The Act of Love in Innovation With PepsiCo SVP & Chief Design Officer Mauro Porcini
In this episode of Redefining HR, I spoke with PepsiCo’s SVP and chief design officer, Mauro Porcini to discuss innovation as an act of love and lessons from his new book, The Human Side of Innovation
Design, creativity, and innovation have a long history in Mauro’s family. As the son of an architect/painter and poet, Mauro has constantly been exposed to the world of art. It was the drive that his parents had for their craft that showed him that he could go after what he wanted. His parents’ drive also showed him the importance of a humanistic approach to their art.
And because of what he’s learned from his parents, Mauro has gone on to have an exciting career. He’s been able to elevate and develop a culture of design at major companies, including his current company, PepsiCo.
“These 20 years have been very exciting and challenging years — not just doing design, but trying to build a culture of design and human centricity that didn’t exist in these organizations,” Mauro says. “My job is not just the one of being a designer, but is also the one of trying to build a culture within very successful, very established, big corporations at scale.”
Mauro has built a culture at PepsiCo that gets to the heart of innovation by keeping people at the center of design processes.
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Creating a Culture of Design
Mauro has had many firsts and accomplishments throughout his career, with the most notable being becoming the first chief design officer both at PepsiCo and, ten years earlier, at multinational conglomerate 3M. At both companies, Mauro was starting from scratch to build a culture of design with one goal in mind: “I’ve been working all these years to make sure that the company doesn’t need me anymore.”
Mauro has had many accomplishments close to his heart, but his most significant achievement is building a culture of design and human centricity. “I really hope [it] will last, no matter if I am there or not,” he says. “It’s a legacy.” Mauro wants what has been created to transcend him and continue for a long time.
Mauro is most proud that the culture of design and human centricity he fostered at PepsiCo not only adds value to the company, but also to society. However, maintaining this culture is something Mauro understands is a journey rather than a task to be completed. He knew that he alone couldn’t sustain this culture without a team.
“It’s not just me, it’s my entire team, but even that is part of the accomplishment. The realization that by myself, I could have done nothing,” Mauro says. “And I needed to surround myself with amazing design talent, and I needed to find amazing co-conspirators, as I like to call them, inside the organization to drive this change.”
People in This Episode
Mauro Porcini: LinkedIn, Twitter, The Human Side of Innovation