In advance of International Women’s Day this weekend, we spotlight Nicole Zukowski, Chief Supply Chain Officer at family-owned Bacardi. Nicole is responsible for leading the teams who craft the Bacardi portfolio of brands, ensuring their consistent exceptional quality and taste, while managing a high-performing logistics network and customer service. She also proudly leads the company’s efforts to protect People & Planet through its Good Spirited Corporate Sustainability program.
In this Q&A, Nicole shares her perspective on women in leadership, the lessons she’s learned throughout her career and the legacy she wants to leave behind as she nurtures the next generation of talent.
Leadership positions in Supply Chain and Manufacturing are typically male dominated. As a woman setting out on your career, what drew you to the industry?
My grandfather, father and father-in-law all worked in manufacturing, so I guess you could say it was meant to be. I loved Physics at high school and had a fantastic teacher who suggested I pursue engineering – the rest is history! I didn’t ever see being a woman as a barrier. In fact I liked the challenge of showing that I could do it too.
What were your ambitions when you decided to follow in family footsteps?
I have so many memories of my dad telling stories at the dinner table about less than desirable working conditions and aggressive leadership styles, so I’ve always been passionate about creating work environments that people feel proud to be part of – where safety and wellbeing are the number one priority. If people are telling positive stories from their day at work around the dinner table, I’ve done my job well.
As a mom of two young women, what advice do you give them about pursuing their passion in their future careers?
A mantra I live by is “if you want, you can do it” and this is what I’m always telling them. I truly believe that if you put the work in, you can achieve anything you want. As a working mom, I didn’t want to miss out on my daughters’ important moments, but I’ve made it work with discipline and effort. It’s true for career progression too – put the work in, and you’ll get where you want to go.
What do you see as your role in creating opportunities for the next generation of women in leadership at Bacardi?
For me it’s all about creating equal opportunities for the development of those around me. I’m proud to work for a company that was named in the Forbes’ list of World’s Top Companies for Women; where 45% of our top management and executive roles are held by women; and to have a Supply Chain leadership team which is more than half female. I believe that by providing the right capability training, leading by example and nurturing talent, everyone has the chance to succeed.
Any words of advice that have stuck with you throughout your career?
“Grow where you’re planted”, meaning you can make an impact wherever you happen to be in an organization. I’ve often seen people looking so far ahead or around them to where they want to go next, that they lose focus on where they are now and how they can make an immediate impact. It’s something we do really well at Bacardi – everyone is given autonomy to act like entrepreneurs, to influence and to own, rather than waiting for others to ask – and it never goes unnoticed by leadership.
When you look back at your early career, what’s one belief you held about leadership that you’ve completely changed your mind about?
Probably that leaders have all the answers, that they don’t need to hear from their teams and aren’t interested in listening to feedback. Today I understand this couldn’t be further from the truth. As a leader, I think the key to success is building a team around you that you trust and rely on to be true to themselves, and to hold nothing back. Often the meetings I value most are the ones where I’m challenged or where I learn something new from others.
How has being a woman shaped your leadership style?
I haven’t had many female leaders throughout my career, but I was lucky to have several brilliant male bosses who were fantastic mentors and champions for me. That said, I remember realizing early on that as a woman, I had a very different leadership style to my male leaders, and I openly had that conversation with one of my bosses. I said, “hold me accountable and coach me, but let me do it my way.” Copying their leadership style didn’t work for me, I wanted to be authentic, and it paid off.
You could be called a trailblazer in a male-dominated industry. Is that something you aspired to?
Absolutely and in fact I’ve often been the first woman to take on a role throughout my career. Along the way I saw lots of women self-selecting not to do certain roles because of a pre-conception they couldn’t do it, or because they couldn’t tick every point on the job description. This has always made me even hungrier to be visible as a woman succeeding in the industry, becoming that example, not only for other women, but for men, and importantly, for my daughters too.
To learn more about how Bacardi invests in people and its communities as part of its Good Spirited Corporate Sustainability program, visit https://www.bacardilimited.com/cs/people/.
