With over a hundred brands across 30 categories, General Mills is well regarded as a company families can trust, but Brad Hiranaga and his team want to be a global force for good in three ways: by reducing hunger, having a positive climate impact and building community. For Hiranaga, that’s more than a marketing tagline. “What I’m excited about is that I’m seeing more ideas come forward as ‘marketing ideas’ but are actually ‘force-for-good’ ideas,” he says. General Mills products are in roughly 99% of U.S. homes, and its Box Tops for Education program, which started in 1996 and lets families earn cash for their schools by submitting box top coupons from product packaging, is now digitized. The son of teachers, Hiranaga holds the brand’s mission close, especially the focus on community. “I’m very proud about what our brands are trying to do and accomplish that’s broader than just the bottom line,” says Hiranaga, whose team has committed to distributing 30 billion meals to people in need by 2030 and implementing 100% recycled packaging across Nature Valley products by 2025. “It’s to help the communities that we’re in, which is really cool.”—Luz Corona
Brad Hiranaga, Good Health and Well-Being
