For the second year in a row, former P&G marketing exec and business author Jim Stengel has agreed to field an expert team for the
Coins2Day Fantasy Sports Executive League
. Reader team creation closes Aug. 9; scoring depends, in part, on how closely the player’s picks match those of experts like Stengel.
He spoke with Coins2Day’s Daniel Roberts about some of his choices, and the harder decisions to make in certain categories.
Jim Stengel:
I was thinking about my principles for a decision. And as I think about where business is headed, and what I think is going to be crucial in the future, first of all I looked at people who work at companies that are extremely aspirational in their purpose or their ideal.
The second filter was, are they people from companies that have sustained results? The third principle was the diversity of the team — obviously on every team the chemistry is what drives results. I thought an awful lot about, if I were sitting in a room with these people, would I want to build a business with them? And I wanted companies that are nimble and big. I made a lot of picks from big companies, but big companies that have been agile. And I wanted companies that are involved in big data. And I wanted people who I think are curious, who are involved in lots of different things.
For Chairman, I chose Scott Cook. He clearly understands nimbleness, agility, big data. He’s a curious person. And I’ve had the good fortune of spending time with him because he was on the P&G board. He’s thoughtful, a bit cerebral. And he asks the right questions. And that’s absolutely what you want as a non-executive chairman.
At CEO, it was a tough call, but I’m picking Carlos Brito. I’ve learned a lot about A-B InBev (BUD) lately. First of all I think he’s a charming person, lovely to be with, and he’s smart and down to earth. He created a scholarship program for Brazilian kids. He’s worked alongside incredible people in his career. He’s worked under Lemann, who just bought Heinz with Buffett, so he’s had amazing mentors. For all those reasons, I think he’d be a great CEO.
MORE: Create your own Coins2Day Fantasy Executive League team
In the COO category, I went with Rosalind Brewer. Look at her career path. First of all, I love that she studied chemistry, so she has a technical background. She was at Kimberly-Clarke, she’s on the board at Lockheed Martin so she understands technology. She’s at Walmart, a great company — as an operator, Walmart (WMT) is about as good as it gets — and she’s had a great career with them. So I think she’d be a good COO combined with Brito. It’s all about chemistry.
Let’s go to CFO. I think there I have to choose Peter Oppenheimer. There are a lot of good ones here, and it’s a really critical role, but I just think the complexity of the supply chain that Apple (AAPL) works in, the heat they’ve taken on their amount of cash … The company is extremely well managed and I’d say very undervalued now. I think he would be ready for anything.
At CIO, I think Jeanette Horan at IBM (IBM). Think about all the things I talked about in my criteria — big and nimble, technology, big data — the work they’ve done under three different CEOs has been remarkable. The work they’re doing in enterprise, the work they’re doing with the cloud, the impact they’re trying to make on analytics and big data, I just think she’s very special.
For CMO, you’ve put me into a real box here. Joe Tripodi is incredible. Coke won marketer of the year this year, he’s extraordinary. I think Mark Addicks is making such a cultural shift at General Mills, doing so many creative things with social media. Antonio Lucio, Visa’s a rocket, he’s just a remarkable guy. But I’m going to choose Beth Comstock. And the reason I’m choosing Beth is the transformation in the last 10 years at GE (GE), the consistency of her purpose, the recasting of the business model, her agility. I think she could step into a Coke or Nike and do an equally super job. A lot of people can do nice campaigns, but there are very few who can create a new company strategy. And I think she very much did that with Jeff Immelt.
Then going to utility player, I’m picking Dina Dublon on that. The reason I’m doing it is the range of companies she’s working with now. Pepsi, Microsoft, Accenture, all in an interesting position now. She was born in Brazil, so she’s got that in common with Carlos. I also think Susan Lyne is really terrific. She is a great boardmember because she asked the right questions. Your whole list in this category is amazing.
MORE: Scouting report: A tech recruiter talks about her dream team
Entrepreneur in residence is a great idea, actually. I would want to have Elon Musk there because he’s a dreamer. And he gets it done.
Designer/engineer, I hadn’t looked at this category until now. Let’s see. Yves Behar is pretty amazing with Jawbone. Frog, that would be good, they work with a lot of great clients. Coca-Cola, well, of course. Oh, Braun, Dieter Rams! Wow. He’s a legend. Tony with Nest, that’s great, I have a Nest in my apartment in Cincinnati and I like it; it’s simple, it’s intuitive, and it also looks great. Mauro Porcini, now that’s a good choice. I know him personally. Tesla, wow. I want to buy a Tesla. I think I’ll take Porcini. He’s Italian, he’s got background with Philips, Pepsi, 3M. I’ve met him, and he’s very charismatic and smart. He dresses so beautifully too, by the way.
