“Today’s fast-changing business environment demands a new approach for identifying tomorrow’s winners,” writes Martin Reeves in Fortune’s 11/1/17 article, “In Search of ‘Vital’ Companies.” If you are looking for a model of a big company that retains the dynamism of a start-up, Amazon.com is a good place to start, writes Reeves. Why? In part because CEO Jeff Bezos knows that successful companies must nourish and retain one characteristic above all others: vitality.

In a joint research project to identify the “Future 50” top growth companies, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) examined 2300 public companies to determine which had the market potential, strategy, technology and investment, people, and structure to achieve sustained growth. Perhaps not surprising, top 25 companies in the >$20B market value included Salesforce, Tesla, Facebook, Netflix, Activision, Google, Amazon, and Priceline….all of whom transformed their categories through exceptional customer experience as well as innovative products and services.

As legacy brands and corporations are being increasingly challenged by disruptors from outside their categories, in virtually every sector we are working with CEOs and CMOs to pivot and transform their companies from a product-centric to customer-centric approach. This change represents a challenge on many levels – marketing and sales, operations and organization/culture, technology and infrastructure, and financial. CEOs in many cases are hiring Chief Customer Officers, one of the newest C-suite positions, to work across the enterprise to lead long-term customer experience transformation.

As part of EC’s continuing investment and growing practice in the area of Customer Experience transformation, we recently added Darcy Bevelacqua as a Managing Director leading the Customer Experience, CRM & Analytics practice areas. Darcy is a former Accenture partner and a well-respected expert in all of these functional areas. Darcy has written this month’s headline article titled, “Why Companies Fail At Customer Experience,” and we trust her comments and insights will resonate with our clients and connections. And when you are addressing customer experience transformation challenges, pls. call us to arrange a complimentary consultation.

As always, we welcome your comments and feedback. And we send our best wishes to everyone for a Happy Thanksgiving season!

Best,

Jeff Gundersen, Founder & CEO

Why Companies Fail at Customer Experience – by Darcy Bevelacqua, Managing Director – Executive Connections LLC

Almost every year companies declare that Customer Experience is their top priority, and they want to improve the experience to drive loyalty and better customer life-time value. However, most companies can’t seem to achieve the results in spite of the fact that improving the experience will have a positive impact on the bottom line. According to Bain & Co., “80% of companies say they deliver ‘superior’ customer service; however, only 8% of people think these same companies deliver ‘superior’ customer service.”

McKinsey says “Maximizing satisfaction with customer journeys has the potential not only to increase customer satisfaction by 20% but also to lift revenue by up to 15% while lowering the cost of serving customers by as much as 20%.”

Why do companies fail to achieve these goals when they know there will be significant bottom line impact?

1. Customer Experience is a real-time, omni-channel challenge.  In this new “Customer in Charge” era, with mobile devices as the new “first screen,” customer experience needs to be designed and delivered consistently on an omni-channel basis, wherever and whenever the customer chooses to engage with the brand. However, most companies are still organized in product-centric siloes or divisions, and this results in customers receiving conflicting or inconsistent brand experiences across the enterprise that diminishes brand loyalty and retention.  
2. Customer Experience needs to focus on what the customer wants. Not what the business wants. Too many businesses use customer surveys or call center data or company “myths” to understand their customers. They assume they know their customers and what they want. All the transaction data in the world will only tell you how customers behave –not what they want. In order to understand the customer, you must get out of your office, talk to real customers, use personalized ethnographic research and observation and maintain continuous testing and prototyping. Start looking at the end-to-end customer journey to help you focus on where you need to transform and always ask what would the customer want to do?
3. Competition doesn’t come from where it used to be. Most companies are trying to keep up with their competitors defined as others in their industry. Frankly, disruption most likely won’t come from companies in their industry but from startups they may not know about.  Airbnb wasn’t in the hotel industry, but they have certainly affected the hotel reservation business. Uber wasn’t in the taxi service business, Stitch Fix wasn’t in the retail clothing business, and Netflix wasn’t in the TV business, but they have all disrupted their categories because they were able to think like the customer to understand what the customer might need and then deliver it.
4. Employees must be part of the Customer Experience solution. You can’t expect your employees to deliver great service and value to your customers unless you value them. Too many companies think they can fix customer experience with some “training” or incentives. Frankly, it takes an organizational mindset change and strong leadership to transform your company. Think about your brand promise and how it applies to your employees and then to your customers. If your employees understand and value the brand they will take care of your customers.
5. Execution must be flawless. Customer’s expectations have changed and they expect you to be as good as their latest transaction with Amazon. Improving the customer experience requires you to adjust the way the company works. Therefore, your teams, processes and technologies need to be capable of delivering to meet the client expectations. Organizations must change from the inside out to be more flexible and agile and adjust to the changing economic pressures.
6. Customer Experience is a long-term objective. Companies can’t expect to achieve results in a month or even a quarter. Companies need to think beyond today’s survival. They need to plan for long-term growth and build the foundation for continuous improvement in customer experience over time. When a company is concerned about meeting their quarterly numbers they frequently make short term decisions that may have a positive impact on this month’s numbers but may destroy the brand value and trust in the long run. We are not going back to simpler times where things were slower and less connected. Instead, we are speeding up, things are more connected, and we need to plan how the organization will transform.

As a chief marketer, you need to have a Customer Experience transformation plan, and the right resources to help you implement. Getting started isn’t going to be easy, but the alternatives may mean lagging business results and an invitation for a competitor to disrupt the marketplace.   

Open Career Opportunities:

S/VP, Demand Generation – Boston area

Sr. Dir., Customer Analytics – Boston area

Dir., Marketing Operations – Boston area

What a great kick-off to Advertising Week 2017. According to an AdWeek article by Patrick Coffee, a panel led by Andrew Bailey, CEO N.A. at The Partnership, and including Jeannine Falcone (MD, Accenture Interactive) and Winston Binch (CDO at Deutsch) discussed whether the term “advertising agency” was relevant anymore.

“Let’s stop calling ourselves advertising agencies,” suggested Binch, “since advertising is such a small part of what we do.” Accenture Interactive calls itself an “experience agency,” according to Falcone, “and we don’t go out and pretend we are a ‘brand’ or ‘media’ agency.” Other technology insurgents including Deloitte Digital, KPMG & EY are similarly expanding their global capabilities in the Analytics, Database Mgmt., Customer Experience/Engagement, and CRM areas and they are keen to keep execution of global marketing campaigns in-house rather than turn execution over to “ad agencies.” And we are seeing a plethora of new, specialty agencies including “Content,” “Social,” and “Experiental” shops, among others.

Top global advertisers are increasingly choosing the best specialty shop for specific global marketing and business solutions. McDonald’s recently handed a global “restaurant experience” assignment to a team comprised of Publicis/Sapient and Capgemini, an example of “frenemies” combining to offer unique, specialized and customized marketing and business solutions.

While brand, creative, and media agencies within marketing services holding companies still hold important AOR positions/relationships with global brands/advertisers, the dis-intermediation of customer experience/engagement strategies and technology platforms by technology insurgents appears to be irreversible. In this new, digital- and mobile-first customer-driven marketing environment, global technology firms offer global advertisers the same global scale and execution capabilities as marketing services holding companies.

As always, we value your input and welcome your comments.

Very truly yours,

Jeff Gundersen, CEO

Technology consultancies are winning global customer experience transformation assignments at an incredible rate. Last week, McDonald’s announced it chose a technology team comprised of Publicis. Sapient and Capgemini as global strategic IT provider for restaurant and digital capabilities. The two companies were selected over large consulting and technology players, including Accenture, during the year-long pitch.

It is noteworthy, in this new customer-centric, customer-in-charge, marketing era, transformation on mobile and digital customer experience is creating huge global opportunities for the technology consulting firms including Accenture Digital and Deloitte Digital, among others. Technology consulting firms see leading global customer engagement transformation as a sector they can dominate without entering the creative advertising sector.

Chris McNally Joins Accenture Interactive

EC is please to announce Chris McNally recently joined our client, Accenture Interactive, as Managing Director in a new role to build and expand the automotive sector business across North America.

Chris was most recently Managing Director, Razorfish – NY office with P&L responsibility for a $180M+ business with 300+ people. Chris spent 14+ years at Razorfish and in an earlier role he built the Customer Experience practice at Razorfish before assuming his GM -NY office position.

EC is providing Chris with our unique “Blended Solutions” career transition coaching/consulting support to assist in Chris’ successful transition into this newly-created role at Accenture.

EC initiated this transaction on behalf of Accenture Interactive as part of our ongoing relationship and commitment to bring “game-changing” talent to AI’s attention.

Tom Smith Joins Jackson National Life

EC is pleased to announce Tom Smith recently joined our client, Jackson National Life, in the newly-created role of AVP, Client Experience & Technologies, reporting to Emilio Pardo, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer.

Previously, Tom was VP, Marketing at FreedomPay, and earlier in his career Tom served in roles including VP, Digital Strategy & Technology and VP, Strategic Growth Initiatives at Transamerica. Tom began his career at GE Capital in the credit card business and later in GEFA (GE Financial Assurance) leading marketing in a number of insurance and affinity marketing businesses.

EC is providing Tom with out unique “Blended Solutions” career transition coaching/consulting support to assist Tom in his successful transition into Jackson National.

EC handled this exclusive, retained executive search for Jackson National Life, a division of Prudential plc,  a long-term client of our firm. EC also previously placed Emilio Pardo is his role at Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Jackson National.

Why Are Chief Digital Officers Failing?

The Chief Digital Officer (“CDO”) position is one of the fastest-growing, new C-suite positions, and yet, sadly many newly-appointed CDOs are failing within 2-3 years. With marketing having tipped “irrevocably” onto a mobile- and digital-first axis, this failure rate suggests CDO positions are not being set up for success from the outset.

“There is a big difference between doing digital and becoming digital,” says Alicia Hatch, CMO of Deloitte Digital (#2 largest and fastest-growing digital agency network). While there are many successful examples of CDOs and companies transforming successfully to becoming digital-first businesses, the vast majority of Fortune 1000 companies are still organized in product-siloes, with legacy organizational structures and archaic technology infrastructures that inhibit their ability to pivot toward customer-centricity.

According to Deloitte’s annual CMO study, 87% of business leaders anticipate their businesses being disrupted by digital business models, but only 30% believe they have the leadership or skills to execute on a digital business model.

Mike Sutcliffe, CEO of Accenture Digital says organizational structure need to be addressed, and silos eliminated for true digital transformation to be achieved. In the attached article below, Sutcliffe comments “the way you used to work, your internal organization structures, the silos that existed in your business, are going to have to be rethought. They’re not going to be effective in this new world.”

“A company cannot hire a Chief Digital Officer simply because the Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Technology Officer cannot work effectively together, commented a successful CDO and Head of Customer Experience with experience in consumer banking, telecommunications, and e-commerce.

EC has seen the following scenario too many times:

1. CEO announces an initiative to create a new C-level position of Chief Digital Officer (“CDO”) to lead enterprise-wide transformation of the company’s business processes to enable a pivot to digital-first and customer-centricity (versus product-centricity).

2. The CDO is given an undersized budget commitment including hiring a limited number of internal digital strategy and customer experience positions to consult enterprise-wide. The true size of the investment required to transform the “digital state” of the business is never properly defined.

3. The CEO does not line up key stakeholders on the Executive Leadership Team…..and additional long-range organizational changes are not addressed up-front…which creates an environment of “business as usual” within the product-siloed divisions within the company.

4. The Chief Technology Officer (“CTO”) and organization own 95% of the annual technology budgets and these organizations are typically mired in lengthy development projects on legacy systems (frequently behind schedule and over-budget) which are causing them to lose credibility among C-suite peers.

5. The newly-minted CDO almost immediately get bogged down in organizational politics, budget clashes (since the product-centric SBUs don’t want to pay for corporate organizational transformation), and inevitably are told by the CTO that digital transformation will take 10+ years and $50M+

6. Invariably, almost the entire first 2 years are spent studying the digital and customer-centric transformation problem, and evangelizing these changes among ELT members, with little if any tangible results to show for the CDOs efforts. Quietly, many of the legacy divisional Presidents and other ELT heads are waiting for this CDO initiative to go away.

7. By the end of the third year, the CEO who initially sponsored this CDO position and enterprise-wide digital “Center of Excellence” has lost the faith, the business begins to suffer revenue losses (due to lack of customer-centricity) which creates cost-reduction pressure, and the digital experiment comes to an end with the CDO position being cut in an overhead reduction.

Conclusion
EC believes the time has come for a new, innovative approach to assure higher success rates on CDOs gaining traction and producing measurable results sooner. EC has long provided transition support (consulting/coaching) to CDOs, however, what’s needed goes far beyond a 90 or 180 day transition plan.

Barney Loehnis, CDO at Mercer, commented, “in contemplating future CDO roles, candidates should require a 3 year contract with full P&L authority and complete autonomy to hire internal and external resources as needed. It is also critical going into a CDO role to have clear organizational objectives (e.g., what are the specific and measurable results the organization hopes to achieve) and ensure that the organizational structure and budget are necessary and sufficient to achieve those goals. Not having either clear goals, or the necessary structure and budget, will ultimately lead to disappointment.”

CDOs also need to leverage Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) and newer technology developments and developers that are building dynamic new cloud-born technologies able to operate on top of disparate, legacy IT systems and databases. We are in an era of consumers asking Alexa (Amazon) for whatever we want instantly, whether it is the answer to a question, the weather forecast, or ordering something we want to buy. CDOs need similar AI-inspired new tools to help raise them above legacy system limitations and enable real digital transformation to occur in much shorter time-frames.

EC is building an Advisory Board of progressive CDOs and new-age, cloud-born technology companies (i.e., SiriusIQ – www.SiriusIQ.com)  to create breakthrough solutions to enable successful digital innovation and transformation in much shorter timeframes. With this approach, we plan to make the CDO position a long-lasting and successful C-suite position.

As always, EC welcomes your comments and input.

Best,

Jeff Gundersen, CEO

Executive Connections LLC

Accenture Digital CEO – ‘Fix the back-end, be open and eradicate your silos’

Many would be wary of listening to what a consultancy firm with a long history of working in traditional IT had to say about what it takes to be a true digital company. And to be honest, I wouldn’t blame those people – the large consulting firms have somewhat of a chequered past when it comes to transformation projects.

That being said, Accenture Digital strikes somewhat of a different tone with me. Accenture as a whole has benefitted tremendously from investing in digital capabilities early on, with its Digital group now accounting for as much as 40% of its revenues and driving huge leaps in profits in recent years.

Accenture Digital has focused on building out core competencies in the big technologies you’d associate with ‘digital tech’ – e.g. big data, IoT, artificial intelligence – and has spent time acquiring much smaller start-ups that play an interesting role in digital design to boost its credibility.

And speaking with Accenture Digital CEO Mike Sutcliff recently in London, it’s clear that he gets it. He understands the challenges facing companies in this fast paced world of changing consumer expectations, which are being hindered by ageing legacy systems.

Sutcliff said that he has been working with a bunch of companies that are looking to blend digital tools with their existing processes, to eliminate a certain amount of friction from the customer experience. However, he added that whilst this can improve things for a business, it shouldn’t be the end game. He said:

The much more interesting question is when companies start to rethink how would they achieve their core mission, if they could start from scratch? And how would they take advantage of platforms other people have developed? How would they partner with other members of the ecosystem? What would their different commercial model pricing structure look like? What would the employee experience be? Should they tap into the gig economy?

So there’s a whole different set of questions and experience that go into creating a strategy to achieve your mission that’s enabled by digital, as opposed to creating a digital strategy to just improve the business you already have.

Digital identifies your best customers

Sutcliff said that to rethink what is possible with digital, companies should really try and understand what customers value and what they’re willing to pay for, versus things they value, but don’t actually influence their behaviour. He said that there is a fine line between these two things. The customers most at risk are the customers that are subsidizing another part of the customer base, Sutcliff said. Giving an example of the insurance industry, he added:

In the insurance industry, the way it traditionally priced their policies would be to take a very broad population, collapse that into a pool of people that had similar risk profiles based on characteristics about the person. Are they male or female? How old are they? What city do they live in? What’s their estimated income range? And so they would create pools of people and they would say, “Because you fall in this pool, this is the price of your policy.”

So that worked for a long, long time. And then the digital tools allowed us to understand something completely different about you, which is not “Are you male or female?” Or “How old are you?” Or “What’s your estimated income?” But, more importantly, “How do you actually drive the car?” Okay. And so now I actually understand your behavior as opposed to attributes about you, and when I understand your behavior I can have a much more direct, correlated understanding of the risk.

Now, I can go attract, I can make offers to customers who have the least risky behavior, but are part of that big risk pool. And if I pull them out of that big risk pool by making them a good offer, say, “I’m going to save you 30 percent on your insurance.” Well, in reality, you were overpaying by 50 percent, because you’re the least risky in the pool, and if I can pull you and get you to be my customer, I’ll make more money and my competitor will lose more money, at the same time.

Basically, companies are able to use digital tools to understand their customer base at a much more granular level and then are able to offer them a service that is specific to them.

Needs to be done

Sutcliff said that he often gets asked the question, ‘What’s the difference between computerized and digital?’, which is understandable given that technology has played a central role in doing business over the past few decades.

However, Sutcliff believes that digital isn’t just about more automation through computers. Instead, he said, digital is about using new tools that allow companies to put the customer at the centre of the experience. It’s a very human-centric approach to doing business, which is being driven by mobile, social, data and cloud.

But becoming a digital organisation isn’t easy, as well all know. Sutcliff identifies three key priorities, however, for making this possible. They centre around fixing the back-end systems (typically by wrapping an API architecture around the legacy), being more open, and then also attempting to get rid of existing internal, organisational silos.

Sutcliff said:

You have to. You have to fix. In order to create fantastic experiences in what we would call the front office, you have to fix the mid and the back office. Right. And you have to be willing to even rethink the way you design your product or your service, the way you learn from customer usage of that product or service, and then on a much faster cycle keep iterative design going so that you’re not releasing a new product or service every two years, you’re releasing one every three months.

So, yeah, we think you’ve got to do front, mid and back office and you have to be willing to increase the clock speed or the cycle time inside the business.

In addition to that basic concept, it’s also an open ecosystem approach that leverages other data, other platforms that you don’t pay for and create inside the walls of your business. And so you have to open the architecture of your business to be part of that ecosystem and collaborate actively with others in the supply chain and the value chain so that you’ve got a relevant value proposition to your market.

Now, if you’re doing that, if that’s digital for you then, by definition, the way you used to work, your internal organization structures, the silos that existed in your business, are going to have to be rethought. They’re not going to be effective in this new world. And so there is a massive organizational business model and cultural change that goes on as companies move from thinking of themselves as a black box that serves their customer to thinking of themselves as part of an ecosystem that is collaborating and learning and developing new products and creating new experiences, not 100 percent under their control, but as part of that broader ecosystem.

In what appears to be a “candidate driven” market with analytics, digital and mobile strategy and marketing skills in high demand, we thought our comments on how to close the deal with job candidates would be of interest.

While we do not like to admit to losing candidates to competitive offers, this is sometimes the case and we wanted to share our perspectives on this topic.

The Role – This is the most important aspect of attracting and closing the deal with prospective candidates. It is the recruiter’s role, together with the client, to define the authorities and responsibilities within the scope of the position clearly – as well as defining what is outside the scope of the position. Selling a “bigger or inflated” role to a candidate and then having them realize the reduced scope during the interviewing process is one sure way to lose candidates’ interest. The flip side is also true – especially with new digital strategy, marketing and customer experience roles which are frequently new within an organization. To the extent you can highlight this is a new role and has the commitment of the CEO and Executive Leadership Team, plus there is a budget commitment to invest behind the role, this can make it more desirable for candidates to accept this position.

The Vision – The vision for the position as well as the advancement potential (or head room) for the candidate are critical to attracting and closing the deal. High performing candidates, while interested in the role, want to hear about the career path potential and where their position can lead in the future. The vision for the role needs also needs to be consistent with the company’s overall vision and priorities in terms of capital investment. In some instances, we have heard back from candidates that they heard different visions (or lack of a common vision) from several executives they spoke with and this is a kiss of death in terms of closing the deal. We recruit a lot for CMOs and so we tell our clients it is critical the CEO, CMO and CTO be on the same page and this must come through clearly to candidates.

The Culture –  At the end of the day, candidates leave jobs because of culture and they join because of culture. In addition to the role itself, candidates ask themselves, “Is this a place I want to work at and are these a group of people I can be motivated by, learn from, and enjoy working with? If the culture appears dysfunctional, or people seem to operate in silos, candidates will leave the front door and not look back in the rear view mirror. We coach our clients to sell the positive culture aspects as well as making sure the interview team is on the same page in describing the company’s mission, vision, purpose.

The Close –  First, and foremost, the offer package has to be right and this is a responsibility of the recruiter from the outset to set expectations fairly and to advise the client regarding the candidate’s compensation expectations. Without a compelling and attractive offer, the deal is DOA. However, managing and staying close to the finalist candidate during the “closing period” – typically a 2-3 week process during which background checks and references are being checked plus the final offer package is being approved – is equally important. We had an instance recently with a consulting firm client (they tend to be the worst because they operate by consensus and committees) who “went dark” with the finalist during the closing period while another competitor swooped in and closed the deal. The candidate remarked, “I didn’t hear from them at all during this period and thought they might have lost interest or were questioning my candidacy.” If you are the hiring manager or recruiter, you need to stay close to the candidate with weekly telephone calls, possible offers for other members of the firm to meet for drinks/dinner, or otherwise letting the candidate know you are moving toward a “win-win” close and remaining excited about their joining.

Summary – As always we enjoy hearing your comments and feedback and we look forward to staying connected. Best, Jeff Gundersen – CEO Executive Connections LLC

The recent article reprinted directly below, “Davos 2017: Responsive Leadership in a World of Disruption,” was written by our client Julio Portalatin, CEO of Mercer LLC, as a reflection on his participation at the recent 2017 World Economic Summit in Davos, and it was so inspiring we have chosen to share it with our entire community.

As Julio outlines in his article, there have been significant disruptions in the world; economic, political, social and otherwise.  These disruptions of course create a sense of caution, but also, in some arenas, a sense of optimism, unleashing some otherwise unattainable possibilities for growth.  We have heard this sentiment in our discussions with CEOs, CMOs, and other C-level executives.

What is your company’s plan for responsive leadership? What challenges and opportunities do you face in this world of disruption? Are you driving transformative change or reacting to it?

Another of our clients, Barry Stowe – CEO, Jackson National Life, said recently in an Executive Leadership team meeting, “We can either be at the cause or effect of changes in our industry….and we intend to be the drivers of transformation. Anyone too attached to the past and status quo, or unwilling to drive change, the exits are clearly marked.”

As always, we welcome your comments and input.

Best,

Jeff Gundersen, CEO

Davos 2017: Responsive Leadership in a World of Disruption

Published on January 20, 2017
Julio A. Portalatin
CEO at Mercer LLC

Disruption!

Perhaps it’s an overused word, but it was certainly a global theme of 2016, and the years ahead will be marked by how well we deal with it. Wrapping up my annual visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos on behalf of Mercer and MMC, I’m struck by how appropriate WEF’s emphasis on “Responsive Leadership” is to the disruptive challenges that face our organizations.

If anything, I’d describe this year’s tone at Davos as being of two minds about the days ahead. On one hand, there was a sense of caution due to the uncertainty created by such events as Brexit and the outcome of the US election. On the other, a palpable optimism — that the world will chart a pro-growth agenda while working through the sensitive issues we face, from income inequality to immigration.

Indeed, Davos is a meeting of many minds, but it’s primarily a place to share with and learn from each other. Arriving Monday, I was thrilled to share Mercer’s vision at dinner for about 100 leaders and MMC clients – and consider this: collectively, their employee base numbers in the millions! With robotics and AI on everyone’s mind, I reflected how the leaders of major organizations worry about the intersection of technology with the human element.

Tech amazes! And yes, tech disrupts — but it’s the human factor that energizes our organizations. Are we in touch with it all? As WEF founder Klaus Schwab noted in his recent blog: “Leaders must be much better prepared for the rapid and disruptive changes of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, including those affecting labor markets.”

I’m proud to note that Mercer partners with the Forum on its Future of Jobs research, which tells us how the new technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution – along with demographic changes – will transform labor markets in the coming years. I look around me and realize my own granddaughters, born a few months ago, are very likely to start work in jobs that do not even exist today.

That’s a disruptive notion, for sure. But how to respond? We did on Tuesday, with the first of two Mercer breakfast briefings at Davos. We addressed a key to the future of our organizations – women, whose fortunes we’ve focused on at Davos and globally since we introduced our groundbreaking – no, our ceiling-breaking — “When Women Thrive, Businesses Thrive” research three years ago.

At this year’s Davos panel, Mercer’s Multinational Client Group and When Women Thrive Leader Pat Milligan and I welcomed Chairman of Bank of America, Anne Finucane; President of Personal Care at Unilever, Alan Jope; Executive Board Member and President of Business Network Applications at SAP, Steve Singh; and Harvard Kennedy School professor and author of “What Works,” Iris Bohnet. Highlights of the discussion are posted here.

The panel was tough-minded and insightful. Pat and I agree on the main takeaways:

• Artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing are driving the future of work. Women and minorities will be significantly implicated in these changes.
• New technologies can minimize the impact of unconscious biases far more than employee programs do to change our mindset.
• Data and transparency play a powerful role in changing systems and behaviors to be more inclusive!
• Brands have an impact on society and, therefore, a responsibility to shift the conversation. Let’s move away from gender stereotyping in advertising!
• The difference between cultures is perhaps far greater than the difference between genders! We must celebrate that diversity and its potential for innovation.
• The gender gap deserves unswerving commitment and focus as an aspect of the Big Picture. On Wednesday, we went even bigger, with a breakfast briefing that looked at how leadership can mend another gap that deeply touches all employees: financial security – or, more accurately, financial wellness – for today’s and tomorrow’s workforce.
• Mercer Health and Wealth President Jacques Goulet and I hosted a panel discussion that included Old Mutual Emerging Markets CEO Iain Williamson and Omada CEO Sean Duffy. Highlights of the discussion are posted here.

It’s always ambitious to take on the subject of global retirement systems — they play a crucial social and economic role, yet they’ve been taken for granted. These public and private institutions have long managed and pooled the risks of individuals, guaranteeing adequate retirement outcomes. But, again, disruption: the old system has slowly been supplanted by one where each individual is responsible for their retirement and financial well-being.

At the same time, corporate pensions, public pensions, and individual savings all face underfunding, so any solution requires what I think of as a triple play, a winning trifecta of coordination among corporate, governmental, and individual stakeholders. Motivating these stakeholders to mend the gap is another big call for responsive leadership, and that’s where Mercer’s latest perspectives on public, private , and individual financial wellness will make a difference.

Of course, Davos is always about so much more than our own perspectives. As the week wore on, I had the chance to interact with scores of mind-widening thought leaders, Mercer and MMC clients.

Everything from sessions on the emerging revolution of blockchain technology to discussions with leading journalists convinced me that we are facing 2017 and hurtling forward not only with tremendous motivation to solve for the future, but also with the breadth of insight and innovation it will take to meet — and make the most of –any disruption. What are your thoughts from or about Davos? I’d enjoy keeping the discussion going right here.

Julio Portalatin – CEO, Mercer LLC

Happy New Year! If you are making New Year’s resolutions, a good one would be to prioritize innovation as your #1 mandate in 2017.

Attached is an article (“Innovation As A Mandate”) written by our friend and client Doug Rozen, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer at OMD, inspired by his recent attendance at CES 2017, a place where several innovations in consumer electronics are announced annually.

CES innovation standouts this year included the LG’s “wallpaper” TV, PowerVision’s underwater drone to help recreational fisherman, PicoBrew a home beer brewing system, Motiv smart ring captures fitness and health data – an alternative to FitBit, and Amazon Alexa the must have personal assistant.

We are also seeing several firms including Uber, Google, Tesla continuing to expand testing of driver-less cars….and Toyota unveiled their 2030 “Concept-i” car at CES2017. With so much smart technology being included in the design of “next generation” automobiles, we are perhaps less than a decade away from changes in automobile travel that will dramatically improve safety.

What are your company’s plans for innovation in 2017? Which areas of your business are most vulnerable to new competitors entering with new, disruptive digital and mobile business models?

Also, in terms of your personal brand and career, what new innovations do you need to pursue in order to create the career changes and advancement you are striving for?

As always, we welcome you comments and input.

Best,

Jeff Gundersen, CEO

The Innovation Mandate

By Doug Rozen, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer – OMD

Why the first week of the year at #CES2017 is critical.

We are just 5 days into 2017 as 200,000 ascend on Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. While #CES2017 has become the place for marketers to see the latest and greatest, meet with agencies and partners and just have a good time, the real reason to attend #CES2017 is to get your innovation agenda in place for the new year.

Every marketer should adopt an innovation mandate – be it a manifesto, a framework or a roadmap. Innovation is not an accident. The best innovation is intentional. This is the difference between true innovation and just ideation. Marketing innovation is separate from creative ideation – the two often get confused as the same. Innovation is the delivery of ideas that either causes disruption or accelerates opportunities.

Successful innovation mandates are:

• True to a marketers organization and brand
• Measurable (good or bad)
• Long-term visions with short-to-mid term flexibility
• Supported broadly across the organization (top down, bottom up)
• Safe zones for an organization to push teams
• Not an accident: They carefully designed and structured

If done right, marketing innovation removes friction, tells a story and allows for emotions to overweigh data. Sometimes you need to fire before you can aim. Innovation mandates will allow you to define the disruption opportunities (think Netflix 1.0 – DVD distribution) as well as acceleration opportunities (think Netflix 2.0 – creation).

As you review #CES2017 highlights, don’t forget that innovation is intentional. Reaching consumers in new ways and in new places is seldom achieved on just a leap of faith. Spend time analyzing your innovation agenda and updating it for the new year, new gadgets, new trends and new opportunities.

New Year, New Role! – Lola White, Partner & Personal Brand Strategist – Executive Connections LLC

Are you ready for new career opportunities in 2017? The job market is heating up, there is pent-up demand for talent in several industry sectors, 2017 budgets are approved, and the market for top talent is currently robust.

Finding the right next career step is not just about updating your resume, bio and LinkedIn profile, it’s about creating a strategic plan and framework for achieving your long-term career objectives. This type of planning is essential to creating a strong foundation from which to either launch a new job search or be an “active listener” as search firms call to solicit you for desirable positions.

Fitting this personal planning into your current full-time career role is the other challenge we hear from almost all of our clients. We have worked with numerous C-level and mid-level executives who have commented, “What EC helped me accomplish in 30 days would have taken me 3-4 months to fit into my busy schedule.”

EC is now taking reservations for our February Brand Activate program and we have 3 spots open for new clients. Our personal branding programs include Brand Activate, Brand Positioning, and Brand Forward and you can check out these programs on our website, www.executiveconnectionsllc.com. Pls. e-mail me (lwhite@executiveconnectionsllc.com) for a free 30 minute consultation if you know now is your time to initiate your next career step.

Remember, it’s about figuring out where you are going first, then adjusting your personal brand materials to reflect the direction.

Gratitude – The Importance of Thanksgiving!
“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” — William James

“The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.” — Eric Hoffer

As the Thanksgiving holiday is upon us, we are reminded of the power of saying “thank you” and being grateful for clients, friends, and family that support us throughout the year.

Especially in this challenging post-election environment, it would help for each of us to focus on gratitude for the many blessings and opportunities we have been fortunate to receive.

Human beings long for recognition, and the business benefits of addressing it has long been understood. Yet some leaders and managers tend to undervalue the importance of recognizing employees. In a landmark Towers Perrin study, employees felt that recognition was twice as important to them as their managers had thought it would be. So tell your company bosses, peers, subordinates, and family/friends how much you appreciate their contributions to your business, life and career.

What may be missing in some organizations is not an understanding of the importance of recognition—after all, managers are employees, too. Rather, the missing element may be a sense of gratitude. If you cultivate a keen sense of gratitude for the contribution of all your employees, then recognizing the best ones, as well as the best efforts of all of them, becomes a natural—and sincere—expression.

By cultivating a sense of gratitude for everyone you work with, you will find that employee recognition stops being a chore, and becomes a natural expression of what you already feel. Extend the process of cultivating gratitude to your co-workers and any executives above you, and you will discover qualities you appreciate in even the most challenging of your work relationships.

Of course, gratitude isn’t just about recognizing employees. Rather, it is a mindset that can become part of the fabric of an organization. Leaders with a positive mental attitude can trigger a virtuous cycle in a company, energizing employees and achieving superior performance. A sense of gratitude is a key element of that positive mindset, and it quickly becomes infectious. Fostering a sense of gratitude—for each other, for the opportunity to have challenging and engaging work, for the cup of coffee your co-worker just brought back from Starbucks, can enhance the quality of your own work experience, as well as elevate your workplace.

The notion of expressing gratitude for the blessings in your life is a common and natural theme of the Thanksgiving season. Extend that idea from your personal life to your work life and you will find you have created even more blessings for yourself—and the people you work with—in the process. And certainly, once you develop an appreciation for your blessings at work, you will find even more to be thankful for in the rest of your life.

All of us at Executive Connections LLC wish our clients, friends, and connections a Happy Thanksgiving holiday. We want each of you to know we are grateful for the business, kindness, friendship, and support you provide to us.

Best,

Jeff Gundersen

AdTech Celebrates 20th Anniversary

We attended an historic event last week….AdTech NYC 2016….the 20th anniversary of AdTech!

It was quite a nostalgic conference….many of the early pioneers in AdTech (rebranding now as MADE – Marketing and Advertising, Digitally-Enabled) reminisced that when AdTech started (in 1996) there were no smart phones, no Google, no Facebook, Apple stock was selling at $2.00, and most CEOs felt the internet was a “fad.”

Fast forward 20 years and where has AdTech arrived? In 2016, Google, Facebook and Amazon are 3 of the top 5 market capitalization companies and there are numerous Fortune 100 companies in merger discussions (i.e., AT&T – Time Warner, Verizon – Yahoo) being fueled by the rapid transformation of the media and entertainment sectors into digital, content-on-demand, subscription models delivered through numerous new subscription service platforms (Netflix, YouTube, HBO GO, Apple TV) to mobile devices (tablets, smart phones, PCs) which have become the new “first screen.”

Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Strategist at Publicis Groupe, emphasized 3 major global trends that suggest continued future digital/mobile/social changes are “unstoppable:”

1. Globalization – Despite Brexit, and discussions of building a wall or closing borders, globalization is unstoppable since it is good for the majority of the people in the world. 1B+ people have come out of poverty in both China and India over the past 20 years and these are the 2 fastest-growing global economies (5-7% growth). Politicians can say whatever they want, frankly they don’t “get it.” If you do not compete in a global world, you will not be viable in the future.
2. Demographic Shifts – China is “growing old fast” (avg. age 40+) due to limits of 1 child per family, while India is “young” (avg. age 20) and the largest users of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+ (which are all banned in China). Africa, with a current population of 1B people, will become a population of 4B+ people within the next 10-20 years.
3. Digitization – Digitization is the new religion, it has given people “God-like” power. The iPhone 6S has the same processing power as the space shuttle and it has allowed people globally to connect to everything and everyone. Digitization provides a “David vs. Goliath” slingshot where people globally can being down all governments and all businesses.

According to Tobaccowala, no amount of walls or legislation will stop these 3 big global macro-trends; they are irreversible and that’s the real crisis. Our political leaders don’t talk about the real problems, which is why so many people regardless of political affiliation have become dissatisfied with politicians.

The future global business outlook is bright because of the smart phone and the global connectivity that the Internet of Things (IoT) has provided. We are in the “connectivity era” where to remain relevant companies need to embrace marketing and business transformation. Future successful companies must be customer-obsessed, frictionless, seamless, and highly modular. How do you accomplish this in legacy businesses where you can only change the people or change people’s mindsets – and 75% of the time we change the people? This is the big challenge and opportunity for CEOs.

October EC Communications Briefing – “Drive For Diversity”

Advertising Week just finished in NYC and one of the major topics on the minds of top 100 global advertisers was the need for a “Drive For Diversity” among the advertising agencies serving these same clients. We encourage you to read the article below from Ed Baum, a new Managing Director in our firm, who summarizes the comments from several CMOs regarding the diversity issue.

I was interviewed recently by Ken Kraetzer, Executive Director – Sons of the American Legion Radio and VP at Harrison NY-based CBSI Services, regarding EC’s perspective on how diversity recruitment needs to include veterans of the armed services. In our video interview, which will be posted by Ken shortly on YouTube, we indicated that our firm has a track record of placing senior level marketing and marketing services executives with undergraduate degrees from the U.S. Military Academy, U. S. Naval Academy, U.S. Air Force Academy, Reserve Officers, ROTC graduate officers, NCOs, and other armed services veterans, with 5+ years of military service experience as an officer.

What we have found, over a 20+ year period, is many West Point and Naval Academy graduates develop extraordinary leadership, adaptability, and tenacity skills over the first 5 years after college graduation through their military service as officers in the armed forces. In effect, many are given significantly larger management and leadership roles and responsibilities (in terms of both people leadership and P&L/budgets) than their counterparts on the commercial side during the first 5 years of their careers.

We are not saying or suggesting these distinguishing traits (leadership, adaptability, and tenacity) are found in every military graduate or armed service veteran. However, we have found these distinguishing core competencies in several candidates with this profile type, which have enabled these candidates to transition rapidly and successfully onto the commercial side and move on a fast-track to C-level roles including CEO, CMO, Chief Analytics and Chief Digital Officer roles, among others.

In this rapidly changing marketing era, technical and functional marketing skills are essential. However, the technical and marketing skills are the basic pre-requisite skills for being hired. Especially in large, multi-national companies, the qualities of leadership (establishing a vision/mission, creating strategies/action plans, and building/developing/motivating teams), adaptability (flexibility to adjust to unexpected circumstances/events, operate in ambiguity), and tenacity (the passion to “take the hill” and persevere until the mission is achieved) are what separates extraordinary from ordinary leaders.

So if your “Drive for Diversity” does not currently include hiring veterans with undergraduate degrees from a military academy, plus 5+ years of military service in one of the armed forces, your company is missing one of the best sources of future leaders with fast-track growth potential.

As always, we welcome your comments and questions.

Best,

Jeff Gundersen, CEO

“Drive For Diversity” 

by Ed Baum, Managing Director at Executive Connections LLC

The advertising industry’s diversity gap has taken on bottom-line implications for leading agencies. In the last few months several major brands have started to demand explicit recruiting strategies and other action plans on the part of agencies to address the problem. The implication is clear: If changes aren’t forthcoming, their business will be pulled.

Heavyweight marketers including Verizon, General Mills and HP Inc., formerly a part of Hewlett-Packard, are making diversity hiring at their creative agencies a central issue because they are concerned that the absence of women and minorities across agency roles and leadership positions may be hurting the brands’ efforts to connect with consumers.

“Marketers are expected to have a deep understanding and insight about their markets, about decision makers and about customers,” Diego Scotti, Verizon CMO, said in a letter sent to 11 agencies in mid-September, according to a report in The New York Times. The letter continued, “We are more likely to create solutions that amaze our customers if our work force and suppliers represent the communities we serve.”

Over the summer, General Mills included in its creative agency brief the goal that 50 percent of the creative departments at agencies it would work with be staffed by women and 20 percent by minorities. Speaking at a recent industry gathering hosted by the 4As, Michael Fanuele, the chief creative officer of General Mills, explained his company’s drive for diversity this way: “You don’t need to be a mom to make some Cheerios ads, but if we have more moms on the team making Cheerios ads, maybe we increase the probability we do work that connects with moms in a richer, deeper, more powerful, meaningful way.”

The agencies’ stance on diversity reflects what The Times called “a growing concern among marketers that Madison Avenue’s largely white, male leadership may be hindering their efforts to connect with American consumers.”

As pressure from leadings brands’ grows on agencies’ diversity practices, the sense of urgency on the part of agency business and talent acquisition leaders is also expected to increase. “Nothing will drive intent faster than a client’s dollar,” Nancy Hill, president and chief executive of the 4As, was quoted as saying in The Times story.

Executive Connections can be a talent acquisition resource for marketing services firms who are committed to diversity recruitment.  As evidence of our expertise in this area, we have successfully completed a wide range of  diversity placements including Managing Director positions at the largest global digital agency and consulting company, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer of a global life insurance company, Chief Analytics Officer at a global human resources consulting firm, and SVP/Internet and Mobile Banking at a financial services company.

To discuss how we can help you meet your diversity recruiting goals, contact Jeff Gundersen , CEO/Founder of Executive Connections, at jgundersen@executiveconnectionsllc.com.