September 23, 2010

What are the most significant marketing challenges your company will face over the upcoming three years? This was one of many questions that IMD marketing professors and some 40 marketing executives from leading international companies contemplated during the Chief Marketing Officer Roundtable, held from September 16-17, 2010 at IMD.

Putting the customer at the center of strategy, decision-making and growth is a task for any marketer. This topic was addressed in the opening panel session, which was moderated by Seán Meehan, The Martin Hilti Professor of Marketing and Change Management, and featured three prominent marketing professionals: Simon Lyons, Director of Marketing and Communications at Aggreko, Luis Gallardo, Global Director Brand and Marketing at Deloitte, and Joe Loetscher, Executive Vice President of Strategic Marketing at the Hilti Corporation.

Lyons discussed how the Net Promoter Score (NPS), a management tool that can be used to gauge the loyalty of a firm’s customer relationships, has been implemented throughout Aggreko. Gallardo highlighted all the touchpoints of a brand experience and how Deloitte’s new brand positioning has been embedded throughout the organization. Loetscher spoke about how Hilti leverages its investment in corporate culture to enhance the firm’s customer centricity.

“These are inspiring examples of how three different people in three different contexts within large, global organizations were able to pull different levers to re-focus their customer orientation,” stated Professor Meehan.

Professor Stuart Read opened day two of the CMO Roundtable by introducing James Joia, Global Business Development at Procter and Gamble. Joia looked at how open innovation has driven new ideas, products and growth at P&G with the ultimate goal of touching and improving more consumers’ lives in more parts of the world. Participants, divided into groups, took part in a live open innovation challenge exercise to see how they would introduce an alternative go to market approach for a P&G product.

“You can make a living ‘outbound’ or ‘inbound’, but if you really want to drive the business, do both,” said Joia. “Don’t limit business interests and be open to collaboration with competitors. You can compete in some spaces and collaborate in others…. quite successfully. Lasting relationships and repeat partnerships require benefits to flow in both directions.”

Low cost competition does particularly well in tough times as consumers spend less. Ryanair has disrupted the European airline industry. And now, the challengers are coming from developing countries, particularly China and India. In the second session of the day, Professor Adrian Ryans outlined three ways executives could respond to low cost competition: move into lower tiers of the market and challenge directly; distance business from low cost competitors by increasing performance value; and distance business from low cost competitors by increasing relational value (or some combination of these options).

“Most companies have options for how to respond to the threat of low cost competition,” stated Professor Ryans. “Meeting the challenge requires very tough choices. The earlier companies make these difficult choices, the better their position will be in the long run!”

In the final session, Professor Stefan Michel welcomed Federico J. Gonzalez, Senior Vice President EuroDisney and Senior Vice President of Disney Destinations EMEA, to share his experiences about one of the most recognizable brands in the world and how it manages not only service quality, but also “emotions”. Gonzalez provided a detailed overview of Disneyland and explained how it strives to have not only customer focus, but rather guest obsession. He also stressed the importance of strategy and execution as well as bringing consumers into the discussion through research.

Gonzales gave an overview of Disney’s business evolution and background and then engaged the participants to take part in a working session in which they would come up with scenarios on how the company should respond to the financial crisis.

Professor Meehan concluded the CMO Roundtable by stating: “This has truly been a fantastic forum with top quality people. We trust it has been valuable for you to step outside of your offices and gain some valuable insights from peers in the marketing industry. It’s up to you now to apply these learnings in your own organizations. Good luck.”

The IMD CXO Suite Roundtables are a unique learning and networking platform composed of top teams from IMD’s Corporate Learning Network (CLN) companies. The next CMO Roundtable will take place September 8-9, 2011. The CLN also hosts CEO, CIO and CFO Roundtables.