General Mills Jenn Tracy Interview

For our first interview, Jenn Tracy of General Mills and I spoke on the phone for a little over half an hour. Mrs. Tracy and I had a very interesting conversation about life, work, and balance. To start off the interview, I asked her questions about her background in an effort to get to know her better and possibly better understand her answers to my questions later on. Through my questions I learned that Mrs. Tracy spent four years at MSU-Mankato for her undergrad. She is also married, has two younger kids, and absolutely loves to spend her free time being outside. When Mrs. Tracy first entered the workplace, she worked in store leadership for Target Corporation, and she has been working for General Mills for the past eight years. The next
Tracy shared many fascinating projects that she has completed for General Mills so I asked her the question, “what motivates you to do a big project.” She answered with the following “my family, faith, and job are what motivate me” (Tracy, Jenn). She continued to explain how these are the values she bases her every day life on, her primary focus being on her family and faith. As stated above, she loves her job and gets excited to go to work everyday. I feel as though I can relate to her. My family and faith are things that influence me in my everyday life. I am determined to work hard in my schoolwork, as well as my sports, in an effort to make my family proud and to prepare myself for the future through the different connections and networks I have made through my
There are four jobs ahead of Mrs. Tracy (Director, Vice President, Executive Vice President, and CEO), and four levels below her position. General Mills as a company is more focused on their employees and customers, rather than the food they sell. They encourage their employees to be creative and voice their opinions. Mrs. Tracy said that the most desired characteristic at General Mills is the drive to be successful. How General Mills makes their decisions depends on how big or small that decision is. When making big decisions that will affect different divisions within the company they will converse with people from other departments because they want to hear others thoughts and views towards the decision. When the company is making smaller decisions then they will use the “expert” decision making tactic because they want to be able to make the best and most efficient