ingredion

Fortune Staff

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World's Most Admired Companies

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 68th running of the list.

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The Illinois-based ingredient company supplies companies in the food, beverage, brewing, and pharmaceutical industries.

Ingredion | 2022 World's Most Admired Companies

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Ingredion

Ingredion | 2022 World's Most Admired Companies | Fortune

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 Ilene, you are one of 21 CEOs of the Fortune 500-- a very small group. What's the key to your success? I actually think that one of the keys to my success has been my strong analytical background, and that I've always been very attuned to financially analyzing a business, looking at operations, and taking those analytics and using that as a fact base to make decisions, and never accepting the status quo. So I'm one of those people that is always pushing for change, and growth, and how do we do better? And so I think that that's been a key to everything that I've done over my 40-year career. You've probably heard that Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook recently said that, even though women are leaning in to take on challenging assignments, and even though they're confident and assertive, that they get pushback, in terms of moving up the corporate ladder. What advice do you have for women on what they can do to move up into the C-suite, or maybe even get a CEO job? Well, I always give advice to both males and females to not only have a strong analytical background, but to taste international assignments, and to take risks, and get out of your comfort zone so that-- don't just depend on others to make things happen, but you need to ask for those assignments that are in another country. Go live in another country. Don't just travel. And I've actually had opportunities in my career to live outside the US. That's been very important to adapting to a new culture, because you need to be able to add value to wherever environment that you're in. You're obviously a very smart woman. You have a science and business degrees from MIT. Besides your analytical skills and your brainpower, were there any other strategic moves that you made that got you where you are? Well, I've always been willing to be mentored by people and to take advice, and I've had mentors that really push me into getting out on the factory floor, and walking around, and interacting with people. And that's been a key to success. I want to talk to you a little bit about what you did when you came to Ingredion, because you made a lot of changes, including changing the company's name from Corn Products International, moving away from your core product of high-fructose corn syrup. And those bold moves really paid off, in terms of revenue growth, in terms of your stock-- which has been amazing. And you've been called now a visionary. But in the beginning, how did you motivate and inspire people at the company to accept your vision? I'm just one person, so you need to have a team believe in what you're doing. So I really built a leadership team, which was a combination of people who'd been with the company 30 years-- some who came from the new acquisition, and other people who had been with other successful companies-- and built that team to deliver the vision around the company. We have 11,000 employees, so our leadership team-- which was nine or 10 people-- really bought into the vision and then disseminated that strategy and vision around the world. A lot of the CEOs I talked to who are change agents say that communication is the key to getting your changes through, and they have various communication techniques. What is yours? Some have storytelling-- what is yours? Mine is really to work with our team, and to take the facts, and then communicate what are the key goals, and repeat it, and repeat it, and repeat it. And don't change the message. Ilene, as I look at your career, you've been a consultant, you've been in senior executive roles at many blue chip companies, and of course, you're CEO of Ingredion. What's the best leadership advice that you've gotten, and why did it stick with you? Why did it guide you? The best leadership advice that I've ever received is to really treat people how you want to be treated. And as an example, I've had employees who work for me and had to manage them out of their position. And I've treated them right, and they've ended up as my customer, and they remember how I treated them right, and that was a very good lesson. So I think that, if you always treat people how you want to be treated, you can't go wrong, and people will aspire to do the right thing, but to create value. 

Ingredion's CEO 'Never Accepted' the Status Quo

Leadership

Ilene Gordon reflects on her journey to the C-suite

I lean. You are one of 21 of Theo's on the Fortune 500 a very small group. What's the key to your? I actually think that one of the key to my success has been my strong analytical background and that I've always been very attuned to financially analyzing a business, looking at operations and taking those analytics and using that as a fact based to make decisions and never accepting the status quo. So I'm one of those people that is always pushing for change and growth, and how do we do better? And so I think that that's been a key to everything that I've done over my 40 year career. You probably heard that. Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook recently said that even the women are leaning in to take on a challenging assignments, and even though they're confident and assertive that they get pushed back in terms of moving up the corporate ladder, what advice do you have for women on what they can do? Thio move up into the C suite, or maybe even get a c e o jah Well, I always give advice to both males and females to not only have a strong analytical background, but to take international assignments and to take risk and get out of your comfort zone so that don't just depend on others to make things happen. But you need to ask for those assignments that are in another country. Go live in another country, don't just travel. And I've actually had opportunities in my career to live outside the U. S. Has been very important to adapting to a new culture because you need to be able to add value to wherever environment that you're in. You're obviously a very smart woman. You have a science and business degrees from M I. T. Besides your analytical skills and your brainpower, where there any other strategic news that you made that got you where you are? Well, I've always been willing to be mentored by people and to take advice, and I've had mentors that really pushed me into getting out on the factory floor and walking around and interacting with people, and that's been a key to success. I want to talk to you a little bit about what you did when you came to ingredient, because you made a lot of changes, including changing the company's name from Corn Products International, moving away from your core product of high fructose corn syrup And those bold moves really paid off in terms of revenue growth in terms of your stock, which has been amazing, and you could call him out a visionary. But in the beginning, how did you motivate inspire people at the company to accept your vision? I'm just one person, so you need to have a team believe in what you're doing. So I really built a leadership team, which was a combination of people who've been with the company 30 years, some who came from the new acquisition and other people who had been with other successful companies and built that team to deliver the vision around the company. We have 11,000 employees. So our leadership team, which was nine or 10 people, really bought into the vision and then disseminated that strategy and vision around the world. A lot of the CEOs I talked to who are changed agents say that communication is the key to getting your changes through, and they have very various communication techniques. What is your than some have storytelling? What is yours? Mine is really work with our team and to take the facts and then communicate what are the key goals and repeated and repeated and repeated and don't change the message. Eileen is. I look at your career, You've been a consultant. You've been in senior executive roles at many blue chip companies. Of course, your CEO of ingredients. What's the best leadership advice that you've gotten? And why did it stick with you? Why did it guide you? The best leadership advice that I've ever received is to really treat people how you want to be treated. And as an example, I've had employees who work for me and had to manage them out of their position. And I've treated them right and they've ended up in my customer and they remember how I treated them right, And that was a very good lesson. So I think that if you always treat people how you want to be treated, you can't go wrong, and people will aspire to do the right thing. But to create value

Eileen, everybody's talking about Pepsi's announcement that it is gonna dramatically cut back on the sugars in its beverages. What's your reaction to this? Well I think it's very exciting because it means that companies like ours have to have creative solutions. So as an example we have an investment in Stevia. Which is an all natural, low calorie. Really zero calorie, high intensity sweetener. And so it gives us an opportunity as a sweetener and a starch leader to come up with formulations that will meet the needs of the beverage and the food companies. So it requires development time, and shelf life testing. And then marketing to make these successful brands. As you know, consumers want organic, fresh food, no artificial colors, no preservatives, gluten free, things like that. How are you adapting to these changes in consumer taste? Well, our company has actually invested and made acquisitions to broaden our portfolio So that we have more ingredients. So, as an example, we bought a company in the potato starch area to add to our corn and tapioca portfolio. Because potato is gluten free and non- GMO. And so the consumer really wants a label that's simple and made with ingredients from their grandmother's cupboard. It requires company like ours To be very flexible and nimble and have many different choices to serve these customers and the ultimate consumer. What feedback have you been getting from consumers? Our customers are very excited about the ability to work with us and in fact have asked for more of our time. They come to our Innovation Center, what we call our Idea Lab in New Jersey and we actually have 24 of these around the world So our customers wanna come to those idea labs and work on this new formulations and the demand for our time is really increasing. Since you took over at [ UNKNOWN ] your company has been growing tremendously. Now that the trend is towards health and wellness, could this slow down your growth? Absolutely not. We are a company that's well positioned with a strong balance sheet and a great portfolio and we manufacture in 40 different countries. We actually sell in 100 different countries. And so we look at the trend towards more increased awareness of health and wellness as actually an opportunity for our company to grow our products and our formulations for consumers around the world. So, looking ahead Aileen, what are gonna be the eating habits for the American consumer? What are we gonna be eating and not eating? Let's say five years from now. << Our consumers and our customers are very focused in supplying, in working on texture and sweetness. But I would say the area that I think is increasing even more is nutrition. and nutrition is an area where the consumer is looking, as an example, for protein from vegetables, as opposed to just from beef. And so we see that accelerating, that consumers will get protein in their pasta, and in their baked goods, and so we're working on ingredients that will deliver that type of Nutrition in those types of items. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Ingredion Is Committed to Making Food Healthier

Ingredion

Company Information

World's Most Admired Companies
As of 2/2/22

Ingredion

Company Information

World's Most Admired CompaniesAs of 2/2/22

World's Most Admired Companies
As of 2/2/22