Eric Mower Speaker Series: Deb Henretta of P&G

I attended the first speaker event of the Spring 2013 Eric Mower Advertising Forum tonight. The featured guest was Deb Henretta, group president of Procter and Gamble's Beauty Care division. She gave an engaging talk about the twists and turns of her career path, touching on the specifics of her experiences with different notable brands at Procter and Gamble and giving students advice on how to embrace change, find your passion and become a leader in the workforce. 

I enjoyed Deb’s honest approach; she talked earnestly about her life as a mom and a wife first, then a business leader. She emphasized the idea of "juggling as part of the journey," learning to balance all aspects of life day by day. Her story matched up well with various videos and advertisements she showed to give the audience a sense of just what Procter and Gamble is all about. Their business really goes beyond the products and packaging, as they work to achieve their overarching goal of helping people and making them feel better (as their tagline, “touching lives, improving life” communicates). 

Hearing Henretta’s stories of the multitude of career changes she underwent – many “good news, bad news” situations that encompassed impressive promotions that also meant uprooting her life and family  to live on other continents across the globe – was inspiring. She stressed that change is constant, and that while it can be good, it can also be challenging; it takes courage to be a leader of change in the communications industry. 

It was surreal to hear and see some of the examples of Deb’s work, some of which have become so commonplace on our TV screens over the years. For example, she was in charge of revitalizing the Pampers brand of diapers, and she worked with a team to develop the product line of different diapers for varying “stages” of development (from newborn to toddler), which seems so natural to us as consumers now. At the time, though, her proposal was revolutionary, and she stressed the importance of perseverance and thinking outside the box in the workplace to sell your ideas to management who may be reluctant at first. 

Henretta’s visit gave me a new perspective at the power of packaged goods; she is currently working with the Secret deodorant brand to develop a digital “Mean Stinks” campaign to stop teenage girls from bullying. The campaign has already received mainstream media attention, as the brand encourages young girls to “be nice behind someone’s back” and make video confessions to apologize to people they have hurt in the past. She has also worked in Asia on a social responsibility campaign that involved food, water and energy security and sustainability issues; through the “live, learn and thrive” program, she has helped P&G provide life-saving water purification tablets to third-world countries around the globe. While our society is often chastised for putting too much emphasis on beauty ideals and packaged material goods, I learned from Deb that by keeping brands relevant and paying attention to current issues, this field can truly make a change for the better by improving – and even saving – lives. 

She advised to turn your passion into power, follow your heart, and look for ways to make a difference in the world by embracing and leading change. Henretta concluded the talk with one of her favorite quotations from Winston Churchill: “The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”