my

Wendy Jean Bennett:

first exposure to Arkansas. So I said, not sure, this was 2003,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

it is much more developed now. And it was a five year plan just

Wendy Jean Bennett:

for me to get it was my first manufacturer because I'd work on

Wendy Jean Bennett:

the other side of the customer side of the business beforehand,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

so but the family it's really does treat you like family. And

Wendy Jean Bennett:

I came from an organization where the leaders had their own

Wendy Jean Bennett:

keycard to get to the 14th floor, so you don't even have

Wendy Jean Bennett:

access to them. You would not even see them unless it was a

Wendy Jean Bennett:

special meeting. And literally, I was with Donnie King yesterday

Wendy Jean Bennett:

in our cafeteria eating lunch. I mean, that's how unassuming

Wendy Jean Bennett:

servant leadership it is. You can see anyone in the hallways

Wendy Jean Bennett:

at any time you can open door policy go and talk to them. So

Wendy Jean Bennett:

the reason I'm still am with Tyson, by far, it's interesting.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

People ask me what I value the most. I value the influence I

Wendy Jean Bennett:

have on the company to be able to make it a better company

Wendy Jean Bennett:

every day I wake up of how can I make this company better, and

Wendy Jean Bennett:

help drive this organization and the influence I have the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

organizations that yes, I love all the jobs I've had, if like

Wendy Jean Bennett:

you said, I've had probably eight jobs at Tyson. And they've

Wendy Jean Bennett:

been great. But I really loved having a seat at the table and

Wendy Jean Bennett:

just being able to influence more than anything of where

Wendy Jean Bennett:

we're going and being able to talk to our leaders and then

Wendy Jean Bennett:

talk to everyone. I mentor, you know, eight or nine people on a

Wendy Jean Bennett:

regular basis, because that's so important, as you said, to grow

Wendy Jean Bennett:

and develop our talent, and make sure to convey and teach them

Wendy Jean Bennett:

how to be a leader. And I think that's the hardest step in

Wendy Jean Bennett:

anyone's career is going from an individual contributor to now a

Wendy Jean Bennett:

leader of other people, because you're used to doing it your way

Wendy Jean Bennett:

and this and so then you have those people that overly

Wendy Jean Bennett:

micromanage and want to see it done their way. Or you have

Wendy Jean Bennett:

people that are so so hands off because they don't know how to

Wendy Jean Bennett:

approach coaching, which is a whole nother skill set you have

Wendy Jean Bennett:

to learn when you step into that leader role of I always say one

Wendy Jean Bennett:

of the lessons I learned, which I really love is there's a lot

Wendy Jean Bennett:

of leader, you learn from the worst, right? You learn from

Wendy Jean Bennett:

some of your worst leaders. And I used to have a big clock

Wendy Jean Bennett:

watcher, and at Tyson we all get up early we're there for the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

most, I know it's like an eight to five. But for the most part

Wendy Jean Bennett:

we're there in the seven o'clock hour. And he used to like watch

Wendy Jean Bennett:

the clock. And so one of the greatest things I learned from

Wendy Jean Bennett:

reading, and another great HR manager was measured output, not

Wendy Jean Bennett:

input. And so I really love that lesson. And I always try to do

Wendy Jean Bennett:

it with my team. I'm not gonna sit here and watch the clock, I

Wendy Jean Bennett:

need to know if the scope of your role is is busy enough or

Wendy Jean Bennett:

too much and you need more headcount to help do what we

Wendy Jean Bennett:

need to do in order to be successful as an organization.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

That's my job. And then my other biggest job is remove the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

barrier. In any organization of life. There's some red tape or

Wendy Jean Bennett:

there's some no's and it's great to get a no, I tell my team all

Wendy Jean Bennett:

the time you want the no, because no just means not. Now,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

it's not the right timing. Timing is so much of it, right?

Wendy Jean Bennett:

We just had terrible second quarter earnings. So yes, we're

Wendy Jean Bennett:

a little tightening the belt a little bit. But we're still so

Wendy Jean Bennett:

optimistic about our future and you know, the markets are

Wendy Jean Bennett:

turning, we're getting there, we're already have moved the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

needle. So it's so optimistic of that future. And Donnie King

Wendy Jean Bennett:

feels that way too. So don't get stuck or mired down in the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

moment and make sure we're shooting for that vision.

Brent Williams:

Yeah. Well, you know, I guess, speaking of

Brent Williams:

vision, and the future maybe, one thing that I thought it was

Brent Williams:

so interesting just a moment ago, you said, this all started

Brent Williams:

with a passion for food, even as a child, you loved it, and you

Brent Williams:

love serving food to your family. Food, and the industry

Brent Williams:

is something we can all relate to, but it is evolving.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Absolutely.

Brent Williams:

So I'd love to hear your view on how you see

Brent Williams:

the whole industry evolving, and then maybe, maybe commenting a

Brent Williams:

little bit on how you see the consumer evolving as it relates

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Absolutely, yeah, it's so funny. Pre

Wendy Jean Bennett:

to that.

Brent Williams:

Interesting

Brent Williams:

pandemic, it's like cooking is dead. No one even knows how to

Wendy Jean Bennett:

It's not google, not anything else. And

Wendy Jean Bennett:

cook anymore, millennials can't cook. And then they all learned

Wendy Jean Bennett:

not all of them. But a large majority learn during the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

so you know, 80% of the content on your phone now is video that

Wendy Jean Bennett:

pandemic and a lot of these home meal kits, you could have gotten

Wendy Jean Bennett:

them really comfortable with cooking. I do see us staying

Wendy Jean Bennett:

more in a convenient side because one of the key lessons

Wendy Jean Bennett:

we learned and we're seeing post pandemic and I'm going to talk

Wendy Jean Bennett:

about multiple categories, not just ours, but again, produce,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

bag salad, pre cut vegetables, people aren't going backwards,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

they're still purchasing those and I think that will continue

Wendy Jean Bennett:

because they realize how how important time is and we saw

Wendy Jean Bennett:

people make decisions of A I'm going to retire early. We saw a

Wendy Jean Bennett:

lot of people leave the workforce or some families went

Wendy Jean Bennett:

back to a single household income instead of dual household

Wendy Jean Bennett:

income because they're trying to do the work life balance and

Wendy Jean Bennett:

they really thought about their work life and what they wanted

Wendy Jean Bennett:

to accomplish and raising their families or whatever life stage

Wendy Jean Bennett:

you're in. But people really did get back to cooking and and

Wendy Jean Bennett:

you're seeing it with TikTok and the trends interesting enough

Wendy Jean Bennett:

for Gen Z 43% start their product search on TikTok.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

we're consuming. So I when you said where do I see it going? I

Wendy Jean Bennett:

definitely see less things like recipe cards and recipe books,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

and us morphing into this great video content, and easy,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

convenient ways to deliver it. And what I mean by that was the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

feta cheese bake craze that happened on TikTok. If you heard

Wendy Jean Bennett:

about that, but it was the whole block of cheddar and all the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

grape tomatoes. And so it's already kind of pre portioned.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

And I just assemble, or what we call speed scratch in order to

Wendy Jean Bennett:

then cook it and make it so I think that will happen. The

Wendy Jean Bennett:

other thing that I think is really exciting is when I grew

Wendy Jean Bennett:

up, you know, get Chinese food and maybe a little Mexican, and

Wendy Jean Bennett:

now, Thai food and Korean food. And there's such an exploration

Wendy Jean Bennett:

of global foods coming to the market, we're finally selling

Wendy Jean Bennett:

more dark meat than ever before in our chicken, which we

Wendy Jean Bennett:

couldn't move at all come 10 years ago.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

So we are seeing a proliferation of what

Brent Williams:

Interesting.

Brent Williams:

that mixes with consumers, I still think they're going to

Brent Williams:

want convenience, I think we're going to find ways to be

Brent Williams:

frictionless, like I said, seamless in the omni channel

Brent Williams:

right now it's very price sensitive people, not everyone,

Brent Williams:

but there's a group going back into stores to shop for the best

Brent Williams:

deal of protein because of the inflationary environment.

Brent Williams:

Because right now most retailers are catchweight. So it has a

Brent Williams:

range of the price or a maximum. And so therefore we're, you

Brent Williams:

know, losing a little bit of sales that way. And we got to

Brent Williams:

figure out how to do that. But we will, right I mean with

Brent Williams:

everyone's kind of scared of AI, what I'm excited about AI it's

Brent Williams:

going to deliver predictive analytics that we've been

Brent Williams:

talking about. And I'm sure the school that we I know you've

Brent Williams:

been talking about. I've heard it from students for quite a

Brent Williams:

while now. And it's finally coming to its impetus. And I

Brent Williams:

think that will help with so much more efficiencies and so

Brent Williams:

much more predictive analytics of what consumers are going to

Brent Williams:

do. But, you know, I still see them going to cook it's going to

Brent Williams:

be easier, it's going to be more convenient cuts, it's going to

Brent Williams:

be more global. So we're gonna see mix change on proteins. A

Brent Williams:

lot of people think of pork is just pork chops on the American

Brent Williams:

plate. And pork is the number two global cuisine in the world

Brent Williams:

once you get past chicken and goat if you didn't know goat's

Brent Williams:

to the number one protein of the world.

Brent Williams:

I did not.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

You did not know that. And then so the like

Wendy Jean Bennett:

pork is huge in the Latino culture and in Asian culture as

Wendy Jean Bennett:

well. It's not beef, like we're big beef eaters, which is great,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

but I just think we don't have it in the right form for them to

Wendy Jean Bennett:

cook up a great stir fry or some of these other you know, items

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that we're seeing out there from street tacos to tort, you know,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

tortas, with Mexican sandwiches, and there's just this whole

Wendy Jean Bennett:

proliferation going to happen and I'm finally starting to see

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Indian which I'm excited because I love Indian. The first wave of

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Indian was very polarizing because it was curries. So you

Wendy Jean Bennett:

either love curries or hate curries. And now we're seeing

Wendy Jean Bennett:

chicken tikka masala, which is tomato based, American palettes

Wendy Jean Bennett:

get that and we're seeing biryanis, which are rice

Wendy Jean Bennett:

flavored dishes. So I think we're going to see a lot more

Wendy Jean Bennett:

global cuisine in the palette, which I think is exciting. We're

Wendy Jean Bennett:

still seeing people travel, even though, you know, people are

Wendy Jean Bennett:

tightening the belt there. They didn't travel during the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

pandemic. So travel is really still big right now on people's

Wendy Jean Bennett:

minds and getting out there for summer vacation. So I think

Wendy Jean Bennett:

we're gonna see that product mix shift, but I think that's

Wendy Jean Bennett:

exciting. I think we're well poised. I think it's funny. And

Wendy Jean Bennett:

you might not know this, you know, this, but when people

Wendy Jean Bennett:

think protein, they think of cereal, because it's called out

Wendy Jean Bennett:

on cereal that, you know, there's so many grams of

Wendy Jean Bennett:

protein. And we're the OG protein people like chicken,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

beef and pork, like, it's the original protein. So I think

Wendy Jean Bennett:

people forget that. So we're going to a lot of call outs and

Wendy Jean Bennett:

protein if you've looked at any of our packages lately.

Brent Williams:

Yeah. Well, I think I think what's so

Brent Williams:

interesting about everything you're talking about is it's

Brent Williams:

giving you your team Tyson, really an opportunity to deliver

Brent Williams:

more value to the consumer, right. And that is either you're

Brent Williams:

saving them time, or you're opening us up to new experiences

Brent Williams:

that we might not have gotten without without your products.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Yeah, and the culinary part, just like you

Wendy Jean Bennett:

said, is a passion for me. That's one of the things I loved

Wendy Jean Bennett:

working on the foodservice side is working with our top chain

Wendy Jean Bennett:

customers like Chipotle, they're a customers of ours or potbelly

Wendy Jean Bennett:

sandwich works, if you're aware of them in the Midwest, and

Wendy Jean Bennett:

developing specific products for them to use in their formats.

Brent Williams:

You know throughout your career, you

Brent Williams:

And they all have different cooking platforms like we have

Brent Williams:

stoves or a lot of us now have air fryers. That's the other

Brent Williams:

thing, it kind of surpassed instapot. So we're doing a lot

Brent Williams:

of things that work in the air fryer. So but from a culinary

Brent Williams:

lens, it's really exciting to see the next proliferation of

Brent Williams:

where's Jimmy Dean going, where are we gonna go with State Fair

Brent Williams:

for snacking, we're gonna go with our anchor, Tyson brands.

Brent Williams:

So there's some great ideas in the pipeline that are going to

Brent Williams:

be pretty exciting.

Brent Williams:

mentioned some companies you've worked with, you've worked with

Brent Williams:

lots of large retailers over your career, you know, and it's,

Brent Williams:

it's collectively that you know, a producer, you know, in a brand

Brent Williams:

company like Tyson and retailer together, they're coming

Brent Williams:

together to deliver that product and value to the consumer. So

Brent Williams:

how do you think about building relationships with those with

Brent Williams:

with your customers, ultimately, to serve the consumer? And how

Brent Williams:

do you do that sustainably?

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Yeah, absolutely. Well, the first step

Wendy Jean Bennett:

in all the consumer work, and even working with retailers

Wendy Jean Bennett:

outside in approach. So where I see some companies fail is an

Wendy Jean Bennett:

inside out approach, like this is the, you know, this is the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

product I have, and this is the capacity of chicken I have. And

Wendy Jean Bennett:

I'm going to force that instead of saying what is this retailer

Wendy Jean Bennett:

strategy, which they will provide to you, especially when

Wendy Jean Bennett:

you're a partner like Tyson is. And what are they? What is their

Wendy Jean Bennett:

vision for the next three or five years? And then looking at

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that, and making almost like a Venn diagram of where do we both

Wendy Jean Bennett:

correlate, a lot of retailers right now we're really big on

Wendy Jean Bennett:

sustainability. And we have made huge strides under John Randal

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Tyson, on sustainability. In fact, in the cantar rankings,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that was the were in the top 10. For the first time ever Tyson

Wendy Jean Bennett:

is, I mean, it's always been

Brent Williams:

Congratulations on that.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Thank you Kraft. We're, we're in the top

Wendy Jean Bennett:

10 for the first time category, my team sustainability moved 22

Wendy Jean Bennett:

spots. And the differences just giving a quick grounding is we

Wendy Jean Bennett:

used to do just what we can directly influence, a lot of

Wendy Jean Bennett:

animal welfare things that community that we're involved

Wendy Jean Bennett:

in, that we can impact. And John took it to things we can

Wendy Jean Bennett:

influence. So growing corn, right, we don't grow corn,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

farmers grow corn, and then it's harvested, and we make it for

Wendy Jean Bennett:

our feed that we give to our chickens, for example. So you

Wendy Jean Bennett:

know, we are now influencers to help with green gas emissions,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

helping reduce deforestation, helping with corn growing and

Wendy Jean Bennett:

better soil and landscaping. So we hadn't had that before. So

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that was significant. For we've been part of the global climate

Wendy Jean Bennett:

change and going to global forums in Europe. So it's been

Wendy Jean Bennett:

very evolved from that standpoint, but our retailers

Wendy Jean Bennett:

really care about that, too. Consumers want sustainability.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

They want sustainable packaging. It's been the number one thing

Wendy Jean Bennett:

we've heard on retailers lips this this year. So in that Venn

Wendy Jean Bennett:

diagram, we find the places where we align typically its

Wendy Jean Bennett:

sustainability and innovation, our corporate responsibility and

Wendy Jean Bennett:

the values you have to click connect on that level of

Wendy Jean Bennett:

understanding the integrity of what you both are and then have

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that transparency and create that partnership where you can

Wendy Jean Bennett:

have that transparency to then evolve and create these growth

Wendy Jean Bennett:

initiatives that you can work on together. So that's like the the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

ethos of where it really needs to stem from. Instead of being

Wendy Jean Bennett:

like this outside in approach, like I said, it really needs to

Wendy Jean Bennett:

come from this coordinated effort of partnerships. So the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

best unlocks I've seen in my career is us being equally

Wendy Jean Bennett:

transparent. And there's times when some retailers can be just

Wendy Jean Bennett:

very guarded, you know, and it's, they're not really letting

Wendy Jean Bennett:

you in and try to do that. And then I've seen the other end of

Wendy Jean Bennett:

the spectrum where we created great strategies for them to

Wendy Jean Bennett:

grow their business. And then they didn't love our price. And

Wendy Jean Bennett:

so they went and executed that strategy with somebody else,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

which isn't really what you want. But you know, and then

Wendy Jean Bennett:

luckily, there's always like the leadership, when you have your

Wendy Jean Bennett:

top to tops that you can go, come on, now, we're delivering a

Wendy Jean Bennett:

lot of value to you, let's make sure we're partnering. But for

Wendy Jean Bennett:

the most part, I've had really good luck with some really good

Wendy Jean Bennett:

partners. I mean, Walmart is the cornerstone here has been an

Wendy Jean Bennett:

excellent partner through the years, and we've done so much

Wendy Jean Bennett:

together, working, you know, me, specifically, on deli, and most

Wendy Jean Bennett:

recently, with David Baskin's team, I mean, you know, just

Wendy Jean Bennett:

trying to grow and figure out what we're going to do together

Wendy Jean Bennett:

and how to unlock growth. I mean, people just think that the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Walmart beef, which we supply for them, even though it's

Wendy Jean Bennett:

private label, we're one of their suppliers. They don't even

Wendy Jean Bennett:

think it comes from the US when you ask those consumers they

Wendy Jean Bennett:

think it's Mexico or somewhere else. And they don't even

Wendy Jean Bennett:

realize the quality it's you know, upper to their choice.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

It's high quality product that is on the shelves people can get

Wendy Jean Bennett:

every day. And they're now working on rebranding. If you've

Wendy Jean Bennett:

seen local stores there, it's American farmers and and they

Wendy Jean Bennett:

are labeling the product and but we work really well with those

Wendy Jean Bennett:

customers Meijer, Target and Kroger, my others, we all found

Wendy Jean Bennett:

ways to unlock and drive success. But it does ebb and

Wendy Jean Bennett:

flow. And it's hard when you have leadership churn, I would

Wendy Jean Bennett:

say that's the hardest thing I've learned through the years

Wendy Jean Bennett:

because sometimes you're back to square one, or maybe square two,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

but you have to like re onboard everyone, so and you lose some

Wendy Jean Bennett:

of that momentum. So there's been many times where I've been

Wendy Jean Bennett:

close to the brass ring, and we're gonna close a great deal.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

And we're all aligned, and then you know, something happens. And

Wendy Jean Bennett:

then you get out, of course, correct and drive from there.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

But I've also been grateful enough to experience some really

Wendy Jean Bennett:

good wins, and some really good partnerships along the line. But

Wendy Jean Bennett:

like I said, I think too many times I hear from retailers,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

people are pushing this widget, like, Oh, here's this bottle of

Wendy Jean Bennett:

water, like I'm gonna, this is why you need this bottled water

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Brent. It's the best bottle water and I know there's Fiji

Wendy Jean Bennett:

and polar, it's springs. But this bottle of water is really

Wendy Jean Bennett:

going to drive your sales. And when you just, you know,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

everyone can talk about features benefits, I laugh because every

Wendy Jean Bennett:

single vendor spire in the world is number one, it's something

Wendy Jean Bennett:

their generic decks will say, where I got the number one brand

Wendy Jean Bennett:

or word number one in frozen, grocery, you know, vegetable,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

this. And so everyone finds the thing that they can raise the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

number one and I have found in my experience, that's nice. But

Wendy Jean Bennett:

it's not always what your retail partner is really looking for in

Wendy Jean Bennett:

order to drive growth in a category.

Brent Williams:

And when you look at driving growth in a

Brent Williams:

category with two big companies trying to get alignment and

Brent Williams:

drive that growth to meet the consumers need. Talk a little

Brent Williams:

bit about you know kind of mention this with leadership

Brent Williams:

change potentially can disrupt that. Talk a little bit about

Brent Williams:

the role of building personal relationships to to create

Brent Williams:

momentum.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Yeah, um, well, it's difficult. And

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Walmart doesn't allow that. So you're not able to do that,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

other retailers you are. So you are able to develop that. It's

Wendy Jean Bennett:

interesting that you say that, I'm not going to talk about

Wendy Jean Bennett:

myself, I think I'm old school or and I've learned, I came from

Wendy Jean Bennett:

a very sociable family. So we always debated at the dinner

Wendy Jean Bennett:

table and you know people don't do that anymore. My father

Wendy Jean Bennett:

wanted us to know math. So quizzes us at math and wanted us

Wendy Jean Bennett:

to debate because in his mind debate was not a four letter

Wendy Jean Bennett:

word. And he wanted us to have a point of view on things. So I

Wendy Jean Bennett:

really appreciate that I learned that, what I find nowadays is

Wendy Jean Bennett:

I'm training and onboarding and working with people and we were

Wendy Jean Bennett:

talking about coaching and development. I'm, I'm not seeing

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that like confidence and that point of view. come across and

Wendy Jean Bennett:

so when you said when leadership and things aren't going your

Wendy Jean Bennett:

way. The word I'm thinking of is they tend to cower and and not

Wendy Jean Bennett:

be resilient I guess is that word and so it's really standing

Wendy Jean Bennett:

your ground and teaching that resiliency because you're gonna

Wendy Jean Bennett:

get knocked down you're gonna learn lessons from that knocked

Wendy Jean Bennett:

down but you do lose a lot of momentum. When you do have a

Wendy Jean Bennett:

change. Wait, like I said, what you have to do is depending on

Wendy Jean Bennett:

what level it is, is use the people, whatever, let's say it's

Wendy Jean Bennett:

a VP of a certain account was gone. So you have to use the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

merchants at the lower levels to help say, this is what we're

Wendy Jean Bennett:

working on, and it had a lot of momentum. And then you have to

Wendy Jean Bennett:

make sure to connect to the level above with our like our

Wendy Jean Bennett:

chief customer officer, Jason Nickel. And make sure to bridge

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that very quickly. So you don't lose that momentum. Does that

Wendy Jean Bennett:

make sense? Does that answer your question?

Brent Williams:

You certainly did. You know, one thing I was

Brent Williams:

thinking about what we've been talking about retail, and in

Brent Williams:

your connection into retail, when you think about retail, and

Brent Williams:

how quickly it's been changing, I mean, there's an omni channel

Brent Williams:

transformation that's been happening as a, as a producer,

Brent Williams:

and as an a group of brands. How do you think about that? And how

Brent Williams:

is that affecting you? How do you how do you set a strategy

Wendy Jean Bennett:

First of all, it's absolutely impacting

Wendy Jean Bennett:

for that?

Wendy Jean Bennett:

us, let me be crystal clear. It's it, let me let me tell you

Wendy Jean Bennett:

where it was easy and where it's hard. And it's definitely

Wendy Jean Bennett:

ongoing. So we did instantly set a strategy, we're a little bit

Wendy Jean Bennett:

late to the game, but not very, it was about four years ago,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Yeah, I think this, my, this numbers a bit old, it's probably

Wendy Jean Bennett:

four or five, we already had, I'm gonna say some base,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

pictures and images and content and for all of our CPG, like a

Wendy Jean Bennett:

ballpark a Jimmy Dean, all of that is going to have all that

Wendy Jean Bennett:

basic information, because we have excellent brand marketers

Wendy Jean Bennett:

who are going to ensure who see the evolving world happen, where

Wendy Jean Bennett:

we were stumbling a bit, and we've quickly caught up is on

Wendy Jean Bennett:

fresh images. So again, we sell Tyson tray pack, poultry, and we

Wendy Jean Bennett:

sell as I was saying fresh meat. And so Walmart expects us to

Wendy Jean Bennett:

have the images for all the products we do that are even in

Wendy Jean Bennett:

private label. So that was the gap that we had a quickly closed

Wendy Jean Bennett:

and we are still closing. And then there's been evolution,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

even if you look online. So at first, you'd see like, this ugly

Wendy Jean Bennett:

picture of meat in this like foam tray. And you're like not

Wendy Jean Bennett:

very attractive. And now so then it's like, well, let's have a

Wendy Jean Bennett:

hero picture of the cut of meat and then or the raw cut of meat

Wendy Jean Bennett:

a year old. But the last time I looked there was over 600 retail

Wendy Jean Bennett:

and nice put your block next to the package. And now they're

Wendy Jean Bennett:

even evolving more of their kind of 3d ish. So if you've seen the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

latest and greatest images out there, they're very 3d, you can

Wendy Jean Bennett:

see that size more I'm sure we've all done this where you

Wendy Jean Bennett:

think, oh, I was thinking I was getting maybe a 12 ounce, and it

Wendy Jean Bennett:

comes 32 ounce, like you couldn't tell the pack size that

Wendy Jean Bennett:

you were getting from an online commerce. So you have to build

Wendy Jean Bennett:

structure, you have to build process, you have to work with

Wendy Jean Bennett:

partner agencies to take pictures, do all the work, do

Wendy Jean Bennett:

all the content. And then search is so huge in that world, you

Wendy Jean Bennett:

need to have the right taglines key words to pop in the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

algorithms. So literally, we have experts that literally work

Wendy Jean Bennett:

on that for our entire portfolio, working to make sure

Wendy Jean Bennett:

we're relevant because you have to be relevant in that space.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

And almost every retailer, every core retailer out there now has

Wendy Jean Bennett:

some type of retail media, they are pushing themselves. Walmart

Wendy Jean Bennett:

media networks that had been stood up in a relatively short

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Connect is the one locally but almost like I said, everyone has

Wendy Jean Bennett:

one where they are saying we get this many shoppers that come

Wendy Jean Bennett:

through, we want your brand media to be on our media

Wendy Jean Bennett:

channels. So that's been a huge shift from six years ago, or six

Wendy Jean Bennett:

and a half years ago. Now, when I was in what was called shopper

Wendy Jean Bennett:

marketing. Now I'm leading our commerce marketing, that's the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

biggest shift is the rise of those retail media networks. And

Wendy Jean Bennett:

just making sure we all scorecard it because impressions

Wendy Jean Bennett:

don't really sell product, right? So at the end of the day,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

period.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Exactly,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

it doesn't a click rate or, or an impression, aren't the things

Brent Williams:

quite a quite a phenomenon. When you when you

Brent Williams:

that really blow my socks off. In order for us to get more

Brent Williams:

sales, it has to be combined with seeing the conversion rate

Brent Williams:

seeing the growth happen as well, because otherwise you can

Brent Williams:

spend endless dollars on search, you know.

Brent Williams:

think about how you're going to allocate dollars, what are like

Brent Williams:

the core metrics and core, maybe even the core capabilities that

Brent Williams:

you look for amongst those returns?

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Yeah, well A, I want to make sure their

Wendy Jean Bennett:

score carding, so like I said, there's a lot that will say

Wendy Jean Bennett:

we'll give you this many impressions. And like I said,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that's great, that's like the entry level. But we want to get

Wendy Jean Bennett:

a little bit more sophisticated, and a little bit more robust,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

because we want that dollar to be as effective and efficient as

Wendy Jean Bennett:

possible for where we can spend that dollar. And we work with

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Nielsen on MMX and so one of the big things and I could throw out

Wendy Jean Bennett:

the challenge. Most of these retailers aren't using like a

Wendy Jean Bennett:

third party verification like Nielsen MMX. So there our

Wendy Jean Bennett:

scorecard numbers are different. And so we you just need to have

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that where with all of understanding so one of the

Wendy Jean Bennett:

things one of the guidelines we have, I haven't heard this from

Wendy Jean Bennett:

others yet. But we say once our search and our once our share,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

excuse me not our search, once our share hits on the omni

Wendy Jean Bennett:

channel, the same as in store, because mostly our business is

Wendy Jean Bennett:

still in store, we're not, we're not like Amazon or someone's

Wendy Jean Bennett:

gone all ecommerce, it's about 11% of our total sales, right

Wendy Jean Bennett:

now we see it going to 14. So once so that's really adequate

Wendy Jean Bennett:

saying, once our share equals brick and mortar, okay, then

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that's enough of that search, like we're going to turn that

Wendy Jean Bennett:

off and go to another tactic, because we just don't think

Wendy Jean Bennett:

we're going to proliferate more beyond that. So we've been told

Wendy Jean Bennett:

were the one of the only suppliers that are are doing

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that, when we talk to some of these retail media networks, but

Wendy Jean Bennett:

it is evolving, I think Brent too, it's going to be a future.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

You know, we're gonna need some specialists in this field. And

Wendy Jean Bennett:

we're actually hiring for those. And it's hard to find there's a

Wendy Jean Bennett:

lot of brand marketers it's a lot of marketing, there's a lot

Wendy Jean Bennett:

of shopper marketing, but this is a quickly evolving just like

Wendy Jean Bennett:

we saw with digital and E commerce when that was

Wendy Jean Bennett:

proliferating. And now, we're seeing this as it's something in

Wendy Jean Bennett:

the future that we're gonna have to help and work together. But

Wendy Jean Bennett:

we were participating in a lot of them, because a lot of those

Wendy Jean Bennett:

are great partner customers of ours, and we're doing a lot of

Wendy Jean Bennett:

tests and learns. And I appreciate those retailers being

Wendy Jean Bennett:

willing to do test and learn and learn together of how we can

Wendy Jean Bennett:

make this better and enhance this process over time.

Brent Williams:

Absolutely. We the Walton College released a

Brent Williams:

white paper on sort of the, you know, the promise and the future

Brent Williams:

of retail media networks. And to your point about talent and

Brent Williams:

knowledge in this area. That was one thing we heard from our

Brent Williams:

interviews, that you know, there was a there's a need for the

Brent Williams:

development of talent

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Yeah it's a gap.

Brent Williams:

and knowledge in that area.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

And I think I haven't heard and maybe you

Wendy Jean Bennett:

can even give me a better source of a great vision of where we

Wendy Jean Bennett:

expect this to go. You know, it's it's a revenue stream, I

Wendy Jean Bennett:

get the I get wanting to make sure your audience that you're

Wendy Jean Bennett:

capturing at your local retailer, you make them privy to

Wendy Jean Bennett:

this, and you utilize this as best as possible. But I'm not

Wendy Jean Bennett:

sure I haven't you know what I haven't seen that like

Wendy Jean Bennett:

frustrates me personally as a consumer, but I would love to

Wendy Jean Bennett:

see it. We're in summer grilling phase, I'd love summer grilling

Wendy Jean Bennett:

and grilling out. And they're not connecting some of these

Wendy Jean Bennett:

mass channels, their household goods with food, right, like

Wendy Jean Bennett:

I'm, I am going to need a new grill brush, a new silicone, you

Wendy Jean Bennett:

know, slick grill brush to use with my barbecue sauce. And my

Wendy Jean Bennett:

chicken or I might need new hot pads or towels or tongs or

Wendy Jean Bennett:

something like that. And we're not combining it, the food

Wendy Jean Bennett:

department is still the food department and this is still

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that department. So you know, the whole point of omni channel

Wendy Jean Bennett:

and frictionless buying is just that. And so don't segment how

Wendy Jean Bennett:

you buy, if it's seasonal for that don't make it food. And I

Wendy Jean Bennett:

think part of the issue and it happens this way at Tyson, it's

Wendy Jean Bennett:

not throwing stones is there's individual VPs of departments

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that roll up to this. And so there's this vision, but we

Wendy Jean Bennett:

really haven't unlocked it because no one's willing to give

Wendy Jean Bennett:

up their space on the platform and their pages to make this

Wendy Jean Bennett:

kind of work.

Brent Williams:

Well. And, you know, I think that I don't know,

Brent Williams:

exactly in a vision, but I feel like what we heard and, and

Brent Williams:

promoted through that piece of work was really trying to remain

Brent Williams:

centered on the consumer, you know, if we can remain centered

Brent Williams:

on the needs of the consumer and creating value for that

Brent Williams:

consumer, ultimately the consumer is going to win and

Brent Williams:

then and then we're going to win.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Absolutely. Like I said, it always has to

Wendy Jean Bennett:

start with the consumer. And I'm always suspicious of when it

Wendy Jean Bennett:

doesn't, right. I'm always like, what are you selling? Right?

Brent Williams:

Well, we've covered a lot in in food, CPG,

Brent Williams:

we've talked about retail, we've talked about omni channel

Brent Williams:

transformation. I'm going to kind of kind of come back to

Brent Williams:

almost where we started, a little bit about your journey.

Brent Williams:

And maybe as you think about you know, as you lead teams and you

Brent Williams:

lead lots of teams with professionals that are building

Brent Williams:

their careers. What's one or two things that you look back on

Brent Williams:

What's going on here?

Brent Williams:

your career, you really learn that you think maybe gave you an

Brent Williams:

advantage or can give other people an advantage?

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Oh, I love that question. The first one

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that instantly popped to mind is a mentor. So all of my changes

Wendy Jean Bennett:

in career, big changes so I was in the field working in college

Wendy Jean Bennett:

and universities. And literally, I had a mentor who said, you

Wendy Jean Bennett:

really kind of good at this marketing stuff. Have you ever

Wendy Jean Bennett:

thought about marketing? If you've looked at my degrees

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Hotel Restaurant Administration, I was not classically trained in

Wendy Jean Bennett:

marketing. And I said, yeah, I do have an interest in that. And

Wendy Jean Bennett:

he said, well, I think we have an opening, and are you willing

Brent Williams:

Well I feel like I heard a bit of a second one,

Brent Williams:

to move to our headquarter location, so I had to go from

Brent Williams:

the west coast to DC. And I'll give you a shot at this. So

Brent Williams:

mentor, having formal mentors. I think a lot of people have

Brent Williams:

informal mentors, but really formalize it, work at it. See

Brent Williams:

what areas of interest you have. Because there's one thing

Brent Williams:

learning at the school, the disciplines of supply chain and

Brent Williams:

logistics and brand marketing, and but then you get into the

Brent Williams:

business. And it's sometimes it can be different than what you

Brent Williams:

originally thought, or there might be a new evolving area,

Brent Williams:

right? We've, like I said, while all these new areas we pointed

Brent Williams:

out that didn't even exist, and like when we were going to

Brent Williams:

school, so it'll continue to evolve. So make sure you have a

Brent Williams:

good pulse on where where that lens is, the perspective of

Brent Williams:

business, what areas of interest you have, what mentors can help

Brent Williams:

you even if you have do informational interviews or

Brent Williams:

learning, get you connected to that, and then help coach and

Brent Williams:

guide you through your career. So number one, are, and it took

Brent Williams:

a long time, it wasn't until my 30s until I had a formal mentor.

Brent Williams:

So I wish I did that sooner. I wish I started saving in my 20s

Brent Williams:

better. And I wish I had formal mentors earlier is the first two

Brent Williams:

things. But that was the one thing and Paul Davis, my other

Brent Williams:

mentor on the Walmart team when I was on Walmart Deli. Actually,

Brent Williams:

I he was my mentor because he was D E and I, diversity, equity

Brent Williams:

and inclusion. And he said I think you should probably be

Brent Williams:

great at retail. And at that point, I only had foodservice.

Brent Williams:

He said, would you like to come on over to the Walmart team and

Brent Williams:

do deli because deli acts a lot like foodservice. And I said

Brent Williams:

sure, you know, I said yes, when those opportunities come at you.

Brent Williams:

And that brought me over to retail and I haven't left. So

Brent Williams:

those were two really pinnacle points in my career, one to

Brent Williams:

learn marketing and one to learn retail that were both brought to

Brent Williams:

me by exposure, by being part of like a business resource group

Brent Williams:

is where I first met Paul. So getting exposure, networking,

Brent Williams:

and then a mentor. And it might sound cliche, but it really does

Brent Williams:

work that way. So that's the first thing when you said, the

Brent Williams:

question that really changed some of my trajectory from that

Brent Williams:

perspective, and I'm trying to think beyond that.

Brent Williams:

which was say, yes, you've said yes to many different types of

Brent Williams:

challenges. And maybe they weren't always exactly linear.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Yeah, I am at heart, I'm a curious person.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

We talked about curiosity, and I'm kind of a nerd. I'm like a

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Star Wars geek and Lord of the Rings, and all those kinds of

Wendy Jean Bennett:

sci fi and love to read still, so you know, it's the old school

Wendy Jean Bennett:

stuff. And so I like a different challenge. So I do like to learn

Wendy Jean Bennett:

and I like to be challenged. I'm just I knew I never wanted to be

Wendy Jean Bennett:

a specialist at something. And I applaud everyone who does do

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that and has expertise. And I literally am a jack of all

Wendy Jean Bennett:

trades, master of none, because I like being able to because I

Wendy Jean Bennett:

want to see all the parts to something to then be able to

Wendy Jean Bennett:

have, like I mentioned that influence. But there's different

Wendy Jean Bennett:

career paths for different people, I mentor people who are

Wendy Jean Bennett:

experts in IT, and they are just want to be an IT field. And

Wendy Jean Bennett:

that's what they want to do. And I completely applaud that as

Wendy Jean Bennett:

well. So it's, you know, that's what it's about with diversity,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

equity and inclusion is just getting exposure and making sure

Wendy Jean Bennett:

you're helping people guide you on the right path. But just make

Wendy Jean Bennett:

sure you're open to different experiences. And saying yes,

Wendy Jean Bennett:

even though it has trials and tribulations, is probably some

Wendy Jean Bennett:

of the best thing I've done in my life.

Brent Williams:

Well, what a great way to end. You know,

Brent Williams:

Wendy Jean, I must say thank you for your leadership and thank

Brent Williams:

you for engaging with the Walton College. Tyson Foods is a

Brent Williams:

wonderful partner. We have so many alums there and you hire

Brent Williams:

our students. We have interns there as we speak. So

Wendy Jean Bennett:

we do you do

Brent Williams:

Thank you for that partnership. And thank you

Brent Williams:

for joining us today.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

Well, we love the Walton College. I

Wendy Jean Bennett:

really have enjoyed my time getting to talk to you. And heck

Wendy Jean Bennett:

if anyone out there wants some mentoring or anything else

Wendy Jean Bennett:

offline, WendyJeanBennett@tyson.com. So

Wendy Jean Bennett:

please reach out or reach out on LinkedIn and can connect you.

Brent Williams:

Thank you so much.

Wendy Jean Bennett:

You're very welcome.

Brent Williams:

On behalf of the Walton College thank you for

Brent Williams:

joining us for this captivating conversation, to stay connected

Brent Williams:

and never miss an episode. Simply search for be epic on

Listen for free

Show artwork for Be EPIC Podcast

About the Podcast

Be EPIC Podcast
Welcome to the Be Epic Podcast featuring Brent Williams, interim dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. In each episode, you will hear from guests that will inspire you to be epic. As experts in their field, they will emphasize strategy, leadership, and entrepreneurship. This programming will highlight innovation and cutting-edge information that will leave you wanting more. Be sure to connect with Brent Williams on LinkedIn to join the conversation, access show notes and discover fantastic bonus content.