Lyné Brown
Vice President, Customer Capability Development
The Clorox Company

"There is a lot of power in the unique skills
that women bring to the organization."

Q. Did you have an "a-ha” moment when you realized the importance and power of gender diversity in the workplace?

A. Over the years, I have had a few of those moments. When I was young in my career, and leading the start up of a women's network in the Atlanta market for Procter & Gamble, I came to the realization that the workplace had evolved based on the people that were in leadership—mostly men—and that folks tend to hire in their own image. There was not a realization about the benefits of a more diverse workforce and there was no understanding of what it would take to get there. It was not that leadership was against it, they just were not sure what to do. Many times I found myself having to tell the company how to manage me. I realized that I needed to be clear about what I needed so that we all could benefit from my growth and development. I also realized that a lot of the things that I needed to balance my life were important to my male counterparts.

At the first NEW Executive Leaders Forum, I remember [moderator] Fawn Germer saying that we should not forget where we came from and to tell the stories to those coming behind us. I was reflecting on how much has changed and on how different things are today. I think back to the conversations that I had with my boss when I got married, and then again when I had my first child. He wanted to know if I still wanted to be promoted and was I still serious about my career. I remember thinking that nothing had changed for me and asked him if he thought I was not doing a good job or if something was wrong with my performance. He became a bit flustered, and said no, not at all—he was just trying to be helpful and make sure he understood my priorities. It still makes me laugh today.

While things are far from perfect, we have the benefit of a much more flexible work environment and an increased understanding of the benefits of gender diversity in the workplace. There is a lot of power in the unique skills that women bring to the organization. Increased collaboration and working together to solve complex problems are two things that I believe many women bring to their roles. Work-life balance and the understanding of how powerful relationships can be in moving the business ahead are a couple of other areas that I think have been better understood since we have more women in leadership. While some folks are uncomfortable making broad statements about the differences between men and women, I believe that there is power in recognizing that different approaches are valuable. Equality does not have to mean that we all are the same.

Q. What bottom-line benefits has your company realized from its diversity initiatives?

A. Today’s global marketplace is very different from the one many of us grew up in, requiring new approaches and a diverse leadership team in terms of worldviews, experiences and thought processes. Don Knauss, the chairman and CEO of The Clorox Company, defines leadership as envisioning the future and energizing others in that vision. The truth is every one of us can be a leader using our unique traits. We all can and must give our passionate point of view to the company. We strategically leverage our diversity to drive our competitive advantage — it helps us innovate, place products in multicultural marketplaces, and grow market share with multicultural consumers.

At Clorox, our deep consumer insights into everyday life help us tap into global trends that help us grow our business. We’ve found that when we make our brands relevant against four mega trends — sustainability, affordability, health and wellness and the multicultural marketplace — then we can win in markets and our communities around the world. Diversity is a business imperative that impacts all aspects our business – our employees, the suppliers we work with and the consumers of our products. We link diversity to our Clorox business by addressing unique consumer product needs with our deep consumer insights that help us grow our business.

Q. Clorox has been a leading-edge firm on diversity and inclusion. Can you describe some of your current D&I programs?

A. At Clorox we are working hard to make sure that our employees feel included and empowered, and that the organization overall understands the benefits of diversity. We have a director of diversity and inclusion, Erby Foster, who has helped us develop five internal employee resource groups (ERGs), as well as tap into external organizations that can improve our recruiting and understanding of what it takes to build a diverse workforce.

We love our strategic partnership with NEW and the strong relationship we've built over the past three years. With the leadership of Katrina Hahn and Karen Durfee our national membership should triple to 75 this year and we are on track to have a Clorox record of 30 participants (including a couple of men) at the NEW Leadership Summit 2010 this September in Charlotte. We are also very excited that Tammy Bliss (vice president, Product Supply Operations) is on board to partner with Coca-Cola’s Julie Hamilton (president, Global Walmart Team) to help the Network launch an Atlanta region in 2011. We often tell folks that Clorox leverages the Network much like a "field ERG” to connect our employees with customers and industry peers.

Not only is Clorox increasing its NEW membership, we also enjoy the opportunity to participate in the programs: Chairman and CEO Don Knauss was featured on the C-Suite panel at the NEW Multicultural Conference in March 2010; Beth Springer, executive vice president, international, was a featured speaker on the topic of "Strategic Planning for the 21st Century” in July 2009; and Erby Foster, our director of diversity and inclusion, served as conference chair for the NEW Multicultural Workforce Conference in March 2010. A few of our recent external awards and recognition include: the 2010 Walmart Martin Luther King Jr. Visionary Award (only one global supplier receives this award); Corporate Leader of Gender Diversity from 2006 to 2009, based on a UC-Davis study which looks at 400 companies’ gender diversity at executive levels; Corporate Equality Index from 2006 to 2009 (achieved the Human Rights Campaign Top Rating of 100 percent for four consecutive years); Black Corporate Directors Conference 2009 (chairman and CEO Don Knauss was a featured speaker); Top General Counsel for 2009 (Laura Stein, senior vice president and general counsel recognized by the National Law Journal); Minority Corporate Counsel Association 2010 Employer of Choice Award; Students in Free Enterprise 2009 Champion Award. I’m looking forward to continuing the journey and see how Clorox can better support the great work of NEW as it celebrates its 10-year anniversary!

Q. What have been some of the most meaningful takeaways you’ve experienced at a NEW event?

Wow, that’s a hard one to answer, as it seems that I take away something special from each NEW event that I attend. Personally, I have found the Executive Leaders Forum to be especially rewarding. There are so few events in the industry that allow you to be with so many wonderful senior executive women in one place that this event is a highlight for me each year. I think there are two things that stand out for me in the last couple of years. One thing that I learned personally and has really benefited me, from a presentation given by [current Sam’s Club Senior Vice President] Shelley Broader, was that our strengths are our strengths, and that is what we should leverage. The things that we are not especially good at are likely not worth spending too much time on—hire someone who is good at what you are not. This has served me well. None of us is perfect, although most of us strive to achieve perfection. Quit focusing on what you cannot do well and spend time on where you excel. The organization will benefit and you will have a lot more fun. Also, when you surround yourself with folks who are good at things that you are not, they have a much more rewarding experience. It is a win/win. The other thing that has been really meaningful to me as I attend NEW events is that I always come away feeling more energized, empowered and confident. It does not matter what the topic is that we are discussing, I always take away something that improves my perspective. Whether it is a tip on leadership or a discussion on how we can make a difference for other women in the workplace, I seem to walk away feeling better about myself and the contributions that I can personally make at work.

Q. We understand you have a new job coming up at Clorox. Can you tell us a little about that?

Well, a few months ago I took on the role of running our Customer Capability Development group at Clorox. My team is responsible for developing our customer and go-to-market strategy, as well as building the capabilities that our company will need to succeed in the marketplace at what we call the "point of decide,” when consumers are making a choice around which product they are going to buy. The big areas that we cover are shopper marketing, retail consumer marketing, category management, customer business planning, trade spending, supply chain and international capability. There are so many exciting developments, including the explosion of digital and the growing importance of e-commerce, that we are in the process of evaluating where we can add the most value over the next three to five years. It is a great time to be in this exciting role and love it because I have a fabulous team of leaders who do the heavy lifting and I am able to oversee a wide variety of projects.

I am also leading the operating model and integration of our Burt’s Bees business. We have journey maps for each function and are looking to leverage the capabilities of the larger organization to grow the business. The Natural Personal Care category is growing and the Burt's Bees brand is overwhelmingly loved by consumers. It is another exciting part of my job, and I have a great team of folks to work with in Durham to help make it happen.

Q. Do you think being active in NEW has helped your career?