Once a year, we bring together the marketing leaders in our Propolis community for a day of networking, sharing perspectives and building collaboration. Unlike our other events, we keep the number of actual content and/or presentations to a modest level, with the onus on structured roundtables and informal networking.
What’s more, wherever possible, we all on-stage presentations that do happen as ‘un-marketing’ as possible, focusing on strategy or leadership issues, aiming to elevate the dialogue beyond the operational aspects and concerns of the business of doing marketing. Suffice to say, it’s my favourite event of the year, and based on rave reviews that we’ve received from attendees, that’s a feeling that’s shared by the CMOs, marketing directors and heads of marketing who attended.
So, what did we learn? Well, before we talk about that, it’s worth a brief word about the venue for this year’s event: RSA House, which is just off the Strand in London’s West End, and home to the Royal Society of Arts. That much I knew… what I didn’t know was that, given the RSA was instrumental in catalysing the Great Exhibition of 1851, as part of its parent organisation’s charter to “embolden enterprise… improve our manufactors and extend our commerce”, it has as good a claim as any to be the birthplace of B2B marketing. The Great Exhibition was, if you’re not familiar with it, the world’s first global trade fair, and the model for others that followed. In other words, it was an extraordinarily appropriate venue for this summit of B2B marketing leaders.
So, to return to the question, ‘what did we learn’, well, here are my highlights from an excellent day:
1. Marketers need to be agile and resilient in the face of increasing geopolitical uncertainly
Kicking off the day, Jack Sharpe , deputy chief information officer at the Ministry of Defence set the tone brilliantly with a detailed evaluation of the current geopolitical challenges facing the global economy, including localised conflicts and tension over AI development. Although clearly not a directly marketing or even business focused presentation, there were clearly lessons and takeaways for marketing, and it encouraged everyone in the room to raise their horizons in terms factors that will inevitably impact on opportunities in the coming years and decades.
2. Marketers need to find the right language and right approach to optimise board level engagement and respect
Lisa Quest , managing partner and UK-CEO of consulting firm Oliver Wyman was inspirational and candid about how marketing can maximise its relationship with a typically highly numerate C-suite and be better integrated into the leadership and strategy conversation. That cuts both ways: with marketing learning what the terms in which (often maths-biased) board members prefer to view the world, but also not bringing their own unfamiliar marketing jargon to a forum where it will not be understood.
As James Davis from BigHand put it succinctly in a later session, covering similar territory but with specific regard the CFO: “Focus on value not cost.” Lisa also advocated for marketers to maximise on asking questions to really understand the perspectives and objectives of the board to tease out opportunities to optimise positioning and ensure alignment. Lisa’s excitement about the potential of AI was clear and palpable, and she also advocated for marketers to take a more proactive role in their own mentoring activities, not necessarily relying on existing company structures. She testified that her mentorship relationships (both as mentee and mentor) have been some of the most helpful in her career.
3. Creativity, pragmatism and flexibility are likely to be the watchwords to optimise talent management strategies in the post-Covid age
This was the key conclusion from a panel discussion featuring Sarah Thomas Ph.D. of Capgemini , Amanda Holmes of Kodak Alaris , Nick Burbidge from Deloitte and Roland Glass of HelloKindred , which sponsored this session. The panellists testified to the range of factors impacting on talent management, with strategic (non-marketing) decisions being more pre-eminent than I had personally appreciated.
The focus on hybrid working and number of days in the office was conspicuous by its absence, and it’s clear that non-traditional means of meeting resource needs are coming to the fore, including notably offshoring to meet seasonal fluctuation in resource demands. On a more immediate level, there’s clearly a big focus on how to retain talent in an environment of recruitment freezes and limited candidate availability, and that requires creativity on the part of leaders, with the possibility of roles adapting to suit people rather than the other way around – as might have been more traditionally the case.
4. Don’t ever give up
That was the overwhelming message (that I at least took) from the closing keynote by polar explorer Anne Daniels, whose tails of heroism and bloody-minded determination on the icesheets left the audience staggered and inspired in equal measure. In one pioneering women-only expedition, she and her fellow frost-bitten explorers slept under the tent for three days because the wind was so strong they couldn’t actually erect it; on another solo trip, she was ‘tracked’ by a polar bear for three days. It’s apparent that even against seemingly insurmountable odds, determination to succeed can (and does) win the day.
These are my personal perspectives from what was a truly inspirational day, with so much incredible learning and the opportunity to meet so many wonderful marketers
