Podcast Summary:

BRAVE COMMERCE — Kraft Heinz’s Andrea Steele on Embedding eCommerce Into the DNA of Big CPG
Host: Adweek (Rachel Tipograph, Sarah Hofstetter)
Guest: Andrea Steele, AVP of eCommerce & Customer Marketing, Kraft Heinz
Date: October 21, 2025

Overview

This episode of BRAVE COMMERCE explores how large, established CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) companies like Kraft Heinz are embedding eCommerce into their organizational DNA to drive growth. Andrea Steele, with extensive experience across major CPGs, shares actionable frameworks, real-world examples, and strategies for implementing and scaling digital capabilities in traditionally slow-moving, complex environments. The conversation covers navigating constant industry headwinds, change management, fostering resilience, and supporting women leaders in digital commerce.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Context: The Challenging CPG Landscape

• Discussion: Rachel and Sarah open by acknowledging persistent turbulence in the CPG sector—labor shortages, supply chain issues, the Ukraine war, and inflation—leading to uncertainty about real growth prospects in the category (02:45–03:41).
• Insight: Many assume CPGs resist change, but in recent years, forced adaptation has led to significant shifts, particularly in digital channels.

Notable Quote:

"If you look for the pockets of growth in the US, 76% of US CPG growth came from eCommerce. Is eCommerce getting the amount of time and attention that would come along with that kind of a growth rate?"
—Sarah Hofstetter (03:47)

2. Introducing Andrea Steele: Experience & Practical Optimism

• Discussion: Andrea is celebrated for her real-world, scalable thinking. Notably, she's recognized for optimism rooted in pragmatism, not sugarcoating challenges but focusing on solutions (05:35–06:39).
• Insight: Andrea brings a "glass-half-full" mindset grounded in experience—her success comes from bridging strategy with reality inside big, legacy organizations.

3. Andrea’s Five Steps for Embedding New Capabilities in Big CPGs

Andrea shares her core framework for driving innovation in large organizations (07:41–10:31):

a. Start with Business Strategy and Consumer Needs (Not "E-Commerce Strategy")

• Quote:

  "No tech for tech's sake, no capabilities for capability's sake. Have to start with the business strategy... within that what are the consumer journeys necessary to achieve that business strategy."
  —Andrea Steele (07:51)

b. Build a Capability Roadmap (Over Years, Not Months)

• Prioritize initiatives and phase them over years for sustainable adoption.

c. Do It with Others (Cross-Functional Buy-In)

• Involve tech, finance, legal, procurement, and business teams early and constantly.

d. Embed in Upstream Processes (Not Just End-User Adoption)

• True lasting impact requires integrating new capabilities into core business processes (product lifecycle, brand guidelines, IBP processes), not just setting up centers of excellence.

Quote:

"You really have to make sure that you are embedding it into those big business processes to make it work and to make it stick."
—Andrea Steele (09:11)

e. Measure & Celebrate Success

• Measurement ensures you do what you say—and keep optimizing.
• Celebration, often overlooked, "keeps that wheel of excitement and funding" moving.

Additional Insight:
Sarah suggests "celebration" deserves its own spot, as promoting internal wins is critical for morale and further buy-in (10:11–10:31).

4. Managing Speed vs. Scale in Complex Organizations

• Question: How do you keep up with rapid consumer shifts when internal change is slow? (12:20)
• Answer:
  • Leverage “best friends” like legal, procurement, and PMOs to break bottlenecks and reverse-engineer processes (12:34).
  • Embrace the principle "slow is smooth, smooth is fast"—build foundations deliberately for scalable, sustainable speed.

Quote:

"Find those best friends to help rethink and speed up where you can within the existing processes... I'm also a big fan of 'slow is smooth, smooth is fast.'"
—Andrea Steele (12:34)

• Example: Ratings and reviews can reveal upstream issues; smart back-end fixes can be more efficient than costly quick-fixes (13:40–14:20).

5. Avoiding Burnout While Driving Change

• Change management cannot overburden the team; prioritize the core strategy and limit "testing for testing’s sake."
• Testing should inform strategy (20%), not overwhelm it (80% strategy, 20% experimentation).

Quote:

"Testing should be in favor of that central strategy to inform it... If you flip that and you're running in all different directions on tests... that's likely not going to be scalable."
—Andrea Steele (15:30)

• Regularly regroup on resource allocation to focus on the "biggest rocks" and prevent team burnout.

6. Navigating Industry Headwinds: Mindset & Culture

• Psychological readiness is crucial: Many employees feel pressure due to stagnant growth; leaders like Andrea must create clarity and optimism by explaining where growth is truly happening (17:25–18:50).

Quote:

"Education upfront... is probably ground zero, actually in stage zero—making sure that people understand that nuance because there is growth in CPG right now. It’s just not necessarily in the places that everyone’s looking for it."
—Andrea Steele (17:56)

7. Advice for Women Leaders in CPG & Digital

• The tech/digital fields, especially in CPG, have long been male-dominated.
• Andrea credits mentors who believed in her potential before she did, propelling her into leadership.

Quote:

“Having the belief that you can figure it out is the number one place I would start... You have to focus on your skills and that you can figure things out, not your experience alone, because nobody's ever ready for that next big step.”
—Andrea Steele (19:59)

8. Bravery, Vulnerability, and Career Inflection Points

• Rachel/Sarah’s Signature Closing: “What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever done?” (21:04)
• Andrea’s Answer: Getting laid off at a prior company and responding with vulnerability (seeking support from her network) and confidence (betting on her ability to figure out the next step)—ultimately leading her to the leadership role at Kraft Heinz.

Quote:

"I was brave by being vulnerable and opening up to my network... And two, I had that confidence of, hey, I can go figure this out. I can use all the skills I've gathered... to do something on an even bigger scale."
—Andrea Steele (21:31)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It’s a whole lot of mac and cheese. For today’s episode it’s a whole lot of ketchup, if you ask me.” —Sarah Hofstetter, on Kraft Heinz’s reach in eCommerce (04:55)
• “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.” —Andrea Steele, advocating for thoughtful scaling, not just speed (12:34)
• “If the objective is testing, you’re gonna get a lot of testing.” —Sarah Hofstetter, on avoiding KPIs that reinforce the wrong behaviors (16:37)
• “Education upfront, I think that's probably ground zero.” —Andrea Steele, on foundational work for creating organizational change (17:56)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:45 — State of CPG industry, constant headwinds
• 03:47 — The data: 76% of US CPG growth is eCommerce
• 07:41 — Andrea’s five tips for embedding new capabilities
• 12:34 — Managing speed and scale; fixing rating/reviews upstream
• 15:30 — Test-and-learn: Balancing innovation with focus
• 17:56 — Psychological change and education as step zero
• 19:59 — Advice for women navigating digital/CPG leadership
• 21:31 — Bravery stories: vulnerability and reinvention

Tone and Language

• Direct, honest, and practical—with a thread of optimism and encouragement throughout.
• The hosts are candid and lighthearted, infusing humor even when tackling complex, sometimes weighty industry topics.
• Andrea’s responses are thorough and transparent, focused on giving listeners both strategy and actionable frameworks.

Useful Takeaways for Listeners

• Embedding eCommerce requires aligning digital transformation with core business strategy—not siloed “digital” plans.
• Lasting change takes buy-in across all functions and must be pushed upstream in processes for durability.
• Celebrate small wins internally to maintain momentum.
• Balance innovation with realistic operational pace; don’t let “test & learn” culture spiral out of control.
• Women and underrepresented talent should lead with confidence in their skills—even before they feel “ready.”
• Vulnerability and network engagement are assets, not liabilities, especially amid career transition.