Newell Brands

Innovation should always start with a consumer’s unmet need — and a leader willing to look closely. In a new Atlanta Journal-Constitution Her+Story feature by Kelly Yamanouchi, Segment President of Learning & Development Kris Malkoski shares how consumer-first thinking and a focus on culture drive innovation across Newell’s Writing and Baby businesses — from iconic Sharpie® relaunches to next-generation Graco® design. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eT6cNd7m 📸 : Natrice Miller/AJC

This week, we brought our top leaders together in Atlanta and virtually for Leadership Summit 2026.   When you get that many leaders in one room, the conversation quickly centers on the fundamentals: We’ve built the right capabilities — now it’s about performance. Are we executing with discipline? Are we moving fast enough?   What stood out to me is the alignment across our teams. We’ve strengthened our core — from brand building and innovation to supply chain and simplification — and there’s shared accountability around raising the bar in 2026.   AI was a major part of that discussion. Through Quantum Leap, our AI transformation journey, we’re embedding AI directly into how we work across the enterprise. Not as a side initiative — but as a capability that improves speed, insight, and execution across innovation, marketing, analytics, operations and more.   We are encouraging teams to experiment, move quickly, and learn. Not every test will be perfect — but standing still isn’t an option. The goal is progress, learning velocity, and applying those lessons across the organization.   We’re operating in a dynamic consumer and retail environment. Speed, capability building, and disciplined execution matter more than ever.   The conversations were strong. The pace is picking up. Now we act.

On February 24, we brought together senior leaders from around the world for Leadership Summit 2026 — aligning on our multi-year transformation and sharpening our 2026 priorities. Leaders reinforced our focus on strengthening core capabilities across consumer understanding, brand building, innovation, go-to-market execution, simplification, and digital enablement. A key theme was the continued momentum of Quantum Leap, our enterprise AI journey, now embedded across workflows spanning innovation, marketing, analytics, supply chain, and commercial execution. With consumer expectations evolving and retail channels shifting, we remain focused on precision in execution — from innovation and pricing to digital activation and in-store excellence. Read more: https://lnkd.in/e_FwaSBk

The ripple effect of AI is transforming not just marketing strategy, but the way marketing teams function. Appreciated the conversation today at Campaign US #CampaignConvene on The Ripple Effect of AI. A big thank you Brian Brown, James Slezak and Luz Corona for a strong discussion. A few themes from the Newell Brands perspective: The biggest shift isn’t technological, it’s actually behavioral. 1. AI isn’t replacing marketers, but it is raising the bar. We’re moving from task execution to strategic orchestration. In 2026, every professional employee at Newell has an AI-related goal in their annual performance objectives tied to outcomes. What gets measured gets managed as they say and this is how you move from “I tried AI once” to “How am I redesigning how I work?” quickly, and at scale. 2. From hindsight to foresight. We’re doing less reacting and more predicting - using AI to pre-test creative, simulate media saturation/diminishing returns, and anticipate demand shifts. Not perfect certainty, but stronger signals and faster confidence. 3. Marketing now serves three audiences. The human (Emotion/Storytelling). The algorithm (SEO). The agent (AEO). Agent-ready creative (machine-readable content, structured PDPs, AEO) is the next frontier, driving new/expanded marketing roles and redefining our agency expectations around AI-enabled productivity, speed and strategic value. The ripple effect isn’t incremental. It’s operational, cultural and structural. Excited for what’s ahead. 🙌 🚀 #AI #MarketingTransformation #AgenticCommerce #CampaignConvene #NewellBrands

We’re proud to share that two of our iconic Home Fragrance brands have been named 2026 Product of the Year USA Award winners — the largest consumer-voted awards program focused on product innovation. ✨ WoodWick® won in the Home Décor category 🕯️ Yankee Candle® won in the Home Fragrance category Voted by 40,000 American shoppers in a national study conducted with Kantar, this recognition reflects what matters most: delivering meaningful innovation and quality that resonates with consumers. Congratulations to the teams behind these exceptional brands for continuing to raise the bar.

Mark Erceg and I spent time at #CAGNY2026 discussing the continued execution of Newell Brands’ multi-year turnaround.   Over two years ago, we began a capability-based transformation grounded in clear Where to Play and How To Win choices. Since then, the focus has been on simplifying the business, strengthening front-end capabilities and improving the structural economics of the company.   A key component of that work is Quantum Leap, our enterprise AI-enabled transformation. We are embedding AI into workflows across innovation, supply chain, marketing, HR and more with the objective of improving speed, effectiveness and efficiency.   Transformation is not defined by a single quarter. It is built through consistent execution, disciplined decision-making and sustained capability development.   We appreciated the engagement and dialogue on Friday. 

Today at CAGNY, Chris Peterson and Mark Erceg discussed the progress of Newell Brands’ multi-year, capability-based turnaround and the actions underway to strengthen the company’s operating model. Over the past two years, we have simplified the business — reducing complexity across brands, SKUs and suppliers, integrating supply chains and consolidating ERP systems into a more unified global backbone. These efforts are improving visibility, consistency and decision-making across the enterprise. Through Quantum Leap, our CEO-sponsored AI-enabled transformation, we have expanded the use of AI across multiple functions. With more than 100 active use cases and over 2,000 employees enabled, the focus is on workflow redesign, accelerating innovation and distribution wins, stronger consumer insights and improved operational efficiency. The discussion centered on execution, capability development and long-term value creation. To view the full presentation, visit: https://lnkd.in/ejGcEu6H