Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.
When Valerie Oswalt became CEO of breakfast and snack products company Kodiak in November 2022, she inherited a fast-growing business with beloved products, dedicated employees, and an outdoorsy vibe, befitting its Park City, Utah, headquarters. She also walked into a company that needed to bolster the talent, tools, and systems needed to scale the company.
Her challenge: bring the discipline and knowledge she’d acquired during leadership stints at consumer packaged goods (CPG) giants such as The Campbell’s Company and Mondelēz International without losing the nimbleness and authenticity that had made Kodiak a household name. “It was a powerhouse brand that had a startup mindset,” Oswalt recalls.
A recipe for success
Kodiak has classic entrepreneurial roots. Founder and former CEO Joel Clark started selling his mother’s homemade whole-grain pancake mix as an 8-year-old. The company catapulted to national attention when an episode of ABC’s “Shark Tank” featuring Clark and cofounder Cameron Smith aired in 2014. Kodiak passed on a deal with the Sharks, but the publicity and the launch of protein-packed pancakes boosted sales.
Private equity firm L Catterton acquired Kodiak in 2021, and Oswalt became CEO 17 months later, replacing cofounder Clark, who remains chairman of the company’s board of directors.
To support Kodiak’s growth, Oswalt, who ran Campbell’s $4 billion snack division prior to joining Kodiak, brought in leaders with key experience in certain areas. She revamped the performance review process and instituted a new incentive plan tied to financial outcomes. (All 160 full-time employees have equity in the company.) “There were more processes that needed to be put in place than I had originally anticipated,” she recalls.
