Navigating a career in today’s fast-paced environment requires more than just skill—it demands resiliency, adaptability, and a willingness to embrace the unexpected. Jennifer Davis’ 31-year career at Procter & Gamble (P&G) exemplifies how these qualities can lead to remarkable success. Her story, which she shared with the students of Culverhouse on September 26 as part of the college’s Lowder Lecture Series, is not just about climbing the corporate ladder; it’s proof of the power in learning from challenges, nurturing curiosity, and making strategic choices.
Davis’ journey at P&G originated by chance as an undergraduate student at Princeton University. A last-minute interview in the career office led to an internship at the company. During the internship, Davis made daily sales calls to retail stores selling the company’s products, learning how to build and maintain relationships, and instilling in her a resilience that became a cornerstone of her career.
What kept Davis at P&G for over three decades was the company’s values and teamwork, commitment to talent development, and practice of granting employees substantial responsibility from the start.
A pivotal moment in Davis’ career came when she and her husband, Jeff, who worked for Deloitte, moved from the New York market to Cincinnati, Ohio. As her career progressed, Davis chose to turn down a high-profile role that would have required relocating her growing family. Instead, Davis focused on mastering her current role, deepening her learning about finance, marketing, R&D, and supply chain. This investment ultimately helped her develop the skills to become a category General Manager with P&L responsibility.
Now, as CEO of P&G’s global health care business, overseeing household brands like Vicks, Metamucil, Crest and Oral-B, Davis continues to champion empathy-driven leadership. In her talk, Davis told Culverhouse’s students to “Be curious. Do not be afraid of failing. Embrace learning opportunities.”
“Overcome your fear of failure and taking risks – informed risks – because you’ve been thinking critically and deeply about what might happen when things go wrong. People will tend to give you the benefit of the doubt. When you make a mistake, just own it. And if you mess up, you ask for help, and apologize.”
Among Davis’ closing takeaways was, “You need to love your journey [because] if you have a goal and you don’t love the path there, it will be hard to sustain all that’s required to achieve that goal.”
Our gratitude to Davis for sharing her story with our students.