The Leaders: Lessons from John Carmichael, president & CEO, Nestlé Canada
How did you get your start in the business?
I started out in pet food [at Nestlé] in Southern California, that’s where I grew up. I went to UCLA undergrad and graduate school.
What is your leadership story?
I’ve been almost 30 years with Nestlé, but I really feel like I’ve had many, many different jobs and careers during that time. I’ve lived all over North America and Europe and I’ve worked in many different disciplines—from marketing and sales and HR and all the way up through general management. At some point, my career turned to business turnarounds. And really that was dropping into distressed businesses or distressed teams, acquisitions and integrations or major events that needed to take place; for instance, relocation of a business or a division and to help the group get through it. What that really means is building teams, developing people and creating enduring business strategies.
What would you say are the crucial skills for a successful leader today?
This is a more interesting question today than it would have been five years ago, when I would have answered tenacity— the stamina and ability to stick with things and keep your team focused and their energy up. But, I think things have changed and I would now say curiosity, agility and empathy are crucial.
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Tell us about the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career.
The first risk I took was my very first relocation when I moved to St. Louis from Southern California. Nestlé had just bought Purina and it was a separate company, so even though we bought them, I moved into their organization and I didn’t have a personal or professional support structure. So, it was a big professional risk. I was the outsider and the “acquirer” and it was a personal risk because I didn’t necessarily know how to set up my personal support system. I struggled through and learned a ton. I call it my second MBA because I learned a lot about how different companies think and that two different [approaches] can be right. I also learned how to put myself out there socially; I met a bunch of new people and these experiences served me well as I moved personally and professionally through my career.
What is the one piece of wisdom you’ve carried with you through your career?
I’d say I’m still developing wisdom, but the one I use a lot is “run at the barking dog”—the barking dog being an analogy for problems. But, the truth of the matter is, when a dog is behaving badly, if you handle the situation quickly you can take care of it. But, as dogs become more emboldened and rougher, maybe even scarier, they can become really big problems over time, and so do problems in business relationships and with people. The key is to find [those problems] and handle them quickly. I’ve spent a career literally fixing and attacking the barking dog. And it is good career advice because those who rise to the top quickly are the problem solvers, the ones that are not afraid to run into the fire, and that’s not just in business.
Have you had a mentor or manager that has positively influenced your career?
I’ve had so many, but there’s one individual, who’s quite senior in the organization, who consistently made what I would call the right decision from a values perspective. And this [became] a beacon for the rest of us that it was OK sometimes to not make the best decision if it wasn’t the right decision. Often when I am in a tough situation, I always think what would he do?
The other thing I would say, and it may be less obvious, but I think it’s easier to learn from bad managers than good managers. It’s very difficult to replicate a good manager’s leadership skillset because it’s so inherent to an individual’s DNA. It’s easier to form our own skillset in reaction to tough situations that we’ve witnessed and were able to overcome. And so, some of the people I’ve learned the most from are people that were not the best leaders, but they enabled me to develop my leadership style in response.
Has there been a pivotal moment in your leadership journey?
As a young marketing associate, I had what was considered a funny, in retrospect, but risky strategy on the business I was on. My manager disagreed with me, but to her credit she allowed me to take it all the way up to the president of the division. I “went in hot,” as they say, and he was a man of few words, and one of the people I would pick as a mentor. He looked at me and said, “do it!” But on my way out, he stopped me and he said, “John, I invest in people, not ideas.” There were two really important takeaways from that. One: the reason things don’t get done oftentimes is people don’t ask. They don’t put together their argument and passionately put out an argument. I’ve had the craziest ideas you can imagine through my career, and I’ve almost never been told no. And some of them I should have been told no, but because I put the passion out there and because I believed in it and because I asked, they said yes. The second thing is that an investment in a good person with passion—and hopefully a good idea—is a far better investment than in a great idea then looking for someone to execute it.
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How have you learned to get the most from your teams?
Look, as a leader, your first job is to get the right people. Your second job is to build a culture they can thrive in. And third, you’ve got to listen to your people and help them succeed. Sometimes it’s helping them build the confidence to get it done. Sometimes it might be helping them refine their idea, but at the end of the day, you’re helping them succeed. So, you’ve got to stop and listen. It’s the most important thing.
Most rewarding part of being a leader?
If I were to have something put on my tombstone, it would be helping people achieve things they didn’t think they could. That is amazing. I was a camp counsellor in high school and I had a particular kid that I can think of clearly today that hated horses—was scared of them. We worked on it through the course of the summer and, to make a long story short, the look on his face when his parents visited and saw him on that horse, I’ll never forget. I didn’t do a thing in that particular case. I helped him, I gave him maybe some confidence, maybe a safe environment. That kid did it all, and in a million years he didn’t think he could pull it off. And that is what makes me so excited to be in this role is to watch teams do that every day. That is just amazing!
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
This article was first published in Canadian Grocer’s November 2024 issue.
