In a Q&A interview, our new Chief Strategy and Growth Officer, Asheesh Saksena, discusses his background, leadership and what he’s looking forward to in his new role.
At General Mills, we are focused on boldly building our brands, innovating to better serve today’s families and standing for good for people and our planet. As consumer expectations continue to evolve, understanding that landscape and building a long-term strategy for growth is an important part of how we make food the world loves.
In September, we welcomed Asheesh Saksena to General Mills as our Chief Strategy & Growth Officer, with accountability for our comprehensive strategic planning process and building long-term, sustainable plans and capabilities to accelerate growth.
We recently sat down with Asheesh to learn more about his background, his leadership and what he’s looking forward to in his new role.
A: Undeniable potential — let me elaborate. First, General Mills’ long history of consistent high performance has allowed it to build capabilities that now offer newer opportunities for growth. Second, the company’s focus on growth spaces, including Pet, International and away-from-home eating, provides more ways for the company to accelerate its growth. And third, this is a company of well-meaning, competent people with an ambition to build on our historic successes for an even better tomorrow.
The rest was all about joy — the art on the walls, the laughter in the cafeteria, and the warmth of people I met.
A: I get drawn to businesses that address deep, fundamental human needs in ways that further humanity. Food is a core human need, and what food “does” is the full range of sustenance to exhilaration. Not too many industries provide that large a canvas for value creation.
Second, it felt like a promising time to join the food industry — the consumer is going through a generational change, food-related needs are increasingly clustering, innovation is on the rise and consistency of performance is getting rewarded.
In other words, the food industry is strong in the present and opportune for the future.
A: Don’t go through life; grow through life.
As a leader, I seek to provide an environment that enables people and teams to do their best work. In other words, providing an environment where learning and exploration, trying and, if needed, failing fast, and taking a swing at bold new ideas is rewarded. I call this a “growth environment” and, over the years with a range of rewarding successes and spectacular failures, I have learned ways to provide and harness that environment.
A: Reading and trying new ways to lose weight.
As my Kindle would demonstrate, I have read roughly 50 books a year for the past decade or more. It had started as a “performance objective” (i.e., I needed to hit 50!) and has now become a habit I deeply enjoy. I read anything that comes my way — from analog books to digital feeds to ever-present pre-reads!
And I have been on an eternal quest to hit the weight I had during my engineering school years — and am a walking authority on fads that don’t work.
A: I consume copious amounts of Nature Valley Crunchy granola bars! 190 calories of great joy with every crunch, not to mention the 3 grams of protein!
