Most of us when working globally, already have pre-determined ideas about our colleagues in different countries. These ideas are borne out of experience, hearsay and even from what we’ve read or studied. We start engagement with new colleagues based upon our views of the past instead of looking or listening to the individual before us.
Professor Shell says that stereotypes get in the way, “They make you think you know more than you really do. A generalization about all Russians or all Nigerians doesn’t take into account that cultural differences are more pronounced, for example, between urban and rural negotiators no matter the country.”

He believes that everyone has a personal style and approach and suggests that if you really want to be successful when working abroad, your focus should start with understanding exactly who the person is; what they want from you or your organization and further, understanding how they are likely to try to get what they want.
It’s easy to miss what’s truly going on in an engagement when you are busy trying to understand non-verbal signals or trying to remember that your Japanese counterpart is likely to want to avoid conflict – a stereotypical attribute often assigned to the Japanese.
Good advice is to take into account what you know and understand about the culture, but realize that it doesn’t necessarily apply to the individual you are working with because their personality might not match the stereotype.
In other words, it’s dangerous to assume anything.
Go back to basics and start with first principles.
• Make sure to spend some time getting to know each other, observing the other person’s style. We typically have these ‘flying visits’ that do not lend themselves to long-term successful engagements. Make time.
• Avoid starting any engagement with ‘the bone of contention’. Leave that until you feel comfortable that your counterpart knows and understands you as a person first.
• Start by discussing areas where you could both benefit. Whether you are from Abu Dhabi, the U.S., or South America, it is much easier to have a discussion when you start with the wider picture — areas of commonality.

We generally all default to using email or telephoning or in some cases Skyping or video conferencing. However, the first meeting for almost all types of negotiations has to be in person if you want to have longer-term success.
Email in particular, can lead to many problems. When you are communicating by email across cultures in a language that is not your first, it is complicated. It is easy to misinterpret someone in an email, and it can cause a lot of confusion and irritation. The more international your business becomes, the harder it can be to communicate. You have to start building trust, and it’s difficult to do that electronically.
For more information contact Melvin Day at mday@marketingmoves.com

Good customer databases, highly targeted and persuasive communications, consistently high levels of personalised services and a range of products that deliver against customer requirements are emerging from what has been overall financial instability and fragility underpinned by systemic and wide spread governance issues. This is forcing better customer centric practices that benefit the public at large.

Financial Services brands traditionally marketed specific products and services to their customer base, but over time have realised that customers in general are not proactively looking to switch banking providers unless there is either a problem or if a product has reached maturity. This traditional ‘marketing push’ approach has now shifted to a focus on customer needs and to improving the customer experience in an effort to sustain competitive advantage.

This new and intense focus on customers can bring about its own risks. For example, moving large quantities of customer data to a Cloud solution raises questions about security and confidentiality, which in turn could result in tarnishing the credibility and trust that a brand holds.

Banks have traditionally controlled IT in-house, keeping data behind firewalls. They generally operate sophisticated data centre facilities, and connect to inter-banking systems such as Swift, the payment-messaging platform, cash machine networks and BACS (banker’s automated clearing system). But financial services firms could soon make more use of public cloud platforms with shared infrastructure such as Microsoft Azure, Google App Engine and Amazon Web Services.
Chris Swan, CTO of security at UBS, says financial services companies are already using public cloud for non-core activities but a greater stumbling block is the regulations preventing cloud adoption. “Financial services are heavily regulated. Although the main concern is security, in practice some of the jurisdictional and regulatory issues are more of a practical barrier.”
Luke Scanlon, a technology law expert from the firm ‘Out-Law’, said that UK investment firms need to ensure that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has ‘effective access’ to the ‘business premises’ of cloud providers in cases where the firms intend to store data relating to ‘critical or important operational functions or of any investment services or activities’ in the cloud.

How does this impact today’s Financial Services Marketer?

Melvin Day, Director at Marketingmoves said, ‘The Financial Sector requires outstanding marketers who have industry knowledge, product marketing and management skills,” When we place marketers in Financial Services we look for a very specific set of capabilities. Inherently, the candidates must proactively search for and be able to implement solutions which will help their organization develop a better and more sustainable customer focus.” He continued, “Knowing how to work within industry regulations and to work alongside the CIO or the CTO to use a Cloud solution is the sort of skill and knowledge base that we expect from our senior marketers. Marketing in this sector is unique, and opportunities and risks, such as holding customer data in the Cloud require marketers who understand the technology that can ultimately be used to create long-term shareholder value”

To recruit marketing teams to work in your Financial Services organisation contact Melvin Day on +441932 253352 or mday@marketingmoves.com.

The difficulty arrives in advising clients how to source their marketing talent. The debate rages on: should they recruit ‘globally’ or ‘locally’?

First, there’s no such thing as a ‘global manager’. There simply is no universal approach to management. It’s only the inexperienced that believe that it’s appropriate to transfer best-practice ‘management’ from their home country to elsewhere. Of course, some people can adopt culturally appropriate behaviours and translate their managerial or technical skills as required, but they are few and far between.

Secondly, recruiting anywhere but in-country for a post, according to a report published by the US-based consulting firm, ORC Worldwide cites the following reasons for assignment failures:

1. The inability to adjust to the foreign culture
2. Security concerns
3. Career Concerns – although the role may have been sold as a pathway to future promotion, being away from ‘headquarters’ causes insecurity

One common flaw with recruiting internationally is that we forget that our approach must be local, targeted, and precise. For instance, if we are to recruit a team in China, you might think, “Ok, how do I find a candidate in China?” When we recruit locally, we ask much better questions, for example, “I wonder if Professor Heng Yue at Nanjing University would recommend any of his most outstanding Computer Science grads?” Having knowledge of the real local market equates to success.

At Marketingmoves we have developed in-country networks that take into account important local information about candidates. For example, we look at the networking dynamics of the Universities that our candidates attend and our continued conversations with candidates’ means that we have developed advocates in the communities in which we need to recruit. We are always looking to develop the next generation of talent for you locally, where you can be assured of success.

Contact Melvin Day at mday@marketingmoves.com or on +441932 253352.

In a recent and very compelling Web conference IDC has startled the marketing community by providing a top ten list of predictions for the year ahead:
1. The C-suite (CEO, CFO, and COO) will demand that the CMO produce both a strategy and a plan for how market-driven data will significantly contribute to corporate objectives. 


2. The CMO and the CIO will begin the year as functional peers and end the year as either friends or frenemies, and per the CEO, the CIO will become more actively involved with the CMO in all marketing automation decisions that have cross-functional implications. 


3. The automation outlay could approach 10% of marketing’s discretionary budget in 2013, with two-thirds of the total outlay coming from marketing and one-third coming from IT; for “best practice” organizations, this will shift to 50:50 by 2014. 


4. Even with their new partnership with the CIO, many CMOs will find that their positions are in jeopardy as they failed to produce a robust data analytics function — or even a game plan to get there. 


5. Starting in 2013, after the CMO realizes that he/she does not have the skill sets in place for data analytics proficiency, 50% of new marketing hires will have technical backgrounds. 


6. Eight out of ten companies will report that most social media initiative growth is taking place outside of marketing. 


7. By the end of 2013, 5% of CMOs will shift to a “mobile first” strategy. 


8. Content isn’t king — it’s a wild beast; In 2013, CMOs will be pragmatic, shifting focus less on big platform projects and more on linking access to audience needs. 


9. The demand for greater insight into the revenue impact of marketing and sales will require that older CRM systems be replaced, creating infrastructure disruption. 


10. High-tech pipeline conversion metrics will continue to improve; expect a 20% improvement in target-to-deal ratios and a 10% reduction in time to create a customer with both due to better automation and analytics-driven process improvement. 



If IDC’s predictions come to pass — and it seems clear most of them are already in process — the result will be increased demand for marketing staff with technical backgrounds strong on data and analytics. It will also mean an opportunity for unprecedented accountability for marketing, which would, no doubt, significantly increase marketing’s importance within organisations.

If you are a candidate that knows how to work with data to deliver the competitive edge for your organisation or if you are a client looking for senior marketing talent that can work with CIOs to get the best out of data, contact Melvin Day: mday @marketingmoves.com or +441932 253352.

The on-line survey of 730 executives was supplemented by 800 in-depth interviews with senior executives and experts and triaged with data from Ernst & Young’s 2012 Globalization Index, which measures the 60 largest countries/territories by GDP according to their degree of globalisation.

But behind the ‘It’s time to make some big bets’ conversation are some fundamentals that marketing folk have been talking about for years. All along, most marketers will tell you about the imperative to create customised strategies for different sectors, areas, regions and countries – but most importantly, to keep a clear focus on the customer as an individual, because in the end, it’s an individual that will make decisions and take action.

In new and volatile marketplaces, organisations need to be highly focused in their choice of markets and investments, that’s simply good business. Succeeding in these sorts of marketplaces without a doubt, requires complete immersion in them. Offers must be tailored to meet the exacting needs of local customers, close relationships must be formed with local officials and communities.

I am reminded of some work I completed on behalf of a client in Africa where a world famous organisation with plenty of money to spare, was desperately but for all the right reasons, trying to get information to local communities. Sitting in London they prepared expensive handbooks; dazzling DVD’s and Video recordings and high quality printed material to get their key messages across. Unfortunately, they failed to understand that many of the materials weren’t reaching their destination and those that were, were more often than not being held for ‘ransom’ or for an under the table payment prior to release. Had the Londoners spent time in the area, they would have also noted that it was the community shop-keeper who wielded all the power and held all of the community knowledge. At first glnce, not the most likely target customer.

Empowering the local shop-keeper in the example above or local managers to receive and act on information can open the doors to local innovation. The power of business intelligence, analytics, mobility solutions and social networking in new markets, allows businesses to access the wealth of data to create future strategies and growth opportunities.

Technological advances remain the top driver of globalisation, followed by a growing middle class in rapid growth markets. Flexible organisations that are well-positioned to thrive are staffed by people who don’t simply play lip service to understanding a culture and a country, region or area. They can demonstrate true empathy and knowledge when it comes to understanding their chosen markets.

Marketingmoves has a number of candidates from Marketing Executives to Marketing Directors, SVPs and CMOs whose lifetime work has been the deep and complete understanding of global markets.

Contact Melvin Day @ mday@marketingmoves.com or on +441932 253 352

But dig a bit deeper and ask yourself, “Can I really identify what motivates me?”

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review by Heidi Grant Halvorson and E. Tory Higgins revealed that most of us have a dominant motivational focus which affects what we pay attention to, what we value and how we feel when we succeed or fail. They argue that motivational focus affects how we approach life’s challenges and demands and they have identified two types of motivational focus: Promotion- focused people and Prevention-focused people.

Which are you?

Prevention-focused people work slowly and deliberately and see their goals as responsibilities. They concentrate on staying safe. To succeed, they work slowly and meticulously and they tend to be very accurate. They are usually excellent analytical and problem solving people, but they feel very anxious and worried when things go wrong. Prevention focused people tend to take up what organisational psychologists call, ‘conventional and realistic’ work – occupations that require knowledge of rules and regulations and a propensity for thoroughness. In other words, jobs in which attention to detail is what really pays off.

Promotion focused people are comfortable taking chances. They like to work speedily, seeking positive feedback and planning for only the best- case scenarios. They are more prone to error, dreaming and thinking big . They consider lots of alternatives and are great brainstormers. Promotion-focused people see their goals as creating a path to gain or advancement and they concentrate on the rewards that will accrue when they achieve them. They are less likely to think things through though. Promotion focused people tend to be most effective in dynamic industries where it’s important to respond rapidly and creatively.

Whatever our motivational focus, once you’ve identified your own, as a manager, it’s important to understand what motivates your colleagues and team members, if you’d like to get the best out them, it’s important to avoid incentives that aren’t aligned with someone’s motivational focus because they won’t be valued. In fact, they’ll be meaningless and in some instances, will be de-motivating. You may think it’s important to create new opportunities for advancement, but other members of your team may think the emphasis should be on protecting relationships with existing clients. Both viewpoints are right because every organisation needs promotion-focused and prevention-focused people.

The key for a successful individual, team and organisation is first, to identify your own motivational type and then to work with others to understand and appreciate what motives them.

If you’re a candidate looking for a new role or a client looking to fill a marketing role with the right candidate, contact Melvin Day: mday@marketingmoves.com or on +441932 253352

Melvin Day, marketingmoves Director (mday@marketingmoves.com) said, “ What was really interesting was how incredibly bouyant the global market is.” He continued, ” The need for marketing talent is more important than ever. For example, if you look at the range of hand sets that were displayed at the Congress, many look the same and most have similar features and benefits. What differentiates them is their brand and to be a brand of choice requires building credibility and preference in the minds of potential purchasers. At marketingmoves we offer clients a range of marketing candidates who can do just that. Our services span all the way from our marketingmovessearch division which provides SVPs,CMOs and Directors of Marketing through to our Fast Track programme which mentors graduates and those returning to work plus everything else in-between including permanent, interim,freelance and managed services.”

The team met with over 100 companies and their representatives to discuss the wide range of technology marketing disciplines that we cover. Globally, marketingmoves sources and provides marketers for roles in product management, product marketing, channel marketing, corporate communications; PR/AR;campaign management and strategic marketing plus a wide variety of other marketing disciplines as well. And of course, only in the Technology sector.

The marketingmoves team, many of whom had senior tecnology experience before moving into recruitment, used the opportunity of the Mobile World Congress to meet leaders in the mobile industry.

The keynote address was around mobile operator strategies and it was clear that the mobile revolution is affecting every part of a consumer or business life. Mobile Apps are transforming businesses, for example, bringing vital health information to hospitals from patients in developing countries. The talent needed to drive this phenomenal change means marketingmoves needs to be able to source the very best in technology marketing talent.

marketingmoves currently operates globally with offices in the UK and in the US with further expansion planned, so it was a fantastic opportunity to continue to develop the team’s worldwide network.

Contact Melvin Day at mday@marketingmoves.com

Europe is predicted to be facing a better future as the ‘crisis has been contained’.
The ‘hot’ sectors to watch include automotive, entertainment, mining and healthcare, and of course IT software and services with the US leading in cloud, big data and apps. Technology winners will be Kenya’s mobile banking and overall, the mobile internet is quickly overtaking desktop technology as more mobile web devices are in play.

Focusing on cloud and big data, it is clear that across all industries and geographies, organisations are being challenged to find simpler and faster ways to analyse massive amounts of data and better meet client needs. According to IDC, the market for big data technology and services will reach $23.8 billion by 2016, up from $3.2billion in 2010. At the same time, a recent IBM study has found that almost three-fourths of leaders surveyed indicated that their companies had piloted , adopted or substantially implemented cloud in their organisations – and 90% expect to have done so in three years.

Only two years ago, cloud computing was appealing because of its ‘pay per use’ model, which was ideal in tough economic times, today it is becoming more important because of its enabler of big data analytics. Big data is typically a collection of ‘unstructured’ data sets that are so big, that it’s hard to collect, analyse, visualise and process using regular software such as relational databases. Unstructured data accounts for at least 80% of the world’s data which indicates that many companies today are making mission critical decisions with only 20% of the data they have.

As a marketing professional are you ready to help your organisation manage opportunities in new geographies? Can you help your company work with big data to benefit your customers?

Contact Melvin Day at mday@marketingmoves.com or on +44(0)1932 253352

We watch in horror, bemusement or anger as Governments try to shift responsibility for social reforms around health, welfare and education onto citizens to manage; we watch in disbelief as companies resort, as a last gasp effort, to pacify their shareholders. But who exactly is actually carving a sustainable solution for the future? Where is the desperately needed leadership?

More is required of leaders today than ever before. The entire cycles around decision-making are compressed. Leaders rely even more heavily upon their teams to provide the evidence for quick and correct decisions. More is at stake. In this globalised world, making a wrong decision could affect more communities, more families and more lives.

Great leadership relies, amongst other things, upon a combination of knowledge, sharing, empathy and the ability to recruit those people who can confidently perform in the face of adversity. Teams of people are needed who can use their past experience to prepare for an uncertain future. Insights gained from these experiences are required to deliver great future performance.

A leader rarely operates alone. Decisions are more often than not, collaborative affairs.

As 2013 becomes a reality, it’s time to assess both your leadership style and culture and the teams that surround your leadership Executive.

As someone quite savvy once said, ‘I surround myself with diamonds, so I can shine.’

For more information about how Marketingmoves can help you to search and select the best marketers in Technology, contact Melvin Day at mday@marketingmoves.com. Or on +441932253352

Marketingmoves provides only the best Marketing professionals for interim and permanent assignments Only for Technology. Worldwide. Marketingmoves also has a businesse specialising solely in Executive Search and Selection. Contact Daniella Thomas a dthomas@marketingmovessearch.com or on +441932253352.

The view that technology is primarily a driver of efficiency is outdated: it’s now an enabler of collaboration and relationships, essential to fuelling creativity and innovation. Technology is reinventing connections with –and among-employees, customers, citizens and partners.

Marketingmoves recruits only the best marketers. Only for Technology.Worldwide.