Liz Dee, co-president of an American candy company Wise along with her sister Jessica Dee Sawyer and cousin Sarah, Dee didn’t all the time know she wanted to affix the family business, which was founded by her grandfather Edward Dee in Bloomfield, New Jersey in 1949.
However, Dee continued to “answer the phone”, working on copy for the first Smarties website when she was in middle school, and helping to launch and maintain social media accounts during college and post-graduation. She took up her current management position in 2008.
Smarties, which just celebrated its seventy fifth anniversary, is still based in New Jersey, where Edward Dee emigrated with his family from England the same yr he founded the company. Since its inception, and even during Dee’s tenure as co-president, the marketing landscape has modified significantly.
“It’s an uphill battle to maintain relevance and shelf space,” says Dee. “Even if people love your product and your brand, [you have] maybe a few liners on the shelf, whereas some other companies have, say, 25% shelf space, and that’s a limited resource.”
Halloween is approaching and Smarties attributes greater than 25% of its annual sales to the holiday. This yr, Smarties saw its earliest Halloween demand during Dee’s time at the company, with orders for holiday shipments starting in June.
Smarties runs creative giveaway campaigns, including one for Halloween: Sweet changewhich allows people with allergies or food sensitivities to exchange sweets that are dangerous for them with Smarties.
“You don’t actually have to send us your candy back,” Dee explains. “Someone can just send us this photo and we will send them Smarties. This is a good way for us to emphasize the fact that we are allergen-free [and] be there for people who will receive lots of sweets but may feel a little left out.”
Image Source: Courtesy of Smarties
As co-president of Smarties, Dee led the company with an necessary goal: the company’s commitment to remaining a family business while maintaining its relevance and authenticity in a crowded candy store.
Dee shares with Entrepreneur leadership lessons that help Smarties achieve these goals – including the advice it chooses to disregard.
“No job is too small.”
Fittingly, Dee’s grandfather, Edward Dee, who was just inducted into the Candy Hall of Fame last weekend, gave her some leadership advice that has been very helpful to her during her time at Smarties.
“My grandfather attributed this quote to Thomas Edison, but he said, ‘Most people miss opportunities because they wear overalls and look like work,’” Dee says. “And that really impacts the way we deal with ourselves, which is that no job is too small.”
In Smarties, Dee tries to steer with a certain “anger” and “fierceness”. The production floor is on the other side of her office wall, and she’s no stranger to rolling up her sleeves to get an up-close look at the manufacturing process, she says.
“I can support the team members there and also see what’s going on at the candy production site,” Dee explains. “If people climb higher and higher on ladders, they may simply be moving further and further away from producing products that even allow them to turn on the lights in their offices.”
“You take people with you.”
When it involves ladders, Dee mentions one other leadership tip that she strongly believes in: you do not climb a ladder and take it with you.
“You take people with you,” Dee says. “[I’ve always] we consider it’s so necessary to proceed supporting, empowering and uplifting team members, so we glance for opportunities to do this wherever we will. It definitely shows a sense of connection and gratitude for how and why I’m here – because we support each other and work together to realize common company-wide goals.”
“We will not hide who we are.”
Additionally, early in Dee’s profession, when she took a management position in the candy industry, she received “bad” leadership advice that she didn’t agree with – and selected to not follow.
Dee recalls that the suggestion got here from a 60-year-old man who told her that she and her co-presidents should hide the proven fact that Smarties is a women-owned company. He didn’t think it could be good for the company – a belief that spoke more to his standpoint than any real consumer evaluation on the subject, Dee says.
Image Source: Courtesy of Smarties. Sarah Dee, left; Jessica Dee Sawyer, center; and Liz Dee, right.
“Still, we won’t hide who we are,” says Dee. “It’s really important, especially for women in leadership, to tell our stories [and] not be ashamed or afraid to be authentically yourself. We are a company run by women. We are a company mostly run by women. We also have triumvirate leadership, which is an unusual leadership structure, but it works for us.”
“People love Smarties.”
Now, as Dee looks to the next 75 years of Smarties and beyond, she is excited to proceed the brand’s legacy, rooted in a family history that has already laid the foundation for a successful future.
“People love Smarties,” says Dee. “[They] tell me about it. It brings them joy and they share it, and I need that to proceed. I know we will proceed this by following our path, keeping our family legacy and doing what we do, putting our people first [and] ensuring we proceed to supply the same, consistent, high-quality products that folks know and love us for.”