Kenny Mitchell (Levi’s) | From Breakdancer to Legacy Brands

26:05I think it was 2010, 2011. And the team was having a lot of good success, but players were getting injured, like right and left. Like Troy Palamalu got hurt, and Jerome Bettis got hurt, and their tight end got hurt. It's like all these guys were getting nicked up, but the team kept on winning and kept succeeding. And he was interviewed. It's like a Monday night football game. I was like, how are you keeping this momentum going? He's like, well, listen, for this team, we have a standard, standard around how we prepare, standard around how we collaborate, standard around how we perform and have accountability.

26:41And regardless of the individual, it's kind of like this next man up mentality. And your goal is to maintain that standard. And so I've had a privilege to work on a lot of amazing and iconic brands that have a really high standard in terms of the way that they've gone to market, the way that they've story told. I try to think of myself as a shepherd or a person who's intended to lead the team aligned with that standard. Very few brands have a standard as high as Levi's in terms of the way that they've gone to market over the decades. So we try to live up to that standard and hopefully continue to raise the bar for the next generation.

27:22Right. So that that common language that you talk about with case and that common way of thinking about things helps us to keep that standard alive.

27:31Jim Stengel:And here we have an Eagles fan giving a compliment to the Steelers. I know. Maybe for the first time, actually, maybe the first time on this show. Listen, I was doing my homework in your company. I knew it pretty well before I was doing my homework for the show. but you sit at about$6.5 billion in sales right now as a company, and your stated ambition is to get to$10 billion, right? So that's quite a jump. And I think what's interesting about you, Kenny, is you worked previously at Snap, and during your tenure at Snap, I think the brand tripled in size. And you've been on the board of Elf Cosmetics since 2020, six years ago, and the brand has grown fourfold in revenue during that time.

28:12Jim Stengel:So you've had two experiences of brands that were in hyper growth. So I'd like you to wax a little bit on that. What have those two experiences at Snap and on Elf, how does that kind of feed your spirit, maybe give you some ideas, give you some reflection about the conditions you have to create for dramatic growth? And going from six and a half to 10 in your category, I would say qualifies as dramatic growth. Oh, man, that's a wonderful question. And you've done some good homework as well. One of the things to me that had me most excited about coming to Levi's is that the brand is actually bigger than the business.

29:00Yeah, significantly. Significantly, right? So if you were to look at whether it be revenue or market cap, and you would compare us to any of the peers that one would think that we would sit alongside of, our brand is actually much smaller in both revenue and market cap than I'd say the peers I most commonly think of and compare our brand to. So that to me says that we have a ton of headroom, just a ton of headroom and a ton of opportunity. and starting from a place, as I mentioned before, where people either love your brand or indifferent. Like you're not fighting some headwinds of like you got to turn around fully a perception of a brand, right?

29:42One of the things that I've seen common between both Snap during my time there and my experiences on the Elfboard is really an alignment around like a very clear strategy. You certainly need the market conditions to help support. They have to be right for you to be able to work against it. But alignment around a very clear strategy, I'd say the right leaders and mindset to go and tackle some of those opportunities. and I'd say a bit of a audacious mentality, a bit of a belief in how high it actually is, and how much opportunity is in front of you and that you have a right to go out and claim it.

30:34What's funny is we recently had one of our global leadership summits. And one of the themes from my my presentation to the company, it's like 250 of our most senior global leaders, was this idea of like, we make no small plans. As a brand and a business, we have to have this mindset around bold and audacious goals and big opportunities, right? And when you make these bold and audacious goals, those are the type of things that really stir your team and really get people fired up about kind of charging the hill. There's a quote that I've really appreciated from this guy. His name is Daniel Burnham.

31:20Daniel Burnham is a world-renowned architect, and he, from the 1800s and early 1900s, so I spent 15 years in Chicago, so I learned a lot about architecture and history during my time in Chicago. And Daniel Burnham, he was a part of the crew that was trying to get Chicago to host the World's Fair in the late 1800s. And he helped to basically put the city on the map as a place for architecture and a place for design. Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry was one of the buildings that he created. And it's this marvel, this wonder. And he had this quote, make no little plans. They don't have the power to stir a mental.

32:05And this mentality and this mindset about kind of going big and having these audacious goals and creating the conditions for your team to actually kind of reflect that mentality, that mindset, that attitude. that's one of kind of the common threads. Like Evan, as a leader at Snap, bold and audacious thinker, incredibly creative. Tarang, the CEO at Elf and Corey and Mandy and the other executives there, they're big thinkers. They set bold goals and they set the conditions for those things to be true. And so I'd say if we look at Levi's now, Michelle has crafted a amazing strategy that our team is actioning against.

32:52And the core tenet of it is around denim lifestyle. So it's this idea that, you know, us being a global leader in denim and the things that go with and accompany denim, like, you know, almost building Levi's as a lifestyle brand that gives you permission to have non-denim items, to have tops, to have apparel, accessories. Like that's how we move from this six and change to 10 is by starting with this vision and ambition, starting with this strategy, doing the things to ensure that our brand is rocking and rolling as we would like it to be, put that battery pack on our team's back, and then going out and charging the field.

33:35As you mentioned earlier, I'm a team sport athlete. I love competition. I love hard challenges, and I love doing it together with with my teammates and my colleagues. I think that we have a lot of the conditions to give us confidence that we can get to that 10 billion in revenue, the 15 % EBIT margin. I think we're really well set up and I feel some similarities from other places that I've been.

34:14Jim Stengel:What have you learned about, you used the word confidence a minute ago, what have you learned at Elf, Snap, and now at Levi's about building the confidence broadly in the company that you can do it? You know, the leadership helps craft the strategy. They come together. You have a plan, you know, and that's one thing. But then getting how many people work at Levi's a lot? Several thousand, yes. Yes. And to get all of them to be optimistic, confident, believing, because if you don't believe you can do something, you're not going to do it. So what have you learned from those three experiences to build the confidence broadly in the company?

34:50I think in many ways, you need to be an evangelist, right? So you need to set out a clear strategy, a clear mission, and you almost need to be dogmatic about being an evangelist about that strategy and that mission, setting those conditions for success. And then when you actually have some green shoots and you have some things to celebrate, you start to create that virtuous cycle of like it. But that that evangelism is really, really important. Right. To get people fired up, to get people confidence via proof points, via things that we've done. Right. So a great example of that is when we first launched our campaign with with Beyonce at Levi's.

35:37It was a coup in many regards, partnering with an amazing icon who's been a brand fan. But, you know, she's just it's Beyonce. You know what I mean? It's Beyonce. And so it was really important, not just for us to, you know, have this this moment to drive relevance and to drive heat externally. one of the first things we did was a big internal meeting. We rallied the troops and are like, hey, we are doing something big and we're doing something special together, right? And highlighting everything from the young lady who works in fulfillment that helped make sure that we can get product to Beyonce's halftime performance for the Christmas game that was broadcast on Netflix to our in-store and retail team that put in displays in record times under deep confidentiality to make sure we didn't run into any issues, to the marketing team, obviously, to the comms team, to the commercial team, to the product team, because we were working on a collaboration at that time.

36:43So what we were able to prove, Jim, is like, there are things that I don't even think the company had confidence that we can do. And we were doing it all at the same time, and we were doing it together. I was on a mission to evangelize that. Michelle has been on a mission to evangelize that. And it starts to show like the proof is in the pudding. Like we're capable of not making small plans, of making big plans as a team and as an organization. And it begins to create this virtuous cycle of like, oh man, yeah, we did that. And that was amazing. And that made me incredibly proud. I asked during one of our town hall meetings by a show of hands, who here has had someone in their family or life reach out to them about this campaign?

37:32And it was 100%. Everyone in the room was like, yes, that's that battery pack that I talk about, right? And then so evangelizing, reinforcing, celebrating, and then proving out that we have the ability to continue to drive that type of energy and that type of performance. That set us up incredibly well for our campaign with Shibuzi, our partnership with Nike, what we just rolled out with the Super Bowl, and our collaboration with Brand Jordan. We've kind of created a bit of that virtuous cycle internally. And a lot of it came from being this evangelist, showing those proof points, and putting more points on the board.

38:15Jim Stengel:Your career path is interesting, right? Yeah, Gatorade is a big thing on your career path. You worked there twice, once for eight years, and you left and came back and worked there for three years. So obviously, this brand is formative for you and how you think about brand building and people and organization and purpose and everything. My question for you is, what compelled you to come back to the brand the second time? So Gatorade is where I consider where I cut my teeth. It is a place that I'm forever grateful for, a brand I have deep affinity for. And I had the unique experience and opportunity to, as a marketer, kind of fill up my tool belt at Gatorade.

38:56So I started doing new product innovation and packaging innovation. I did, you know, base business management. I did sports marketing. I did communications. I did activations. I've had so many experiences that I credit Gatorade for that's made me a multi-tool marketer. I've worked very closely with retail partners. I've worked very closely with talent. I've worked very closely with our R &D and packaging and producting, all of those experiences that one would need to set a foundation as a marketer. I'm super grateful to my experiences at Gatorade. So what brought me back to answer your question was an opportunity to work for an amazing leader and to continue to add to my tool belt, so to speak, with the actual role that I came back to be a part of.

39:57So Morgan Flatley, who is currently the global CMO at McDonald's, is a very dear friend. And Brett O 'Brien, who at the time was, I think, the GM or president of Gatorade, are two leaders that I deeply admire. They called and said, hey, we actually have a really amazing and important role that we would love for you to consider. And it was like a family reunion. I came back and was able to join the crew. And And that role, I was overseeing all of kind of consumer engagements, all of the marketing, the storytelling, the content, the social activations, et cetera, was probably one of my singularly most fun and enjoyable roles at that stage in my career.

40:43And I got to do it with some people that I really, really loved and enjoyed working with. So yeah, that's my deep and abiding love for the Gatorade brand. And I'll tell you that some of the experiences I had on that brand, like I can just like point to directly like, oh, man, that work there really informed how I showed up at Snap or really informed how I approach these things at Levi's right now. And a lot of that came from that foundation on the Gatorade business.

41:13Jim Stengel:No, there was so much in your said there. I mean, having an important experience like you had early in your career, which is so formative, it kind of in many ways develops your way you lead, what you value, what you realize is important and leaders you work for. You were open to a call from people who had been important to you in your life and you came back to work with them again. And I hear that a lot in this show, right? people follow leaders and they almost never make a mistake when they follow a leader that they have a lot of admiration, respect, and even love for. So there is a lot in that answer.

41:48I often joke with friends, Gatorade was like a university. The alumni of both the Gatorade business and then I'd say broader PepsiCo are twinkled all over the world doing amazing things. Both the leaders and individuals themselves, and I'd say just kind of like the DNA of marketers that come from PepsiCo, it sets you up well for success out in the marketplace, and I'm really grateful for it.

42:16Jim Stengel:You were an early member of BECCA, the Black Executive CMO Alliance, started by the most amazing Jerry DeVard, who we could talk about forever, but we won't. But it's been around since 2021. You joined, I think, in 2022. Its purpose is to provide leaders a place to learn, share, elevate, and pay it forward. Many Becca members have been on the show. So I'd like you to speak a bit about how has this been meaningful to you, joining Becca and helping fulfill that purpose? First of all, I would have joined Becca just to be in Jerry's orbit. Yeah, I know. She's absolutely phenomenal. But yeah, Becca, to me, there's two core things that I really value in connection to Becca.

42:58One is most rooms that most Becca members walk into that is not Becca, you're one of few or maybe the only, right? So being a Black marketing leader or Black business leader, having this fellowship and this connection and this camaraderie and this empathy that can only come from people that are walking in your shoes is really special. And that part I'm extremely grateful for. What's amazing is all of the BECCA members are incredibly successful in their own right. And then we have these moments and opportunities to really kind of, you know, relax and get real and be vulnerable and really connect and support each other.

43:41And I'm grateful for Jerry for starting this organization that we can be a part of and add that to what we get to experience part of our careers. The second piece is this notion. One of the principles around Becca is around paying it forward. So there is an emphasis on mentorship. I have several mentors that I have had the pleasure to get to know and to learn from. These folks are incredible and are really smart and doing amazing things. And I did not in my career necessarily have that person I could look up to during my journey. I mean, I believe wholeheartedly in this idea of you lift as you climb.

44:21You know, so how do you, you know, bring people along? How do you support? How do you provide guidance, counsel, insights, coaching? And Becca is a platform for us to do that. And so it's been incredibly meaningful to me. Some of my dearer friends, I'd say within the industry, many of them are Becker members. And I really get a lot of value and fulfillment through some of the mentorship aspect of it as well.

44:50Jim Stengel:Jerry is a force. We could do a whole show about that. She's been on this show and it was a wonderful episode. We have to have her back on it. I'm going to see her in a couple of weeks in New York. I'm looking forward to it. A force indeed. Yes.

45:11Jim Stengel:let's flip into the creative brief kenny to wrap this up and my first question for you is what's the best part of about living in philadelphia which you have done for a good part of your life yeah yeah philly is amazing i don't know where to start i don't know where to start so philadelphia is where my father's side of the family is. That's where I was born. And it is a city with so much heart and soul. So it's a blue collar city. It's a city where there's just like so much culture. It's like deep from a music perspective, passionate sports fans, great food. It's actually a beautiful city from like an architectural perspective.

45:57I love Philly deeply. It also has a great benefit from a proximity perspective. So my mom's from New York and it's like a hour and a half train ride there. My best friends lived in D.C. It's like hour and a half train ride there. So you get to experience vastly different cultures as a person in Philly that has really close proximity to other big and world class cities. I'm also a huge Eagles fan, as you heard. We've had the Eagles CMO on the show, by the way. Did you?

46:28Jim Stengel:Oh, yeah. You should look that episode up. It's a good one. I'll have to look that one up. Amazing franchise and the passion behind sports, the passion behind music. There's a huge music scene. We had Questlove, who was in our spot, who was one of the iconic Philadelphia musicians. So I haven't lived there in quite a while, basically since graduate school, but it's a huge, huge place in my heart. My mom grew up in Philadelphia and she and my dad met in Philly, got married in Philly. I have a lot of family from Philly and still relatives living there. So I'm with you. It's a great spot. Okay. Now, how would your daughter and wife say your sense of style has changed since joining Levi's?

47:12So my closet has certainly got a lot more singular. You know, what's interesting with my personal sense of style is that I've, over the years, have probably gotten more comfortable with whether it is in a boardroom or at home, dressing in the style that I feel very good at. And that is a little bit more of a relaxed style, probably a little bit more of an emphasis on, I'd say, like street style, street wear. And so I was doing that before. So it was very common in my time at Gatorade to Snap to Levi's. I'm wearing my jeans. I'm wearing Jordans. I'm wearing hoodies. Like that's kind of like my uniform.

48:00Occasionally a button up. That part hasn't changed. But what my daughter and wife would say is that their style has changed a good bit because I've been educating them on some of the amazing product that we have. And what's funny is my daughter already was a big Levi's fan. So when I first interviewed with Chip, I went to her closet and there was like half of her jeans were Levi's. I was like, oh, that's a good sign because she was 16 at the time. But now I've gotten my wife on train as well. So we're a happy, happy Levi's family.

48:29Jim Stengel:What's the first brand you remember making an impact on you as a young boy in Philadelphia? Oh, that's an easy one. That's an easy one. So my dad, during my childhood, worked for McDonald's. Oh. So he was a manager that opened up the first McDonald's in North Philly. It was on Broad and Allegheny. And he worked at that one, and then he worked at another one. But as a kid, my first probably three birthday parties were all at McDonald's. Lucky kid. Grimace and the Hamburglar. When he would come home from work, he smelled like burgers and fries, had Happy Meals, probably more than most kids should at that age because it was a benefit of his job.

49:13So McDonald's to me was a brand that was his employer. It felt like a part of the community. It felt like it was for kids, it felt at the time, because you got Happy Meals, You got the little characters and all of that. So I have like, you know, huge nostalgia, positive, you know, feelings and nostalgia connected to McDonald's.

49:38Jim Stengel:Kenny, who's been the most inspiring person in your life? The most inspiring person in my life is my grandmother, my late grandmother, Fannie Clark. She is from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, you know, moved to New York, went to nursing school, was kind of the only black woman in the nursing school program that she was in, became a longtime nurse and eventually worked her way up to being chief nursing officer and ultimately became like a, she taught nursing before she retired. She was just a brilliant, brilliant woman. Like she had books everywhere all the time, was kind of force feeding it to And me and my brother were like, hey, you need to learn about this.

50:24You need to learn about that. She was very Afrocentric. You know, she's almost like a acolyte of like Marcus Garvey. She was she just very, very proud. And, you know, one of one of the first books that she gave me and made it required reading was Miseducation of a Negro by Carter G. Woodson. My daughter's first name is Carter from kind of the profound effect that that that had on me. And so my grandmother, she was just incredibly smart, like really bucked the odds. She traveled the world and she was incredibly, incredibly generous. She was tough. Like some people have like sweet old grandmothers and I might not mind.

51:08My grandmother was tough, but loving and caring and generous. I remember one time in my, I guess, early 30s, we were celebrating her. I believe it was her 90th birthday. We're at her house in New York, and she has a group of us in the living room. And she asked us, you know, why are we here? What is this? What is life about, basically? You know, what's our purpose here? And she asked everyone around the room to kind of give their answers. It's like my uncle gave an answer. Cousin gave an answer. Me and my wife, we gave an answer. None of us were clearly articulating things. And she said, it's actually very simple.

51:48We are here to be in service of others. Who that might be could be your friends, could be your family, could be your colleagues. It could be the kind of broader community. But we are here to be of service of others. And that was like, it became a little bit of a personal mantra to me. It's like, oh, my God, that actually is true. Like we are here to be in service, to be helpful, to support others in our life. So much so, Jim, that I actually have it tattooed on my wrist in kind of commemoration of her in that in that message. She's definitely been the most inspiring to me. And I get reminded of her and her wise words, you know, every day.

52:31So, yeah, that's it. It'd be my Nana, Fanny Clark.

52:33Jim Stengel:Wow. What does the tattoo exactly say? Those words? Yeah, it says in service of others. In service of others. Wow, Kenny. That's where we need to end this. So it's a beautiful, beautiful story. And thanks for sharing that. And Kenny, this whole conversation has been lovely and wonderful and edifying. But the last story was that's the that's the story. So thank you for sharing. Well, thank you, Jim. And I think I was telling a friend of mine, I feel like I've arrived when I've had the opportunity to be on this CMO podcast. So thank you so much for having me. That was my conversation with Kenny Mitchell.

53:11Jim Stengel:Three takeaways from this one for your business brand and life. The first one is the whole idea of a battery pack for your organization. I loved how Kenny talked about doing remarkable things and what happens, it creates a virtuous circle and it gives energy to your organization and your partners. This idea of doing things that gives you a battery pack on your back. I love the metaphor. Second takeaway, we talked a lot about the conditions for dramatic growth. Kenny's experience at Snap, at Elf, and now at Levi's gives him a remarkable perspective on that. He talked about the importance of a clear and aligned strategy.

53:48Jim Stengel:He talked about having an audacious mentality. He talked about the role of leaders to come together and build confidence in the plan, to celebrate the green shoots, to talk about that with your people So everyone has the same passion for growth. And the last takeaway, and I love the story at the end about Kenny's grandmother, this idea that we're all here to be in service of others. It's a clarifying thought. It's a powerful thought. It applies to every, every possible career. And I just love the lessons Kenny took away from his grandmother. It's a great lesson for all of us. And I love the fact that Kenny has it on his arm that he can look at every day to be reminded of the inspiration.

54:29Jim Stengel:of his grandmother.