“Investing in understanding people, knowing what makes them tick, what makes them feel valued, and what motivates them is incredibly important,” Susan Press, Marketing Director Beverages ANZ at PepsiCo, told Mediaweek after a panel at ADMA 2025 Global Forum.
She was sitting alongside Optus’ Emma Jensen and NAB’s Natalie Lockwood to discuss how their brands are leveraging capability to drive competitive advantage.
“[Leaders] can get so focused on results that we forget to stop and recognize the humans driving those results. That’s something I’m incredibly passionate about as a leader.
“I want to always be people-first, which I haven’t always had the experience of with managers in the past. That’s the kind of person that I am and want to continue to be in my leadership.”
Press said that in those previous organisations she has worked in, there has been a clear hierarchy of who you talk to and when to talk. It is a work environment she has intentionally pivoted away from as a leader.
“It doesn’t bring out the natural way that we work. It’s just not who we are as humans. I think the more collaborative, the more conversational, the more approachable you are, the more people want to do great work with you and for you.”
She shared that her team of 12 all work on the same floor and hot desk, providing ample opportunities for developing the community of the office and “corridor conversations.”
“I think they’re incredibly important, and that’s where I get my energy. I don’t want to sit at home and be on teams trying to understand what’s going on in the room and read the body language through the image.
“I want to be part of it in a way where I can celebrate my team. I don’t want to be part of it in a way where I’m dominating anything.
“I love to sit back and watch them own their stuff. There’s very clear accountability in my team, but they feel supported and nurtured in a delivery.”
Susan Press, Emma Jensen, Natalie Lockwood
From insights to role modelling: The building blocks of resilience at PepsiCo
In a global team like PepsiCo, Press noted that resilience building is an opportunity in the local organisation. As an FMCG company work closely with big retailers, agencies, and partners.
“The resilience comes in dealing with so many different personalities, so many different priorities.”
She explained that her team undertook an insights discovery model to understand how people learn, how they react under pressure, where they naturally lean their energy into, and where we can get the best out of them.
Press said that the findings from the insights discover helps build a profile and how to best support team members learn and grow.
She added that role modelling also plays a part in resilience.
“My team sees a lot of the pressure that I’m under and how I manage that. I think that they feel that it’s possible for them as well.”
“At the end of the day, we are all just doing a job, and we all have lives outside of our jobs, and they need to be more important. We need to find that balance and that’s why when I was saying on the panel, I share all my mum fails with my team because it’s quite a deliberate, no one’s perfect.”
Press emphasised the need for people to put up boundaries at work.
“It is the biggest thing that I’m trying to work with the guys on at the moment, when they have really late calls. That’s part of resilience building. You need time to rest and recuperate to build resilience.
“You also need to be able to contextualize what work is in your world. If you can’t do that, then everything becomes bigger than it perhaps is and needs to be.”
CMOs are nothing without their teams
For Press, she said that while tech is an important emerging capability, CMOs and leaders need to be future-ready, they should focus on understanding people and care about culture.
“Being a manager who understands people, and who understands how people tick and cares about culture, the team and energy is going to be incredibly important.
“There are many things that you could say that we need to be future-ready from a skills perspective – they will happen anyway. But what is never going to be individual is leadership and how you show up, support and nurture, and grow the next layer of talent through the organisation.
“I see too many managers who don’t have the ability to develop people and manage people in their core competence; they’re all about business results. I think that you’re nothing without your team.”
Press on PepsiCo’s summer push
Looking ahead to the summer and festive season, Press said it was an important time of the year for the business and growth.
She said that the corporate strategy is about putting “smiles on the faces of our consumers with every sip and every bite.”
“It’s uncomplicating the situation. We have great brands that make people happy, and that’s ultimately at the head of everything that we do.
“I’m constantly saying to the team, I know this feels like really hard work, but it shouldn’t be. We’re selling beverages, let’s have fun with this and bring it back to that.”
“We’ve got some really awesome campaigns coming, some great innovation, and it’s a really exciting time to be in PepsiCo and in beverages.”