--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: The New Rules of Culture: Empathy, Identity, and Responsible Progress image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6539b5e432c043ab/6a4b523278ebb77bad709a59/730B079F7A97463DBFB982EDE4EBE434.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9%2Coffset-x0.00%2Coffset-y0.00 --- # The New Rules of Culture: Empathy, Identity, and Responsible Progress  By Seth Kaufman, Chief Commercial Officer, PMI U.S. When I took this job several months ago, I didn’t expect it to change the way I think about culture. I’ve spent my whole career in consumer businesses—from Moët Hennessy to PepsiCo—but my role at PMI U.S. has pushed me to confront complexity in a new way; to listen harder, pay closer attention, and stay honest about how fast expectations are shifting. For me, understanding what’s going on still starts with empathy and a dose of humility. It isn’t about what shows up in decks, but what you learn by watching how people go about their daily lives. Culture used to move in broad strokes. Today, it moves person-to-person. Individuals build their own identities, shape their own circles, and create microcultures around what they care about. People aren’t waiting for brands to tell them what matters; they’re deciding which brands, if any, get invited into their lives. That’s a fundamental shift, and one too many brands still underestimate. Too often, brands act as cultural reflectors, echoing what they see rather than serving as catalysts that enrich and define our times by understanding what drives us. The pace of change is faster than I’ve ever seen—fluid, fragmented, constantly reorganizing around the people shaping it. Staying relevant doesn’t come from chasing trends. It comes from getting close enough to understand why things are shifting and what those shifts mean for the choices people make. ### Curiosity Over Certainty When you’re genuinely curious, you pick up on the subtle signals—the behavioral shifts, the identity cues, the cultural undercurrents—before they become headlines. Curiosity keeps you listening and forces you to ask better questions and stay open to the possibility that what you believed last year, or even last quarter, might no longer apply. But curiosity only works when it’s paired with humility. Humility means being willing to relearn what you thought you knew and to acknowledge when something that once worked no longer does. That combination—curiosity plus humility—is what pushes us to keep improving the alternatives we offer. Change only becomes possible when better options exist and when companies stay committed to making those options better, and to doing so responsibly. ### A Transformation Unlike Anything I’ve Seen I’ve held several exciting and transformative roles throughout my career, but in my current role as Chief Commercial Officer at PMI U.S., I wake up every day feeling inspired. I’ve been part of big shifts in the past, but I’ve never seen a business transformation of this size, this pace—or this level of success. This isn’t incremental change. It’s foundational. We’re helping millions of adults move away from the most harmful form of nicotine consumption—combustible cigarettes—to smoke-free alternatives with demonstrable potential for harm-reduction, such as nicotine pouches and heated tobacco. These products are not risk-free and provide nicotine which is addictive, but offer a better alternative for adults who would otherwise smoke. These smoke-free products make up 41% of Philip Morris International’s global net revenue (as of September 2025), and more than 40 million adults around the world use them. Those numbers matter because they show behavior changing at scale—something many people once believed was impossible in this category. Progress like this doesn’t come from messaging alone. It comes from rethinking a business from the ground up and investing in the right science, the right technology, and the right people. And it requires earning trust the slow way—through actions. Trust isn’t given in this category. It’s earned through transparency, responsible business practices, and visible investment in communities and infrastructure, all long-term commitments that extend far beyond any single quarter. That’s where Invested in America reveals itself as more than a platform for us; it’s an operating principle rooted in listening to adult consumers and responding to their needs. Legal-age smokers have been clear in what they’re looking for: better alternatives to combustible cigarettes. That insight guides how and where we invest, from the manufacturing sites we’ve opened and expanded across the country to the infrastructure we continue to build, creating thousands of American jobs along the way. Trust in our industry will never be earned through promises. It requires incontrovertible proof: rigorous science, transparent engagement, and meaningful investment in communities for the long term. ### The Work That Matters Most I’ve been lucky to be part of incredible companies, but this is the first time the work is so directly shaped by the real needs and choices of adult consumers. There are 46 million legal-age nicotine users in the U.S. today, and roughly 30 million still smoke cigarettes. That’s a public health reality we are determined to change—not by telling people what to do, but by ensuring that better, science-based alternatives exist for those who want them. What makes this job meaningful isn’t the scale of the business. It’s the scale of the impact when we get it right. Every adult who switches away from cigarettes has their own story—their own identity, rituals, and reasons for seeking something different. Understanding that human impulse is what keeps our work grounded.  ### ### Moving at the Speed of Culture Culture will keep moving quickly, and microcultures will keep multiplying. Expectations will continue to rise. And skepticism, especially in a category like ours, will remain robust. But I believe we can earn trust if we stay curious, operate with humility, innovate responsibly, and let our actions speak louder than anything we say. That’s how you stay ahead of culture. That’s how you meet people where they are. And that’s how you build change that endures. [](https://www.pmi.com/us/corporate-citizenship-and-news) [Learn More](https://www.pmi.com/us/corporate-citizenship-and-news) The New Rules of Culture: Empathy, Identity, and Responsible Progress ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/philip-morris-international-us/the-new-rules-of-culture-empathy-identity-and-responsible-progress/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/philip-morris-international-us/the-new-rules-of-culture-empathy-identity-and-responsible-progress/"},"headline":"The New Rules of Culture: Empathy, Identity, and Responsible Progress","datePublished":"2026-06-18T14:27:53.114Z","dateModified":"2026-06-10T21:43:25.090Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/branded-content/philip-morris-international-us/the-new-rules-of-culture-empathy-identity-and-responsible-progress/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/philip-morris-international-us/the-new-rules-of-culture-empathy-identity-and-responsible-progress/","name":"The New Rules of Culture: Empathy, Identity, and Responsible Progress"}}]}] ```