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well I think for me it always starts
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with actually utilization of new devices
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new technologies new applications myself
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so I'm I've always been somewhat of a
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hands on learner it's ok to start
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reading about the space and following
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what people are saying and listen to
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different points of view but for me it's
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always been something it's complemented
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with going hands-on myself so becoming a
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bit of an early adopter not because I'm
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an innovator in technology necessarily
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but more because I find that if I'm
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using snapchat if I'm using you know
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whatever the latest social platform and
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technology might be of the moment it
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allows me to start to develop a stronger
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point of view of how does out start to
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equate to usage and application within
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my own business contexts in space and
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then what has to start shifting in terms
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of the way we think about things and the
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way we understand behavior how is my own
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behavior shifting because of what I'm
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doing so it could even be little things
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like as e-commerce became more more
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prevalent what were my interesting
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ecommerce sites that I tend to like more
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than others you know why am I
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gravitating to those sites what's
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interesting about them how are they up
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in their game how are they shifting how
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I my set of expectations for physical
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shopping and for any kind of commerce
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experience that I might have so then I
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start to take that that set of knowledge
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and out learning and sort of
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deconstructed and and analyze it myself
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to say okay what about all that that
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just took place can I now use as my sort
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of tool box or the my approach to how I
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start thinking about how this is going
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to have to happen in the organization
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and take sort of the same kind of
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technology problem and challenge of
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introducing new technologies and new
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platforms and then I think to myself
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okay what is it that each individual is
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going to have to start doing in order to
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get more and more comfortable and more
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effective in this space and so it's got
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to move beyond conceptual into the
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hands-on arena of playing with things
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and understanding things and
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personalizing them and putting yourself
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in kind of the user experience to start
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to adjust so in their early days of new
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sites that were coming out their pure
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place they were retailers that had never
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come you never met them before in the
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physical world but you were meeting them
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for the first time in
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the online world it was interesting to
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see how they were behaving differently
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than any commerce that you'd experienced
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before so for example net-a-porter is
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one of my favorite and weaknesses and so
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one of the things I was discovering
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there was the way that they could
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surprise and delight and serve as a
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consumer was completely different than
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what you would expect in the in a more
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physical retail environment the way that
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they could always dish up for you every
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morning in your stream what was new what
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was based on past purchase behavior what
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would be most interesting to you what
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might look great on you constantly
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tempting you and playing with the
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consumer in a just very intimate very
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arranged environment and then on top of
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that the actual physical experience of
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that brand once you actually have the
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arrival of the product at your home the
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unboxing experience with the black box
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that they chose to make one of their
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signature pieces that just made the
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whole experience feel very elevated and
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very exclusive and special at the same
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time it also gave you this great box
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that looks so good that you can start
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boxing up your old clothes in your
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closet and you had the ability to figure
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out how to start replacing them with
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your new net-a-porter addiction but it
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was a brilliant way of basically
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recognizing that their consumer most
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likely lived in pretty small spaces and
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one barrier to actually purchasing more
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would be the fact that you have a pretty
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full closet as it is and they gave it
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you a way of really learning how to you
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know trade out the new foot for the
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older stuff so you know just just
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elements like that that then could could
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be adapted into the way we thought of
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any business challenge that we were
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facing with a client and how the
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insights into how your behavior was
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shifting how they create designed for
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this user experience that was so unique
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and so adaptive to the environment could
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be applied to other businesses that we
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were serving
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the most fundamental thing that I have
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learned through trial and error has been
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that the alignment of agreement and
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definition at the top is so very
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important and what I mean by that is I
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think it's really easy to speak in terms
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of digital transformation even just the
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term of digital and the term of
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transformation by themselves can take on
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lots of different meaning depending upon
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the orientation and past experience so
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the other leaders around the table and
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so I think it's really fundamentally
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important to push for strong definition
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and unified shared meaning in those
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expressions amongst the leaders that are
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there because for example you know we
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talked earlier today about field of
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dreams the field of dreams at westville
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corp is based on if we build it they
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will literally come it's about brick and
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mortar it's about architectures about
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design it's not necessarily about
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experience digital experience that's not
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necessarily where the default thinking
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goes first so huge transformation in the
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minds of many leaders there could mean
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huge billion dollar dollar investments
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in the actual brick and mortar
00:05:17
architecture so I think that's where to
00:05:20
it you could think that people are being
00:05:21
progressive in are in a shared mindset
00:05:23
when in actuality it still means
00:05:25
different things to different people and
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so I think for it to trickle down and
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cascade into an organization in a way
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that is really going to create a
00:05:33
groundswell and galvanize people and be
00:05:35
institutionalized it has to be shared
00:05:37
and understood at the very top and then
00:05:40
the elements of it like how does the
00:05:41
process play out is really important in
00:05:43
terms of pace you know we might all
00:05:45
agree that digital transformation has to
00:05:47
take place but we might have different
00:05:48
timetables what we think is the right
00:05:50
way for that to take place in the
00:05:51
company so some people might come from a
00:05:53
background like I did where it's really
00:05:55
about you have to push and make put
00:05:57
people in their own comfort zone pretty
00:05:59
quickly and there's going to be that
00:06:00
kind of you have to go through the pain
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for a while before you get to the period
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of time where there's sort of
00:06:05
assimilation others might feel like
00:06:07
based on heritage and legacy in history
00:06:10
it needs to be much more sort of
00:06:12
modulated and moderated so those are the
00:06:15
kinds of things I think are really
00:06:16
important to establish
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I think it's one of the harder roles in
00:06:24
the c-suite although obviously they're
00:06:26
all very challenged today I think when
00:06:30
we used to think of a CMO roll it
00:06:31
probably had a little bit more of a
00:06:33
balance focus on comes as well as
00:06:36
marketing so it was sort of like a
00:06:38
communications role that also dealt with
00:06:42
marketing in the company now I think
00:06:44
it's much more about martek Denmark calm
00:06:47
and so this blending and sort of
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bleeding if you will into the cio
00:06:55
digital arena really understanding user
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experience design is fundamental to the
00:07:01
CMO role today and I think that the more
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that the balance of communications and
00:07:06
marketing takes place in the digital
00:07:09
space and leverages technology as its
00:07:13
its kind of core of its architecture
00:07:15
from adtech two platforms and
00:07:19
partnerships and so forth I think more
00:07:22
and more that marketing person needs to
00:07:24
be absolutely fluent at digital and
00:07:29
technology and it's not about just pure
00:07:32
partnership with this chief digital
00:07:33
officer that in the CIO which obviously
00:07:35
have to be your best friends in the
00:07:36
organization now but it definitely is
00:07:39
much more of a fluent language for the
00:07:43
marketing person as well
00:07:48
one of my favorite expressions
00:07:50
professionally is a BL always be
00:07:54
learning and so I think if you come into
00:07:56
the workforce at any generation now and
00:07:59
you're and you really subscribe to the
00:08:01
notion of it's about always be learning
00:08:02
their it fundamentals are really
00:08:05
important it is it's really critical
00:08:07
that there's that sense of fundamentals
00:08:10
are are still present and is about the
00:08:13
connection to those in new innovative
00:08:17
more entrepreneurial ways of thinking
00:08:19
that I think is sort of the sweet spot
00:08:22
and so I think that constantly curious
00:08:24
mind the desire to be on the edge and
00:08:27
like I said to be playing yourself to be
00:08:29
downloading new apps to be when you see
00:08:32
something save it for another time and
00:08:34
go back and really actually play with it
00:08:37
yourself use it yourself I think are
00:08:40
kind of key to really going beyond just
00:08:42
sort of knowledge learning of something
00:08:44
to actually doing and activating around
00:08:46
it and having a more interpretive mind
00:08:49
that allows you to truly create the
00:08:52
right application for something because
00:08:53
not everything is actually going to be
00:08:54
relevant you know there are many things
00:08:57
that are going to be out there that were
00:08:58
going to constantly be hearing about
00:08:59
that may not actually be the things that
00:09:02
are going to move in and evolve your
00:09:04
business and I think at this the sea
00:09:06
level is really important especially as
00:09:07
a CMO to sort of know the difference and
00:09:10
to make in place those bets because
00:09:11
you're bringing your entire team along
00:09:13
on that journey and to its that's one of
00:09:16
the reasons why it's always great to
00:09:17
have those people to that are really on
00:09:19
the edges of constantly also getting a
00:09:22
sense of what is coming down the pike
00:09:23
and sort of really out ahead to start to
00:09:26
get a little bit ahead of the learning
00:09:28
curve
00:09:32
we're talking customer and I think that
00:09:34
some of it is the point of also putting
00:09:36
yourself into the kind of use or
00:09:38
position is to get closer to the
00:09:40
customer self and to realize as as
00:09:41
professional that you are also
00:09:43
oftentimes a customer of either your
00:09:45
products or services or your company and
00:09:48
I think the more you are being able to
00:09:50
personalize that the easier starts to be
00:09:52
to understand the customer but it is
00:09:54
very interesting to take companies on
00:09:56
that kind of customer centric view
00:09:57
especially companies who have had a
00:09:59
legacy of being much more business to
00:10:01
business oriented and so really helping
00:10:04
them understand the set of questions
00:10:06
this the point of view shifts the
00:10:09
mindset shifts that have to take place
00:10:10
to start to get so empathetic and so
00:10:13
maniacally focused on our customer
00:10:15
behavior and what they're doing and
00:10:17
making a true day-to-day study of
00:10:18
understanding that that also is a point
00:10:21
in time like that customer now is like
00:10:23
Moore's law in technology is also
00:10:25
changing at this pace in this rate that
00:10:28
is we've never really seen before
00:10:29
because it's now customer driving the
00:10:33
the shifts that we're seeing because of
00:10:34
the technology in their hands and that's
00:10:36
why I think the mobile piece that we
00:10:37
hear mobile centricity is so also
00:10:39
fundamental and core to this because
00:10:41
it's been the mobile device that I think
00:10:43
is really created that rapid pace of
00:10:44
change and has been the adoption has
00:10:47
been the biggest tool that has shifted
00:10:49
how we orient ourselves in our lives and
00:10:51
it I like to think of it as that remote
00:10:53
control of our life it is a true
00:10:55
extension of our being and I think every
00:10:59
company every position in the company
00:11:01
has to make it sort of both art and
00:11:04
science and really starting to respect
00:11:06
and understand what that means on a
00:11:09
frequent regular basis the last thing
00:11:12
I'll say on that front is many companies
00:11:14
I've worked with in my time have always
00:11:15
said well we're customer centric but
00:11:18
then they say and get our customer to
00:11:19
love and appreciate us more and I always
00:11:22
that is such a great telling statement
00:11:24
because in the nature of the way that is
00:11:27
phrase there's nothing customer centric
00:11:28
about it being customer centric is about
00:11:31
making somebody feel like you care about
00:11:33
them that you are doing what you're
00:11:36
doing because of them and the
00:11:38
relationship they have to you so I think
00:11:41
that's the other thing that is just like
00:11:43
you know even in language you can hear
00:11:45
the fundamental shift is still has to
00:11:47
take place with many companies that it's
00:11:48
not about you anymore it is about the
00:11:50
person on that other seat and then
00:11:52
personally other side of the equation
00:12:10
you
