92. Getting Ahead at Your Own Speed

What Rules!?: A career podcast for women of color

If you’re comparing yourself to others, wondering if you should be further along in your career, our guest today shares how to get ahead at your own speed.

While we’re encouraged to advance as quickly as possible, Paula Ramos, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, at Kimberly-Clark, believes in the opposite. Paula tells us how she has broken the rules by looking at her career as a sailboat and letting her curiosity guide her.

“A sailboat allows me to explore,” says Paula. “And it puts the control on me on how fast I go.”

Get off the fast lane and sail your way into a rewarding career with Paula’s insight and advice.

Theme: Know What You Want

Episode Highlights:

• Looking at your career as a sailboat vs speedboat
• Determining how fast you want to go in your career
• How to find variety within your role and company
• Forging your own path at every stage of your career
• The trap of comparing yourself to others
• Are you a knower or a learner?
• Mentoring, sponsoring and being an example to others

Paula’s Bio:

Paula Ramos is the Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer for Kimberly-Clark Corporation, where she has global responsibility for the company's enterprise strategy and the transformation initiatives designed to accelerate growth and value creation.

Paula’s ambition is to fuse commercial instinct, pragmatism, technology and market insight to navigate ambiguity, champion consumer experience, and enable sustainable growth. With empathy, collaboration, and a passion for unlocking human potential, she builds inclusive teams that play to win and leave their mark upon the world.

Prior to joining Kimberly-Clark in 2021, Paula was a partner at McKinsey & Company. In her 18 years at McKinsey, she advised some of the world's largest consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, and pharmaceutical companies on finding new sources of growth, transforming business portfolios, driving commercial and culture transformations, and building lasting competitive advantages. She led the firm's global consumer health practice and played pivotal roles in McKinsey's inclusion and diversity programs.

A native Brazilian, Paula holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a Magna Cum Laude high honors degree in Commerce from McGill University. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two daughters.

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