What our adaptive leaders have to say

Many of the leaders whom we were in contact with mentioned a set of common themes and challenges that businesses need to address to drive meaningful progress. The combined content across their vision and experience was so strong that we wanted to pull this summary together to give you a glimpse inside the minds of this incredible group of people.

The key themes that we chose to bucket their feedback into are:

• Put the customer first.
• Have an aligned purpose with strong values.
• Balance the C-suite perspective.
• Pivot from measuring what you can, to measuring what you should.

Put the customer first

The President of Consumer Products at a global media and entertainment organisation said, “A successful brand today needs to do what all successful brands have always done: focus on the consumer.” She then went on to say:

“The consumer purchasing journey and what matters to them has changed over the last few years. A brand must stand for something and be consistent with its messaging, partnerships and activations.”

The simplicity of keeping the consumer at the centre of brands is the foundation of why organisations need to become adaptive. The flexibility that is provided by enabling your business to better react and service today's increased consumer expectations will limit the chance of your organisation ever falling behind your competitors, and as this leader went on to say, “If a brand does this consistently, it will be profitable.”

This is further supported by Aaron Bradley (VP of Technology & Innovation, Wella Company), who believes that “the biggest influencers for brands are their customers. Customers want brands to show that they understand their needs and know them as an individual.” Aaron goes on to say that this includes not just requirements from brands' products and services, but also meeting the social and ethical requirements of consumers.

This theme of customer centricity is supported by Benjamin Braun (CMO, Samsung), who believes that the acceleration in digitisation at the start of 2020 was a catalyst for the need for better short-term customer personalisation and a real opportunity for brands to respond:

“As marketers, we now have the opportunity to grab the bull by its horns and make a greater impact with our work, driving sales as we boost customer experience.”

Benjamin goes on to say that this comes from a close alignment of the business and the removal of organisational silos.

This breakdown of silos is key in making sure that there is alignment within the business that keeps everyone focussed on helping customers who are themselves adapting to the pace of change. Nicola Mendelsohn, CBE, who previously oversaw Facebook's operations for the entire EMEA region and recently became the global advertising chief for Meta's Global Business Group, believes that there's an evolution that's come from this opportunity to enrich the lives of customers:

The pandemic has shown us just how fast the pace of change can be. The things we're doing not just differently, but better, will stick around – and it's here that I think technology can be a powerful force for good. Because the digital revolution we're seeing right now isn't about shiny new gizmos and tech toys. It's about progress: making things that improve and enhance all our lives. It takes maintaining the flexibility we learned in 2020 and changing our mindsets from caution to ambition. Making sure we're ready to keep up with the pace of change that customers and communities are driving. Understanding where they're heading and what's going to stick around.

Have an aligned purpose with strong values

“Proper leadership is essential to keep people motivated towards a desirable outcome. Just read Working Backwards to fully appreciate how Amazon has become the dominant player globally and is really only just getting going. There are loads of examples of culture that informs success, but it all starts with the leaders and the way they develop the people in a business to own it from the inside out. When this is done with authenticity and trust in the people, it becomes an unbreakable foundation for growth.”

– Craig Smith, Chief Brand Officer & Co-Founder, Decidable Global Ltd, and Former Digital Commerce Director, Ted Baker

There was a strong sense from the leaders here that they felt accountable for defining and aligning the business purpose and values with the rest of the organisation. Craig went on to say that whilst it can be a challenge getting all stakeholders and decision makers aligned on the direction of the organisation and the customer experience it needs to deliver, when done well, it will assist with driving the commercial numbers and customer satisfaction in the right direction.

Samsung's Benjamin Braun believes that to be successful and to genuinely push boundaries, you need this type of culture that is pulling in the same direction and is centred around innovation:

“That's what I enjoy the most but it can take different forms. At Samsung, we have a strong Korean culture – it is fast-paced, and success driven. The whole company empowers and enables staff to do their best work and is constantly looking ahead to the future. It is very inspiring.”

Benjamin has explained that to achieve this, businesses need to break down the silos and encourage a more holistic approach to consumer engagement and business growth. Failing to do this may cause your organisation to fall behind its competitors.

Balance the C-suite perspective

One of the consistent themes through all our interactions with these leaders is the need for ensuring that tomorrow's C-suite has a balanced perspective, – one that embraces the pace of change and ensures that innovation and flexibility is baked into the strategic landscape for the business. This ensures that businesses don't just look at short-term profit, but balance that with longevity and a stronger focus on customer needs.

“We've seen a collapse of the traditional purchase funnel – the customer journey still exists, but it's no longer solely focused on that lower funnel purchase. People can be made aware of a product and purchase in just a matter of seconds. And this presents a real opportunity for brands to be meaningfully present in the spaces their customers are now occupying, which is increasingly digital.”

– Nicola Mendelsohn, CBE, VP GBG, Meta

Pivot from measuring what you can, to measuring what you should

“There has never been more data available to brands and marketing teams about their customers. We're living in the age of data and measurement. But with so much data available, it's also difficult to cut through the noise to get to the insight. That's why you need a team with the right skills and right technology to start looking at where your gaps are and where your future investment should be placed.”

– Paul Robson, President of Adobe International, Adobe

When we asked the VP of Marketing at a large American retailer “Why do you think brands are stuck measuring what they can rather than what they should?” she responded:

“It's much easier to measure what has happened in the past and big data systems have developed impressive precision to effectively translate that data into future models, spitting out forecasts that are well-validated and that can yield consistently ‘green’ scorecards. This feels very reassuring both when creating plans and also when the results come back, validating the strength of the model and accuracy of the forecast. Most large companies and certainly Wall Street reward this accuracy and consistency. It's also easy to see if a model is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in the more black and white sense that data science culture often rewards.”

Revisiting the VP from our large American retailer, she also went on to say:

“It is much harder to model and forecast against new scenarios and contexts that we haven't seen before – and much of what it will take to win big in the future will require conquering these unknowns and navigating constantly evolving consumer and market contexts. Models to do this type of work and planning will not be black and white and will not be perfectly validated. There will be ranges and assumptions to be pressure tested and optimized. These ‘grey’ scenarios can make both data scientists and senior executives uncomfortable as the certainty of outcomes won't be there when some decisions need to be made. Winning in this scenario requires a blend of creativity, strategic thinking, and often times, a ‘gut’ in terms of where culture and people are headed. And most of all, it demands real bravery amongst leaders to take risks, knowing when you know ‘enough’ to go and when further learning is needed to balance risk/reward.”

The role of measurement as a catalyst for change is often not maximised by businesses, and they end up with ambitious transformation visions that deliver undesirable outcomes because it's not possible to measure what really matters and keep all of these initiatives clearly on track. To be truly data driven in your decision making is an advantage that few businesses really use, and those that do reap obvious rewards.

“It's extremely common for brands to say they want to be data driven but the reality is that some continue to base their plans on what they do know and not what they could know. They use data to try to verify after the fact, not before making the decision.”

– Aaron Bradley, VP of Technology & Innovation, Wella Company