Kimberly-Clark: How Patricia Corsi Helped Rewire the Organization for Growth
Editor's Note: This article is a part of a CGT series that digs into leadership hires a year into the new positions, to learn how roles are evolving and how fresh eyes can transform business operations.
Kimberly-Clark hired Patricia Corsi a year ago to lead the company’s marketing and brand acceleration strategies as chief growth officer.
When she joined, the company was in the midst of a strategy shift, she tells CGT, looking to change the drumbeat of innovation, marketing and activation to scale growth.
“It became about bringing the global might to the local fight,” she says, and with it came the opportunity to begin from scratch, building a new creative and design team that could fulfill the mandate.
Rewiring the Core to Achieve Growth
This required a cross-functional approach within what the company calls its “wiring.” So Corsi began working more closely with the R&D and technology teams. Additionally, she helped create both informal and formal ways to engage within this rewired workspace.
As an example, Kimberly-Clark developed a creative and design council as well as an analytics council through which it could accelerate efforts.
“This is all to make sure that we are faster and we have our eye on the ball with the consumer,” she says.
This means keeping better tabs on changing behaviors, particularly as consumers are flooded with content coming in from various digital channels. Teams often have to ask themselves, “What is the role we play in there authentically to help solve unmet needs?”
To meet challenges, Kimberly-Clark has built new capabilities to track trends and connect consumer insights directly to innovation.
“The first thing that we are doing is to make sure that the foundations of brand building, brand development, consumer focus and innovation are in place. And we believe that this tackles 80% of what's needed by the consumer,” Corsi explains.
While the support of technology proves useful here, being leveraged for things such as 24/7 social listening, Corsi emphasizes that solving meaningful problems is more important than chasing shiny objects.
As such, Corsi has taken a more pragmatic approach to innovation investment.
“You have to prioritize more and really focus on the things that make a difference, not just those that are the talk of the street. For example: AI for the sake of AI,” she says, adding that Kimberly-Clark often asks, "How does it help to solve a problem? How does it make us more agile? How does it make us more efficient?"
An area where technology-enabled automation has shown its merits, however, is in quickly adapting efforts from one country where marketing capitalized on a trend and modifying and scaling them for other markets.
But equally important is recognizing that not all growth must be innovation-led.
“Sometimes the best opportunities are just led by listening,” she says, adding that in a consumer’s shower, for example, 10 or 15 years ago, there was one soap bar. Now they probably have face wash, body wash, maybe an intimate wash. Those new habits have created entire categories.
Normalizing Shared Experiences and Curiosity
For Kimberly-Clark, a company that often caters to aging demographics with its products, breaking down taboos has become an increasingly large focus within efforts to meet consumer needs.
For example, says Corsi, with menopause — which has often driven women to leave the workforce early due to symptoms such as incontinence — Kimberly-Clark has a role to play, and it’s something she’s been championing.
“It’s a really important way to drive sustained growth — not just for us as a business but for the people we serve,” she says.
Additionally, Corsi recommends that organizations keep a varied perspective in mind when it comes to growth, because it comes in all different shapes and sizes.
Ongoing curiosity and a thirst for knowledge have allowed Corsi to stay agile in the pursuit of real-time consumer engagement.
“Try not to be the smartest person in the room — asking questions really helps to shape your thoughts,” says Corsi. “For me, it has been one of the best exercises that I have ever done to unlock growth opportunities.”
These are traits she learned across her career, which spans various industries — including food and beverage, home care, entertainment, and health — and functions such as P&L, marketing and IT in both global and local capacities.
It often means keeping an open mind and leaning on others’ strengths and ideas as well.
“The time of doing everything end-to-end by yourself in isolation, it doesn't work anymore,” she says.
Pinning Down the Moving Target of Growth
As her first year in the role passes, Corsi reflects on what priorities have shifted and what has remained the same.
“The position changes every week. There are always new challenges and new regulations,” she says. “And because we are global, we’re impacted everywhere. But I see crisis as opportunity — for courage and growth.”
Adaptability is key. Since everything changes constantly, what worked before might not work again, and vice versa.
“We’re seeing things happen in advertising today that would’ve been uncontroversial a year ago and now spark huge debate," she says.
So it’s about staying open, asking better questions and being willing to rethink everything.
The things that haven’t changed are her convictions about collaboration and consumer centricity, she adds. In terms of leadership, it has meant being able to influence, creating psychological safety for teams and leading with a soft touch to unlock faster, better innovation.
