In our Generation W Profiles series, we highlight influential women
Sharry Cramond is the executive vice president of marketing and communication for Southeastern Grocers. Born in the United Kingdom, Cramond has headed marketing for numerous brands around the world, including Kraft foods, Tesco PLC (U.K.) and Coles Supermarkets (Australia). She now lives in Jacksonville, where Southeastern Grocers is based.
Cramond said she marches to the beat of her own drum and believes her childhood experiences of being different helped her become the woman she is today.
“ You know what I realized when I was 11? ... If you believe, then anything can be possible," she said. "So what I started doing is reading every motivational book and taking every course I could and listening to tapes all around how you can achieve the impossible and achieve anything in life. And it really helped me to believe that whatever I wanted to achieve was going to be possible.”
She also said that people have to be accountable for their own destiny and that begins with their outlook on life.
“When I look at some of the people who I went to school with, perhaps their biggest ambition in life now is to win the lottery. And I think, 'Gosh you're not going to win the lottery, you’ve got to go win your own lottery,' she said. "There are many other things that I do and I’ve been really passionate about this for a long time but I just truly believe that if you think differently, you can change your life.”
Cramond said it’s all about self-determination, having a plan and following certain guidelines in order to succeed.
“You know I say to people, always go the extra mile; you’ll find it never crowded. And I’ve generally always found that there are very little differences in people but that little difference is attitude and the big difference is whether it's positive or negative," she said. "What are you going to do to make yourself standout from the crowd? You know within your job role, you've got to find something that you can be famous for. Got to have goals. You’ve got to have goals and you’ve got to have them written down and you got to read them everyday.”
Generation W Profiles are a collaboration between WJCT and the Generation W Women’s Leadership Conference.