As the adage goes, the road to success is seldom a straight line.
For Kathleen Dunlop, Unilever‘s chief marketing officer for its beauty and well-being business, it’s especially true given her global journey.
Dunlop, whose career has spanned her native U.S. as well as the U.K. and Shanghai, credits much of her success to her global worldview and her recognition of her own values. Here, the CEW Achiever honoree discusses her own trajectory and how she’s thinking about uplifting the next generation of leaders.
How would you describe your professional journey, and what’s one word you would use to describe your career path?
It’s hard to come up with one word, but I do have an attitude. My default setting is “yes.” I’ll weigh the pros and cons, I’ll do the cost-benefit analysis, but then I will just do what feels right. Can I imagine myself in this new role, or in this new place? Does it give me ideas? Do I have something to offer, does it feel generative, does it feel exciting? If the answer is yes, I’ll say “yes.”
What female historical figures inspire you the most and why?
It’s always the most recent one that I’ve come across. This isn’t necessarily historical, but I did just finally read her book. It’s Michelle Obama. I read “Becoming,” and I listened to a lot of it on the audio book, and she read it in her own voice. I also read part of the book because I would listen to chapters and be like, “I actually need to read that.”
What I loved about her, and about what she said in that book, is that no matter what role she was doing, what career move she was making, or becoming a part of the campaign team for President Obama, she stayed true to her values and what she believed in. She’s played so many different roles, but she’s always stayed true to where she came from, who she is, what she believes and, therefore, what is her purpose in this place and time? I want to be able to look back on my life and career and say the same thing.
How are you inspiring the next generation of leadership?
I got some of the best career advice when I was a marketing director on Vaseline in the U.S. I was working on the Healing project, which was a very purpose-led project, and I loved it. I went in for my midyear review with my boss and I had a whole list of “I need to do more of this, address this gap, shore up this weakness.” And he looked at me like I had two heads. He said, “What are you talking about? We want you to spend your time doing the things you actually excel at, because nobody can do that like you can.”
It was such pivotal advice because that’s what I look for in others. I hire people for my team, I bring them in for where their leadership spikes, I try to identify what that is, I give them the mandate to excel at that thing, attach themselves to it and become famous for it. That’s my way of developing people in the organization.
What does achievement mean to you?
Obviously, we have our business targets, and that’s very measurable. But what inspires me is the idea of putting something beautiful into the world. Steve Jobs talked about the idea of making something wonderful, and because I’m in beauty, I talk about putting something beautiful into the world, something that is made with care and attention for people to use.
Maybe we are moisturizing dry skin, healing chapped lips, that’s one thing. But we can also do it in a way that improves a community, helps that community thrive, improves their physical and mental well-being, and address that need to live in a thriving community and healthy planet. It drives me that we are meeting their small needs, but that we are doing business with integrity and intention.
