THOMASVILLE, GA — There’s an innate entrepreneurialism a person must possess before jumping into a newly defined role. A move like that also requires courage, ambition and, above all, trust. As the first-ever chief innovation officer for Thomasville, GA-based Flowers Foods, Penny Patterson-Smith has it all.
With extensive work in innovation and brand management, Patterson-Smith’s experiences are like the stones that paved the path toward this opportunity. Prior to pioneering innovation as a job title at Flowers, Patterson-Smith was the company’s senior VP of cake brands, following a long career in chocolate innovation at The Hershey Co. and brand work at major CPG companies including Nabisco and Colgate-Palmolive.
With an undergraduate degree in government and economics and an MBA in business and policy studies, Patterson-Smith might not have predicted her trajectory. Then again, her solutions-oriented mindset and aptitude for leaning into the unexpected naturally led her down this road.
“When I started my career journey, I thought it would be a straight line, from A to B,” she recalled. “I quickly realized that there’s so much more to learn. There’s a need for people with specific skills and strength areas, but we also need people who have a general perspective that can guide an organization forward or ‘pinch hit’ in different roles. The reality is that you have to say ‘yes’ to make things happen, and I’m not afraid of a good challenge.”
Along that journey, Patterson-Smith identified certain guiding principles that would weave themselves throughout her branding and innovation experience.