Executive Makes Obstacles Challenges
Paula A. Sneed was a 27-year-old social worker with a big dream when she enrolled in Harvard Business School in 1975.
“I wanted to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by the time I was 40,” says Sneed, now 47 and senior vice president of marketing services for Kraft Foods Inc., in Northfield, Ill. “I saw that human services were becoming more professionalized. I wanted to be prepared for the long-term.”
But after she read case studies about the corporate world, Sneed’s career plans changed completely. “I thought, ‘This job was made for me,”’ she recalls. “The product manager is fully responsible for the complete business (for example, Jell-O gelatin) and must manage a cross-functional team of managers from areas like marketing, sales, finance and strategy to achieve the goals for the business. It was similar to what I was doing in social services, when I coordinated a range of resources and people to achieve the right goals for my clients.”
In 1977, Sneed joined General Foods Corp. (which later merged into Kraft Foods) as an assistant product manager. She advanced rapidly, and by 1991 she was executive vice president and general manager of the desserts division.
Last fall, Executive Female magazine named Sneed to its list of the 50 most powerful women managers “who’ve proved their mettle in tough-line positions where they have direct profit-and-loss responsibilities inventing, producing, marketing, selling and delivering their company’s product or service.”
In January, Sneed became head of marketing services, a sort of managerial maestro orchestrating Kraft’s advertising, consumer promotions, recipe development and packaging areas and ensuring that they are effectively marketing Kraft cheese, Maxwell House coffee, Oscar Mayer meats and Post cereals.
Sneed commutes home on weekends to Ridgewood, N.J., where she lives with her husband, Lawrence Bass, an electrical engineer and computer consultant, and their 14-year-old daughter, Courtney.
Sneed recently talked about her path to success:
Q: Have you had mentors?
Sneed: I’ve always had what I call a “mentoring mosaic,” which is a group of people at all levels - some of whom would be considered unlikely mentors. I’ve learned a lot from secretaries and my own employees. When I was starting out, a guy in office operations helped me a great deal. He understood the company politics, and he gave me insights. It’s amazing how many people can give you help if you’re receptive to receiving it.
Q: What is your management style?
Sneed: I see myself as a team leader, so my style is participatory and consensus-building. I encourage all of my people to seek innovative, creative solutions. I tell them, “Yesterday’s good isn’t good enough for today. We always have to seek the new opportunity in everything we do.”
Q: What will it take for today’s young women to succeed in business?
Sneed: “A commitment to the business world, professional skills (acquired through education and training) and the leadership and interpersonal skills that you pick up on the job. But if my daughter were walking out of business school today, I’d tell her to get international experience, because with the globalization of large companies, it’s very important to have cross-cultural and cross-national experience. Women should look for assignments that will allow them to build skills and manage across a wide range of situations.”
Q: What’s the secret of your success?
Sneed: I dream big and work hard. I believe that I can do the things I set out to do, and I don’t take what appear to be barriers as a deterrent. Twenty years ago, people were saying, “There’s never been a woman who ..,” or “There’s never been an African-American who …” I say, “See yourself as a reality changer.” Obstacles only represent successes waiting to happen.
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