Chimene Mayne Ross, President of The Killer Brownie® Company, has dedicated most of her life to the role of a caregiver. She firmly believes that leadership is an extension of this caregiving, with a core responsibility to nurture and protect those entrusted to her care, while fostering their growth and well-being through strategic and positive leadership.

Under Chimene’s leadership, The Killer Brownie® Company is on a mission to become synonymous with brownie excellence, aiming to be acknowledged as the foremost specialists in crafting the world’s most delightful brownie experiences. This vision extends beyond the delicious flavors and textures of their brownies to encompass the quality of experiences within their team, among vendors, and with their community partners.

Chimene’s unique approach to leadership, rooted in her caring nature, has set The Killer Brownie® Company on a path of growth and success, making it a recognized name in the world of exceptional brownie creations.

Guiding Principles

Chimene emphasizes that The Killer Brownie® Company is founded on its mission, vision, and overarching purpose, which is to create an environment where everyone can reach their full potential. This purpose has led to the formulation of their core values: Joy, Love, Tenacity, Creativity, and the most recent addition, Growth. These core values serve as the foundation for their processes and decision-making.

Their commitment to these values is evident in every stage of their operations, starting from the hiring process and continuing through onboarding, ongoing support, capital expenditures, and expansion efforts. Furthermore, they have instituted a recognition program that empowers team members to acknowledge and support each other. This approach underscores the company’s focus on people, their well-being, and the supportive culture that they have cultivated.

Valued Work Traits

Chimene values certain work traits in potential team members at The Killer Brownie® Company. These traits include:

• Curiosity and active listening: The ability to ask questions, seek knowledge, and attentively listen to others.
• Humility: A modest and humble approach to interactions and problem-solving.
• Coachability: Being open to feedback and eager to learn and grow.
• Being “hungry” for information: A strong desire to acquire knowledge and information.
• Teamwork: The ability to collaborate effectively within a team.
• Approachability and availability: Being accessible and open for communication and collaboration.
• Alignment with the company’s CORE values: Demonstrating and embodying the organization’s core values and fostering them within the team.

Chimene places a higher emphasis on these work traits rather than specific skills, as she believes that skills can be trained, while these traits are foundational for a successful team member at the company.

Fostering Success Through Vision and Values

To achieve its vision in a competitive market, The Killer Brownie® Company focuses on its mission and vision, emphasizing the best possible experience for all stakeholders, including employees, vendor partners, wholesale customers, and consumers. Some of the strategies and steps implemented to achieve this vision include:

• Mission and Vision Alignment: Ensuring that the company’s actions align with its vision and mission to be recognized as “The Brownie Specialists” and craft the world’s most delightful brownie experiences.
• Ingredient Selection: Carefully choosing ingredients to enhance the consumer experience when eating the brownies. This reflects a commitment to quality.
• Packaging Consideration: Paying attention to packaging design, sizes, and label texture to ensure that it enhances the consumer’s experience and aligns with market trends.
• Supporting Wholesale Customers: Providing support to wholesale customers to ensure their success, which includes assisting with merchandising and marketing strategies.
• Customer Service: Maintaining a highly responsive customer service team to address any inquiries or concerns promptly.
• Reliability: Achieving consistently high fill rates (over 98%) to establish the company as a reliable provider for wholesale customers.

By focusing on these strategies and principles, The Killer Brownie® Company aims to create a distinct and delightful brownie experience that sets it apart in the competitive market, fostering success for both the company and its partners.

Creating Culinary Perfection

The Killer Brownie® Company’s newest flavor, Mexican Hot Chocolate, has been a labor of love and dedication. The company invested several years in the project, with periods of testing and refinement. Rather than rushing to launch just another flavor, the team’s goal was to create a perfect brownie that lived up to their high standards.

The result is a decadent layered brownie that captures the essence of Mexican Hot Chocolate. It features hints of cayenne, guajillo chili, and cinnamon, expertly blended in layers of rich chocolate brownie. The star of the show is a central layer of creamy caramel, sprinkled with milk chocolate chips. This careful craftsmanship and attention to detail have resulted in a flavor profile that the team is proud to stand behind. The Mexican Hot Chocolate brownie is a testament to the company’s commitment to delivering delightful brownie experiences to its consumers.

Caring for Community and Company

Chimene’s belief in caring for the community aligns with her commitment to first care for her own company and team. The company actively participates in initiatives to give back to the community. This includes partnering with local high schools and workforce development programs to inspire students about future opportunities in manufacturing. Collaborating with the Manufacturing Extension Partner program in Ohio further demonstrates the company’s dedication to job force development and strategic growth. Moreover, being a sponsor for the local football team, the Cincinnati Bengals, is another way in which they support and engage with their community. These efforts exemplify The Killer Brownie® Company’s commitment to being an active and responsible corporate citizen.

Preserving Quality and Values Amidst Growth

The Killer Brownie® Company’s dedication to maintaining exceptional quality is unwavering, and they have made choices that prioritize this commitment, even when it meant passing on opportunities that could compromise it. This emphasis on quality extends to their choice of ingredients and reflects their values as a company. As they continue to grow, they recognize the challenge of preserving the “small company” feel, but they invest in training and coaching for their management team. This investment ensures that their managers can continue to lead in a manner that aligns with the company’s values. Collaborating with a local association for Professional Management Training and coaching is one way they actively support their commitment to quality and values in the face of growth.

Humility, Continuous Learning, and Team Motivation

Chimene’s advice to fellow entrepreneurs seeking sustainable growth in their businesses is to remain humble and inquisitive. She encourages them to be avid readers, explore podcasts, and start with a business plan, even if it’s not flawless. The key is to get started. She emphasizes the importance of ensuring that your product fulfills a genuine need or desire in the market, as this will naturally create demand.

What motivates Chimene the most is giving back to her team. Her vision is for The Killer Brownie® Company to endure for generations to come, with the next generation of caretakers continuing to uphold its mission.

Please visit: https://killerbrownie.com/