After recently being appointed to the board, Simon Carter, executive director of marketing UK&I at Fujitsu, speaks to Maxine-Laurie Marshall about how he got there
Not afraid to ask silly questions, not afraid to restructure his marketing team and not afraid to ask more from his staff, Simon Carter has a unique mix of professionalism and affability. When he joined Fujitsu in 2009 he came from a background predominantly filled with B2C marketing – after starting his career studying hydrogeology. The jump to B2B was a conscious one as Carter was looking to do something different. While he’s enjoying the change B2B marketing affords he says: “It took me a while to add value in B2B because I didn’t understand it from day one. I asked lots and lots of silly questions.”
Clearly being unafraid in the pursuit of knowledge paid off, as two years after starting with Fujitsu Carter was promoted to marketing director UK&I. And he was a man with a plan. He inherited a marketing team of 80 and immediately cut that down to 45. Over the last two and a half years he’s built that up to 55.
Restructure
He tells me: “It needed restructuring, but that’s not a criticism of what had gone before. Quite often you need a change of leader to shake the carpet and see if things can be done differently. In the old structure person A would do half a job, pass it to person B who would do the other half and pass it to person C. Whereas in the new structure one person follows it through from start to end, from writing the business case through to briefing the agency and managing the results at the other end.”
It was also a conscious decision from Carter to hire more young marketers in the form of graduates and apprentices. Acknowledging the risk that comes with hiring inexperienced staff he says: “You have to take risks. In some areas that risk has manifested itself in a lack of experience, but it’s supplemented by people who have been around the track a little longer. As a result it was a risk we were right to take.”
However, just because his team is smaller doesn’t mean the workload decreased. The company operates a programme called ‘Fujitsu first’, where it tries to do as much as possible inhouse. Carter explains it only uses agencies for work in specialised areas where it’s not cost effective to train inhouse staff. While accepting today’s marketer needs more skills than 10 years ago, he still believes it’s imperative to also retain the skills of yesterday’s marketers. So all staff are trained; graduates are put through the CIM qualification and this is topped up as and when necessary.
It’s clear Simon values his team and their work greatly. Two and a half years after executing the restructure he was rewarded with something every B2B marketer strives for – and it’s better than a bigger budget – a seat at the top table.
Top table
Carter was recently promoted to the executive board. Something he sees as a personal victory as well as a win for marketing. Extremely proud of his reshaped department he says: “I couldn’t have got here without a very strong team behind me, who have done quality work that reassures the board we need a marketing voice. It’s a recognition that marketing has a role to play in a B2B brand.”
According to Carter the key to getting on the board is two-fold, proving your worth and also being personable.
“You’ve got to demonstrate the value you bring. I have spent four years talking up what marketing does, has done and will do. You have to talk about results, ROI and how being marketing-led allows you to deliver your sales goals, business goals and commercial goals. If you can’t do that you go home tomorrow.
“You then need to work on some of the softer skills; emotional skills, relationship building and networking skills. You have to convince the people already on the board that marketing will add value and won’t just be another head to feed around the table. It’s about leading from the front with results but also building strong relationships with decision makers.”
Carter’s notion of going beyond proving ROI to the board is mirrored by Fujitsu’s belief that just hitting financial results is not enough. Carter tells me the business’ UK&I chief executive, Duncan Tait, has a very clear mantra – the ‘and’ game – delivering great results and delivering outstanding customer service and being first choice for employees and making a lasting difference to society. He says: “This manifests right the way down to peoples’ roles. Staff objectives are reliant on them being able to demonstrate what they’re doing in terms of results, customers, people and society.”
Being a responsible business is important, as is letting your customers and employees know. But ensuring you do the latter in a way that isn’t jarring and sounds like you’re throwing all your ‘good’ work in their faces is a difficult task. It needs to be handled subtly, something Carter is adept at. Speaking about how he communicates the brand’s work with charities like Shelter, he says: “I associated the brand name with a very important cause.” A far more considered approach as opposed to simply reeling off a list of things the brand does.
And that pretty much sums Carter up, a considered marketer who embraces subtlety. He knows what he wants and how to get there.
