Her Story
About Denise
Denise Woods has spent her entire 12-year career at The Hershey Company. She started as a sales representative calling on stores including Walmarts and food locations, partnering with store managers and employees to execute priorities at the store level. She then moved into managing part of a sales team covering the convenience store channel. After those field sales roles she transitioned to customer teams and strategic work, spending the last nine years in category management. In that capacity she has worked across various retailer accounts, helping buyers develop a full understanding of the confection category and determining the right brands and assortment for seasons such as Halloween and Easter. Denise holds a bachelor's degree in marketing from the University of Pittsburgh and joined Hershey immediately after graduation.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Denise
01What do you attribute your success to?
A lot of very good leaders that I've had. I've had bad ones, but I've had a lot of good ones, and those are the people that encourage you, they allow you to kind of go do your thing, but they're also teachers at the end of the day. They're helping you learn and understand and give you the perspective that they have, and sharing the different opportunities and successes that they've had as well. Some of those managers, even from my early days, I'm still very close with them, and they're still mentors to me. Having a lot of those people in your corner and having solid people that you've learned from over the years is a major part to why I've stayed with the company and why I've been able to be so successful.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Try to sit back and think about in general what are things that interest you, not a specific career path or major, but really zooming out on some of the broader themes in your life. Understanding the kind of larger things that really appeal to you and letting that drive the interests or the classes or the jobs. Your first job is not your last job, and you're gonna have a lot of them. Understanding that there's gonna be a winding path through your career, and if you can be really locked in to some of those key interests that you have, then you'll be driven to continue into some of those jobs.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
A big challenge right now is incorporating AI. We're doing a lot of research in this role, so figuring out still what's the best way to use AI, how to make sure things are still accurate even though we're trying to use it to help us be faster and more nimble. It's the opportunity that's in front of us. Another is the health and wellness space and how people are eating. We're trying to sell candy but that's not necessarily a big trend right now. A lot of companies like Hershey are diversifying into other snacking areas, healthy snacks, better-for-you snacks. We partner closely with our Consumer Insights team looking at trends outside of candy.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Respect for others is extremely important. Teaching my year old and making sure that people I work with have that as well, respecting people's time, people's personal time, and the focuses of their jobs and how we balance all of that. Communication is just always key. That's how teams work the best, is the ones that talk to each other the most. Having that willingness to learn as well. Especially when you go into a new job, it's so important to just say hey look I don't know anything right now, this is my first day, so let's learn.
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