Interview with Mondelez CEO Irene Rosenfeld.
HARLOW: It is one of the largest snacking companies in the world bringing in more than $30 billion a year. You know it because of brands like this. Oreo, Cadbury, Ritz, Trident. You get the picture. Well, I sat down with the woman in charge of it all. The chief of Mondelez International, Irene Rosenfeld. With among Fortune's top 10 most powerful women in business this year.</s>IRENE ROSENFELD, CEO AND CHAIRMAN, MONDELEZ INTERNATIONAL, INC.: Snacking is a $1.3 trillion category around the world. Our categories are growing at a rate four percent, five, six percent. They're very attractive.</s>HARLOW (on camera): You spoke on a recent earnings call about the cost cutting and the move to boost profits. I'm interested in the parts of the company where you're not cutting costs and you're investing and pouring resources into it. What are those?</s>ROSENFELD: Well, I would tell you, it's a misconception that one cannot cut costs and make investments. In fact, in our case, that's the reason we're cutting costs is not only to expand our margins but also to provide the fuel to make investments in growth opportunities. And so it's been a really important part of our equation, particularly during the challenging macro environment that we've all been dealing with over the last couple of years. It's really been imperative that we find ways to lower costs so that we can protect the investments that we're looking to make to protect our growth.</s>HARLOW: Where are you putting that money?</s>ROSENFELD: Primarily our growth is coming in the emerging markets, 40 percent of our revenues are in those markets. Even though they have slowed down relative to where they have been in the past, they're still growing a couple of times the rate of the developed market.</s>HARLOW: Your goal is by 2020 to have 25 percent of your revenue from better choice products.</s>ROSENFELD: Actually 50 percent.</s>HARLOW: Fifty percent now.</s>ROSENFELD: Yes.</s>HARLOW: The last I read - so 50 percent. And also to put the calorie count on the front of packaging.</s>ROSENFELD: Yes.</s>HARLOW: Where is corporate responsibility in that? What role do companies have in being as open as they can to consumers about exactly how healthy or unhealthy this product is for you?</s>ROSENFELD: As the largest snacking company in the world, I think it's imperative that we be responsible and do what we can to help consumers make informed choices. It pertains to calorie labeling, it pertains to taking some of the things that consumers don't want, like sodium, like saturated fat, it involved adding more things that are good for them. Whole grains, proteins, for example. We're doing all of those things in addition to making sure that our products are available in portion control sizes like 100-calorie packs or just smaller pack sizes so that they can eat as much or little of the product as they want.</s>HARLOW: Leadership, you are consistently named one of Fortune's most powerful, if not, the most powerful woman in business. You've held that number one spot before. You said recently that you learned a very significant lesson in leadership. Over the past year or so about transparency. What is that?</s>ROSENFELD: You know, especially in tough times, it is so important that people trust what you're saying. So I have found even when the news is not good, my willingness to be straight with people, to tell it like it is goes a long way toward their willingness to accept whatever that news is.</s>HARLOW: How did you learn that lesson? Because you've said silence is far more frightening than bad news. As the companies in the midst of the $1.5 billion in cost cutting, some leaders do step back and keep it in the boardroom and in the executive offices. Not communicated to the employees. Why did you learn to do differently?</s>ROSENFELD: You know, after years of being on the receiving end myself, of difficult news, I came to realize that the best way to deal with others is the way I would like to be treated myself. I had found that even if the news is not what they want to hear, my willingness to get out there, to tell them the truth and to be clear about what's going on goes a really long way.</s>HARLOW: You're here at the Fortune's most powerful women summit. You've come for many, many years. For future female leaders, for whoever, whatever leader follows you, what advice do you have for them that you have learned along the way?</s>ROSENFELD: Take a risk. I think that is the best advice I can give to female leaders. I think there are so many opportunities to make a difference in our world, there are so many challenges, I think women can bring a unique set of skills to those challenges and I think the - but you have to be willing to go for it.</s>HARLOW: Even if it gives you that feeling in your stomach, like -</s>ROSENFELD: Especially then.</s>HARLOW: Especially then. I read that you said that your childhood ambition was to become president of the United States.</s>ROSENFELD: That's true.</s>HARLOW: Certainly not too late. Might we see you run one day?</s>ROSENFELD: I think I have met so many of criteria in having the privilege to lead Mondelez International, it's been a significant role, I've been able to have an impact which was what motivated me when I was younger to aspire to, to do something as profound as the presidency.</s>HARLOW: Have people come to you and asked you to run?</s>ROSENFELD: Not yet. I'm very happy what I am doing. Thank you.</s>HARLOW: Coming up next, tonight's number, the number is two. Try to guess. We'll explain after the break.