CMO Spotlight | Patricia Corsi - Bayer Consumer Health
Setup CEO, Joe Koufman, virtually sat down with Patricia Corsi, the Global Chief Marketing and Digital Officer at Bayer Consumer Health. In the interview, Corsi shares about her incredible career path that has taken her around the globe, her numerous experiences marketing in different industries, and how her diverse background adds to her strengths.
WATCH THE INTERVIEW + READ THE RECAP BELOW
Q1| Tell us about your career path.
Corsi’s career has taken her on a journey all over the world and through several industries. She started her career at Sony working in the phonographic division. She then moved to the Pharmaceutical industry where she completed a training program at Johnson & Johnson. After her training, she continued her career at Kraft, now Mondelēz, and then moved to Unilever where she spent over a decade traveling the world to places like Brazil, the U.K., and The Netherlands. After Unilever, she transitioned to the Adult Beverage industry to work for Heineken in Mexico. Only a couple years passed until she was recruited for a role with Bayer Consumer Health in Switzerland.
At Bayer, Corsi proudly leads two areas: the categories and The Centers of Excellence. Her category team consists of heads based in Europe and The U.S. that lead their seven divisions. The Centers of Excellence consists of marketing, digital, insights, analytics, and sales customer-centric. Additionally, Corsi leads the digital transformation program for all the functions. She explained, “If it's marketing, sales, or product supply, I oversee the whole program.”
Q2 | Is there any advice you’d like to share?
“You have to try on purpose if it’s authentic to you.”
Corsi is big on finding a mentor and nurturing that relationship. “There are a lot of people who are willing to give you advice and share their experience. Don't be arrogant. Take them and nurture those relationships and care for them.”
She also stressed having the right people in your corner and ensuring that those relationships are mutually beneficial. “You have to find a way where it's authentic to you and you see the benefit, but you also benefit others because the more you do it, the more people are going to be inspired to do it as well.”
Q3 | What is your superpower?
“My superpower is my background.”
A big part of Corsi’s identity is her Latin background which has also added to her marketing and leadership strengths. “It's my Latinity and my enthusiasm, my energy, my presence, and my curiosity.” She added that her ability to keep people engaged, despite the message, is also a superpower.
Q4 | What values are important to you?
“We cannot be great at what we do if we don’t have that openness to challenge the concepts that we’ve been raised with.”
Corsi values a number of character attributes and looks for the following qualities as essential skills for marketers:
Curiosity
Openness
Acceptance and understanding of different perspectives and people
Courage
Respect
For more marketing leadership advice, and a view into the mindset of marketing executives in various industries, be sure to watch the full interview with Patricia Corsi, and keep an eye out for more thought leadership from our CMO Spotlights.
Watch the full interview to the right.
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