Early trend spotting has its advantages and disadvantages. Communicating trends can cause interest, horror or an out and out frenzy. So, what do you make of the following:

Last month saw an astonishing 7000 new   IT roles advertised for Cisco, Apple Google and VMware amongst others in Silicon Valley.

This is in addition to existing roles advertised with San Jose having over 17,000 jobs; Santa Clara coming in with 7,300 jobs and Palo Alto with 6,400 job advertisements and although the majority were recruiting for computer system of software roles; the 2^nd most popular role to recruit for was marketing managers.

What’s that all about?

Although it would be foolish to make direct comparisons between the UK and the US, it is fair to assume that there is a bit of a recruitment buzz happening in both places in the IT Marketing space.

This sector was one of the few that saw strong growth in the UK last year. Companies recognise the need for marketing professionals to deliver on their business plans and to help with driving growth, opening new markets and competitively positioning them to take market share off others.

CIPD Chief Economic Adviser John Philpott said:

“The jobs figures for April 2012 are a nice surprise. The labour market didn’t just stabilise at the turn of the year, it actually picked up very slightly. Employment is up and unemployment is down, as is youth unemployment. There are more job vacancies and hours worked have increased. This good news on jobs suggests that the economy will have avoided a dip back into recession in the first quarter, although whether the recovery strengthens enough to deliver a sustained fall in unemployment remains to be seen and it’s far too soon to rewrite the jobs forecasts.’

What’s this mean for you?

It’s always good to be ahead of the trend.

We think it’s time to polish up your CV if you’re a candidate looking for an IT marketing job, or take a fresh look at your employees if you’re a client. It’s clear there are opportunities, both here and abroad and as the market improves, candidates will be in a strong position and clients will have the pick of the best marketing talent.

What are you waiting for?

The 101st International Women’s Day was cause for both.

In Britain, a woman will face the prospect of at least 14 more general elections before women equal men in the Commons.

 In Qatar, a woman will be six times more likely to go to university than the man next door. Iceland has the greatest equality between men and women, taking into account politics, education and health indicators. The UK comes in at 16^th place, down one since 2010. The worst is Yemen, and the most dangerous is Afghanistan.

 Our recent workshop, Women in Leadership, has reconfirmed that there are reasons to celebrate and there are also plenty of reasons to despair when it comes to being a woman in IT and in marketing, in the UK.

We heard evidence around behaviours that ranged from completely ignoring women in the board room, to exclusion from corporate decision making, corporate hospitality and worse, blatant and inappropriate practices, all in the name of the ‘boys club’.

Interestingly, the group faced up to the fact that they didn’t often help themselves with their own behaviours. ‘Women keep their head down and do a good job’, a member of the group said, ‘they fail to tell other people what successes they ‘ve achieved, unlike their male counterparts.’ Another member of the group said, in her experience as an HR Director, women tended to undersell themselves quite badly. Our guest speaker, Tanya Castell, pointed out that unconsciously women often don’t deploy the right language. ‘Here’s an example’, she said, “I recently coached a woman about her CV in which she stated that she had worked with XYZ company. She should have used more positive language such as: ‘I’ve advised XYZ company”, which has more impact.

Certainly the discussions around the issues were cathartic and the group listened quite intently to the insights and contributions made by others. Perhaps the best insights were those that moved the discussion to actions that the group could take to start positively affecting the profile of women in IT Marketing. ‘It’s all about networking, coaching and mentoring with and for other women” the group agreed unanimously.  They also agreed that they were not only in a position to help positive change happen, but it was unquestionably everyone’s personal responsibility to do so.

The ‘elephant in the room’ was voiced by Adrian Hardy, Director-Owner of Marketingmoves when he asked about the group’s feelings about how maternity leave affects the work place. There was mixed reaction. Some of the group sympathised with the employer viewpoint that maternity leave, while a legal entitlement, can also put a strain on delivering business objectives and may lead to an unconscious bias against women of child bearing age. On the other hand, other members of the group championed the fact that it was a women’s responsibility to bring up the next generation and that was the cost of doing so.

As a matter of interest, Norway is the world’s best place to be a mother, with low risks of maternal mortality and Sweden and Iceland compete for the best places for maternity benefits.

 The session ended on a high note, with a call to meet up again to work together on this and other issues.

About Cisco

Founded in 1984, Cisco today has over 63,000 employees around the world, and a turnover of over $11.3 billion.

Cisco globally designs, manufactures, and sells Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking and other products that are related to the communications and information technology (IT) industry. They provide services associated with these products and their use. Cisco also provides a broad line of products for transporting data, voice, and video within buildings, across campuses, and around the world. Their products are designed to transform how people connect, communicate, and collaborate. Their products are installed at enterprise businesses, public institutions, telecommunications companies and other service providers, commercial businesses, and personal residences.

About Sourabh

Since 1988, Sourabh has managed over 1,000 webinars and 100 virtual events to attendees across six continents and he continues to drive innovation and seamless online experiences for global audiences.

As part of the Global Events team, Sourabh manages virtual events across Cisco on a global basis.

Prior to joining Cisco, Sourabh built the Client Services Support and Virtual events teams at ON24. Prior to ON24, Sourabh worked at Merrill Lynch where he delivered road shows, press conferences, analyst briefings, training seminars and large-scale marketing events across Asia and the US.

Sandra Malone, Director of Marketing for Marketingmoves, interviewed Sourabh.

SM: Hi Sourabh, thanks very much for agreeing to speak to Marketingmoves. Give me a five-minute summary of your career.

SK: Hi Sandy. I was in Sales before I was in Marketing, and with an economics and Finance background, I know how to build recognition and close a deal.  I was contracted by Merrill Lynch to deliver video conferencing at time when there wasn’t such a thing as web casting and email had a 10Meg limit. It was really a big deal to host multi-media on line. Merrill Lynch transferred me to New York and by the time I moved on, I was delivering full- blown virtual events.

At Cisco, I try to guide people away from over kill. We’ve got a highly motivated audience who are looking for great content, not 3D experiences.

SM: Your LinkedIn profile cites ON24, which delivers highly customised events for strategic clients, tell us what happened there for you.

SK: ON 24 were the leaders in virtual events and I believe my work there helped us to attain that position. I enjoyed my work at ON24, but there was a point where I decided it was the right time to move on. In your career, there are moments when you know that you won’t be able to learn more and it’s at this point you need to demonstrate a bit of bravery, first with yourself and then with others. Telling the CEO that I felt I needed new challenges was tough.

SM: You’ve been a pioneer in the advancement of virtual events and you’re well known throughout the industry for being truly innovative. Tell us about the audiences who benefit the most from virtual events.

SK: The audiences that benefit the most from virtual events are highly motivated in the first place. They are making choices to come to your event based on the knowledge that your content will benefit them and will outweigh the disadvantages of taking time away from other work critical tasks. We’ve got to make it easy for people to engage with us and then of course, we need to ensure that the content is relevant. Events can be expensive and apart from the power point pack that might follow the event, the activity itself has no shelf life.  The event itself was the destination. With a virtual event, the experience will remain relevant for longer. In the digital world, an event is a milestone and the destination is on going, it is part of a fluid customer journey.

SM: Can you describe a typical industry virtual event?

SK: On the face of it, digital events that are slick and professional as you enter the event often give a ‘wow’ factor with lots of bells and whistles. You may enter a lobby, move to briefing rooms and so on, but soon, you find that each location requires dozens of clicks. Once you’re inside the programme world, it’s like a walled garden-everything is great. That is, until you want to move away to access other content and you then have to leave the 3D environment and re-register! From the technical view point, an arrangement such as this often means that you need to hand over customer data to 3^rd party platforms.

That’s a fundamental loss, the loss of reporting data against the perceived benefit of a ‘cool’ experience.

At Cisco, we believe a good virtual event starts with the relevant content and the ease of accessing that content. Of course, the total experience is important, but because we can host the event ourselves on our own platforms, we are in a position to really analyse what customers require from our virtual events and as a result, we are constantly developing virtual events for groups of customers that want innovation and access in equal measures.

SM: In marketing, there are always internal pressures, challenges and politics. Sometimes getting internal buy in can be more difficult than selling a marketing idea externally!

SK: You’re right! In virtual events, there is a continual tension between people on whether it’s a good idea to create events that will attract awards and/or the creation of events that will deliver bottom line revenue.  Beware of clean, bright shiny objects! I’ve been extremely fortunate with Cisco who unwaveringly supports innovation for on-line engagement, so we have been in the position to innovate and make a financial contribution.

SM: Finally, what’s the ‘future’ of communications?

SK: As our CEO John T. Chambers has said, it’s video and mobile from a technology perspective and that’s what we’re focusing on in developing our virtual events.

SM: Sourabh, many thanks for your t 

About Cisco

Founded in 1984, Cisco today has over 63,000 employees around the world, and a turnover of over $11.3 billion.

Cisco globally designs, manufactures, and sells Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking and other products that are related to the communications and information technology (IT) industry. They provide services associated with these products and their use. Cisco also provides a broad line of products for transporting data, voice, and video within buildings, across campuses, and around the world. Their products are designed to transform how people connect, communicate, and collaborate. Their products are installed at enterprise businesses, public institutions, telecommunications companies and other service providers, commercial businesses, and personal residences.

About Sourabh

Since 1988, Sourabh has managed over 1,000 webinars and 100 virtual events to attendees across six continents and he continues to drive innovation and seamless online experiences for global audiences.

As part of the Global Events team, Sourabh manages virtual events across Cisco on a global basis.

Prior to joining Cisco, Sourabh built the Client Services Support and Virtual events teams at ON24. Prior to ON24, Sourabh worked at Merrill Lynch where he delivered road shows, press conferences, analyst briefings, training seminars and large-scale marketing events across Asia and the US.

Sandra Malone, Director of Marketing for Marketingmoves, interviewed Sourabh.

SM: Hi Sourabh, thanks very much for agreeing to speak to Marketingmoves. Give me a five-minute summary of your career.

SK: Hi Sandy. I was in Sales before I was in Marketing, and with an economics and Finance background, I know how to build recognition and close a deal.  I was contracted by Merrill Lynch to deliver video conferencing at time when there wasn’t such a thing as web casting and email had a 10Meg limit. It was really a big deal to host multi-media on line. Merrill Lynch transferred me to New York and by the time I moved on, I was delivering full- blown virtual events.

At Cisco, I try to guide people away from over kill. We’ve got a highly motivated audience who are looking for great content, not 3D experiences.

SM: Your LinkedIn profile cites ON24, which delivers highly customised events for strategic clients, tell us what happened there for you.

SK: ON 24 were the leaders in virtual events and I believe my work there helped us to attain that position. I enjoyed my work at ON24, but there was a point where I decided it was the right time to move on. In your career, there are moments when you know that you won’t be able to learn more and it’s at this point you need to demonstrate a bit of bravery, first with yourself and then with others. Telling the CEO that I felt I needed new challenges was tough.

SM: You’ve been a pioneer in the advancement of virtual events and you’re well known throughout the industry for being truly innovative. Tell us about the audiences who benefit the most from virtual events.

SK: The audiences that benefit the most from virtual events are highly motivated in the first place. They are making choices to come to your event based on the knowledge that your content will benefit them and will outweigh the disadvantages of taking time away from other work critical tasks. We’ve got to make it easy for people to engage with us and then of course, we need to ensure that the content is relevant. Events can be expensive and apart from the power point pack that might follow the event, the activity itself has no shelf life.  The event itself was the destination. With a virtual event, the experience will remain relevant for longer. In the digital world, an event is a milestone and the destination is on going, it is part of a fluid customer journey.

SM: Can you describe a typical industry virtual event?

SK: On the face of it, digital events that are slick and professional as you enter the event often give a ‘wow’ factor with lots of bells and whistles. You may enter a lobby, move to briefing rooms and so on, but soon, you find that each location requires dozens of clicks. Once you’re inside the programme world, it’s like a walled garden-everything is great. That is, until you want to move away to access other content and you then have to leave the 3D environment and re-register! From the technical view point, an arrangement such as this often means that you need to hand over customer data to 3^rd party platforms.

That’s a fundamental loss, the loss of reporting data against the perceived benefit of a ‘cool’ experience.

At Cisco, we believe a good virtual event starts with the relevant content and the ease of accessing that content. Of course, the total experience is important, but because we can host the event ourselves on our own platforms, we are in a position to really analyse what customers require from our virtual events and as a result, we are constantly developing virtual events for groups of customers that want innovation and access in equal measures.

SM: In marketing, there are always internal pressures, challenges and politics. Sometimes getting internal buy in can be more difficult than selling a marketing idea externally!

SK: You’re right! In virtual events, there is a continual tension between people on whether it’s a good idea to create events that will attract awards and/or the creation of events that will deliver bottom line revenue.  Beware of clean, bright shiny objects! I’ve been extremely fortunate with Cisco who unwaveringly supports innovation for on-line engagement, so we have been in the position to innovate and make a financial contribution.

SM: Finally, what’s the ‘future’ of communications?

SK: As our CEO John T. Chambers has said, it’s video and mobile from a technology perspective and that’s what we’re focusing on in developing our virtual events.

SM: Sourabh, many thanks for your time

The Crystal Ball in 2012

If we had a crystal ball we’d be repeating the old Boy Scout mantra ‘Be Prepared’.

For clients, times will stay tough and may get tougher, but the flip side of that is that there are new ways of recruiting the marketing resource you need. The trick is having a bit of courage, some creativity and being able to work within your organisation to set new (and often better) expectations of your colleagues around marketing.

 For candidates, we think that quite new and interesting opportunities are now available for those with the ability to understand and drive ‘the numbers’ and for those that have the skill to manage their internal colleagues. The key question for marketers in 2012 will be: ‘Can you be flexible?’

In Hindsight…. What 2011 taught us:

1.  Marketers need to remember to focus on the needs of internal customers, like the ‘boss’ and a few other influential internal customers if they wanted to have any semblance of success externally. It’s no longer ‘good enough’ to know your market, you’ve got to be able to manage and compel your internal colleagues to advocate on your behalf too.
2. More clients are demanding a new breed of marketer – one that can demonstrate a complete grasp on the financials and as a result, sit at the top table and contribute to the very fabric of the business – the bottom line, with complete credibility
3. Flexibility is the other big 2011 legacy. Clients are looking for marketing staff that have deep sector, technology or product market knowledge but are flexible in their employment arrangements and surprisingly, this demand for ‘flexibility’ suits many of our marketing candidates who want to build their work around their life instead of their life around their work.

What Next?

 To talk about Recruitment in 2012, or if you’d like to explore some new thinking with us, contact any of us on 01932 253 352 or contact us at info@marketingmoves.com

About Colt

Colt is Europe’s information delivery platform, enabling its customers to share, process and store their vital business information, providing major organisations, midsize businesses and wholesale customers with a powerful resource that combines network and IT infrastructure with expertise in IT managed services, networking and communication solutions.

Colt operates a 21-country, 35,000km network that includes metropolitan area networks in 39 major European cities with direct fibre connections into 18,000 buildings and 19 Colt data centres.

About Carl Robertson

Carl Robertson was appointed Chief Marketing Officer, in January 2010.  In addition to the CMO role Carl is also responsible for CES Marketing, effective from January 2011. Carl joined Colt in October 2007 as Director of Marketing and Product for the SME Division and was responsible for establishing Colt as a leading provider of advanced ICT services to SMEs across Europe. Key responsibilities included transforming the partner community and developing a new digital channel to market.
Carl moved to Colt from Orange where he held a number of senior sales and marketing positions covering the residential, SME and MNC markets. As Director of Marketing and Sales programmes at Orange Business Services he was responsible for driving the services transformation. Carl also held positions at Equant, including Head of Global Sales Strategy and Director of Global Product Marketing. Carl is based in Paris.

 (Sandra Malone , Marketingmoves Director of Marketing, interviewed Carl)

SM: Hello Carl. Tell us what a Chief Marketing Officer at Colt is actually responsible for-

CR: Hi Sandra. We have 120 people in our marketing organisation, so first and foremost, I’m responsible for our marketing people as individuals conributing to our company, and then, their actual work. A CMO is responsible for real end-to-end marketing, so marketing that encompasses the customer experience, raising awareness of what we have to offer in the market place; Brand and Communications, Press and Analyst work; the P&L for 3 Solutions (Managed Networks, Unified Comms and IT Technology Marketing); Services Design and Business Strategy and Marketing.

SM: Wow! No kitchen sink?!

CR: Not really!

SM: Carl, in the recent IBM CMO study from ‘Stretched to Strengthened’, IBM had F2F conversations with more than 1700 CMOs worldwide. The results of the survey saw 4 challenges as pervasive: the data explosion, social media proliferation of channels and devces and shifting demographics. What are your thoughts on those challenges?

CR: I participated in that survey. We’ve just hosted a round table of 15 CIO’s discussing many of these topics. CIO’s are pretty stressed out because they need to transform themselves from simply managing IT infrastructure to delivering their IT as a service. The Harvard Business Review asked the question- “What does the ‘I’ in CIO mean?” It used to mean Infrastructure and it needs to move on the continuum to Information, Innovation and Intelligence. A CIO’s legacy is that they have spent 80% of their time on infrastructure. They agree they need to add value and understand the risks between the business and their internal capabilities.

SM: Your LinkedIn profile talks about your successful introduction of innovative sales and marketing techniques, can you give us some examples of what that means?

CR: I suppose its all around knowing how and when to add value. It’s about understanding the risks that businesses are experiencing and delivering a partnership model to ease the huge transformation that businesses must experience to be successfil and to survive. There are two types of innovation: The ‘Big Bang’ or small little innovations’ , so for example, launching a digital e-commerce portal for SME’s makes a huge difference to a large number of customers.

SM: Your career has spanned residential, SME and multi-nationals, taking multi-nationals, in your opinion, how have you see marketing change to address this market?

CR: That question brings to mind what I call ‘Speed Boat Methodology’ – traditionally, a company would develop products, build a team to sell them and then make a lot of waves and noise to get the market to be interested- it wasn’t a customer driven market. In today’s market, and in order to drive the cloud portfolio, we will launch releases that meet customer needs, not products. Our developers are now with customers every two or three days, so there is real customer integration with development – that’s what’s changed.

SM: Marketingmoves recruits marketing staff to support the IT industry. Can you give us your view on what a marketing candidate of today would need to do to impress you?

CR: They would need to demonstrate a deep understanding of what drives a customer and their business-what are the risks the customer faces and how can technology alleviate some of those risks? Our marketing people are closer than ever to the customer and launching propositions are today, more collaborative than ever. Knowing the financials of both marketing and the customers business is crucial – so is being able to demonstrate what value marketing has added to the equation. Speed, agility, flexibility and enthusiasm count for a lot.

SM: Carl, thanks very much for your time.

About Tellabs

Tellabs’ innovations enable the mobile Internet and help our customers succeed. That’s why 43 of the top 50 global communications service providers choose our mobile, optical, business and services solutions. We help them get ahead by adding revenue, reducing expenses and optimizing networks.

About Sonny

Sonny has worked for a range of dynamic and fast changing organisation and is now Head of Marketing Communications for EMEA and AP at Tellabs where he specialises in integrated marketing communications. He has worked throughout Europe, the Americas and the Far East mainly in the B-2-B space, but he has significant consumer experience including the delivery of the UK’s largest Wi-Fi usage campaign and programmes in conjunction with Universal Pictures, London Fashion Week, Lastminute.com, the BBC and Microsoft.

Sandra Malone, Director of Marketing for Marketingmoves, interviewed Sonny:

SM: Hi Sonny, thanks for agreeing to speak to us.  Tell us a bit about yourself.

SW: Hi Sandy. Well, I absolutely love the creative arts, but have no talent in that area! I have a passion for travel and I’ve been lucky to be able to combine that with my career. I suppose it’s fair to say that I’m outgoing and fairly easily pleased. A great meal and an outstanding bottle of wine can make me very happy.

SM: What’s your view on marketing budgets these days? We are finding that our clients expect the marketing staff to have a real grasp of the financials, along with their key marketing skills.

SW: Budgets are the bain of my life! It’s important to control and allocate the budget; keeping in mind the budget can manipulate the drivers for growth. Marketers are generally creative thinkers and see things in words and images, so as a ‘group’, we can’t be expected to be accountants. Marketing people should acknowledge their limitations and focus on their strengths, but of course, they should be numerate literate. It’s folly to expect a marketer to perform the duties of an accountant. I’m lucky because I work with a great finance team here at Tellabs.

SM: Can you see some new trends occurring with marketing in the sector?

SW: An absolute, rather than a trend, is the expectation that the right metrics have to be in place to measure the value of your spend. Times are tough and most of the industry has to fight to get investment for marketing. We can spend a great deal of time justifying the marketing budget and convincing internal colleagues of the value of the marketing spend. It’s interesting that every business book out there says that it’s more important than ever to get your message out when times are tough, yet the marketing budget is usually the first thing to get cut when the financials are looking less than rosy.

SM: Sonny, how do you make the most of the marketing spend you do have?

SW: Focus is key; addressing the areas where marketing will really help deliver revenue this year and build profitable revenue opportunities in future years. We operate in over 100 countries, but I don’t have the resources to undertake a marketing campaign in each of those territories. So I look at the markets where my team’s activity will really make a difference and focus there.

We review a range of elements, such as our company’s objectives, our market presence, overall business opportunities, customer awareness, current relationships etc. and decide where our support will deliver the best results. This way we ensure we’re aligned with business and corporate objectives and minimise activity that doesn’t support bottom line growth.

SM: Can you tell me what makes a great marketer?

SW: I think I look at what ‘great’ is differently than most other Marketing Director’s. If I’m recruiting, I look for people who are ‘better’ than I am and who are able to work outside their core competencies. I look for people with real team spirit, drive, ambition and ability to interact and engage with people. Their CV is almost irrelevant, believe it or not. In fact, and unlike many people in my position, I actively try and hire people outside of the industry as this brings a new perspective and energy to the team.

SM: Okay, great! Final question: What can you see in your 2012 Crystal Ball?

SW: Caution! There is more evidence of uncertainty in the economy than there is of certainty. Our target audience is deeply affected by what’s happening with the Euro and the Tiger economies. I certainly see more consolidation with vendors (our competition) too.

 From a marketing perspective, the need to build lasting and engaging relationships with customers will see a stronger innovation in social media usage and a greater use of education as a marketing tool.

My tip for 2012 is for marketers to look outside their home base and sector and to be more flexible and open-minded. Do things differently with your budget and develop a set of new marketing tools to carry you through this year. In a time when most people are being cautious, it’s very easy to create valuable differentiation by doing things slightly differently.

SM: Sonny, many thanks for your time.

About Emulex

Emulex, the leader in converged networking solutions, provides enterprise-class connectivity for servers, networks and storage devices within the data center. The Company’s product portfolio of Fibre Channel host bus adapters, network interface cards, converged network adapters, controllers, embedded bridges and switches, and connectivity management software are proven, tested and trusted by the worlds’ largest and most demanding IT environments. Emulex solutions are used and offered by the industry’s leading server and storage OEMs including, Apple, Cisco, Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Hitachi Data Systems, HP, Huawei, IBM, LSI, Lenovo, NEC, Oracle, NetApp, Samsung and ZTE. Emulex is headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe.

About Jason Phippen

A consistent overachiever, Jason is a senior marketing director with 12 years’ experience in large technology corporations, and 22 years of storage software and hardware industry experience. He has a highly successful record of designing and executing marketing functions and strategies across the EMEA region.

With an extensive knowledge of enterprise software and hardware markets, expertise in OEM, direct, and 1 and 2 tier models, he was also a former Director and Co-Chairman of FCIAE Europe; and former Vice-Chairman of SNIA Europe.

(Sandra Malone , Marketingmoves Director of Marketing, interviews Jason Phippen)

 SM: Hi Jason. Tell us about Emulex and Marketing in your company

JP:  We’re the leader in converged networking solutions and we provide enterprise-class connectivity for servers, networks and storage devices within the data center. Emulex solutions are used and offered by the industry’s leading server and storage OEMs including, Apple, Cisco, Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Hitachi Data Systems, HP, Huawei, IBM, LSI, Lenovo, NEC, Oracle, NetApp, Samsung and ZTE.

We manage EMEA marketing from the UK with a small marketing team and a very focused marketing budget. As we have a rather complex go to market model, the marketing team has to deliver results.

Our parent company (in the US) is focused on quarterly results, so, as in most businesses, this will result in a shorter term focus. Here in EMEA, for us to make the numbers, we need not only baseline 101 Marketing/Classic Marketing skills- we also need marketing people who have the desire and ability to grow. We’ve recently hired someone (Amanda West) with the help of Marketingmoves to manage the EMEA Marketing communications and were impressed with her wide ranging skill set, attitude and aptitude.

SM: Sounds great, but what else, in your opinion, is important for a marketer today to have in their own toolbox which will make a difference in the marke place?

JP: Execution abilities are key and so is being able to honestly measure the impact of the marketing initiative. Driving loyalty and awareness, although important, is now not enough. It’s critical that marketing people know how to use social media in a business sense- we use LinkedIn and we often do eblasts on LinkedIn because we know we can get the attention of  key people through this medium – as long as the content is relevant.

SM: Jason, you’re well known in the sector. What are some of the key actions that have made you successful in your space?

JP: For me, it’s all about approach. Understanding, really understanding what drives your channel and their end users is a responsibility and if you get it wrong, your approach to the market is either a ‘me too’ strategy or fails to drive sales. Understanding the market will help you to create the right messages for that market and of course, will deliver the level of influence you need to be successful in this incredible competitive market place.

SM: Thanks Jason.

About Lisa Hutt

Lisa has recently joined Concur® as the VP for EMEA Marketing, after a successful career as a Senior Director for Northern EMEA and EMEA Campaigns at Salesforce.com and Monster. She’s been a UK Marketing Manager at Sybase and has also worked in Corporate and Services Marketing at Dell.

About Concur®

Concur® is a leading global provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions for companies of all sizes. Concur’s web and mobile solutions help companies and their employees control costs and save time.

(Sandra Malone, Marketingmoves Director of Marketing interviews Lisa Hutt)

SM: Hi Lisa. Thanks for talking to us today. You’re really well known in the IT sector here in the UK, tell us how you view the sector at the moment.

LH: Hi Sandy. I think the sector is responding to a tough economy. Companies have to do more with less, and marketing teams are at the forefront of all of this, trying new and creative ways to create the wow factor, increase visibility, generate better leads and more sales.

SM: That must mean that quite a different marketer needs to emerge as well.

LH: I agree – at one time, being great at the job might have been enough, but today when we hire marketing people we’re looking for skills that will differentiate our organisation and give us a competitive edge.

SM: How does marketing get to the ‘top table’ in an IT company?

LH: Marketing has always had an issue in that it hasn’t been accountable for revenue. The language between a business and a marketer has rarely been aligned. Today, to be at the ‘top table’, a Marketing Director needs the tools in place to analyse their contribution to the bottom line. They need to be able to talk the language of ‘money’ and to have robust metrics in place.

SM: Interesting, is there anything else you’ve noticed that’s in demand for today’s marketers?

LH: There’s an absolute requirement for domain expertise too. Every marketer should be able to talk knowledgably about their company’s value propositions, competently demonstrate products, and make an overall contribution to the industry.

SM: Is that what you’re seeing at the moment?

LH: Actually, no. in a recent review of 40 job candidates, I was surprised at how out of date their skills were. That’s what’s so fantastic about the IDM (The Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing). They offer seasoned marketers a wide range of courses and information to keep them abreast of what’s new in the market.

SM: How could a marketing professional impress you?

LH: I am impressed by marketing innovation but most of all, I like to see real evidence that they have ‘feet on the streets’ and understand their customers and the industry. I’d be interested to see how proactive they are at developing themselves – Do they visit trade shows and use quieter times to read research and watch webinars? Marketers who don’t put their heels down in anticipation of change and challenge, understand the market, the customer landscape and the competition, are at the top of the game.

SM: Finally, give us your view on what makes a great Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

LH:The best CMO’s pave a way for their team to align with the business, learn, experiment and evolve.

SM: Lisa Hutt, thank you very much.

95% of senior managers are men and women earn, on average about 72% of what their male counterparts take home. Less than 1% of top CEOs in the US are women and more than 90 companies of the Fortune 500 don’t have any female corporate officers.In France, fewer than 5% of top executives are women and there are fewer than 20 female directors in the FTSE 100 companies as compared to 400+ men. Out of all published companies, 65% have no women on the Board at al. Interesting then, that over 44% of the UK workforce is women.

The usual suspects emerge as reasons. Workloads and family commitments; career interruptions for child-rearing; travel demands that make it impossible to have a work-life balance and of course, exclusions from the old boy networks. Yet some of the professional service firms in the accounting, legal and consulting sectors have shown that these issues can be dealt with using job-sharing, flexitime and other policies. So how has the IT industry fared in the UK?

Well, not great as it happens. While many firms have introduced personal and family friendly policies (SAS, for example where staff turnover is always low because the company puts family as a priority), its more the unspoken culture of working that presents the real problems. The agreed policy in the HR handbook rarely matches the reality at the desk.

Whilst it may appear perfectly reasonable to ‘take time off in lieu’ os some other such accomodation, actually, it’s the grumblings of colleagues and middle-management, the gossip and the back stabbing, ladder climbing behaviours that put paid to working in any way that is less than dog-eat-dog. Driving growth and creating demand mean that the niceties of accomodating the work force will have to wait until another day, with some notable exceptions, of course.

Melvin Day, Marketingmoves Director said:, “We are in a unique position to advise both candidates and clients about the right ‘fit’. We work to ensure that our candidates have the right environment to succeed and we can only do that by completely understanding the culture of the company/client. This also allows us to influence company culture, for the better.” Mel continued, “We have a new initiative specifically designed to offer really flexible working conditions for both clients and candidates, which goes some way to alleviating the problems faced by both parties – it’s called Marketingmoves Hub. On the other hand, there is a much bigger strategy needed to ensure that women have equal rights and opportunities, so we’ve also set up Marketingmoves Inner Circle to address this and other industry issues.

For more information on The Marketingmoves Hub and the Marketingmoves Inner Circle, contact Melvin Day at mday@marketingmoves.com.

Putting the two together, the challenges faced by marketers and the factors common to successful companies, means that today’s marketing professional will need to stretch their thinking, their skills and their vision to stay in the game.

The most proactive CMO’s, like their CEO counterparts, know that the key to success is ‘customer intimacy’-that it’s important to understand individuals as well as markets.

Traditional mass marketing is ‘out’, but the distance marketing folk have to cover to understand individual customers has increased and grown in complexity. The focus is now on relationships, not just transactions, and the desire to form bonds with customers is driving more success, or in the absence of, spectacular failure.

The digital revolution has forever changed the balance of power between the individual and the institution. To effectively cultivate meaningful relationships with customers, marketing teams will have to connect with them in ways that their customers perceive as valuable. This entails engaging with customers throughout the entire customer lifecycle, building online and offline communities of interest and collaborating to fuse internal and external faces of the enterprise. So how should you respond?

• Focus on creating value for customers as individuals
• Leverage new digital channels to stimulate customer conversations and new relationships
• Engage with customers throughout the customer lifecycle, not just according to your company accounting cycles
• Build online and offline communities to strengthen your brand
• Use advanced analytics and compelling metrics to improve decision making and to demonstrate accountability

It comes down to defining key behaviours, beliefs and values needed to drive a relentless customer strategy.

Can you handle it?

(marketingmoves recruits only the best marketers. Only for IT and Telecoms)