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Rising Star: Mary Minnick, Coca-Cola
Meet Corporate America's next generation of leaders.
 NEW YORK (FORTUNE Magazine) - All Mary Minnick needs to do to succeed is turn around the world's most famous -- but suffering -- brand. She needs to create Coke's first winning ad campaign since "Always" ended in 1999. She needs to reinvent the company's new-product strategy. "Oh, my God," says Coca-Cola (Research)'s marketing boss as she considers this to-do list. "I'm running out of here right now!"
No chance. A 22-year Coke veteran, Minnick, 46, has lived through four CEOs in eight years, most recently as head of Coke's highly profitable Asia division. When CEO Neville Isdell approached her about becoming president of marketing, strategy, and innovation last spring, "I told him that I was never going back to Atlanta. I loved living in Hong Kong." Minnick went on to deliver a list of things Isdell needed to do to get Coke growing briskly again. His response: "Fine, I'll give you whatever you need." Minnick, thus empowered, has boosted spending on consumer research and R&D while pushing Coke to play catch-up in a U.S. beverage market gravitating to nutritional and energy drinks. "In Japan, Coke launches 30 to 40 new products a year," Minnick says. "We don't need that hyperinnovation in North America, but we need more innovation than we've had." What can you learn from Mary Minnick? "I define my career by forks in the road," she says, and this new turn certainly qualifies. The high-profile gig has put her on the radar of major CEO recruiters. (Muhtar Kent, just named to run Coke's global operations outside the U.S., is the company's other undisputed rising star.)
One possible roadblock for Minnick: She has been known as a tough and sometimes abrasive boss -- a burden, often unfair, that has been a handicap for many women leaders. "I've received coaching," she acknowledges. "It's not so much about softening as it is about being less intense and more balanced in my sense of urgency." It's a tricky balance to maintain. "Intensity has been a big contributor to my success," she adds. "A lot of times your greatest strength can be your weakness."
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