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The Future Role Of Marketing: People Engagement

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Already we have seen a revolution in the way people lead and think about engagement at work. The importance of the role of human resources has skyrocketed, from the creation of the chief people officer role to the promotion of human resources to the C-suite.

All of this has stemmed from an growing emphasis on people-centered leadership and management. But it’s not just the human resources department that needs to focus on people.

I spoke with Matt Preschern, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of HCL Technologies, about the increasing focus on people in the marketing and communications industries. From an increased emphasis on working well with teams across disciplines, to a greater value of soft skills during the interview process, it seems like all departments in business would do well to put people (and people skills) center stage.

Laura Garnett: As a marketing leader, how much of your time is spent focusing on the people side of the business?

Matt Preschern: A tremendous amount of time is spent on the people side. Whether you are in marketing or business in general, the only way to be successful in today’s fast-moving world is to have a highly engaged, motivated, and inspired team. The only way you get there is by being accessible and working day in and day out with your specific teams.”

Garnett: How does that translate into initiatives or projects?

Preschern: We are a global organization that is on a significant growth trajectory. Our brand team is physically located in New Delhi, but our biggest markets are in North American and Europe.

On a project basis, we need cross-field and cross-functional teams that can develop the brand strategy in New Delhi, as well as focus on in-market execution and appropriate alignment to sales, HR and other functions in the target cities.

Or, if you think of campaign execution, the collateral and sequence of inbound tactics will be developed with our centralized teams, often in India. But in-market execution will be specifically targeted in North America or Europe, in a specific city. You will need a team of people that is comprised of specific subject matter experts that work on the strategy side in our centralized function and then in our execution side. Both examples show that you have to be highly collaborative, work across geographic boundaries, and understand and work through cultural differences and time zones. It’s very important to create a team structure and engagement model that takes all of that into consideration and is flexible and results-orientated enough to achieve the over-all objectives and return on investments.

Garnett: How do you see your role with people different from the head of HR?

Preschern: As a leader today, it is my role to inspire the marketing function, to create an environment that is collaborative, and to make sure people are results-orientated. I have to ensure we are challenging ourselves as a marketing function to be on the bleeding edge of marketing communications and to do things that are different in today’s marketing and communications environment.

There’s a huge emphasis on collaboration: we have to be able to work with our peers in sales, IT, HR and in the CFO office, let alone being fully aligned with the CEO.

When it comes to the difference between CMO and CHRO, as a CHRO you are responsible for all the people policies of the entire organization, which includes all the aspects from on-boarding to skill development across all the functions. The CHRO has to set the policies and help create an environment to build a high performance culture.

Garnett: What are the qualities of a superstar marketing hire?

Preschern: I always start by looking at the softer characteristics: curiosity, drive, the ability to handle and manage ambiguity, the ability to operate in a culturally diverse environment, the ability to overcome failure and to be persistent, and to have a keen desire to constantly be better. And very importantly: be able to have fun while you’re working and achieving your objectives.

In the marketing and communications discipline, we are increasingly seeing this model that requires the traditional ability to be creative, but also being able to keep up with the evolution of new kinds of marketing. So, can you be analytical? Do you understand the digital space? Are you skilled to think about engagement with customers both physically and through events and on social media? So you still need to build out your functional expertise, but the superstars have the soft, personal characteristics that match the functional ability.

How you approach your job, your intellectual curiosity, your desire to learn, your ability to overcome obstacles, your ability and interest to work in culturally diverse environments—those are personal characteristics that I think we will increasingly see to be the true differentiators. As we continue to be connected as a community across the globe, if you want to be a superstar and have a career that’s highly progressive, you have to possess these characteristics.

Garnett: How do you see your role as a CMO shifting over the next five years? What are the key themes of change?

Preschern: I think the CMO of today and tomorrow will increasingly be challenged to understand and manage all customer touch points. We will increasingly be asked to be the role of chief commercial officer: to be the custodian of our customers and to ensure that we are the voice of the customer inside the company at all times.

I also think you will see that we will be highly multi-disciplinary, creative and analytical. We will have to operate at an unprecedented speed, which means we are ready to fail fast, readjust, try again and do that in constant motion. This is what you have to embrace to be a successful CMO.