Leading change

At the annual United Parcel Service executive offsite retreat in June, company leaders sat at a table covered with 700 colorful Legos, each bearing the name of a different UPS product. Six months into her tenure as president of US Marketing, Product, and Revenue Management at the Atlanta-based Fortune 500 courier company, Kate Mandrell invited the executives to pretend they were salespeople working with customers in a particular context.

“Which of these 700 products would you pitch to them?” she asked. Every executive chose a different set of products — a frustrating, confusing result without any clear rationale. And that, Mandrell said, was the point.

Mandrell, a 2012 graduate of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, used this interactive exercise to argue successfully for a major redo in the way UPS does business. “After joining UPS last December, I soon realized that having 700 products made it difficult for our sales teams to sell and for our customers to understand the value of our products,” she said. “We needed to simplify the way we went to market.”

So, she worked with her team of over 300 Marketing, Product, and Revenue Management division employees to devise a customer-centric, go-to-market approach that represents a major pivot in the way UPS does business.

“Instead of marketing 700 products, we now offer good, better, and best bundles to our customers,” Mandrell said. “This makes our customers’ decision process easier and enables our sales teams to lean into selling on value. It also differentiates UPS’s competitive advantage in the market.”

This was not the first time Mandrell has led a major transition for a large company. As executive vice president of Commercial Strategy and Operations at NCR Corporation, then a Fortune 500 enterprise technology provider to banks, retailers, and restaurants, she led the firm’s transition from a hardware-centric company to a software and services organization. In recognition of her efforts, the Georgia-based nonprofit Women in Technology selected her for its 2023 Woman of the Year in Technology Award and the Atlanta Business Chronicle named her to its 2023 40 Under 40 list.

The University of Richmond alum is quick to emphasize the role her mentors and teams play in her success. “Leadership is not about having all the answers,” she said. “It’s about being able to ask questions, listen, and then reach across the aisle to get things done. It’s about enabling a space where your team can challenge the status quo.”

This approach has served her well at UPS. Before recommending any major changes or initiatives, she said she wanted to gain a comprehensive understanding of the company. To that end, she spent her first month in operations, participating in pre-load logistics and feeder truck deliveries, working as a driver’s helper, and visiting the UPS worldwide air hub in Louisville. She spent her second month meeting with and listening to stakeholders and peers across all the company’s divisions, including information technology, legal, finance, sales, and more.

“What challenges do you face?” Mandrell asked employees. “What opportunities do you see?”

“I think about change in terms of how to solve problems end-to-end, rather than in a silo,” she said. “Then I put together a short-, medium-, and long-term road map and work to get everyone to buy into the vision. This makes it easier to bring everyone along on the journey.”

Mandrell’s interest in transformation dates back to her time at the Jepson School, where she explored different leadership styles for effecting change in her honors thesis, “Be Like a Chameleon and Embrace Change.” Today, she regularly applies those leadership theories in her work.

“I’m dedicated to driving change and innovation, championing strategic growth, and fostering diverse, high-performing teams.”