Leadership Perspectives

Jarrod Cederquist is a Senior Manager Global Sales Digital RGM at Mondelēz. He is a strategic sales and business operations leader with over 29 years of success driving growth, process improvement, and digital transformation across global markets. He has a proven track record in building and leading cross-functional teams, deploying scalable solutions, and influencing strategic direction at a global level. His time at Mondelēz shows he is adept in digital sales enablement, revenue growth management (RGM), analytics, and change management. He’s known for developing strong stakeholder relationships and inspiring teams to deliver excellence in execution.

Over the course of my career, I’ve witnessed significant advancements in technology, and I’ve been fortunate to grow alongside it — even helping shape some of the tools we use today. Early in my career, order-taking was entirely manual. We took orders by hand and faxed them to the office at the end of the day.

Today, technology not only enables order entry but also provides real-time KPIs, insights, and recommendations before a representative even steps into a store. This wealth of information empowers teams to work more efficiently, make smarter decisions, and focus more on building customer relationships and driving sales. The same applies to account teams; tasks that once required weeks of manual analysis on promotions and spending can now be completed in minutes with the help of AI and machine learning.

However, this isn’t just about efficiency or cost savings — it’s also about enabling our people to focus on high-value activities.

From a high level, all our countries follow a similar process when it comes to a retail sales visit, and that became the basis for this project. The challenge was to come up with a single solution that could support the diverse routes to market, retail environments, and ways of working for each market at the local level.

The GRC was a very structured set of options that helped us standardize the platform as much as possible. It allowed for some flexibility to accommodate most, but not all of the differences within each market.

We did face challenges in some of the larger countries where the existing solutions and ways of working were adequate, and there was more reluctance to change. Allowing for some customizations to accommodate local requirements was key to deploying in these markets.

This was a project that was supported by senior leadership, which ultimately led to successful implementation. In many cases, the new platform was a significant benefit in terms of efficiency and provided enhanced capability. Having a simplified landscape when it comes to technology in over 60 markets is critical in terms of cost, support, and ongoing maintenance. This model also provided consistency in KPIs and reporting globally.

I wouldn’t say Mondelēz is unique in its approach to KPIs compared to other CPG companies. Globally, the organization focuses on key areas such as volume, revenue, market share, and productivity, supported by a wide range of metrics and KPIs.

Within the Sales Center of Excellence (CoE), our strategy was organized around three core pillars: Customer Partnerships, Revenue Management, and Retail Execution.

● Customer Partnerships focuses on establishing trusted, collaborative relationships with our retail partners, aimed at driving mutual growth — not just for Mondelēz, but for the categories in which we compete.

● Revenue Management centers on optimizing pricing, product mix, and trade spend to drive profitable growth.

● Retail Execution is about creating the perfect store environment, ensuring our products are consistently available, visible, and merchandised in a way that maximizes shopper conversion.

Of course, I’m simplifying here — each of these pillars is supported by a robust set of KPIs, which vary depending on the level of the organization and sometimes market type. What’s important is the consistent alignment of these KPIs and how they’re defined.

Advancing digital capabilities is key for a global consumer goods organization to stay competitive and to keep up with the constantly evolving expectations of our customers and consumers.

A few key objectives are:

Driving growth in digital channels by expanding e-commerce sales, strengthening consistency in omni-channels, enhancing consumer experience across all touchpoints (physical and digital), data-driven decision making, and innovation in digital technologies.

Each of these objectives are supported by four interdependent focus areas: People, Processes, Tools, and Data.

● People – we must ensure we are building the right capabilities with our employees and preparing them for change.

● Process – the processes should be as consistent as possible across markets and aligned to any supporting technology that is to be implemented.

● Tools – selecting the right tools that can be scaled and cover the majority of the capabilities needed globally.

● Data – ensuring the data is of good quality and harmonized for use across multiple functions.

I feel fortunate to have held a variety of roles as both a team lead and team member, as well as some leadership training to further support these positions. Here are a few takeaways from my experience:

● Communication is everything. As a leader, it’s important to be clear and honest so that intent is understood. Everyone has a different way of communicating, and it is the job of the leader to ensure everyone is aligned. As a team member, it is important to speak up, ask questions, and provide frequent updates so there are no misunderstandings or surprises.

● Listening as a leader creates a safe space where thoughts can be shared. The team is there to provide ideas, and as leaders, we should listen to them. Actively listening as a team member and respecting others’ input builds a collaborative environment and mutual respect among the team.

● Feedback is a gift. As a leader, it should always be given timely and be timely, but also in a positive manner. Team members should be open to receiving feedback and ask for it regularly to ensure improvement.

● Celebrating wins and not punishing failures is important for teams in general. I love to share the Amazon example of “fail fast, fail often,” where it is understood that failure is a part of innovation and learning. Failures are expected, and the goal is to quickly identify them and course-correct. This approach encourages employees to take calculated risks and try different approaches to a challenge without fear.

All of these examples foster and are supported by trust with a goal of working efficiently and effectively to achieve a common objective.

Mondelēz has business in over 60 countries with a wide variety of archetypes, routes to market, and retail environments. Understanding that there is most likely not one supplier or tech that can cover all of these nuances, the goal is to simplify the landscape as much as possible. That could mean using three different suppliers to provide a similar capability or technology.

From a sales perspective, there are three major factors when it comes to evaluating a product:

Does it meet the capability needs for the majority of our markets? This is the biggest challenge, given the previously mentioned factors. The technology needs to be flexible enough to allow for various configurations and often customizations to fit those needs.

Is it scalable? Is the supplier able to provide the service in multiple regions, markets, languages, and more importantly support across all of those time zones?

The last factor is cost. If all other factors are equal, then the best-priced solution would be the obvious choice, but only if there is a clear benefit. In most cases, the capability and the scalability are not equal, and that is why multiple suppliers are sometimes used.

All of these considerations are made collaboratively with IT and procurement. There are also other considerations outside of the sales aspect, such as architecture, security, and integration, that get factored in when evaluating potential technologies.

I think there are a few factors to consider when it comes to tying growth forecasts to digital transformation. It’s nearly impossible to attribute growth to a specific initiative given numerous internal and external influences. Inflation, pricing, epidemics, supply, health, and social trends all impact those forecasts.

From a digital perspective, advancements are coming at an exponential rate, and that makes it challenging to put a number against technology that may be brand new to the industry. This is more easily done when there are industry standards to go by, but not when you are trying to become a leader in digital transformation.

We can’t forget about the human element. Ensuring proper change management is in place and that our employees are given the right capabilities is critical. Otherwise, timelines get extended, adoption suffers, and costs increase.

Given these factors, my experience has shown value in using a conservative approach to projections. It allows for a more realistic view of potential outcomes while accounting for the many variables.