Building Brand Gravity Podcast

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:35:09
Anne
So what does the concept of brand mean to you? It's such an often used word, but it's got a pretty deep set of meanings. And one thing that's always interesting to me is how the concept of a brand evolves over the course of your career. If you happen to work in these types of fields, which is why it's been really exciting for me to have the chance to talk to an old friend and old colleague, Howard Handler, and I'm excited to share this conversation with you today.

00:00:35:11 - 00:00:57:15
Anne
We talk about the incredible arc of his career and what it meant to go from working with a Quaker Oats Company to suddenly working with Lorne Michaels and marketing Saturday Night Live and all the properties of Broadway Video and a million things after that, including Virgin Mobile, where I met him, and on and on to working at an incredible entertainment company in Detroit today.

00:00:57:17 - 00:01:21:01
Anne
But there's a lot of lessons he has to share. And one of the central ones, as he put it, is relationships are everything. They are treasures. And you're going to hear that come through really strongly in this conversation. So sit back and listen. And if you enjoy what you're here, share it with another friend. Thank you.

00:01:21:03 - 00:01:50:08
Speaker
You are listening to building Brand Gravity Attracting People into your Orbit. A business communications podcast. This is a show for communications pros across industries looking to gain an inside view into industry influence. You're about to hear a conversation with leading industry professionals talking about the importance of building business impact through sound brand strategy. Let's get into the show.

00:01:50:10 - 00:02:12:01
Anne
Hello, and welcome to Building Brand Gravity. I'm Anne Green, CEO at TNS Business Communications, and my guest and I first met back in 2003 when he joined my then client, Virgin Mobile USA, not long after its launch. And I have to say, I was a bit obsessed with his resume at the time. He was coming from senior brand and marketing roles at major players like Broadway Video.

00:02:12:03 - 00:02:35:06
Anne
That's Lorne Michaels company. For those who don't know, Viacom and NFL. And it kind of it kind of made me nervous to meet him, admittedly, but that immediately fell away. He's laughing already. As soon as I experienced his warmth and his energy and his infectious, positive spirit. The client agency relationship can be tense at times, but he treats everyone like a core member of the team and like family.

00:02:35:08 - 00:03:03:05
Anne
So he went on to lead other marketing roles at illustrious brands like EMI and MSG and Major League Soccer. That's the last time we saw each other in person was when you were at MLS, and then, in 2019, he returned to his native Michigan to take the president role at 313 presents, which is Detroit's premier live entertainment company, overseeing six venues from the Fox Theater, Comerica Park, Little Caesars Arena, Pine Knob and more.

00:03:03:07 - 00:03:23:15
Anne
And then, if you think about that timing, he immediately had to manage do that little thing you may recall, called the pandemic. Remember that everybody. And happily though, now 2024 seems like it's been a hell of a year for three, one three from helping to plan and host portions of the NFL draft to staging like a mind boggling array of shows of all kinds.

00:03:23:15 - 00:03:27:00
Anne
So Howard Handler, it's excellent to welcome you, my friend.

00:03:27:02 - 00:03:29:09
Howard
I'm so psyched to be together with you.

00:03:29:11 - 00:03:42:08
Anne
I know it's been a while. It's been a while. So what's it like having that career arc? When you think about the arc of your career, it's a big question. And what comes to mind in terms of kind of where it started from where it is today?

00:03:42:13 - 00:04:12:00
Howard
Well, it's always easier to connect the dots looking backwards. I never had any notion of, you know, how I would get from point A to point B for me, it was always, you know, kind of 3 to 5 year horizon, I guess that's that's what I was able to think about. But I'm I'm really proud of of what I've accomplished.

00:04:12:02 - 00:04:21:20
Howard
And, and mostly it's been about fun and, and building things and working with great people.

00:04:21:22 - 00:04:40:17
Anne
So before and I like that idea, I'll come back to that 3 to 5 years, because it's so hard in this world today to even think about planning farther than that. This world is so crazy all the time. But tell before we get into more about your world. For those that aren't as familiar with 313, just tell them a little bit about your gig today because it's such an exciting one.

00:04:40:17 - 00:04:41:16
Anne
I feel like.

00:04:41:17 - 00:05:32:16
Howard
Well, 313 is an integrated venue promoter with a pretty large footprint. Our mission is to provide access to amazing entertainment and to live moments inspired by the soul of Detroit. So we're we're here to tickle people's funny, you know, funny bone and and pleasure spot and send some good vibes into the world. It is amazing, especially post-Covid, turning around and looking at what happens to an audience as well as looking at what's happening on a stage.

00:05:32:18 - 00:06:12:08
Howard
And, and it's just really fun to be in the business of entertaining people. Our six venues exist in downtown Detroit and, around southeastern Michigan. A good part of what we do represents an economic engine to the city of Detroit. And that's really important because Detroit is a renaissance city, and it was a big part of the reason why I came home is I wanted to dive in and be a part of this rebirth and, renewal.

00:06:12:10 - 00:06:17:05
Howard
It's been really exciting. But yeah, it's good. It's a little bit of a flavor.

00:06:17:07 - 00:06:36:18
Anne
Yeah, it's it was interesting, you know, knowing you as I did from the East Coast when we were working with Virgin Mobile and you were mostly on the East Coast. And in all of those jobs, it was kind of amazing to notice that you'd gone back to Michigan. And I. I've told Howard this before, but I was born in Toledo, Ohio, and that's where most of my mom's family is from.

00:06:36:18 - 00:06:59:15
Anne
So I'm there quite often and just down Interstate 75 from Detroit. And so Detroit has always been big in my imagination, Toledo being a much smaller city. So I definitely want to get into the we're going to talk a little bit about other parts of your career, but I'm going to circle back because, Detroit, there's a lot to talk about there, especially with what you guys have been up to and a lot to think about relative to it being its own brand in a way.

00:06:59:17 - 00:07:13:05
Anne
But how did you how did you even embark on the sort of marketing field you went after undergrad, went and got your MBA? You know, what inspired you to do that? And you know what? What kind of got you kicked off in the beginning?

00:07:13:08 - 00:07:48:07
Howard
Well, I, I studied economics and history as an undergrad. And when it came time to think about what came next, what was going to come next in the midst of my senior year, I was honestly a bit terrified at the prospect of, you know, entering the real world. And I wanted to be in school for a little bit longer and trying to figure things out.

00:07:48:09 - 00:08:32:06
Howard
So I kind of talked my way into business school. I was first rejected. Well, I was rejected by northwestern, Dartmouth, as well as Michigan. And, you know, even back in those times, they wanted people to get into the working world before they came back to get, an MBA. But I told this story about how I wanted to get an MBA because I wanted to be in the food business, and that was going to really help elevate my thinking and teach skills.

00:08:32:06 - 00:09:29:16
Howard
And they bought it. Now, I did legitimately have a great interest in the food business, and that would be the first job that I that I took out of business school, you know, working for the Quaker Oats Company, which laid an incredible foundation. But I think more broadly, marketing and and the path that I chose was based on growing up in front of the television, listening to every single band that that I could get exposed to, going to live concert and just really loving, you know, music and pop culture and comedy and, and and I just never had any notion growing up in Detroit in the 60s and 70s, that people could actually

00:09:29:16 - 00:09:59:08
Howard
have jobs that somehow related to those things. You know, there was nobody in show business in Detroit. I mean, you know, there were probably a few, but for the most part, that just kind of seemed like this, this other world. And, you know, I'm obviously dating myself even by saying the 60s and 70s, but it's like, you know, the world was was a lot flatter and smaller back in those days.

00:09:59:08 - 00:10:23:16
Howard
We didn't have access to the internet and every single bit of information or knowledge at our fingertips. And so you had to learn things by talking to other people and doing research and, and, you know, letting your world unfold, as opposed to, you know, everything was was possible all at once.

00:10:23:18 - 00:10:51:23
Anne
Yeah. It's funny what you're saying that because the time period you're talking about, you know, Motown hadn't become quite the machine it became later, you know, and where suddenly entertainment was there in the Motor City, too, in that same way. But you reminded me, too, about the fact that there's so much, when I do, when I go back to my alma mater and talk about marketing, branding, advertising comes right and that is more of a liberal arts liberal arts institution.

00:10:52:01 - 00:11:13:09
Anne
There's so many aspects of the careers that you and I have had that's kind of invisible. Like sometimes cultural will pop up like Mad Men will become a thing or Samantha on Sex and the city. It's like Oprah, right? But it's interesting, like your sense of now looking back to say, what were those aspects of culture that got you excited about, wow, could I be in that world?

00:11:13:11 - 00:11:35:18
Anne
But I love also this story about the rejections, because I feel like when you're doing the college thing or graduate school or first job, everything seems so important. And then the farther you get in your career, the more everyone's like, doesn't even know where you went to school or what happened. So I think it's really cool to talk about the rejections and also the story you told to say, I belong here.

00:11:35:18 - 00:12:05:03
Anne
You know, it's really interesting. So you talked about Pepsi, and as I said, when I first met you, I was kind of clamored by Broadway video, SNL, you know, like, you know, and all these, these other pieces that got my attention when I saw or heard about your resume because this was pre LinkedIn as well. But you did start really in that classic consumer packaged goods brand manager space, which is work I've done in my past too.

00:12:05:03 - 00:12:11:05
Anne
What were the lessons you took away there like that? Must have been such a crash course in the most classic forms of marketing.

00:12:11:07 - 00:12:41:05
Howard
Yeah, it was definitely boot camp. As, as as a marketer, as a as a as a general manager, it was it was just an absolute blast. I actually did an internship at the Quaker Oats Company in Chicago in between my first year and second year of business school. And it's funny, we talked about rejection. I went to New York.

00:12:41:06 - 00:13:10:08
Howard
I had a girlfriend there at the time. I thought, like, I'm going to go to work for General Foods for Pepsi, which did not on the Quaker Oats Company until, you know, much later. And I had every door slammed in my face. So many no's. And it was funny because I bumped into my uncle, who's from Chicago in New York on Central Park South.

00:13:10:08 - 00:13:42:20
Howard
It was so crazy. And he was like, why don't you look in Chicago and do a research and, you know, check out the Quaker Oats Company. And and that just seemed really interesting to me, because he had some terrific brands. And they had three internships. And I talked to, somebody that went to the University of Michigan, and he told me the person to talk to.

00:13:42:22 - 00:14:09:02
Howard
And at first the person was like, well, you know, it's nice to talk to you, but we're not taking any of our interns from the University of Michigan. And, you know, so I talk my way into that situation. But, you know, I ended up obviously going back there full time after I was done with business school. I felt like I learned everything about running a consumer business.

00:14:09:04 - 00:14:50:14
Howard
I learned about all the different P's of, you know, pricing and promotion and, I mean, I learned about, well, distribution flights. I learned how to work with, advertising agencies and create ads and, and measuring business and, and our sales and importantly, I learned how to think about the entire PNL. That was one of the coolest things about brand management is that they gave you a ton of responsibility at an early age.

00:14:50:16 - 00:15:20:12
Howard
You worked in teams, so there were training wheels for sure, and there were layers of management to kind of protect, things. But it's like by the time I was 28 years old, I was running a $70 million business. And yes, kind of mind blowing, but, you know, you're working with other people who, you know, were really hungry and really ambitious and, you know, went to good schools.

00:15:20:12 - 00:15:56:01
Howard
And so there was a kind of a natural competition. The bar was really high. I remember, you know, the first time I got exposed to people who didn't make the cut, got fired. So it was, you know, reasonably stressful. But it was a blast. I mean, we were all kind of the same life stage we're working with, like, cat and crunch and kibbles and bits and, you know, like cereal and and granola bars and all this stuff.

00:15:56:01 - 00:16:36:01
Howard
And for us, that was a connection to pop culture. I got to travel around and, and, you know, start to see, you know, the rest of the country. And, and it was just amazing how steep the learning curve was. And just, you know what what I was able to understand. Well, what's interesting is I felt like a lot of those lessons dawned on me later in my career, you know, that that you look back on your foundation, and you taking things from it.

00:16:36:02 - 00:16:38:00
Howard
That was also very valuable.

00:16:38:02 - 00:17:00:20
Anne
Yeah, it's the hindsight is 2020. The thing is real. You know, these clichés are real for a reason. But I'm so it's interesting like twice already, you talked about where you've had to kind of talk yourself into something, not yourself, but other people. You're literally talking yourself into a space. Which reminds me of storytelling. It's like, how do people create their own narrative about what's important?

00:17:00:20 - 00:17:22:17
Anne
And it's also a form of advertising and marketing. What where did you get that skill? I mean, you, I know you and you are incredible. The way you can talk with people and connect with people and make really human connection with them. But what are some aspects that you've seen in yourself that you were able to sell yourself at those critical moments, kind of open doors that were closed at the time?

00:17:22:19 - 00:17:58:23
Howard
I guess I guess for me, and again, like you gain self-awareness is you get, you know, a little bit, a little bit older, but I feel like I just, I leave with passion and enthusiasm and, and and my energy. I really just tried hard to be as persuasive as possible. My, you know, my dad, one of the great heroic figures in my life, was, was a lawyer.

00:17:59:01 - 00:18:35:10
Howard
And so, you know, breaking down an argument, being logical, being thoughtful, being a good communicator, I think, or things that, you know, hopefully, I just take it from him. My dad just turned 90 in June. It's pretty amazing. But I do think that that if you really want something, you know, you figure out a way to sell and and be persuasive and and it doesn't always work, you know?

00:18:35:13 - 00:19:04:15
Howard
So. So getting a door slammed in your face, doesn't feel good. But there's something to learn from that. And and, you know, do you have a certain amount of tenacity? Are you willing to, to be persistent? And, I don't know, I just I think a lot of those things help. Help me. You know, get to where I needed to be.

00:19:04:15 - 00:19:36:17
Howard
I did I don't I don't feel like I have, like, an imposter syndrome. But I always did, fancying myself as a little bit of an overachiever. I grew up with some people, and it's like one of those funny old things, but it's like, I remember a couple of my friends didn't have to study so hard or at all, and they could just get a and, and I knew that I was the type of person that I had to do my homework.

00:19:36:17 - 00:19:52:07
Howard
I had to work really hard, and I, and I, you know, I was never ashamed of that. I was like, I will outwork you. You know, so that persistence and, and tenacity and work ethic were probably part of it as well.

00:19:52:12 - 00:20:11:22
Anne
So powerful. You remind me of the enthusiasm, you know, speaking of culture, Lin-Manuel Miranda, you know, obviously a brilliant Broadway guy. He jokes about having no chill. You know, that he was like, just so enthusiastic about stuff. And that always struck me because I'm certainly a bit like that to where it's like, I'm just really into things very enthusiastic.

00:20:12:00 - 00:20:27:22
Anne
I always want to do more and I felt that from you in terms of just that, like I talked about that infectious energy and the ability, you know, they talk in business about followership, about getting people to follow you. And do you feel like that kind of enthusiasm, optimism or engagement helps in that?

00:20:28:00 - 00:21:01:00
Howard
I mean, it can be attraction for sure. You know, if you are a manager, you have to motivate other people. And, and so, you know, the again, it comes back to some form of selling. But getting people to believe and I don't know, I mean, it, it was, it was something that, that my late father in law used to, you know, kind of, tease me about a little bit.

00:21:01:02 - 00:21:42:02
Howard
You know, he, he said, what, one time, you know, because it's like, you know, the brand manager for Quaker Chewy granola bars and light cereal and those were, like, the most important thing. And then it's about Saturday Night Live, and it's the church lady and hunts and Frauds and Wayne's World. And he said, you know, man, he said, you know, if if you were the president of the PTL network, for for those that need the historical background, that's the praise the Lord network.

00:21:42:02 - 00:21:54:21
Howard
He's like, I could sell that. Which, you know, I, I took it as a bit of a backhanded compliment. So that was okay. But yeah, I mean, you know.

00:21:54:23 - 00:22:17:01
Anne
When my dad worked for Nabisco, I was I was kind of told the Keebler elves were the devil. So, you know, you gotta love the brand that you're with, right? I mean, you can you and you got it. You got to ride for your brands. Speaking of, you know, SNL and you were working with Lorne and Broadway Video at a time where what a legendary era.

00:22:17:02 - 00:22:37:20
Anne
I mean, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Chris Farley, the beautiful Phil Hartman, Adam Sandler, I mean, it just went to Meadows. It goes on and on with and Wayne's World about to come out. I think right around the time you were moving on. But was that such a hard left turn from consumer packaged goods, like, was that how did you end up there?

00:22:37:20 - 00:22:42:12
Anne
And was that a little bit like, wow, I have to reset my brand in this completely different environment?

00:22:42:14 - 00:23:14:15
Howard
Well, it was it was a pretty big change. And I guess I, I did really and truly love being at the Quaker Oats Company and being this consumer marketing guy. But along the way, my, my world, my network started to expand. And I actually did meet people who were in the entertainment business and created some pretty deep relationships.

00:23:14:15 - 00:23:39:02
Howard
And one of those people, a guy named Eric Ellenbogen, was like, you must be in show business. And I was like, yeah, you know, I set this goal for myself. He he wanted me to go right away. Just skip Quaker and go right into the entertainment business. And, and I was like, you know, I set this goal for myself.

00:23:39:04 - 00:24:03:05
Howard
I really want to be a brand manager. That's going to take me a few years. I want to get as much as I can out of this experience. I was committed to to going to Chicago. You know, kid from Detroit. Chicago was the big city, really, really fun, vibrant city. I got to Chicago, in the fall of 85.

00:24:03:07 - 00:24:34:12
Howard
Okay. The bears won the Super Bowl, you know, in January of 86. I mean, that was a pretty exciting time to be in Chicago, but, the bears. But, and I would have a full circle experience that's now with Bill Swirsky, super fans, the bills, the Bulls, the bears. But, you know, Eric ultimately was somebody that I built a relationship with.

00:24:34:14 - 00:25:12:22
Howard
Over time, he would go from being a Hollywood producer to being the head of Broadway Video. And so there was a time when he said, okay, I got the job for you. You're going to be the VP of marketing at Broadway Video. And, and I was a brand manager at that point. I did not really get too excited about the additional, you know, layers and steps on on the ladder at a big company like the Quaker Oats Company.

00:25:12:22 - 00:25:45:01
Howard
And I was like, wow. Broadway video this is Laura michael's little independent production company. Eric and Lauren had assembled this really core crew of really talented people, and they would all go on to do, some pretty incredible things. I had absolutely no idea what the VP of marketing for Broadway Video would, would be responsible for, but I was like, I'm game, let's take the plunge.

00:25:45:03 - 00:26:08:07
Howard
My wife, Wendy and I were at that stage of life were like, hey, why not? Let's let's take our shot. We didn't have kids. We didn't have much of a mortgage. It didn't seem like there was any downside. And so we picked up and moved to New York. And you know, it was like dragging a desk into an empty office.

00:26:08:09 - 00:26:59:14
Howard
Eric had some aspirations, and Lorne articulated a bit of what, what he was willing to explore. And I was able to dive in and, and, you know, build a merchandizing business through publishing home video, for anybody that remembers VHS tapes, and, you know, that was that was my intro to introduction to Show Business and it was, you know, like cereal one day and and, you know, two inches, the driving cap and, you know, handsome Franz, the, the next day, what's, what's interesting is that nobody cared about an MBA or where I went to school or the Quaker Oats Company.

00:26:59:16 - 00:27:20:11
Howard
It was actually when I started to meet the cast and the writers, I knew just instinctively that they could have cared less about any of that. And so, it was a big hard turn. And I did have to be a really good chameleon and adjust and, and, you know, pick up the cues and it's like, what?

00:27:20:13 - 00:27:50:10
Howard
How do they speak to each other? What are they interested in? I have to do a little bit of my own diagnostic tick thing to understand, you know, what would be success? What was Eric looking for? And ultimately, my relationship became more direct with Lorne. And as anybody who's ever worked around SNL would know, he's the guy.

00:27:50:12 - 00:28:17:00
Howard
He's making any and all big decisions. He's in charge of the brand. His sensibility. And and I had to figure that out. And and it wasn't easy. I definitely, you know, ran into the wall a couple of times, but I felt like I was in an environment where, you know, I could I could learn. And if I accomplished some things along the way, they'd let me stick around.

00:28:17:02 - 00:28:39:17
Anne
And I feel like that was a time when people think back, you know, folks of different ages have to remember this is before YouTube existed. There was no lazy Sunday, you know, with Andy Samberg. And those guys kind of changed. The nature of SNL wasn't so ubiquitous. There was no social media. And but I feel like you guys were doing some of the first omnichannel stuff where you were breaking it out into different places.

00:28:39:19 - 00:28:58:12
Anne
I was also obsessed with kids in the Hall, which is something that Lorne helped with a great deal. But one of the things that really struck me, Howard, it reminds me of something you talked about your dad. My dad used to say to me when I was growing up, don't travel too light. And he meant people. He meant, don't, like, be so quick to leave people behind.

00:28:58:12 - 00:29:15:00
Anne
Like stay connected. One of my mentors, Ralph Katz, is one of the most brilliant people ever. He keeps people with him all the time. But it feels like in that relationship with Eric, you maybe ascribe to the same thing as I feel like that even the way you and I were catching up and talking about who this person, that person, what?

00:29:15:00 - 00:29:19:06
Anne
How does that phrase strike you? Not traveling too light when it comes to people in your career?

00:29:19:07 - 00:30:10:04
Howard
I love that expression. You know, for me, and I share this with my wife Wendy as well, is relationships are everything. They are treasure. And those treasures are collected and and nurtured. And, you know, if if you're lucky, they can, you know, grow and become more valuable over time. And, and, you know, I've, I've been really, really lucky in terms of the people who are willing to, to mentor me and help me see things that at the time, I couldn't see for myself or, you know, teach me some things.

00:30:10:06 - 00:30:37:18
Howard
And it's just funny over time, at a certain point, it kind of flipped. And then I became that person. And, and so the people part, you know, people part has been critical. And, you know, Lorne, Lorne Michaels is an incredibly quotable, person. But one of the, you know, one of the first things we say, you know, it's all about relationships.

00:30:37:20 - 00:31:13:19
Howard
And he was right. He was right. And, you know, it's it's it's funny because when I met Adam Sandler, nobody knew who he was. I mean, he he had obviously been a successful comic and, and show, you know, put in quite a bit of promise. Otherwise he wouldn't have made it to 30 Rock. But he was a more junior member of the cast, and was, you know, really hustling to, you know, to kind of get into sketches and to start to make a name for himself.

00:31:13:21 - 00:31:46:13
Howard
He came and played Little Caesars Arena, two years ago. And, you know, I spent some time with him and, you know, we got to have some laughs that, you know, we're not those, you know, kind of young upstarts anymore. But it's, you know, those relationships that you form for early in life, early in your career can and should be valuable to you, you know, much later in life and, you know, think about the two of us.

00:31:46:18 - 00:31:49:12
Howard
You know, we just kind of pick up where we left off.

00:31:49:14 - 00:32:10:20
Anne
Which is such a I love that relationship. So everything there I treasure, by the way, I was secretly hoping maybe a Lorne Michaels impression would pop out. So just it's just a natural thing that happens. When you think about it, I mean, this is great. And and after that, you know, there was Viacom and NFL, which was what you did right before I met you.

00:32:10:20 - 00:32:34:22
Anne
And those are huge brands, too. But I want to I want to bring us up to the Virgin Mobile era, mostly because, you know, this is podcast that's called Building Brand Gravity, all about the idea of what brings you into the gravity, into the orbit, and like, what pulls at you. And when you think about iconic brands and branding, Virgin is such a it's just massive in that way.

00:32:34:22 - 00:32:50:23
Anne
Now, I don't know how people relate to it who are much younger generations, and it's different if you're in England or in Britain versus the US, but in the time that we were working together, it's just such a juggernaut. And Richard's still out there doing his thing. Richard Branson I shouldn't have to say that for anyone but Sir Richard Branson.

00:32:50:23 - 00:33:09:01
Anne
But what was it like for you joining a Virgin brand that was just at that moment, launching like it was a new cell phone company launching in the US for the first time. So the Virgin name was on it, but it was a new brand new model, new technology, lots of headwinds. But there was the Virgin name on it.

00:33:09:01 - 00:33:12:11
Anne
What was what did that mean to you coming into that ecosystem?

00:33:12:13 - 00:33:46:21
Howard
Well, I was a fanboy. You know, Richard Branson was this heroic, aspirational figure for me because, you know, fundamentally, you know, he was a disruptor. I don't think anybody use those words, you know, use a word like that back then. I think that's a little bit more of an internet age, you know, reference. But this was a guy who shook things up and found opportunity.

00:33:46:23 - 00:34:29:07
Howard
And I remember the first time I went into a Virgin Megastore, I had never flown on Virgin Atlantic, but I kind of heard about it and knew a little bit, so I was like, wow, I can't believe that I'm going to get to represent and actually build a Virgin brand in the US. What's really interesting, and I think that, you know, it's easy, it's easy to forget, is that in the early 2000, Virgin was not a well-known brand in the United States.

00:34:29:09 - 00:34:59:02
Howard
You know, record labels, the brands of record labels, don't necessarily mean so much unless you're a real music nerd. You know, the Motown label that was a little bit different. So Virgin Records certainly have a legacy, but it wasn't what I would call a consumer brand. It had a promise and a reason for being.

00:34:59:02 - 00:35:25:10
Howard
And, you know, it was about the Rolling Stones and Lenny Kravitz and you know, the Sex Pistols. And, you had the Virgin Megastore, but there weren't a lot of those, you know, there were a handful of those. And, you know, really big cities. So like, you know, urbane, you know, kind of big city people might have heard of Virgin and Virgin Atlantic.

00:35:25:12 - 00:35:52:09
Howard
I mean, I hate to say it, but there's not a high percentage of people in the United States that even have a passport, much less, you know, travel. Now, it's probably a little bit more mainstream to travel internationally today. But again, back then, the idea of traveling to London was pretty exotic. So you had a small percentage of the population that had some awareness of the Virgin brand.

00:35:52:11 - 00:36:29:06
Howard
And with Virgin Mobile, we were trying to create a wide, almost mass consumer phenomenon with the cell phone, which didn't really have much penetration. We were trying to create, as the Brits would say, a fast moving consumer product. With a mobile phone. You know, up to that point, mobile phones were behind the glass case. You had to sign up for a contract.

00:36:29:08 - 00:37:00:12
Howard
And, you know, Richard's idea and the idea of Virgin Mobile that had gotten started a little bit earlier in the UK and and also in Singapore, was we want this to be a very familiar consumer product that's easily accessible and that has a bit of a younger sensibility and actually will be targeted towards young people because they should have cell phones.

00:37:00:12 - 00:37:36:15
Howard
Cell phones will liberate and allow for independence and everything else like that. So we really had, I guess, the building blocks of a cool brand. But it was really up to us to define it and, and, and to propagate it and to build awareness. And so the idea that we were going to create truly a national brand for Virgin was like, overwhelmingly cool and fun.

00:37:36:17 - 00:38:07:05
Howard
I mean, I pinching myself the whole time, you know, I remember the first time I met Richard, I remember, you know, flying on Virgin Atlantic, which I felt was truly the embodiment of everything that he imagined, brand experience and everything else like that. But we had the keys to the kingdom, you know, he he gave, you know, he gave a bunch of Americans, you know, a lot of responsibility.

00:38:07:05 - 00:38:08:12
Howard
Let's just say that.

00:38:08:14 - 00:38:45:09
Anne
Yeah, it's amazing to think about that time and what was built and what the market was like at that time, and those lessons that you took away. I wanted to shift back to your current role where you're president now, you're leading an organization. Has it been and you've done that more than once in your career, but what prepared you from your earlier experiences to to then take sort of the leadership role overall, you know, what do you feel like there was a good all of those different marketing experiences, as you said, even back at Quaker Oats, knowing the whole panel and the whole deal, do you feel like that prepares you well over time to

00:38:45:09 - 00:38:47:19
Anne
to take the helm at the top?

00:38:47:21 - 00:39:23:18
Howard
Yeah, I do think it was, you know, in some ways a little bit back to the future. In brand management, you are taught to think about the whole business and that you're not there to just deliver one thing sales, revenue and market share. You're there to deliver the profit. And that's something that never really left me. It's it's really interesting because there's lots of different accountability that, that marketing leaders can have.

00:39:23:20 - 00:39:52:23
Howard
Some marketing leaders are, you know, purely about Mark. And so, so the metrics that they might be responsible for relate to that, that set of, of that part of the mix. I was always a little bit more of a line marketer where I had revenue and in some cases profit. So when I was at the NFL, I oversaw marketing.

00:39:53:01 - 00:40:23:09
Howard
But I also had the publishing business and, and I had we called it direct commerce, because it's first it was catalogs, and then it was this thing called e-commerce. And we built the the NFL shop, which has turned into this ginormous business, like all things NFL. And I had the publishing business and, you know, and those were actual, you know, revenue cause profit.

00:40:23:14 - 00:41:05:06
Howard
I had to be accountable for that. When I was at Virgin, I had sales and product. And so I had different pieces of the PNL. And Dan Shulman, the CEO, good friend of both of ours, we would go on to, to be the CEO of PayPal. He felt as CEO that his role was certainly to lead the company, but he, he placed a very high priority in terms of giving us context and making sure that we could see how all the pieces connected together.

00:41:05:08 - 00:41:34:04
Howard
So, yeah, I was chief marketing officer and there was the CMO, and there was the head of technology, and there was a CFO. But as a leadership team, we were always focused on the PR, and, and it was all about like, okay, what part were you responsible for? What were you contributing to? How would you complement and and help the other people that were delivering the whole thing?

00:41:34:06 - 00:42:04:14
Howard
And so, Dan, as a, as a CEO was truly like a band leader, and we were all there to make music. But we could all see what he was doing. And so for me to become president of three one 3%, first of all, it was my goal to get back to running a whole business. I loved being a CMO, but I really I was kind of hungry on the whole business and the PR now.

00:42:04:16 - 00:42:26:00
Howard
And so it was kind of a natural transition. You know, and again, it's like it isn't a difficult transition from being a wine marketer that has to deliver real metrics to being, a president or CEO, that that has to worry about the whole, you know.

00:42:26:02 - 00:42:44:21
Anne
Those are good lessons. Those people shape their career. You know, what do you understand your accountability to be even if you're not given the PR now, how do you make those connections and feel that responsibility for it? I interviewed another person for this podcast series who talked about chief communications. Folks need to see that their businesses is the business of the business and revenue.

00:42:44:21 - 00:43:08:00
Anne
So I love that connection as we start to wind down, because you've been so generous with your time, Howard, what do you think about Brand Detroit for? So Detroit just has an outside, I think, role in a lot of people's imagination. And sometimes in the in recent decades, that's been really hard. Like Detroit has had to take so much negative baggage more than it deserved.

00:43:08:00 - 00:43:21:18
Anne
I feel like, and now it's been really energizing for me. And I know so many other people, and I don't even live there to see that sort of energy, as you said, a Renaissance city. But how do you think about Detroit as a brand and where is that brand today?

00:43:21:22 - 00:44:06:15
Howard
Well, Detroit, is a legendary brand. And anybody that that that's, you know, born here or out of town and from here is shaped by a bunch of powerful things. Detroit gave the United States for sure. And some would argue the world the car and the car was about, you know, freedom and discovery and exploration. You know, Detroit gave the world Motown, and house music and punk and like, all kinds of things.

00:44:06:15 - 00:44:31:16
Howard
And so, you know, living out of town, living in New York in particular for 30 years, it never left me in terms of, you know, what made me and where I was from. And, you know, wherever I traveled in, in the US or North America or the world, it's like, you know, where are you from? You're from Detroit.

00:44:31:16 - 00:45:14:13
Howard
And people would always be like, oh, wow, Detroit. And they would talk about, oh, I'm a car guy, or oh my god, Marvin Gaye or Iggy Pop or, you know, and so it's like, yeah, that was foundation. And, you know, this was also the place where people could get union jobs and make a living and, you know, but it all came crashing down and, and, and so part of the legacy and what we've had to deal with was the decline, the bankruptcy and your some hard times.

00:45:14:19 - 00:45:42:10
Howard
And, and, you know, for a while people were caught up in the political dysfunction, urban decay. The bankruptcy was was really, you know, the low point. But what was striking to me, and one of the reasons why it was so exciting for me to come home was there were a lot of people that were not willing to let this city go.

00:45:42:12 - 00:46:16:13
Howard
And, and people like Mike Ilitch in the early days and later on, Dan Gilbert, the Ford family, Steve Ross, Tom Gores, a bunch of people said, wait a second. This is is one of the greatest cities in America, and we believe in it. We want to build it back. And and so these last decade, decade and a half has been this incredible renaissance.

00:46:16:13 - 00:46:28:07
Howard
And you have these kind of touchstone experiences that have that and moments that have happened. I was here for the NFL draft, and that made people look at Detroit and go, wow, look at.

00:46:28:12 - 00:46:29:09
Anne
That was a big moment.

00:46:29:14 - 00:47:04:03
Howard
Yeah, look, look at the city. The city's on its way back. And then, you know, most recently the reopening of Michigan Central. And you know, the the care and and the passion and the commitment that, you know, the Ford family put into bringing this thing back. And this is what's really fun, is that is it that people lean in together and are trying to reestablish the legacy of innovation, great design music.

00:47:04:05 - 00:47:24:05
Anne
What an awesome time for you to come back. Despite the pandemic, which I know is not easy, but here you are now, just having just an incredible, you know, if people go to 313 presents website, if you're in the area, you see just an incredible array of stuff going on. Last question, Howard, what brands or parts of culture have you in their gravity right now?

00:47:24:05 - 00:47:28:04
Anne
Anything cool that that you've been paying attention to recently?

00:47:28:06 - 00:48:00:13
Howard
There's a really cool, Japanese outdoor brand called Snow Peak. I'm kind of like an outdoor wilderness athletic type, incredible design, super cool, niche and growing clothing brand that I love. Matt. Happy just did this this capsule collection with the gap that people are freaking out over the Olympics as a brand. This is back. Paris as a brand is back.

00:48:00:15 - 00:48:52:18
Howard
Kamala as a brand is is is is revitalized. I don't know, I'm I'm a brand junkie. So I'm always, you know, I'm always kind of thinking about about all this stuff. The, the cool thing about when I get to do it, three one 3%. I mean, we do about 350 shows a year across our various six venues, and we're starting to branch out is all of these artists are brands with distinct audiences and and it's just fascinating, you know, every single night who's coming to see what artists and and it's it's amazing to see an artists really build their audience and to go from one of our smaller amphitheaters to maybe the Fox Theater or

00:48:52:20 - 00:49:11:08
Howard
the Little Caesars Arena to Comerica Park. It's like, I've already seen you. I've already seen Chris Stapleton go from, you know, Pine Knob to headlining his own show at Comerica Park. It's a blast. So I'll, I'll forever be, you know, passionate about brands.

00:49:11:10 - 00:49:17:10
Anne
I love it. Well, Howard Handler, thank you so much for your time. Jay. This is an awesome conversation. I really appreciate it.

00:49:17:12 - 00:49:20:04
Howard
Thank you and loved being a part of this.

00:49:20:06 - 00:49:51:23
Speaker
We are G&S business communications. We are a team of media strategists, storytellers, and engagement experts who meet you at the intersection of business and communications. To learn more, visit GScommunications.com. You're listening to building brand gravity, attracting people into your orbit a business communications podcast. Keep connected with us by subscribing to the show in your favorite podcast player. If you like what you've heard, please rate the show.

00:49:52:04 - 00:50:00:16
Speaker
That helps us to keep delivering the latest in industry influence. Thanks for listening. Until next time.

 

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:48:09
Steve
When one thinks about robotics. Oftentimes what comes to mind are the robots from the movies and from TVs. Some may automatically go to the Terminator. Me, myself. I go to Rosie the Robot from The Jetsons. She could think. She could see. She could do. She was basically part of the family. We're going to be joined by Kim Lowes, CEO of Rapid Robotics, who's going to talk about the lessons that she's learned going from a designer to a marketer to now one of the few female CEOs in Silicon Valley in the importance of design thinking, customer experience, and never being afraid to think big.

00:00:48:14 - 00:01:00:03
Steve
Join us and Kim you on the next episode of Building Brand Gravity.

00:01:00:05 - 00:01:29:12
Speaker
You are listening to building brand Gravity, attracting people into your orbit. A business communications podcast. This is a show for communications pros across industries looking to gain an inside view into industry influence. You're about to hear a conversation with leading industry professionals talking about the importance of building business impact through sound brand strategy. Let's get into the show.

00:01:29:14 - 00:02:01:00
Steve
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Building Brand Gravity. I'm Steve Halsey, and this episode will be talking with Kim Loewy, CEO of Rapid Robotics, on the topic of AI driven manufacturing. As more and more automation and robotics seem to be taking over the world, we're going to explore how her innovative leadership approach was inspired in part by the design thinking she learned at Hasbro, and how she's applied that and a really customer centric focus.

00:02:01:02 - 00:02:30:15
Steve
The move from creating and marketing toy robots to developing real ones that are fundamentally changing the face of automation. Kim is a serial entrepreneur and a business designer. She has a passion for manufacturing, marketing, and really leading high growth businesses. And I'm really excited about today's conversation because she really seems to have a knack for joining companies at inflection points in their journey and really helping kind of speed their transformation.

00:02:30:17 - 00:02:59:07
Steve
So let me just give you a little bit more about her background. She's led global teams and being responsible for growth of some of the most well-known toy and entertainment brands. She's built award winning omnichannel retail businesses. She was part of the founding team of modelo, which Audio Desk acquired in 2014. And from there she became responsible for their emerging products, acquisitions and growth, including fusion 360.

00:02:59:09 - 00:03:20:10
Steve
If that wasn't enough, she moved on joined Rapid Robotics, where she served as a chief growth officer and chief marketing officer before being recently named as their new CEO. And she is one of the few female executives in both robotics and technology space. So some rare air indeed. Kim, welcome to the show.

00:03:20:14 - 00:03:22:22
Kim
Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

00:03:23:04 - 00:03:34:02
Steve
So now that I embarrass you with like the official bio, maybe you can give our listeners a little bit of background about about who Kim is and and how you got here.

00:03:34:04 - 00:03:55:08
Kim
Yeah. Thanks. So. Well, it's really been, you know, as I sit back and there are days, honestly, that I think, like, how did I even get here, I don't know. You know, it's, it's an honor to be in this position. And I think, you know, even as, a little kid, you know, I was always sort of dreaming up new ways of being able to do things.

00:03:55:09 - 00:04:12:09
Kim
And I think that's where, like, the business designer came from, you know, I actually I did go to school originally for design. And then I realized, you know, recognize I guess my parents aren't famous. I don't have a giant trust fund that was going to support this dream business that I wanted to make, so I better go do something else.

00:04:12:09 - 00:04:41:21
Kim
So I really got into, marketing and entrepreneurship and but still, with that strong design angle. And so, you know, I tend to really think about everything in terms of why, why is it this way? Does it is it optimal this way? How could it be better? What really matters to people? And then that usually leads us to, you know, leads myself and my teams to, big ideas that kind of make businesses grow.

00:04:42:01 - 00:04:51:19
Kim
So, so that's, that's been sort of the continuous path, I guess I've taken a lot of different steps to kind of get there. But that's been the the similar across my career.

00:04:51:21 - 00:04:56:00
Steve
As a you've been doing design thinking before. Design thinking was a buzz word.

00:04:56:03 - 00:04:59:02
Kim
Yeah, I suppose so.

00:04:59:02 - 00:05:25:10
Steve
Let me let me set the stage a little bit for our conversation. For our listeners here, in terms of just really understanding the need for, for AI driven robotics, automation and all those other things, you know, a broad range of companies from manufacturing that third party logistics providers, food and beverage processors, companies in consumer packaged goods, technology and electronics.

00:05:25:10 - 00:05:56:14
Steve
I'm not done yet. Retail, an e-commerce fulfillment center, pharmaceutical med device manufacturers, automotive industry, agriculture operations, and even the assembly of of things that are fundamental for renewable energy. They all seem to have one thing in common, and that's it. They all need really adaptable, scalable and efficient models for operations to stay competitive and meet market demands that seem to be evolving at a better and faster pace.

00:05:56:16 - 00:06:23:13
Steve
Yet almost all of them face some pretty common challenges workforce capital investment, supply chain chaos, just the speed of the change of consumer preferences and the list of that all goes on. So this kind of inflection point, not just of rapid robotics, but of the industry, you know, really is where I think the promise of AI, robotics and automation come in.

00:06:23:15 - 00:06:33:03
Steve
So from where you sit, how of all these different factors really kind of driven how you guys think at Rapid Robotics and where you're going?

00:06:33:05 - 00:06:58:08
Kim
I always when I'm trying to solve problems like this, always put myself in the shoes of the customer. You know, it's tricky sometimes working for a technology company where you're surrounded by amazing ideas that honestly are very easy to get excited about, but it really comes back to what's going to change somebody, change the life or the trajectory of a company and the executives and the people at that company.

00:06:58:08 - 00:07:25:02
Kim
And so I put myself in their shoes, and I just think, you know, I have less time. I, I really want to do the right thing for our sustainability initiatives and for the, the earth and for my people and for, you know, bringing products to market that the company has this vision for. And I can't do it because I don't have enough human labor to be able to do it.

00:07:25:04 - 00:07:50:20
Kim
The work that I do have for those humans really shouldn't isn't very rewarding work for humans. I think that I'm. I'm just like, there's less time, less money, more constraints on everything. And it really adds to this complexity that just becomes very hard to manage. And so I think, you know, I think as a service provider, as a robotics company, how can I, I think I can help, I can help solve that problem.

00:07:50:22 - 00:08:11:21
Kim
And that's where I think AI is very exciting, because we're just really at the forefront of what's possible and in a very non-technical way of thinking about AI. I think I go back to my toy roots and toys and think it's like, you know, it's like a superpower or a power up, right? All of a sudden, I can do ten times more than was ever possible before.

00:08:11:21 - 00:08:42:09
Kim
I can handle much more complexity. I can solve problems faster. I can solve them in ways that I never would have even thought of. As you know, with the usual human constraints that I have. And that to me, is, you know, is super exciting. So I think, how do we harness that to be able to solve these really big problems that customers are facing in terms of being able to find ways to use automation to do those, you know, the dull, dirty, dangerous kind of tasks.

00:08:42:09 - 00:09:09:08
Kim
And I think the reason that automation has been so hard for so many companies to handle is because there is so much variability and in skews, and I think the automation industry is has been plagued by, delays and, you know, just sort of a lot. Yeah, a lot of stops and starts and a lot of, traditional thinking about how things happen.

00:09:09:08 - 00:09:25:22
Kim
And the lot of there hasn't been a lot of transparency around pricing. And I just think all that needs to stop. There's such a huge opportunity ahead for all of us to be able to win and to help customers when we need to think differently about it. And I think that, you know, I can really help us get there.

00:09:26:00 - 00:09:58:05
Steve
Well, and that's what I think so powerful about what what companies like yours are doing is, you know, really embracing that idea that you just heard of the variability of SKUs. And in a lot of ways, I think in an industry agnostic way. Right. I, I just I covered everything from egg operations to manufacturing to logistics to putting together, you know, turbines for wind power, but that ability to think in an agnostic way and embrace that variability really seems very powerful.

00:09:58:05 - 00:10:09:20
Steve
So when you sit there at at rapid and when you're talking to new employees that you bring on, what do you tell them about what is their mission? What are they actually solving for the world?

00:10:09:22 - 00:10:34:01
Kim
Well, I oh, I mean, we we are an American based company right now. I mean, we do have bigger plans beyond that, but but to start with, like, I am very passionate about seeing manufacturers win, and, and all the things that become possible with that. And so I, you know, I think that's it. I think it's helping in some ways at a very big high level, like we're helping we can help to make a better world.

00:10:34:03 - 00:11:00:01
Kim
And we can make better products. We can make products more sustainably. We can, help companies be able to harness the human talent that they do have to do really meaningful, thoughtful work rather than, you know, standing at a machine, moving a thing from one place to the other and people getting hurt in terrible conditions, often very hot.

00:11:00:03 - 00:11:25:08
Kim
Yeah. And so I think that we're we're making things better, and I think we're making things, allowing things to be made more cost effectively, which hopefully will bring manufacturing back to this country in many ways. And for people to be able to companies that if they're saving money in that way, I think can use it toward, more innovation that actually makes better products.

00:11:25:10 - 00:11:48:19
Steve
Yeah. And I think there's a lot of power in what you're saying, because what's interesting to me is it's not all about technology. It's not about technology for the technology sake. It's ultimately what is it that we're trying to solve and improve. And in a lot of ways, how can we make the world, a better place? And I want to want to kind of cover a topic here, you know, we're marketers.

00:11:48:19 - 00:11:57:23
Steve
So, you know, we can't have a marketing discussion without coming up with new terms. Right? That would just be no fun. I mean, no fun.

00:11:58:01 - 00:12:03:08
Kim
Yeah. That's right. We should give it an acronym too.

00:12:03:09 - 00:12:24:15
Steve
Exactly. So we'll come up with an acronym here. But, but, but when you and I were chatting a little, a little while ago, we, we got into this, this riff where we were talking about green fields and brown fields, and I know everybody knows this, but just to kind of center us for our listeners, no green fields are are things that are completely bespoke and built from scratch.

00:12:24:15 - 00:12:46:16
Steve
Right? Is really starting from a virgin site and idea and building things up. Brownfields are when you're taking existing facilities or operations that have become outdated, and you need to update and retrofit to basically breathe new life into them. And then when you and I were talking, we really got to this notion of it doesn't have to be greenfield or brownfield.

00:12:46:18 - 00:13:13:00
Steve
What if we could create something that we called the smart field? So I have to make an acronym before we're done. But, but for but for the term smart field, to give some context for our listeners, it's essentially the idea that you could create a next generation of warehousing or manufacturing facilities where you kind of reimagine every aspect of operations to find the optimal efficiency for a particular workflow.

00:13:13:00 - 00:13:49:14
Steve
Right? So that's central to the idea of being smart is that you're not static. You can be ever changing as customer preferences or consumer choice changes as market dynamics changes. Because in that case, and what we're seeing was just this the pace that you need to adjust optimal basically changes from day to day, year to year. So you can't retrofit the facility every time that that you do that, you basically need something that can help you evolve with speed and with agility and can deploy things in a different way.

00:13:49:14 - 00:14:09:06
Steve
And from my very simplistic layman's viewpoint, you know, that's why stationary robots don't work for the long term. You got these high set up cost. It's not real easy to move them from one task to the other, let alone from one part of the city to the other. You got to retrain them. You got to work on the new task.

00:14:09:06 - 00:14:33:11
Steve
That means down downtime, competitive disadvantage. But what you guys are doing is really using adaptive AI and particularly computer vision to really kind of turn all that it's on its end. And that's what I mean about like kind of creating these smart fields that you can adapt on the fly and you can move. Can you tell me just a little bit about that?

00:14:33:11 - 00:14:43:19
Steve
I mean, Tim, tell me about Smart Fields, how do we bring them to life and then in particular, how can that be a point of competitive advantage for companies like rapid?

00:14:43:21 - 00:15:09:06
Kim
Yeah, that's a great question. So I think, you know, going back to I don't know, for the past or ten years, I guess, you know, ten years ago I started working for Autodesk, and the design and manufacturing organization and learned of I learned a lot about manufacturing, in the toy industry, really in we spent a lot of time with manufacturers, through my work at Autodesk.

00:15:09:06 - 00:15:40:15
Kim
And I started to understand, you know, the the whole concept of digital transformation and the state that all of these different companies were at, you know, the it the complete range. And even today, you see very large companies that, you know, world renowned companies that are still in the, you know, early phases of a digital transformation. And so you go into their facility and they want robotics, they need robotics because they don't have, you know, their workers safety is a high priority for many of them.

00:15:40:15 - 00:16:00:15
Kim
And so they say, look, these are the types of tasks where we're getting the most injuries. We really would love to automate this thing. And you see, well, there's all this infrastructure automation, all the equipment, or other infrastructure that's in there. And a lot of times robotics and automation take up. It takes up a lot of space.

00:16:00:15 - 00:16:29:15
Kim
There's a lot of mechanic components. It's not very agile and it just doesn't work or it costs so much money that then the ROI is years later. And by then you're really needing to retrofit the facility again. And as we were talking, you know that that week over breakfast, the greenfield concept, we heard a lot about it over the past few years when money was, you know, quote unquote, free.

00:16:29:17 - 00:16:50:23
Kim
Right now, money is very expensive, much more expensive anyway. And and we're seeing more and more, companies that are looking to retrofit and modernize, you know, their the brownfield kind of facility. And that's where I think traditional solutions just don't work. We need something that is agile. We need something that is with a more minimal footprint.

00:16:51:00 - 00:17:11:16
Kim
And for that's where companies like rapid, I think can really come in. I think if we think about automation in a different way and think, why does it have to be so big? Why does it have to be so permanent? Why does it have to be so expensive and have so many components? And there are good reasons that historically it has.

00:17:11:16 - 00:17:38:12
Kim
But with the increase in AI, generative AI and 3D vision, that doesn't have to be the case. You know, I kind of think about robotics, like in terms of, you know, Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And at the bottom, it really comes down to the fundamental layer is really about perception. That robot needs to be able to understand what is it seeing, where, where is it and what is it seeing.

00:17:38:14 - 00:18:05:12
Kim
And so we built rapid ID to be able to do that. So all of a sudden we're giving this human like instinct to robots because they're able to perceive what's in front of them, which means that you can create systems. You then or then you apply sort of an application layer to the perception layer, and then you apply the physical manifestation of that, the hardware component.

00:18:05:12 - 00:18:26:11
Kim
And it can be optimized as a result of those bottom two layers. And it gives you, you know, means that all of a sudden you can deploy robots that have a camera, a robot, and much more minimal footprint than you've ever had before, which makes it fit more easily into some of these, you know, into like a smart field kind of situation.

00:18:26:13 - 00:18:55:04
Kim
It, you know, it means that it costs less. It means that it has fewer components to break. And it and most importantly, I think it has the ability to handle the variability of modern business. You don't have to spend hours and days training waypoints for a robot to know how to go to a thing. It can see the thing, and then all of the the AI and training models that go into it tell it exactly.

00:18:55:04 - 00:19:16:07
Kim
It knows. Here's where I have to go. Here's where that thing is. Here's how I grasp it. Here's what I grasp it with. Here's the model. You know, it can run, an analysis almost instantly on which model should I be using to pick that thing? Because I kind of know what it is, or I know the classification of that thing.

00:19:16:07 - 00:19:43:01
Kim
So it all of a sudden gives you that agility that you're looking for, for, for a variety of products, with that small footprint. And that's applicable and like you said, all of those different industries, whether you're in, you know, consumer packaged goods, automotive industry, you know, all these customers. I talked to, I sort of joked with them about how complex their SKUs are.

00:19:43:01 - 00:20:00:13
Kim
And someone very smart person once said to me, you know, the thing that we know that we can predict about consumers is they will change their minds. And so when I talk to people in the manufacturing space about that, they laugh and they're like, you have no idea actually, I'm so many SKUs.

00:20:00:15 - 00:20:28:08
Steve
I can imagine, then I can only imagine, like what the Amazon warehouse is like, trying to pick and pack in in something like that. But that's that's absolutely fascinating. Thinking about it in terms of the perception layer of of being able to actually see and process that with the application layer of the hardware layer. And then once you get the eye on that, that ability just to rapidly adapt and deploy.

00:20:28:08 - 00:20:49:10
Steve
And, you know, you gave me a challenge. We talked about Smart Shield as our as our new term. Not saying we need to take these, but I got two possible acronyms for you. Right. So we could have Hairsprays, which would be smart field robotics agility. That's what we could deliver. Or we could have R S's which would be agile robotics smart field.

00:20:49:11 - 00:21:32:00
Steve
So there you so we can we can we can come up with some different acronyms that that bring this together. But but kind of playing that concept out a little bit more than, you know, a lot of what you're talking about is then creating a paradigm shift and a paradigm shift, I would think, across the organization. So when you're trying to tell this story about how to set up agile robotics, smart fields, shall we say, you know, between the engineering department and the procurement department and other other groups, does that make storytelling that much more important to really unify the challenge that you're trying to solve?

00:21:32:02 - 00:21:59:20
Kim
Yeah, it's is definitely one of the big challenges. And I kind of go back to how I tend to approach all the problems and think about, like, who does it really well, right? Or where is this working? And I think in how can it relate to that sort of customer? And you think, okay, well, if I'm a manufacturer in an automotive facility, maybe I'm the, you know, head of operations for this facility.

00:21:59:20 - 00:22:23:05
Kim
And I'm I've been through the painful process of procuring robots and convincing my purchasing team and this, that and the other. And then you say to them, like, look, why, why couldn't it be as easy as going to, you know, your local hardware store and buying a tool or, leaf blower or like something so simple, why does it have to be that complicated?

00:22:23:05 - 00:22:45:16
Kim
Or we even think about, you know, how the car industry and or the automobile industry has been disrupted a little bit in in terms of like the somewhat not so great dealership experience? I guess it depends on the dealership, but, you know, then Carvana came along and CarMax and all of these companies that are really trying to make that process less painful.

00:22:45:18 - 00:23:08:22
Kim
I would love to see robotics as an industry get to that. Like, I would love to see us be able to go to a website, say, that's the thing that I need to solve that problem. I know that it starts at this price. You know, get started. Like make it as easy as shopping on Amazon is I mean it's I it'll it'll be a long while before we get there.

00:23:08:22 - 00:23:32:07
Kim
But I think working toward that it shouldn't take weeks shouldn't take months. It shouldn't be so buried in I don't know, just all of the conversations that have to happen in the skirting around, like, what is the price? You know, I have to use a car analogy there too. And I tell, my teams, like, I just think our customers want to know.

00:23:32:10 - 00:23:48:22
Kim
I know that you can't quote them a specific price because there are a lot of details that go into actually building a solution for a customer. But I need to know, is it the, you know, am I buying a Ferrari or am I buying a nice Honda or am I buying a scooter? That's all I need to know.

00:23:48:22 - 00:24:02:02
Kim
What budget do I need to allocate for this thing? And we should be able to tell them, like it shouldn't be this mysterious black box of oh, you have to wait for a quote and talk to five people and terrible.

00:24:02:04 - 00:24:39:03
Steve
Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, well, no, nobody, nobody wants to feel like they're being, being held captive. Right? That's that's that's not a good that's not a good, good customer experience. And and again, I think part of that storytelling and the understanding about things like the flexibility, the adaptability, you know, talking about perception and the ability to see and know what to pick and move, where to me, those become really powerful when you're working through the C-suite because you don't just have to have a PhD in engineering to understand what needs to what needs to be done.

00:24:39:05 - 00:25:16:06
Steve
And the other thing that's interesting is I hear you talk about that, and this is where I can really hear the, the former chief growth officer and the chief marketer in you really coming, coming through. And I guess I would ask the question, you know, as you're, you know, evolving into your role as CEO, how have those previous roles maybe changed the way you look at it a little bit differently than the typical Silicon Valley, CEO who may have come up from programing or heavy hardware or, or different aspects than, than where you came from.

00:25:16:08 - 00:25:43:21
Kim
I think that, you know, it's still like it's like any role, right? It's going to take a little more time to fully grow into this role. So I'm embracing that, trying anyway to embrace a little bit of that, uncertainty. But I think like when, when things get really hard and there have definitely been hard days, like there are there are running and running any startup is like is an emotional roller coaster for sure.

00:25:43:23 - 00:26:04:20
Kim
And so on. The days where it's really hard, you know, I think it's the customer that's going to is the North Star on this? What does the customer need? I need to make decisions that align with the best thing. You know, obviously profitability for our company. But but the best thing for the customer. And we develop technology accordingly.

00:26:05:00 - 00:26:35:03
Kim
So it's almost like giving technology purpose is the way I tend to approach it, rather than we don't do things because we can we do things because we should or we do things because there is a real need for them. And I think that that in my experience has given gives engineering teams, a really good goal to work toward because sometimes it's, you know, it's like in design, right?

00:26:35:03 - 00:27:01:14
Kim
You can design anything. But when really good design happens, there are good constraints. And so if you can apply good constraints to the company overall and in my my role in growth was really around optimizing, you know, our funnel and driving top you know driving business growth. And now my role is more expanded in terms of like the product, the, you know, so much, so much more.

00:27:01:14 - 00:27:35:10
Kim
But still thinking about it in that way, we're solving a customer problem. We believe as a company that simplicity is better than complexity. Always. How do you make it more simple for everybody? And then how do you talk about it in a way that people can really relate to it and talk about it at the different layers? You know, as a marketer, one of the things I always think about and we were, you know, this was a big Hasbro, learning is thinking about marketing as a cake, right?

00:27:35:13 - 00:28:02:05
Kim
You should always have the layers of the cake. And in those layers, you know, a few marketing tactics is not a marketing plan. And so I think about communications that way. I think about how we drive the vision for the company in that way. What is our what is that vision? How do we articulate it to our engineers, to our salespeople, to our customers who are investors, to our analysts?

00:28:02:05 - 00:28:31:09
Kim
All of the people that we interact with to our communications partners? And I think that that is probably the skill that that I bring to the CEO role is really that the passion for the customer and the ability to communicate or kind of translate sometimes very complicated, complex concepts into a very relatable whole thing, you know, or, or a, very easy to understand analogy.

00:28:31:13 - 00:28:42:21
Kim
Maybe that makes it sort of a no brainer for anyone across the organization to understand, you know, it's a focus on results, not on technology. You know, it's really about the results.

00:28:42:23 - 00:29:13:10
Steve
Really, really about the results. And, you know, what I'm hearing from you, really, about those pain points that you're looking to solve and kind of as, as you've gone through, you know, helping companies at the point and transformation, what is something that you think far too many CEOs or other leaders miss about the importance of brand building and marketing, especially when you're bringing out emerging technologies or building emerging markets like AI, robotics.

00:29:13:12 - 00:29:22:21
Steve
What is something that gets Mr.. Where do people get caught up, and then how can we as communicators or marketers help them?

00:29:22:22 - 00:29:52:14
Kim
Well, one of the things I tell people is that everything communicates. You know, I was, working with one of our VCs. I think it was. I think it was b partners the other day had a post on LinkedIn where they talked about the the opportunity of the data room, which is a, you know, where all of your, your data goes as you're raising money or going through mergers and acquisitions and things like that and, and ways to organize, even in the organization and structure of that, how it communicates.

00:29:52:14 - 00:30:31:23
Kim
There's an it's an opportunity to represent how you're thinking about the business, how things are organized, what's important. And it just reminded me that that it is one of those fundamental marketing things. Right? Everything communicates. And so reminding our teams about that, you know, in the, the customer experience, whether it's the, the, the UI, the, the how we deploy those robots, how we communicate to the customer when they're coming and anticipate all the questions they're going to have and be proactive about that business.

00:30:31:23 - 00:31:02:07
Kim
So I think that's where I think that's one of the ways that marketers can really help. I also think that when given marketing, sometimes it's been my experience. Marketing can have a very bad reputation, depends on the company. But sometimes, you know, I've heard everything from like, oh, marketing is where good ideas go to die to like, oh my gosh, don't you know, the marketing team is going to whatever, they'll gloss over all of this and it won't matter or, I don't know.

00:31:02:08 - 00:31:36:07
Kim
Anyway, lots of lots of, cliches I think about about marketing teams, but I think marketers are very good at understanding people. And I think that if you bring in your marketing team at an early stage and build a strong partnership with them, it can be really powerful. And I think in technology that takes time. There are there are a lot of marketers that come from entertainment, you know, classic sort of consumer packaged goods marketing.

00:31:36:07 - 00:32:04:16
Kim
Transitioning into technology is not always that easy. But I think what you learn in running those types of businesses is very translatable to the technology industry. And I would say the technology industry needs that sort of classic marketing expertise and understanding of, you know, early signals of what's happening with a product or early in early indicators that something is wrong.

00:32:04:18 - 00:32:22:21
Kim
How do we adapt quickly? And in technology, we have the great ability to do that in consumer goods. When things take 9 to 18 months to manufacture, you can't be so agile. And so I think that's where marketing can really help, you know, in the technology space, if they're brought in at the right stage.

00:32:22:22 - 00:32:45:03
Steve
If brought in, if brought in at the right stage. Yeah. But but I think, you know, when you're talking about the customer experience, very good at understanding people. I would add in speaking their language. Right. Which becomes really, really important. So maybe you can if we go back to the Autodesk experience, maybe you can talk a little bit about what did you learn about speaking their language there?

00:32:45:03 - 00:33:00:11
Steve
I mean, you know you're coming out of, you know, entertainment toys, all this really cool stuff. And then you're thrust into the world of advanced manufacturing. So so what did you learn about talking their language?

00:33:00:13 - 00:33:28:09
Kim
Yeah, that's a really good question. What did I learn about the talking their language? Well, one thing I do also tell people is I learned a lot about manufacturing in the toy industry. It is definitely not like, you know, Santa's workshop. There is a lot of work that goes into, planning toys, manufacturing toys. You know, I worked, I had the luxury of working on a lot of different toy businesses.

00:33:28:11 - 00:33:49:05
Kim
Transformers was one in particular. One of my favorites, but. But writing, you know, signing. We had to sign tooling appropriations to build these toys. And for those of you who may not, you know, fully understand that process, there are like these tools are big, big pieces of metal that have all kinds of different cavities in them.

00:33:49:10 - 00:34:07:13
Kim
They cost a lot to make. If you have a big holiday toy, you have to create multiple molds to be able to fit that, you know, the supply and demand. And, it's really cool. You learn and you learn a lot about it, and to see it live is also also really cool. So I knew some of it.

00:34:07:13 - 00:34:30:21
Kim
I didn't know all of the the deeper technical details, but I think just spending time with it, I learned it and I had a team I think showing my team that I was or my coworkers, you know, that I really was interested in not only being able to talk to the customer, but in, in deeply understanding what it was that they were doing.

00:34:30:23 - 00:35:04:01
Kim
And we got to this place where, you know, I was, working, I think at the time I did some product marketing and technical marketing for net fabs and additive manufacturing software from Autodesk. And I knew, I'd say I was maybe a little bit more than beginner level understanding of additive manufacturing, but but over time developed a much deeper expertise and SAT down with sit down with my team and walked through like pages and pages of documentation and what they were developing and ask questions.

00:35:04:03 - 00:35:21:10
Kim
And then I would come back to them and we got to this place where at the end, after working with them for a few months, you know, I could come back and say, I just read this ten page paper that you wrote. Here are the three key points, I think, that are most critical. And they were like, yeah, that's it.

00:35:21:12 - 00:35:50:04
Kim
And so rather than dismissing my sort of, you know, simplification of of all of this big thinking, they actually appreciated it because it, it I was able to encapsulate the depth of complexity and what really matters in that from a technical capacity, but also how does it translate to results for the customer. And so being able to merge those two things, was really important.

00:35:50:06 - 00:36:11:07
Steve
Yeah, I think I think that becomes that becomes really powerful. Like you said, you you got to make sure you take the time at the front end to stop, to ask the questions, to learn to be inquisitive and then really understand and all these things that you've been saying, you know, what are you trying to solve? What's what is the ultimate end result you want to do?

00:36:11:07 - 00:36:34:09
Steve
And then how do you how do you put that together in a story that makes sense? I mean, you know, you've affectionately referred to yourself as and how about not going out too much, Merlin, but you have actually referred to yourself as a nerd whisperer with, with, with a source of pride and, and, and and I think it should be because to me, that really illustrates the importance and the power of storytelling.

00:36:34:11 - 00:36:48:21
Steve
But you can only do good storytelling if you have a if you truly understand the subject that you're trying to put together and why it matters to the audience. So maybe you can tell me a little bit about, about your your badge of nerd whisperer.

00:36:49:02 - 00:37:16:06
Kim
Yeah. I hope it's not offensive to people. I, I use it in the most endearing, way. I have my surrounded by lots of very smart people in my life. I, I do joke with my teams that I, I'm sort of, like, wish that I was an engineer. I don't think I really have the patience to be an engineer, but but I have great admiration, for engineers and for the people who are doing this really important work.

00:37:16:06 - 00:37:52:23
Kim
And so I have tried really hard, to understand it, and to be able to, to be sort of their voice to the world because it's been my experience also that a lot of these people don't want to be the ones talking about what they're doing, necessarily. They want to be the ones, doing it. So it builds this really great symbiotic relationship up, I think, where, you know, I get a lot of, appreciation and satisfaction for learning from them, and the work that they're doing and being able to represent that, to the world in a way that really gives it life.

00:37:53:01 - 00:38:09:02
Kim
You know, I sort of hate to see smart people with big ideas that never really make it to see the light of day, because they don't really know how to talk about it, or they don't really know how to apply it in a way that it can reach its full potential.

00:38:09:04 - 00:38:43:08
Steve
Yeah. And I always find, you know, with what we do, we talk to a lot of engineers and chemists and developers and like you said, extremely smart people that, oh my God, what they're doing. I can't even fathom what they do and the, the patience to apply the, the scientific method. But I always find it so fascinating once you get into that discussion with them, the amazing stories that you can find and translate to the market in terms of what's inspiring them to do different things, or what's that spark of innovation, because there's always that spark.

00:38:43:08 - 00:39:16:04
Steve
And then how do you put that in the context of how you make the product better, or how do you make the programing better, or how do you allow the robot to see better is just absolutely, absolutely fascinating. So I brought that up. Not in jest, but but really, I think as a, as a means of admiration for just these incredibly gifted people that are so deep in the technology and the innovation, but then letting them know they're actually the heroes here, and we need to bring that to life.

00:39:16:06 - 00:39:49:20
Kim
Yeah. And I think it's a, you know, in, in the beginning, it's still something that is very important to me as being able to, you know, earn that the trust, honestly and respect of those people, because it's not easy what they're doing and, I think that I try really hard to be able to represent it in a way that is that makes them proud, to stand behind the work that they're doing, not just a trivial banner headline or something like that.

00:39:49:20 - 00:39:56:06
Kim
I mean, I love a good billboard, but but it's got to be more than just that.

00:39:56:08 - 00:40:24:16
Steve
100%, 100%. So let's so let's kind of take this back to where we started, because I just kind of naturally leading us to this whole notion of design thinking, right? And thinking outside of the box and discovery and ideation and imagination, which are all really, really powerful things. And maybe there's some lessons you learned from your early days at Hasbro and with, Transformers and all that stuff that you worked on.

00:40:24:18 - 00:40:47:23
Steve
But how should we think about design thinking in in everything that we do to really be the best that we can to to innovate in new ways? Are there are there lessons from what you did in toys and entertainment that apply to robotics, or solving these really huge operational challenges at these companies we've been talking about?

00:40:48:01 - 00:41:07:04
Kim
I think on the people front, I had some some great managers, that I learned a lot from when I was there. And one of the things that, you know, that I remember very clearly as a new manager, I often tell people that I'm working with and people I'm mentoring, you know, the story that I was leading a new team.

00:41:07:04 - 00:41:25:07
Kim
I came in one morning and said to my manager, you know, here are the things that I've done. And she closed the door and she sat me down and she was like, you're leading a team. I never want to hear again about what you've done. I want to hear this is about the team. You're representing the team. And I was like, oh my God, she's right.

00:41:25:09 - 00:41:49:23
Kim
Like, I totally screwed up. And and I mean, there's, you know, probably time for both of those things. But it is a really good lesson in that whatever you're doing, you're representing your people and your job as a manager is to, you know, to motivate those people, support those people, break down barriers for those people, for them to be able to achieve their greatest potential.

00:41:49:23 - 00:42:17:13
Kim
So so that was sort of on the people side of things. One of the important lessons that I learned, I think in terms of thinking really big, is something else that I learned, you know, it's sort of, a thing across all entertainment kind of businesses. But I believe there was an exercise that we were part of with our communications team very early on in the early days of the Transformers business.

00:42:17:14 - 00:42:44:00
Kim
You know, Transformers has been a toy brand for a very long time. We had, the TV show, and we started to think, how do we make this bigger? You know, this was before the movies. And we got into, a brainstorming exercise that started with, you know, think for a minute about our wildest success. What would the news headline be?

00:42:44:02 - 00:43:15:08
Kim
So I don't know if the news headline I like, whether it's the I don't know if that is as relevant today, but but maybe the, on social media, I don't know what the headline or, and then let's work backwards, you know, from that. So we were sort of like went down this interesting path of like, you know, Optimus Prime does this, you know, thing where we sort of turned it into a news headline and said, well, of course it's going to happen on July 4th.

00:43:15:08 - 00:43:40:23
Kim
And the robot's going to be a 747, and then we've got this seven, four, seven launch date. And it just sort of like the the energy of that. Yes. And design process, design thinking and thinking really big, like beyond the constraints of your business today is something that I really learned there that I have brought with me, through my career.

00:43:40:23 - 00:44:10:22
Kim
And I try to sort of instill that sense of imagination, in all of my teams and think like, imagine if, you know, our budget wasn't a problem, our regional constraints weren't a problem. We had unlimited resources. What would we do and how would we do it? And I think that gets people really thinking like, okay, you know, we don't have to think about what is my problem solving for next month or this sprint.

00:44:11:00 - 00:44:44:00
Kim
It can be really outside of the box. You know that the concept of, playing bigger and play to win. So I think those are some of those are some other things that I learned there. And then I would say finally is how to harness that big idea and translate it into an actionable plan. There, you know, I am as maybe you can tell from this conversation, like my mind is a thousand places all at once.

00:44:44:00 - 00:45:02:16
Kim
I sometimes have a hard time staying focused on, like, how are we going to get something done? So I build frameworks for myself to be able to do it. And I, you know, with my team in the past few months have been talking about the what I call the 2 to 2 plan. What are we doing in the next two weeks, two months and two quarters to get to where we need to go?

00:45:02:18 - 00:45:14:21
Kim
And where we need to go? Obviously, there's a vision beyond two quarters, but in the world of startups, things change so fast that that I think the two quarters is as far as we're really, really planning at the moment in great detail.

00:45:14:22 - 00:45:35:20
Steve
So thinking two quarters ahead, okay, I'm going to I'm going to ask you to think like three years ahead. How's that for getting in the crazy future machine. So so what do you see as the future of AI, robotics, all of that? Where where are we going and how is it work that that you and your colleagues are doing today?

00:45:35:22 - 00:45:42:02
Steve
How is that going to change the world to the better? Getting back to some of the early framing you were talking about.

00:45:42:04 - 00:46:05:06
Kim
Well, first, I'd like to see a world in three years where we get rid of what I call the robot graveyard, which is the place where all of the failed deployments go to die. We often go into these manufacturing facilities and we say to customers, you know, tell us about your experience with robotics. And they're like, oh, I have a robot.

00:46:05:08 - 00:46:26:11
Kim
You know, we had robots stopped working. You know, now we don't have anything. And I'm like, well, tell me more. How did that happen? Where are they? And they're like, oh, let me show you. And they walk me to some back closet. It's like covered in, you know, like move to the back closet, you know, signs. So I want to see that go away.

00:46:26:13 - 00:46:49:08
Kim
Because I think it's created a sense of, understandably, distrust of robotics, distrust of the industry. And I don't think nobody's doing anything malicious. I just think that it's the state of robotics as they used to be. I don't think it's the state where it needs to be. So I think that robots are getting smarter. I want to see people embracing technology to be able to make them work.

00:46:49:10 - 00:47:21:05
Kim
And again, it comes back to results. We as a robotics industry have to help our customers succeed. And to do that, we have to make it as intuitive and as streamlined as possible. Like these, customers are dealing with this immense complexity. They are dealing with changing priorities, shrinking budgets, fewer people, higher goals. They don't have time to be robotics experts.

00:47:21:05 - 00:47:56:14
Kim
You want your you want your customers to be manufacturing experts or logistics experts. We can be the menu. We can be the robotics experts. But we have to do it in a way that is easy. You know, a way that makes it easy to buy for us, easy to deploy, easy to scale, you know, think about all of the other industries that do this really well, that serve, that are have this customer first mentality and try to adopt those kinds of practices, into the robotics space.

00:47:56:16 - 00:48:29:11
Steve
That's really interesting approach. And and again, so much of what I'm getting out of this conversation is just kind of reframing and being willing to change our own paradigms to think big and to think differently, but then really embrace the possibilities. But then behind that, you've got to have the confidence that the technology is going to work, that you've got the flexibility to adapt and redeploy it, that you can constantly reinvent, which I think was is has been really, really powerful.

00:48:29:11 - 00:48:55:07
Steve
I really enjoyed this conversation. So I can just summarize a little bit of our conversation with Kim Lowes, who's CEO of Rapid Robotics. We started by talking about her, her amazing path, very atypical one, I would say, for a CEO of a Silicon Valley company starting off as a designer, working through marketing teams, ultimately becoming a, chief growth officer before becoming CEO.

00:48:55:07 - 00:49:39:16
Steve
But really thinking about how the design, thinking that you learned at an early age has just really opened up, how you've looked at solving problems and thinking about the customer experience and what it is that you want to solve. We we went a little bit in depth on, the AI automatic and robotics industry talking about kind of can we apply Maslow's hierarchy of need to think about that level of perception where we can get the robots to see and know what it needs to pick up application layers, physical hardware layers, overlay that with AI, we've introduced a new term smart field that'll be coming soon to, publication.

00:49:39:17 - 00:50:13:17
Steve
There. You also created an acronym Rs Agile Robotic Smart Fields. But I think for me, as we really got to talking about things, the powerful points were giving technology purpose. Remember, everything communicates every interaction, every customer experience point. And then, you know, for me, Kim, it was really you summing it up with kind of these, these four steps to success, regardless of what industry, you know, you've applied it across multiple industries.

00:50:13:17 - 00:50:36:18
Steve
You're applying it now with rapid. Number one, don't be afraid to think big. Number two, embrace the power of imagination. Number three play to win. And number four, harness that big idea with an actionable plan that miss anything. Anything you want to add before we wrap our conversation.

00:50:36:19 - 00:50:58:14
Kim
I guess the last thing I would, the last tip that I will often share with people, it's my own. You know, I don't know that this works for everybody, but when I think about when you start thinking, big things can sometimes get scary. You know, you put yourself out there and your ideas out there, you know, certainly as the CEO of this, of Rapid Robotics AI, you know, it's a bit of a vulnerable place to be, right?

00:50:58:14 - 00:51:20:14
Kim
It's my this company is depending on me to help help it succeed. But I always think, what's the worst that can happen? Right? Like in all of these big moves I've made in my life, I always ask myself, what's the worst that can happen? Is it really likely to happen? And is it really that bad? Can I, you know, can I design my way out of it?

00:51:20:17 - 00:51:29:22
Kim
Probably. And so that's that's kind of my, you know, last layer of decision making criteria before I do something crazy.

00:51:30:00 - 00:51:52:06
Steve
No, that's, that's, that's really that's really good advice for Kim. Thank you very much for joining us on building brand gravity and sharing your experiences and being vulnerable about the challenges that you're yourself in facing as you're evolving into the new role. And really trying to, in a lot of ways, upend the way an industry has typically, done things.

00:51:52:06 - 00:52:17:17
Steve
And you can learn more about the exciting things that Kim and her team are doing at Rapid Robotics by visiting their website, which is Rapid robotics.com. You can visit her, on LinkedIn. It's at Kimberly Jose again, thank you very much, Kim, for joining our conversation. Thank you for our listeners. If you liked what you heard today, we encourage you to learn more about Rapid.

00:52:17:17 - 00:52:30:00
Steve
We encourage you to subscribe, rate, review the podcast, and tune in for future episodes. Thank you for joining Building Brand Gravity. I'm one of your host, Steve Halsey. Have a wonderful day.

00:52:30:02 - 00:52:59:00
Speaker
We are gas business communications. We are a team of media strategists, storytellers, and engagement experts who meet you at the intersection of business and communications. To learn more, visit Gas communications.com. You're listening to Building Brand Gravity attracting People into your orbit. A gas business communications podcast. Keep connected with us by subscribing to the show in your favorite podcast player.

00:52:59:06 - 00:53:10:11
Speaker
If you like what you've heard, please rate the show that helps us to keep delivering the latest in industry influence. Thanks for listening. Until next time.

 

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:37:09
Speaker 1
So when I started my career in communications over 30 years ago, public policy work and marketing communications were, I would say, quite separate. At Burson-Marsteller back in the day, which is where I started. It was literally true. So those of us in B to B and B to C, marketing communications were on one floor. And our hot shop friends in corporate crisis, public policy and public affairs were on another floor in much, shall we say, lofty or territory.

00:00:37:11 - 00:01:00:13
Speaker 1
They were up there is how I always thought of them. Today, as with so many aspects of our working lives, the boundaries are far more blurred and the skill sets required for a career and integrated marketing communications are much more varied. I personally love it when arbitrary walls break down in the face of livid need and experience. I love to see things get mixed up.

00:01:00:15 - 00:01:28:20
Speaker 1
So I am really excited to get the chance to hear the perspective of today's guest, Peter. Good riddance. So Peter is nearly 49 years into a career at fortune 50 powerhouse Dow. Today, he serves as global director of business and marketing communications. But he started his career squarely in public policy, working first at multiple environmentally focused nonprofits before joining Dow as a public policy manager.

00:01:28:22 - 00:01:51:06
Speaker 1
So Peter and I cover a lot of ground in this conversation from how business communications has and is changing what he learned working in the office of the CEO in the heart of the Covid crisis, which is very interesting, and the mix of skills that he feels are essential for today's savvy communicator. It's not what it was 31 years ago when I started in the field.

00:01:51:08 - 00:02:04:17
Speaker 1
So settle in and enjoy the discussion. And if you like what you hear, there's make sure to like and share the episode. Let's get started.

00:02:04:19 - 00:02:33:21
Speaker 2
You are listening to building brand Gravity, attracting people into your orbit. A business communications podcast. This is a show for communications pros across industries looking to gain an inside view into industry influence. You're about to hear a conversation with leading industry professionals talking about the importance of building business impact through sound brand strategy. Let's get into the show.

00:02:33:22 - 00:02:44:15
Speaker 1
Hello and welcome back to Building Brand Gravity. I'm angry, and I'm CEO here at Sheehan's Business Communications, and I'm delighted to be joined today by Peter Goodrich of Dow. Hey, Peter.

00:02:44:17 - 00:02:46:06
Speaker 3
And how are you doing?

00:02:46:08 - 00:03:04:09
Speaker 1
Very good, very good. Full disclosure, Dow has been a long time client of ours, but, I've been really interested in the arc of Peter's career for some time since I've been he's been on my radar, and I've gotten to know him a little bit. He is currently a global director of business and marketing communications within the Dow Global Public Affairs Group.

00:03:04:11 - 00:03:20:18
Speaker 1
But what's interesting, Peter, about the arc of your career and I think something that we'll talk about today is where you started and the evolution to where you are today. And one of my themes today is sort of the breaking down of boundaries between different areas within our field. But maybe we can start off with the arc of your career.

00:03:20:18 - 00:03:24:21
Speaker 1
From what I understand, you started in public policy and nonprofit. Is that.

00:03:24:21 - 00:03:55:12
Speaker 3
Right? Yeah, that that that's right. And I appreciate you being here. So thanks again for for inviting me. Yeah. If you go actually even a little further back from there. Right out of college, I actually started in sales and technology sales, and inside sales. I was on the phone all day long. And as it relates to communications, you really have to think about how you approach your customer, what messaging you want to use, how you're helping them, solve their problems and things like that.

00:03:55:12 - 00:04:18:16
Speaker 3
So it was really it was really, good two years and I learned I learned a ton. But it became pretty clear to me that that wasn't my long term path. And so I how I ended up in the nonprofit space, in the policy space was, I'd been debating whether I was going to go to law school, or get my master's in public policy landed on the public policy track.

00:04:18:18 - 00:04:46:15
Speaker 3
I myself going from Chicago to DC, where I started studying master's in public policy with a focus on environmental policy. And so found myself working, at an NGO, called American Rivers, doing some river conservation policy work, mostly on public lands kind of stuff. And then after that, I moved over to, a group called the Wildlife Conservation Society, which, is a large international, conservation organization.

00:04:46:17 - 00:05:14:18
Speaker 3
They run the New York Zoos and Aquariums, headquartered at the Bronx Zoo. And both of those cases were really, really good experience working on getting my hands deep in policy by seeing the connection between and policy and how we reach out to our various stakeholders. It's not just government. Right. So at American Rivers, I was, I was helping with our advocacy, but I was also building, a network of what we were calling river stewards across the country.

00:05:14:18 - 00:05:35:15
Speaker 3
So I had to reach out to a bunch of local, river conservation activists. So that was, really interesting experience. And then a wildlife conservation society that was really getting deep into policy and then state because that's when climate policy was being heavily negotiated. This was the 809 timeframe. And so I got to work pretty heavily, on that.

00:05:35:15 - 00:06:03:20
Speaker 3
And then I found myself, coming over to Dao in, in a policy, context. So a bit different than what I've been working on, on the conservation side, but, came into Dao and was working largely on energy policy. But, you know, a very different context because we're an energy intensive, manufacturer. And so I really had to learn the ins and outs of energy policy in a totally different way.

00:06:03:22 - 00:06:10:06
Speaker 3
So it's really it was a great, it was a great way to get a really well-rounded experience.

00:06:10:08 - 00:06:29:08
Speaker 1
I have to go back to the sales thing for a second, because there's so much talk today about resilience, building resilience, and also being flexible in your mindset. And I think that that early training, like you said, a couple of years, will really get you very deep, especially as you said, you're on the front line of it every day.

00:06:29:10 - 00:06:36:16
Speaker 1
Did you feel it made you a bit more resilient and also sort of flexible in negotiating how you're going to deal with any given situation?

00:06:36:18 - 00:07:06:15
Speaker 3
Yeah, I think so. I mean, you know, for me, it was something that really stretched me out of my comfort zone. I'm I am naturally more of an introvert. And so sitting on the phone all day long, calling people I don't know is it's really not super comfortable for me. But, it, it built up this kind of ability to, hear rejections or at least counters to what I'm saying and think through that process of how I'm, how I'm going to, you know, meet the needs of that customer.

00:07:06:17 - 00:07:30:01
Speaker 3
Maybe it doesn't work out, but you just have to think through things a little bit differently. And you're doing that day in and day out. So over time, you just get really kind of comfortable being in that space of either hearing no, being rejected, failing and having to come back. Not meeting customer needs and having to call them and talk to them about what went wrong and take ownership for things.

00:07:30:01 - 00:07:41:02
Speaker 3
And so, you know, you do that a long enough and, and it becomes something that, at least for me, it was just a little more comfortable. And I think that that has definitely served me throughout my career up to this point.

00:07:41:04 - 00:08:00:06
Speaker 1
Well, two things come to mind right away. First of all, and we'll get to this soon. In terms of the team that you work with today, it's how it really puts you in a place of symbiotic like, compassion with media relations professionals who are calling in a different way. We don't like to think of it as sales, but it's got similar.

00:08:00:08 - 00:08:18:03
Speaker 1
The other thing is, and we'll we'll definitely talk about this later, because when you and I were chatting and you were making points about what it means to be at a truly matrixed organization, I would assume that that background, it really gives you some compassion and connection with your colleagues and sales and other types of the parts of the business.

00:08:18:05 - 00:08:43:03
Speaker 3
Absolutely. I mean, you know, the other day, they're the ones on the front lines with our customers. And so we'll get into it more, but I, you know, arming them, with the latest and greatest and ensuring they have, you know, all the right messages. And some of our biggest initiatives is hugely important. I mean, they're the ones speaking to our customers, and it's it's and it's ultimately our customers, right, that are driving our growth drive here business.

00:08:43:03 - 00:08:44:15
Speaker 3
So usually.

00:08:44:17 - 00:09:06:05
Speaker 1
Yeah, it's true. And it's interesting because as you're making that pivot from public policy to business and marketing communications, that sense of who is the stakeholder and who's the customer is really, really important. But even before we get there, one of the things you said that's very interesting about the work you did at the Wildlife Conservation Society and then the work you do today at Dow.

00:09:06:07 - 00:09:23:21
Speaker 1
And by the way, I now have the Simon and Garfunkel. It's all happening at the zoo in my head. So that's fine. The you said the Bronx Zoo that's growing up in the 70s. That commercial here is on all the time. So that's in my head now, just a little side thing. But, you talked about being in an energy intensive manufacturing business, and that's very interesting.

00:09:23:21 - 00:09:43:18
Speaker 1
You really have that through line of sustainability. And I think sometimes when people are thinking about energy, they're thinking about energy producers. They're not always thinking about energy users. And that must be that must have been a really helpful lens for you to adopt or learn more about. As you came in to the Dow contacts from from the non profit context.

00:09:43:18 - 00:09:44:18
Speaker 1
Is that true?

00:09:44:20 - 00:10:14:06
Speaker 3
Yeah, absolutely. Like I said I mean I think it gave me a much more well-rounded perspective. On how complex energy really is when we're talking about the energy is what drives everything, right? I mean, you know, if you bring it forward to today and think about, you know, AI and all the data centers that are being built, like one of the biggest issues that they're going to be contending with over time is access to electricity or energy to power those, those data centers.

00:10:14:06 - 00:10:47:09
Speaker 3
So it's it's a hugely important topic. And you come into a company like Dow and, you know, half the company here, experts on energy in some way or energy or engineers. And so I it was a huge learning curve for me. It's been a great experience because it ultimately is what drives drives everything. So you know, as we're looking to decarbonize over time, I mean, understanding the interplay between getting to a low carbon future and what that means for where we are today in terms of energy, it's it's yeah.

00:10:47:11 - 00:11:05:21
Speaker 1
You know, it's so funny as I kind of live in a double consciousness of a, a communications practitioner and counselor, but also an organizational leader in my role. And I'm always thinking about, what what are those messages and mindsets that are most important for this moment? And you're reminding me it's like, first of all, pay attention to the nuance.

00:11:05:23 - 00:11:30:17
Speaker 1
And also there's a lot of dynamic tensions out there. And I was totally thinking also about AI, how we're in this moment where I is going to advance so many things. You know, people have a lot of feelings, hashtag feelings about AI. But the fact is, is that, there's such amazing things happening, but it's also this really problematic challenge regarding the energy consumption and that just seems to be the name of the game today.

00:11:30:17 - 00:11:48:12
Speaker 1
How is it that as professionals in this space, we really pay attention to deep nuance, which I think is very important working with companies like that, but also understand that some things are in dynamic tension with each other. Do you see that as a mindset or a skill set that should be cultivated these days?

00:11:48:13 - 00:12:12:08
Speaker 3
Nuance is just really important for any of these big conversations. I think we can all agree that we need to decarbonize. We're we're very focused on it. It's one of our main strategic pillars to decarbonize and grow. But, you know, just saying we need to then switch to all renewables. That's not going to be practical. It's not going to work well.

00:12:12:10 - 00:12:41:01
Speaker 3
We will see a lot of, negative ramifications from that. And so you start talking about these spaces from a communication standpoint, from a policy standpoint, from a business standpoint, hugely, hugely complex. And so I think that we need to get to a place where we're less afraid of nuance. We need to get into it. And it doesn't mean that any anyone is trying to slow anything down or anything like that.

00:12:41:01 - 00:13:10:06
Speaker 3
It's we're trying to get to a solution, and you have to understand the details and how things practically work in order to figure out how we move forward. So I think really working through the sticking points in the nuance, I know we'll talk about it later, but I think this is where working across so many different stakeholder groups is really important, because all those perspectives are are crucial for anything that we're going to do.

00:13:10:08 - 00:13:21:17
Speaker 3
From a from a business standpoint, right. We really have to understand how we're going to move the needle. And you really only can do that when you understand all of your main stakeholder perspectives.

00:13:21:19 - 00:13:39:18
Speaker 1
Yeah, there's very few silos anymore. Everything is permeable. So between the public policy and then the role that you're playing today, which I want to get into more, you were in the office of the CEO for a while. That's how. And that to me is a really interesting bridge, because talk about getting the bird's eye view of the whole stakeholder landscape.

00:13:39:18 - 00:13:47:04
Speaker 1
How how did that experience sort of shape you or inform you or widen your lens or whatever metaphor you want to share with me?

00:13:47:06 - 00:14:01:03
Speaker 3
Yeah, I mean, it was it was great experience. And I think from a, you know, going back to the career part, discussion, not something that was on my radar, but that's probably true of almost every single role that I've taken.

00:14:01:05 - 00:14:04:12
Speaker 1
I love that, though. I think that's amazing, right?

00:14:04:14 - 00:14:25:20
Speaker 3
I've had I've been open to things. I've I've had goals and interests all that, but I haven't I've rarely kind of pointed to a job and said, I want that job. I kind of just said yesterday as they've come along. So, you know, going back to 2015, this is our previous CEO and chief of staff at the time, reached out to me.

00:14:25:20 - 00:14:46:13
Speaker 3
And, we had some conversations and I decided to join the team. And it made a lot of sense at the time because, I was in a, in an advocacy role at the time, and, and, our CEO was very active in those spaces. So I had familiarity of the space that he was operating in. So moved into that space.

00:14:46:13 - 00:15:21:00
Speaker 3
But to your point, you know, you then very quickly see it across the entire organization and, you know, it's a it's an interesting space to, to lead. So for us, it lines up under our, communications function. And so there's the executive communications piece of it. And then there's kind of just the general executive support that comes along with the preparation, the thinking through how best to use, you know, this individual's, time across, you know, a large global company.

00:15:21:02 - 00:15:41:16
Speaker 3
And so, you know, for me, at that point, five years into my time at Dow, it was an amazing way to see across the company to go to all sorts of, you know, our production facilities and all sorts of different, regions. And so the, the learning curve there was it was, it was great. It was rapid.

00:15:41:18 - 00:16:06:23
Speaker 3
You know, you got to get to speed pretty quickly. But it was just such a tremendous way to see, you, the company and to your point, the breadth of the stakeholders that at that level you're having to engage with. Right. So, you know, all of our top customers are going to want to have time, at some point with the CEO, all of our, you know, policymakers, CEO is helping to open doors and they want to meet with them.

00:16:07:01 - 00:16:37:14
Speaker 3
Obviously our employees. Right. This is they're a huge, huge, part of things. And so, you know, just thinking through that broad landscape. And then it was I was kind of in a unique position of one when I first started. It's when we also announced a major transaction of the Dow DuPont merger. And so, so that kind of, you know, shook up the landscape, like literally the day that my stuff left, I've been living in Philadelphia, was moving back to Midland, Michigan, where we're headquartered.

00:16:37:16 - 00:16:41:16
Speaker 3
And literally the day that my stuff left Philadelphia, the day that we announced the merger.

00:16:41:17 - 00:16:42:21
Speaker 1
So just a small it's.

00:16:42:22 - 00:17:09:09
Speaker 3
A small thing. So, yeah. So the landscape shifted a little bit. So we worked through that. But then, we also fortunate enough in, in that period to work through a CEO transition. So previous CEO, retired new CEO, who was our current CEO, Jim Fiddling came in. And you get to see a lot from that perspective of, different styles, how they apply those to, their leadership of an organization.

00:17:09:14 - 00:17:54:13
Speaker 3
And because we were going through this merger and then ultimately spinning out as a new now as we were calling it, you know, how how you're bringing new, culture into the organization and how we're framing things differently and it was it was a really, really good opportunity, to kind of think through, from my standpoint and how we strategically, use this time, and how we thought through what were the biggest things were to tackle, initially, but then to really see from that level the, the consistency and message and the, you know, real passion for the team and for people.

00:17:54:13 - 00:18:14:06
Speaker 3
And that's how we're going to move forward. And I think that that was a it was a great learning opportunity for me, real privilege to be able to, you know, be close to leadership at that level, opens a lot of doors to be around leadership and a lot of other companies. So you to see a lot of different styles.

00:18:14:08 - 00:18:35:22
Speaker 3
And ultimately, you know, I think you get to work on a lot of different things, but I always say what's also unique about it, at least the way we were structured, is small team. A lot of responsibility. You don't really own much. Right? So you're kind of pulling on different parts of the organization to get your work done.

00:18:36:00 - 00:18:55:06
Speaker 3
And, you know, for me, then working through the Matrixed organization that we are, you know, once again, it's just a it's a skill set that, you know, probably had a little bit of it coming in, but but you're not going to be successful in that role unless you can navigate that. So, with that, there is a little bit more me.

00:18:55:08 - 00:19:21:20
Speaker 1
Oh, I bet, you know, and it's it's interesting. First of all, there's you're making me reflect on the fact there's moments in our career that sometimes we see them when we look back, sometimes we know it's happening at that moment that are really a masterclass in a way or you can think of another analogy where there's just this confluence of opportunities or this moment in time where it's just going to be this big leap of growth and might be hard, might be different.

00:19:21:20 - 00:19:31:15
Speaker 1
But it's exciting. And I believe. Were you still in the office of the CEO during the Covid when that was unfolding? Yeah, that's another big moment in time too.

00:19:31:16 - 00:19:59:09
Speaker 3
Absolutely. And, you know, so you learn a lot, about how to one day the critical importance of a steady hand, demeanor. Right. It's because all of a sudden, a lot of people are looking at you when things change overnight. We're sending people home, right? We. Yeah. We also have, you know, a huge percentage of our, of our workforce that go into work every day in this environment because we're running 24 seven.

00:19:59:11 - 00:20:28:11
Speaker 3
So, yeah, really, really interesting vantage point to, to see things and also to learn how to adapt very, very quickly. Right. So we at the time I was helping out with, our global leadership, conference that we put on every year. We obviously stuck with that. And so, adapting quickly to say we still need to align with the organization, but now we have to do this in this virtual environment that at the time was not what it is today, as everybody knows.

00:20:28:13 - 00:20:50:13
Speaker 3
And then, you know, I think we'll touch on this later, but just the amount of internal communications at that point, it just went through the roof and gave me a deep appreciation for the value of it that I see so clearly now and in my current role, the different application of it. But it's it's just so, it's so important.

00:20:50:13 - 00:20:53:08
Speaker 3
So give me a really deep appreciation for that as well.

00:20:53:10 - 00:21:19:09
Speaker 1
Yeah. You know, another binary from back in the day that I've observed was a sense of internal communications versus external communication. So obviously things like social media to a conversation, the evolution of the web broke a lot of that down. Okay. In society changes generationally. But also I think it was a false binary to begin with in many ways, although it was easier to command and control things in and out back in the day.

00:21:19:10 - 00:21:41:10
Speaker 1
Not not totally, but I think the other thing is there was a real hierarchy for my observation about external comms being the thing. An internal comms, you know. Yeah, yeah, we have to do some internal comms. I think that has radically shifted. I used to talk about, you know, to me, the drop falls in the pond and the first ring that radiates out is your own people and your own internal stakeholders.

00:21:41:15 - 00:21:51:08
Speaker 1
How is your understanding of what has been known as internal communications change? I mean, do you agree with some of what I'm thinking, that those that there was never it shouldn't have been a binary to begin with? In some ways.

00:21:51:10 - 00:22:10:05
Speaker 3
I do, I do and you use the, the, you know, social as a great example. If you look at our social channels, some of the highest engagement on our social channels are employees. Right. So so that's where a lot of our employees are learning about things that we're doing and seeing. Right. It's it's yeah, we're doing stuff through internal channels as well.

00:22:10:07 - 00:22:41:12
Speaker 3
But a big percentage of our population doesn't have access to a computer, right. Because they're in plants and, you know, in the manufacturing environment. But they're personally on LinkedIn or X or something like that. And so those, those channels are actually really important for our internal audience as well. But I just, you know, if you, if you go to so in the Covid context very, very rapidly, we had to, you know, we were meeting with leaders, our leadership what what we like people leaders.

00:22:41:12 - 00:22:45:15
Speaker 3
So it's about the top 3500, within the company. Anybody that.

00:22:45:17 - 00:22:48:01
Speaker 1
Which is a lot of people leaders to reach.

00:22:48:03 - 00:23:11:15
Speaker 3
It is and so we were doing weekly calls with them to align on kind of here's what we're doing here. In the next steps we would highlight some, we were doing things like, you know, turning over some facilities to, to produce hand sanitizer, like we were doing a lot of that stuff. We were aligning around some of those activities we're doing, but also aligning on kind of the the nuts and bolts of how we're operating through this, through this environment.

00:23:11:15 - 00:23:37:13
Speaker 3
And then weekly, there was an all employee communication that went out as well. So that's that's a lot of communication as we look forward to today. You know, I think that we probably came down a bit, the overall I mean, we're not doing that that much internal. But if you think about within our businesses, it's really, really important, this concept of kind of internal and external, right?

00:23:37:16 - 00:23:55:18
Speaker 3
We have to talk to our employees to align them around strategy. And what are our major initiatives and what are we really, really focused on? What does what does the market look like today? Is it are we in a challenging environment? Are we in a growth environment? What what are the things look like and how is that informing what we do?

00:23:55:20 - 00:24:18:13
Speaker 3
Because then our employees become our ambassadors, right? Not just our sales folks, but yes, our sales folks are going out and meeting with our customers every day, so they definitely have to have that. But if any employee, they're talking to, their friends, their families, we are generally yes, we have some, sites in bigger cities, but generally speaking, we're located in smaller towns, smaller communities around the world.

00:24:18:15 - 00:24:39:18
Speaker 3
We're tightly knit within those communities. And so our employees need to be armed with the ability to go and speak about what we're doing or be informed about what we're doing, right. So they become our biggest ambassadors. And so that's really, really important. And then you just get into like the nuts and bolts of building company pride. Super important.

00:24:39:19 - 00:25:13:05
Speaker 3
And making sure that, you know, people really understand the, the things behind our when we talk about decarbonizing grow or transform the waste when we're talking about plastics, what does that really what is the work that we're really doing. And so the internal part, I genuinely believe we just kind of can't be successful in anything that you're doing if you're not able to align and, encourage and inspire, your, your employees around all the great work that you're doing.

00:25:13:09 - 00:25:33:08
Speaker 1
So I couldn't agree more. And frankly, we're here to cultivate understanding between people. We're here to try to improve literal communications between people. And that could be a marketing message to, you know, I'm going to give something of service to you, and I want to serve it at the right time because you need this thing or this service, or you want to learn more.

00:25:33:10 - 00:25:56:19
Speaker 1
But it's amazing internally if you can't kind of people talk about hearts and minds, if you can't bring that excitement or that understanding to your own team, especially when it's as global and large as Dow, you know what an incredible incubator for understanding. You know, how messages are received and how they resonate. And, you know, if you don't start there, where are you going to start?

00:25:56:21 - 00:26:18:01
Speaker 1
So you were from public policy office to the CEO. Now you're a global director of business and marketing communications. So years ago, what did you think business and marketing communications meant? Like what what was your perception of what that would be? And did you self-identify with that at all before evolving? I think, and bringing a ton of skill sets to the role.

00:26:18:01 - 00:26:18:15
Speaker 1
Now.

00:26:18:17 - 00:26:39:04
Speaker 3
I've been close to it. I've been within our public affairs leadership team for, for a number of years now, so I had a decent understanding of of everything that went into it. But I if I'm being totally honest, I think I, I tended towards really kind of understanding the what we would call more purely marketing communications work.

00:26:39:04 - 00:27:11:12
Speaker 3
Like I understood, the promotional activities and all the responsibilities around that and what we were doing, to try to get in front of our customers and, you know, trade shows as an important piece of that and how we're using digital channels and things of that nature. But I think I probably, I can say now being a, you know, year and a half or so into the role, I probably did discount, or just didn't have a great awareness of all the, what I would call business communications stuff that goes into the role.

00:27:11:12 - 00:27:48:08
Speaker 3
So, you know, they're we're talking about real strategic communications around big business initiatives. The executive communications support, right from our business presidents or our, you know, global marketing leaders. There's a lot of communications support that goes around, you know, when they're going out and talking about business and talking about down. So that's a huge part when we're doing, you know, various versions of M&A, the team gets involved, in that, and then, you know, there's crises sometimes issues that need to be managed.

00:27:48:08 - 00:28:11:08
Speaker 3
And again, it's this team that really is on the frontlines within the business helping to manage it. Yes. With with others in corporate and government affairs and, and the whole and matrix and and, and diversity of folks around the company. But I think that's a piece of it that I really, wasn't surprised a little bit.

00:28:11:10 - 00:28:26:16
Speaker 3
I probably didn't have, the full context on just how much of that is part of the role and important for everyone within the team, right? Not just the kind of top leaders within the team, but really everybody. Everybody gets involved in in some in some respects.

00:28:26:16 - 00:28:52:12
Speaker 1
So and it's it's exciting to peel back the layers of the onion. You know, again, you were directly involved with a lot of that. But then to peel deeper and see and the interplay between what might be understood as business or corporate communications and the marketing communications side, that might be more customer or prospect driven. You're seeing that symbiotic relationship between the two and how the issues landscape and articulating really purpose and values, and also very tangible.

00:28:52:12 - 00:29:14:12
Speaker 1
You've talked about to them the decline, monetizing and also reducing waste, the plastics piece that you folks are working really hard on, you know, how that creates the conversation that ultimately does have a lot of customer impact. And how have you seen Peter, as you reflect on your role and moving toward it? How have you seen business comms or marketing comms changing over time?

00:29:14:12 - 00:29:18:18
Speaker 1
Well, what's your reflections on the landscape that you and your team are working in now?

00:29:19:00 - 00:29:44:00
Speaker 3
Yeah, I think no question. The importance of the multi-stakeholder environment is, is just huge. So if you can't take a step back and look at Dow overall. Right. So we have I'll talk a little bit about, you know, since the time that Jim came in New Dow and and look for it. So we, we no longer have a mission.

00:29:44:02 - 00:30:08:05
Speaker 3
We have an ambition. Right. And the ambition is to be the most innovative, customer centric, inclusive and sustainable materials science company in the world. And I think that's important because an ambition mindset is you're kind of always striving for something. It's not about being the biggest, it's not about being here. It's really about being the best in those areas that will then make you a successful company.

00:30:08:05 - 00:30:28:14
Speaker 3
And so we're really focused on that. And then underneath that we also, developed and rolled out kind of the purpose of the why behind what we're, what we're doing. And that's to deliver a sustainable future for the world, through our material science expertise and collaboration with partners. So that piece is embedded into our budget. And our purpose is that collaboration with partners.

00:30:28:14 - 00:30:49:21
Speaker 3
And I think a big part of that is to reflect on and have a little bit of humility around. We don't have all the answers we need. These are big problems that we're trying to solve, right? So, so climate change and decarbonization, huge challenge. Plastic waste plastics as a material are critically important. Plastic waste a big issue.

00:30:49:21 - 00:31:14:12
Speaker 3
And we really need to we need to work across the value chain with all sorts of other stakeholders to help solve that. So I think, you know, those kind of themes around collaboration, really, really important. My team's role specifically, yes, is, you know, we generation to be part of the sales conversion process and all of that.

00:31:14:12 - 00:31:49:23
Speaker 3
But but that's definitely not where it stops. You know, these the title of the podcast here. Right. It's it's around building brand graphics. We're building brand equity, brand loyalty leading with our technologies and solutions and working with all of our partners, customers and others on how we solve those, those issues. As a B2B company, I think what's really changing when we start thinking about stakeholders is maybe at one time it was it was, feasible for us to really kind of mostly focus on our direct customer, our direct customer.

00:31:50:04 - 00:32:15:22
Speaker 3
We're making things that then our direct customer is usually adding to converting in some way, doing something to it to make the final product or even or even just one more step down the chain before it becomes a final product. And so, it, it puts us in a, in a different place. But I think we used to be able to say, okay, we're going to focus on on those people that converters, let's call them.

00:32:16:00 - 00:32:46:00
Speaker 3
I think now what you're seeing is so many different influence points, on consumer behavior, on the value chains. What is, what is actually driving demand or sending demand signals into the market? It's totally it's totally different. So today we have to do a lot more to understand not just our customers, but our customers customers. We have to understand and and know if we could have any influence.

00:32:46:02 - 00:33:09:05
Speaker 3
You know, with consumer behavior or within the whole value chain and who the value chain captain may be, where is where is decision making really happening or where is change really, really happening? So that's a big shift for us. You know, the regulatory environment is driving demand signals in, in a much stronger way than I think in the past.

00:33:09:05 - 00:33:32:04
Speaker 3
So if you use, you know, a good example, I think our if you look at like electric vehicles go around the world and in any one geography there's there's a different approach to how we are trying to, drive the adoption of electric vehicles. That's, that's a huge thing that we need to understand. And that as business communicators, we need to understand what that environment is.

00:33:32:05 - 00:33:53:20
Speaker 3
So that is we're out and promoting solutions. We we can be aware of the differences. And, you know, what Europe is doing is different is quite different than what, the United States is doing, which is very different than what China is doing. Right. And so we have to really have that understanding of that, that policy environment. And then just to name, you know, a couple hours, we talked about employees.

00:33:53:20 - 00:34:27:11
Speaker 3
So I don't want to discount that's that's huge. And number one we talked about. But then you also look at NGOs and academia and how they are, they have their own platform to drive, preferences into the market. And that's just grown exponentially with digital. Right? It's it's just a very different thing that we have to understand. And so for all of our all of all of my team, you know, really understanding all of those dynamics in anything that we do, is hugely important where it gets interesting.

00:34:27:11 - 00:34:54:21
Speaker 3
And I think, very complex is on the one hand, you know, through digital channels and through all the technologies that we have and measurement capabilities, we can be very, very targeted. Right? We can target messages to a very specific, audience. At the same time, everybody has access to a lot of, different platforms where they can get messages that are not necessarily targeted at them.

00:34:54:23 - 00:35:17:00
Speaker 3
So we have to think about all of that as we are driving, our various communication strategies. A good example, we recently hosted an investor Day. Right. So Investor Day obvious who the the core audience for that is. But it's a public event in terms of we we broadcast it, we put it out on our website like anybody can tune in and watch this.

00:35:17:02 - 00:35:39:13
Speaker 3
And so you then have to think about, yes, your messages are targeted towards investors and owners and key stakeholders. But you know, it's my team is putting together their materials for, for how we're updating investors on where we are and where we're going within each of our businesses. Yet also, I think our customers are tuning in our employees are tuning in, community leaders are probably tuning in.

00:35:39:15 - 00:35:41:21
Speaker 3
Policymakers may be tuning in.

00:35:41:22 - 00:36:04:19
Speaker 1
I think that's powerful. It gets back to that word I used earlier, permeable that, you know, there's and it's an interesting time. Again, a dynamic tension. Right. Because with AI and other types of technologies, at least, how generative AI or the attempt to get there is being applied now in marketing and communications, etc., the targeting will become more predictive, more precise.

00:36:04:21 - 00:36:44:17
Speaker 1
That's the dream at least. And many are advancing that. There's a real arms race now in that field. So technology Comtech marketing tech, all of these things. Will the written word, all of this stuff creative is expanding and changing. So the targeting will increase. But you're right, there's still increased permeability between audiences. So it does sound like, you know, the teams that you're overseeing, those working on business comms and corporate and issues management and marketing communications and experiential events, you know, that that need to be very mindful of all stakeholders in all contexts and understanding how this context, we're going to weight more heavily to this stakeholder, but others will come along.

00:36:44:19 - 00:36:52:00
Speaker 1
And how does it resonate first and foremost for those 1 or 2 primary audiences? But what are the valences or the vibrations for the others?

00:36:52:02 - 00:37:20:20
Speaker 3
For my team, you know, large a large number of them are sitting within business leadership teams. And so they're connecting with, you know, marketing, commercial sales, technical services, R&D, sustainability. And you know, all the different parts that get the business to operate. Communications often plays the role of kind of helping to connect the dots between those folks and drive towards consensus.

00:37:20:20 - 00:37:47:11
Speaker 3
So that's one big skill set of being able to even work within that context. And then a big company like ours, you know, if you're working on something related to, let's say, plastic waste, I mean, that has business context. It's very, you know, are a lot of business interests, definitely corporate interests, definitely geographic interests. And you have to be able to work within all of those, things to knock down the silos.

00:37:47:11 - 00:38:06:18
Speaker 3
We are going to be siloed where big organization, they just naturally exist. Right. But you have to be able to understand who are the folks you need to work with, and how do you how do you work with them. And so that I think that piece is hugely important. Part of that, I think, does also come down to how you build your network.

00:38:06:19 - 00:38:31:19
Speaker 3
And so how you think about working with people and so candidly, you know, I think one of the challenges coming out of Covid is we're doing so much virtually that it it tends toward or it can towards the transactional. Right. You have a 30 minute meeting on your calendar, you join, you wrap up whatever was on the agenda, and you turn off your camera and you go about what whatever you were doing.

00:38:31:21 - 00:38:47:02
Speaker 3
And so I think it's it's really, really important, especially for people as they're coming in to now kind of early on to be around colleagues and to get to build those networks, because over time, that's how you really learn how you get things done.

00:38:47:04 - 00:39:04:13
Speaker 1
I'm glad you're mentioning that because I think it's a skill set. We need to honor what is possible virtually and amazing opportunities, but also honor what is happening in creating deeper relationships. What's required from that, whether you're in physical proximity or not? I love that. I think it's really, really important.

00:39:04:15 - 00:39:23:22
Speaker 3
Yeah. And so, yeah, I mean, all of that kind of then lends itself to we all operate in the great space things are in us. And I just believe if you can't operate in that space, it's going to be a bit of a bit of a struggle. So I think that that's a skill set that people really need to lean into.

00:39:23:22 - 00:39:42:07
Speaker 3
I think the hard communication skills, I mean, some people are more naturally better writers or more naturally. I think you can learn really the hard communication skills. And I do believe they're hard. I actually don't love communications being referred to as the soft skills. I think that they are. It's very hard, to do it, to do it well.

00:39:42:09 - 00:40:12:14
Speaker 3
But how that all comes together. So dealing with a matrix, dealing with ambiguity, having a plan B because things are changing faster than ever before. And so it's okay to have something not work as you, as you thought it might. But how do you how do you adjust? And the last thing I'll say, is I think that lends itself to, as we're thinking through a lot of, what we're doing in the plastic space or energy transition.

00:40:12:14 - 00:40:38:18
Speaker 3
Right. So we're working in the nuclear space. We have a project on nuclear, or our mobility team working on, you know, EVs and light vehicles and that kind of thing. These are all really new business models. And so some things aren't going to work out. And I think that we also need to get a little more comfortable in even talking about or how we talk about failure.

00:40:38:20 - 00:41:07:16
Speaker 3
And what we've learned, what we're doing, you know, what we're moving on to. But I think that that concept of it's okay, especially in the environment that we are in today. To to say we don't we don't know everything we're going to learn along the way. So things aren't going to work out. And I think, sometimes for, you know, 126 year old organization like we are, versus a startup, you know, you kind of don't, you know, as comfortable talking about that.

00:41:07:16 - 00:41:10:23
Speaker 3
And I think it's just it's increasingly important to introduce.

00:41:11:01 - 00:41:29:16
Speaker 1
Yeah. And it's funny, going back to the silos, I was laughing to myself because you're saying obviously Dow is huge, but I've run a company that is like 30 or 35 people and now one that is like 135 and silos exist everywhere. Every human community creates little camps. And that's a beautiful thing. And it's also a challenge to things to at once.

00:41:29:16 - 00:41:40:22
Speaker 1
And so before we run away today, Peter, you mentioned the name of the podcast earlier, building brand gravity. Is there anything culture in the world of brands that has you and it's gravity. What's something that's exciting to you right now?

00:41:40:23 - 00:42:08:13
Speaker 3
Yeah. So, actually a few things. So one, I recently read Jonathan Height's new book, The Anxious Generation. Amazing book. I think everybody should read this. It is also, reading about the anxious generation has made me an anxious parent because, you know, I do little kids and so I it's a book that I just haven't been able to stop thinking about because the, the research and the data that's presented.

00:42:08:13 - 00:42:27:07
Speaker 3
And, and it's really hard to ignore about how it's like living in this virtual world and on screens all the time, how it really impacted our kids. And so that one, it's an amazing book. I highly recommend it, but it is not, you know, you come out of it. It's not a like it'll it'll get you thinking.

00:42:27:07 - 00:42:29:06
Speaker 3
So so that's definitely.

00:42:29:06 - 00:42:30:09
Speaker 1
It's not a light romp.

00:42:30:15 - 00:42:39:10
Speaker 3
Yeah. Absolutely. That's definitely one the hard part cast is one. And actually I think that was recommended to me by Jen's own Kyle Turner.

00:42:39:12 - 00:42:44:10
Speaker 1
He's great. Kyle, Kyle's on top of everything out there in the tech world, especially.

00:42:44:12 - 00:43:03:23
Speaker 3
Absolutely. And if you turn me on to this, and I listen to it all the time, it's it's if you're interested in AI is, or all things really tech, but when they spend so much time and I, they cover the gamut of stories, but in a really funny way. And I think it's, it's really, really well done.

00:43:04:01 - 00:43:25:00
Speaker 3
And then the last thing and this is something, that I've been connecting with my kids on lately. So the spear in Las Vegas, I'm sort of obsessed with now. And in part, I thought it was cool before, but, you know, they recently had fish play there for, like, five nights. I'm a big fish. And and now dad and company are grateful that, he's doing a bunch of shows there.

00:43:25:02 - 00:43:48:17
Speaker 3
And the videos that like, they're just filling my timelines with the amazing light shows and visuals and everything. So one, I'm super jealous of everybody that's at any of these shows. But what I think has been kind of cool about it is it's fun to show my kids, and it's been a great way to introduce them to some of this music that that I love, that I think without this, they would kind of think it's.

00:43:48:19 - 00:43:55:21
Speaker 1
Not so cool. I love that, oh, this sphere is such a thing. And yeah, you got to book yourself a ticket. Got to get out there.

00:43:56:00 - 00:43:59:10
Speaker 3
I know I'm trying, but, no luck yet.

00:43:59:12 - 00:44:06:19
Speaker 1
Well, Peter, thank you so much for talking to me today. It's been such a pleasure to have you on building, Brian Gravity. And thank you for making the time.

00:44:06:21 - 00:44:11:12
Speaker 3
Thank you. I really, really appreciate it and appreciate the longtime partnership with legends.

00:44:11:17 - 00:44:49:15
Speaker 1
Oh, thank you. I love the conversation I just had with Peter Goodrich of Dow. You know, he's a global director of business and marketing communications within the Global Public Affairs group. But he's played a lot of different roles across his career, including in, nonprofit NGOs, on the public policy side and in the office as a CEO. So he's got a good sense of, first of all, how permeable a lot of aspects of our field are, as in, it used to be B2B marketing versus B2C or internal communications versus external communications or, you know, maybe public policy, public affairs versus marketing communications or business communications.

00:44:49:17 - 00:45:13:23
Speaker 1
And I think the biggest lesson of my conversation with Peter is how these things are very symbiotic and very commingled. A lot of the silos, you got to break them down. And one of the things you talked about a lot was what's the skill sets needed from communicators today in any of these contexts? And one of the things that you talked about a lot is the ability to really work in a multi-stakeholder environment.

00:45:14:01 - 00:45:46:06
Speaker 1
So we maybe, you know, he gave the example of working with on an investor day. So ostensibly the main audience is investors. But the fact is, is that the other people tuning in because it's public are maybe NGOs or community leaders, employees, you know, other stakeholders, also customers and prospects, not just investors. So in some ways that may seem obvious in our context today, but being in this field for 30 years, on the agency side, it was not always obvious of how permeable these areas were, and a lot of things were very binary.

00:45:46:08 - 00:46:07:18
Speaker 1
Well, I do B2C, I don't do B2B, and the fact is, is that now, today a lot of it is business to business to consumer and back again. And certainly, some divisions I saw earlier in my career between, oh, those are the corporate guys or the public policy folks or the public affairs folks were the marcom people were the B to C or B2B communicators.

00:46:07:20 - 00:46:42:02
Speaker 1
This stuff is very co-mingled. So I loved hearing Peter speak about that and the other skill set he talked about quite eloquently is the idea of what it means to work in a truly matrixed organization. So his organization is very large, very global. But the fact even in a smaller context, like, say, my own agency where we have, you know, over 100 people in different disciplines and specialties, you have to be really compassionate and empathetic and also a learner to understand what is happening in those other areas and to learn how to work with people across those divisions and silos.

00:46:42:04 - 00:46:58:14
Speaker 1
And that's a constant it's it's diplomacy and connection and it's understanding and learning. And I think it's wonderful that he underscored that as a skill set for communicators. As he said, we are often the ones connecting the dots between different parts of the organization. So I hope people, take a listen and enjoy it.

00:46:58:16 - 00:47:34:16
Speaker 2
We are good business communications. We are a team of media strategists, storytellers, and engagement experts who meet you at the intersection of business and communications. To learn more, visit GE's communications.com. You're listening to Building Brand Gravity Attracting People into your orbit. Business communications podcast. Keep connected with us by subscribing to the show in your favorite podcast player. If you like what you've heard, please rate the show that helps us to keep delivering the latest industry influence.

00:47:34:18 - 00:47:39:02
Speaker 2
Thanks for listening. Until next time.

 

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:30:12
Speaker 1
There is such a tendency in business, and I guess life as well, to think of things as linear. One thing follows the next, which proceeds on to the next thing. And this is certainly true of how we tend in our society today to think about careers. The ideal career path always seems to be that imagine every diagonal line driving ever upward and very straight path.

00:00:30:14 - 00:00:47:17
Speaker 1
Yet I think we all know that that is not really how it works in careers, and it's certainly not how it works in life. It's more of a journey. It can be circuitous. It can be surprising sometimes, and that things are not always a straight or obvious path. And that's one reason I'm really looking forward to speaking with my next guest.

00:00:47:21 - 00:01:20:23
Speaker 1
On building brand gravity Marta. Rocio Newhart. She's a senior and seasoned communications leader. She speaks eloquently about the benefits of moving horizontally as well vertically across your career. And she certainly exemplifies that. If you look at her resume to take a leap between sectors and subject matters, that broadens your experience and your impact, and to cultivate a mindset, especially from the context of communications that embraces the totality of the business and the fact that she's started her career literally.

00:01:20:23 - 00:01:47:18
Speaker 1
Selling airplanes is a wonderful example of how she has the business mindset. So I particularly appreciated her thoughts on how communications professionals need to recenter their role in revenue generation and really be a partner to the business. So we got talking about a range of other issues too, like the danger of getting mired in a crisis after crisis mindset, the volatility of the world today, how we're thinking about inclusion as well as diversity and equity.

00:01:47:20 - 00:02:07:07
Speaker 1
And just her thoughts on that role as a communications professional, as a key, you know, stakeholder alongside other C-suite professionals. So keep listening. And if you enjoy what you hear, please like and share and information.

00:02:07:09 - 00:02:36:10
Speaker 2
You are listening to. Building brand gravity. Attracting people into your orbit. A business communications podcast. This is a show for communications pros across industries looking to gain an inside view into industry influence. You're about to hear a conversation with leading industry professionals talking about the importance of building business impact through sound brand strategy. Let's get into the show.

00:02:36:12 - 00:02:48:19
Speaker 1
Welcome to Building Brand Gravity. This is an Xn. I'm CEO at CNS Business Communications, and I'm delighted to be joined by a powerhouse communications executive. Marta Runkle. Newhart. Welcome, Marta.

00:02:48:21 - 00:02:50:17
Speaker 3
Hi there. And thanks for having me.

00:02:50:22 - 00:03:11:06
Speaker 1
I'm so glad you could be here. You know, as you've seen by the name, this podcast is a lot about what it is that brings people into your orbit, whether you're a brand or an organization, communications professional or marketer. And one of the things that's always interesting to start with, for me is the arc of someone's career. You have had a really varied career.

00:03:11:10 - 00:03:32:17
Speaker 1
A lot of it has been as a communications leader, which, by the way, is a very multifaceted job. I think as many of our listeners know and you certainly know, but you also started your career in an interesting way for a comms person. Not always common. And I might ask you to start there. I know at Boeing you told me you started literally selling airplanes, based in China.

00:03:32:19 - 00:03:37:10
Speaker 1
Tell me about that. And and how did you then make the pivot to communications?

00:03:37:12 - 00:04:09:07
Speaker 3
It was a really fun time. You know, it was a time when there were there was a lot of competition in Asia, especially for selling the big airplanes. We call them twin aisle airplanes, like six sevens for sevens, triple sevens, and now 780 sevens. And at the time, if you were the manufacturer, there was only two. If you were the manufacturer who had the predominant airplane in one of the airlines fleets, you could push out the competitor.

00:04:09:13 - 00:04:36:20
Speaker 3
It was a really interesting time. It taught me about strategy. It taught me about thinking about how are you going to usurp and push out the competition. This is something we do in corporate America every day. But when you grow up in an organization thinking about business, thinking about the commercialization, thinking about the things that advance your company in a way that rad's real value, real relevance and revenue.

00:04:36:22 - 00:04:55:22
Speaker 3
And then I went into communications. So I took that mindset with me. It was really funny because when I started in communications, I had one person say to me, well, that's great, you can sell airplanes. And you brought in so much revenue for the company, but can you write a press release? So, you know, you think about that and you think about that.

00:04:55:22 - 00:05:18:22
Speaker 3
Was their mindset, right? What made it such an insecure risk route was that coming into the organization with that business mindset, I brought that in. Do you really need a press release? That was my thinking. Are we doing things here that are really driving the revenue of the company and the bottom line and the brand? You talk a lot about brand.

00:05:19:00 - 00:05:42:08
Speaker 3
And so coming into it in that way really kind of raised some eyebrows. But I think it also changed people's thinking at the same time, which was fun. That was a lot of fun. There were there you though to it too, because people like to get comfortable in the way they do things. And so when you come in and you change it up, you're like, wait a minute, what is this all about?

00:05:42:08 - 00:05:57:11
Speaker 3
What is this? And so, especially in a very old organization, a tenured organization. And so I had a lot of fun doing that. And I think it really helped change the scope of what we went on to do in the future.

00:05:57:13 - 00:06:22:13
Speaker 1
I want to dig into this because it was you've told me this before, and it and I think it's so extraordinarily important for us to reflect on this, which is this question of the role of communications. And it can be integrated marketing communications, corporate communications. There's a lot of different slices and layers to this world, right. That role at being at the heart of revenue generation, because I do think there's a disconnect there in the mindset.

00:06:22:15 - 00:06:37:20
Speaker 1
And so how is it that you see that corporate communications or communications overall are or should be at the heart of revenue generation, but also see themselves in that way because there's there's the practical aspects of it, but there's also the mindset, right?

00:06:37:22 - 00:06:55:04
Speaker 3
Yeah, the mindset is a big one. I'm glad you brought that up, because the mindset that you bring into any organization you're going into, that's where you're going to spend your time. And as a leader, if that's where you spend your time, that's your focus. And so your people are going to continually look at where you're spending your time.

00:06:55:06 - 00:07:30:23
Speaker 3
Now, if you think about it from the perspective of we are a major part of the C-suite, we are a major part of how the company grows, how the company evolves, how the company competes. These are not normal mindset thinking issues for CFOs or even chief marketing and co officers. But that's what it's about. If you're doing something that's not adding equity to the brand, which is money, if you're doing something that's not adding to the bottom line, again, that's money.

00:07:31:01 - 00:07:52:21
Speaker 3
And if you're doing something that's not adding to revenue, you better all of these things. Again, this all comes back to money. Then you're doing things that aren't advancing your company. And companies right now are going through a lot of different activities. There's a lot of M&A starting to pick back up again. There's a lot of M&A going on.

00:07:52:23 - 00:08:10:05
Speaker 3
So how does the role of the brand play in that? Very much so. If your brand has a lot of equity it means it's worth a lot of money. And if it's worth a lot of money you're going to drive a higher sales price. When you sell the company when you do an M&A event. And so those things really matter.

00:08:10:07 - 00:08:36:15
Speaker 3
And when we think about the mindset of the CEO. So I'm on the board of page. And we just released a study that we had put together. And our findings of the expansion of the role of the Co and Steve, your colleague interviewed a couple of folks I think about six weeks ago on this. Yeah. So and they did a great job by the way, that thinking is really good.

00:08:36:21 - 00:08:56:19
Speaker 3
It's really shown how the role is evolved. We're not to the point yet where we're sitting there thinking about how what we're doing is advancing the bottom line. And contributing to the business. We're not there yet. And the reason we're not there yet is how I started this conversation, where you spend your time as a leader. That's where your people will.

00:08:56:21 - 00:09:20:04
Speaker 3
So if you spend your time thinking about that, how you're going to add equity to the brand and how you're going to increase the value of the company and how you're going to help build revenue, drive revenue and EBITDA. Your employees are going to, too. So there it really starts with us. It really starts with us helping not only our people think about that, but spending time doing that ourselves.

00:09:20:05 - 00:09:23:19
Speaker 3
It's all about relevance and it's all about adding value.

00:09:24:01 - 00:10:02:01
Speaker 1
It's great that you brought up the CCL report from page, and for those who don't know, it's a premier organization for chief communications officers and others at that level and agency heads. And it's a great report. I think what's interesting when you talk about this is for the value of that equity of the brand, and also the other kind of hard metrics that communications can bring to the table and contribute to one disconnect I think I've seen over the years, I think we all have is the difficulty of some senior executives in touching and feeling what brand value is, you know, what is the value of that equity or damage to the reputation.

00:10:02:03 - 00:10:21:23
Speaker 1
Those things have felt squishy. And obviously there's been a lot of things launched over the years by various entities to try to put a dollar amount to it. But I think it's profound what you're saying, because the equity in the brand and its reputation, its growth, its participation in different conversations that are happening, driving the market driving opinion is really critical.

00:10:22:03 - 00:10:31:14
Speaker 1
How have you worked to bridge that gap between what might be the measures the CFO or CEO typically look at, and then the ways in which brand equity is driven?

00:10:31:16 - 00:10:55:11
Speaker 3
Yeah, I think it's all about how our roles have been perceived in the past. So how does a CEO and a CFO perceive our role? Some see it as the way it used to be in some see it. There's a way they do today. The best CEOs and CFOs see it as the way it could be, and that's where adding value to the brand really comes in.

00:10:55:13 - 00:11:17:21
Speaker 3
It's an educational process because there's not a lot of CEOs and CFOs that really understand this in the future. Let's take the brand Westinghouse. So Westinghouse brought me in to rebrand the company. We were even looking at an Edison public offering. We were looking at a sale at the time, were looking at a lot of different business activities.

00:11:17:23 - 00:11:49:17
Speaker 3
And I looked at the brand and I thought, boy, there's nothing more iconic than this brand. If you think about. Yeah, if you think about that, what are the top five brands and I don't know, Hitachi, Apple or something. And Westinghouse has got to be somewhere in that mix. And so it was really about getting them to think about how this is, driver, not only to your bottom line, but how you can have a financial value on a non-financial asset.

00:11:49:17 - 00:12:22:03
Speaker 3
So how is that? It's the value. Hold on the balance sheet. So when we go out and talk about the brand and we talk about what it does and what it brings to customers, we have to be very precise about that. We have to manage that in a way that's not misunderstood, that's easy to understand. And we articulate in a way that's memorable because if we don't make it memorable, then whoever is the recipient or has an experience with the brand is going to make up their own, their own way.

00:12:22:03 - 00:12:35:19
Speaker 3
And you don't want that. You want it to be come from you. So here's where it gets tricky, because in a lot of older companies, they do things. And you'll hear this because we've always done them that way.

00:12:35:20 - 00:12:38:00
Speaker 1
Isn't that true of so many places.

00:12:38:05 - 00:13:01:11
Speaker 3
Yeah. Isn't it. And so that is that doesn't necessarily mean I won't change. It means we don't know what else to do. So if you come in and you help them understand, if you do X, Y, and Z with the brand, you're actually going to grow the value of it. And we as leaders have to do that. And this comes back to that business mindset.

00:13:01:13 - 00:13:24:06
Speaker 3
You know people say, well you need to have business acumen to be co or CMO. It's way beyond that. You have to contribute to the business to be in those roles and have that seat at the table. And so when it comes to the brand, this may be your highest, nonphysical asset that you can add value to.

00:13:24:08 - 00:13:51:01
Speaker 3
And you have to think about it very, very carefully. You know, sometimes and I think people articulate their brand story in a very prescribed or sterile way because they just want to show the facts right. But you can turn the facts into a story that's very memorable. And I and I always think about when we were kids, when our parents read a stories at night, they didn't read us press releases and they didn't read us spreadsheets.

00:13:51:01 - 00:14:20:01
Speaker 3
They read us stories and tell us a story that we can remember. Tell us something about your brand that everybody can remember, and then you start really adding equity, and then keep your people aligned on moving forward in that direction. Because your brand can't be everything to everybody. And this is where it comes down to thinking about where you're going to show up, how you're going to show up as a company and why.

00:14:20:05 - 00:14:39:11
Speaker 3
And, you know, over the last 2 or 3 years, a lot of companies have struggled with this. They've let their personal emotions get in the way of where they should be positioning their brands. It's a tricky tightrope, but I think it's really something that a lot of leaders in our space should really be spending more time on.

00:14:39:13 - 00:14:55:17
Speaker 1
I want to follow up on that one before I go back to some of the question about mindset, because just this week, Harvard announced some new guidelines about what they will and won't speak about and really trying to read that. Yeah, I think it's something we've all been watching. And, you know, I, I'm not a rocket and glass houses person.

00:14:55:17 - 00:15:17:01
Speaker 1
You know, the these kinds of crises can happen in any organization. And I don't like to, you know, I can have my opinions on missteps or good steps. You know, I've been a counselor in this field for 31 years, but I think I'd love to follow up on what you're saying, because I do think there's been a lot of reevaluation recently, just given the nature of the environment out in the world.

00:15:17:01 - 00:15:32:00
Speaker 1
And, you know, we have elections happening all over the world. The US is coming later this year. It's something as an organizational leader, I'm thinking about a lot. How do we stay in community with one another through hard conversations? What what is it I want to ask of my own team? And then what is it that we hope to counsel our clients?

00:15:32:00 - 00:15:45:11
Speaker 1
But what is your thought about how it's changing right now, and how folks are rethinking that toolkit and what it is that they should and shouldn't speak out on? I mean, how do they even go around the process of discerning that from your perspective?

00:15:45:16 - 00:16:20:17
Speaker 3
Yeah, and I think it's a really good thing that they are rethinking that, because just as people and businesses evolve, so does our approach to them. And that has to continually evolve. And the best leaders will make sure that evolves, especially with your stakeholder subgroup. I think we've seen a lot, particularly in Western countries. I'll take the U.S., for example, where some things can be happening in another part of the world, but we have people here who who feel very strongly about it.

00:16:20:19 - 00:16:41:20
Speaker 3
And we can't forget that even if your company isn't doing business in a part of the world, that's affected by the wars that are going on right now, your people may be because you've got global employees, you've got people, especially in the US, you've got immigrants here who feel strongly about what's happening. And you've got to really think that through.

00:16:41:22 - 00:17:12:20
Speaker 3
Here's where I think the distinction comes in. As leaders, we have to separate sometimes how we feel about a subject and how the company should be reacting, contributing or resolving it. And you've got to think about those three things, because if you're not thinking about those three things, you're reacting even from your own personal viewpoint, the best leaders and the best business people can separate those two doesn't mean you don't care.

00:17:13:00 - 00:17:33:07
Speaker 3
Of course you care. You care what's happening around the world, and you especially care what's happening today. But you've got to think about the role you're putting your company into versus how you feel about it. And you probably have experienced the same with some of your clients. They have a hard time separating that, and it becomes very emotional.

00:17:33:07 - 00:18:04:18
Speaker 3
It becomes a very important to them to take a stand. Your company, on the other hand, takes a stand where it's really meaningful to the values of the company, and it's consistent with what you've done in the past. Otherwise, you know, I hate to tell people, if you put out a statement that says you're in favor or you're not in favor, and you really haven't commented on this before, and you really don't know how it ties to your values or your customer or your stakeholders, it's not going to go well.

00:18:04:20 - 00:18:27:14
Speaker 3
It's really not going to go well. And you may think you're doing the right honorable thing, but you're really confusing your stakeholder set and keeping your employees will get confused by that. And they may try to make up their own mindset about where they should be thinking about it. And they will, and they will just be consistent. Don't feel like you have to be out there.

00:18:27:20 - 00:18:55:14
Speaker 3
We saw a lot of this in in the at the time of the George Floyd murder. We saw a lot of companies just piling on, putting a word out, putting this out, and making a stance. You know, a lot of that's good. A lot of it's good. But be a part of the resolution and the solution and how the the stakeholders are thinking about it and how you can contribute to that long term.

00:18:55:16 - 00:18:59:18
Speaker 3
I just parachute in and say something and parachute out. They're going to see through.

00:18:59:21 - 00:19:23:01
Speaker 1
Here because I do think that's that's the very next. You get a much more negative reaction, you know, when when you're seen as inauthentic. I think one thing you're reminded me of is how hard it is, for leaders within corporations today, whether they're comms folks or other executives, to gauge the volume and, and nature of the sentiment they're hearing because of the nature of media today.

00:19:23:02 - 00:19:38:14
Speaker 1
You know, I remember hearing Domino's, their marketing lead talk a number of years ago about a social media crisis. There was a food tampering issue at one of their stores. It was this video is kind of gross. It was around online, you know, people messing with the pizza. We'll just leave it at that. Google it, folks. You'll find it.

00:19:38:14 - 00:19:54:13
Speaker 1
But, they said at the time, the K really came down like the wrath of God about that because this is food safety, right? But the marketing manager said something that I never will forget, which is we didn't know if we were putting out a candle with a fire hose because it was very hard in social media.

00:19:54:13 - 00:20:25:20
Speaker 1
But I think it's true today to have your internal stakeholders, your employees, different groups of them, external stakeholders. What is the volume and the intensity of the sentiment and how to sort through that? It's hard. And that's why I, I do feel communications leaders who live in the nuance, you know, we I tend to feel the best comms leaders are not just binary thinkers, you know, it's people who really understand shades of gray and understand how to live in uncertainty and say, I don't know yet if this is going to spiral in this way.

00:20:25:20 - 00:20:32:15
Speaker 1
I don't know, but these are not all the voices, and we need to be measured, I don't know, does that resonate with you at all? It's an interesting question.

00:20:32:17 - 00:20:50:08
Speaker 3
It does, because if you put a candle out with a hose, that's better than putting it out with a torch, you know, or because you're just going to ignite it thing I would say about the domino situation is, as any company, it's not one and done. It's not one and done. You've got to continue to be out there.

00:20:50:08 - 00:21:12:01
Speaker 3
You've got to continue to talk about it. If food safety is the biggest thing for you, talk about it. Talk about what you're doing. Don't just have great pizza. Now we live in an environment where that's that's not enough. We've got five generations in the workplace, and there's some of them that think really differently about this. It really matters to them.

00:21:12:05 - 00:21:32:12
Speaker 3
So we have to really think about where and how and why we're actually coming out on an issue. And it's not just about really thinking about the reputation of our company. We can think about the reputation of our company and protect it, and that's part of the job. But sometimes it goes beyond that. And I think that's what Domino's was trying to do.

00:21:32:14 - 00:21:55:14
Speaker 3
Domino's was trying to protect their reputation. Well, there's a lot of companies today that are doing that quite well. You know, if you if you look at what Toyota is doing today, remember five years ago Toyota and Volkswagen were all over the news. Toyota probably more so now they're doing things that really make you think about how that brand has changed things.

00:21:55:14 - 00:22:26:09
Speaker 3
And they never stop talking about it. There's other places too. I think caterpillar is a good one and probably, the John Deere. There's a couple other major corporations. They don't stop talking about it. They're out there saying, okay, here's what's important to us, and we're going to continue to talk about it. Cargill, others on food sourcing and how we keep all sources of food are available to all people, not just to a different segments of society.

00:22:26:09 - 00:22:53:17
Speaker 3
And so these are these are brands that are really admirable. Why do I bring them up? They don't have a magic formula, but they're doing things that are continually adding to the equity. So we we were on this path a minute ago of really talking about the financial value of a non-financial asset. It's really important if you're thinking about having and continuing to have a major role in the growth of your company, you've got to have that perspective.

00:22:53:19 - 00:23:18:05
Speaker 1
You know, one thing that is, is interesting about the way your career has evolved, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, both for yourself, but also for those coming into the field. You have moved to many different sectors. Like, first of all, you had a non-linear path in terms of oh, I'm in sales now. I'm moving into communications and bringing all of that knowledge with you in a very to me, in a very mindful way.

00:23:18:05 - 00:23:35:20
Speaker 1
That's one thing, Marty always strike me as someone who steps back and says, what is happening here? This is interesting. Well, you know, to be mindful about it and intentional. The other thing you've done, those you've moved from sector to sector, you've worked in medical devices. You've worked in the energy field, you've worked in advanced manufacturing, you know, and aviation.

00:23:35:20 - 00:23:50:22
Speaker 1
And and you said something to me when we were catching up recently about it's not just about, vertical growth, it's also horizontal movement. What are your thoughts about that? Because I think your career is such a good example of that philosophy now.

00:23:50:22 - 00:24:13:09
Speaker 3
Thank you. I think I think that if you, well, certainly in my case, it was about moving from one function to another and then making it additive. So at the time I was thinking and they were very persuasive too. So I have to give them credit for that. At Boeing they were very persuasive. They said, you know, look, you're a good storyteller.

00:24:13:10 - 00:24:31:19
Speaker 3
We want this here. We want this combined with the business impact, and we want that to sort of rub off on our people. So remember what I said earlier? It was funny coming into the organization and someone said, yeah, it's great that you can make all this money, but can you write a press release? And my response to that was, do we need a press release?

00:24:31:20 - 00:24:34:05
Speaker 3
You know, so we got to think about things differently.

00:24:34:05 - 00:24:41:07
Speaker 1
Mada why would you say such a thing? And I mean, people have been trying to kill the press release for decades. It still persists anyway.

00:24:41:09 - 00:25:09:12
Speaker 3
That's right. Yeah. And so I think it's just about stepping back and really thinking what's needed. And you hear people talk about lifelong learning. This is something that but sign me up. I'm in lifelong learning, being curious, really trying to understand what's new and to your point, nuanced about a business or about a company, and how can we be directly involved in that?

00:25:09:12 - 00:25:30:12
Speaker 3
And so, you know, I really have always been that way. You know, I come from I come from a family that, didn't have any privilege, that didn't have a lot. And so we had to think creatively about what we did have, about the resources we had and how we were going to distribute those. So you could say, you know, corporations have budgets.

00:25:30:12 - 00:26:02:13
Speaker 3
Yeah, we had a budget. It was pretty small. We had to think about how we were going to spend that and what we're going to do with that money. So that mindset really informed how I thought about different jobs, not necessarily about the stability I needed, that there was no question. But where did it make sense to take a risk, or did it make sense to jump off from being in sales to going into communications to really, going that route that really was additive to my career.

00:26:02:13 - 00:26:23:00
Speaker 3
And I had people telling me, don't do that. Don't don't go that way. Stay here, stay in sales. You know, communications wasn't highly thought of at the time. You know, the only thing was and they weren't allowed to show their real value. And when an organization could show they're really a real value at it, all bets are off.

00:26:23:02 - 00:26:46:14
Speaker 3
The other saying, you know, when we talk about, for example, mute so we can climb up the ladder and each one can be additive, that's something that you want to do. You want to make sure that if you're if you're a climber, that each step you take is additive to the next, don't just take one because it's in the industry you're in and it's comfortable and you know you can do it.

00:26:46:15 - 00:27:17:16
Speaker 3
Why? Why change that? Why do something different? Well, you probably make some more money, but is that enough? And then thinking about it horizontally, taking steps in different industries, in different verticals and learning how they work. And, you know, I think communications experts have skills will travel. There's no question you have skills that can really go into any function.

00:27:17:18 - 00:27:43:05
Speaker 3
So if you think about that in terms of the verticals that I've been in, aerospace, medical devices, multi industrial specialty metals and in energy, you think about how bringing those skills along into each one of those industries can help change it and can help them think differently. You know, a good analogy would be Silicon Valley. So Silicon Valley is always, you know, we call it high tech.

00:27:43:05 - 00:28:03:16
Speaker 3
We call it these rooms, these terms to talk about it. They think very entrepreneurial. And so you have a lot of CEOs that jump from company to company. Some of them are serial CEOs. Some of them are serial entrepreneurs. But they jump from company to company with one mindset how am I going to grow it? How am I going to make it bigger?

00:28:03:16 - 00:28:25:16
Speaker 3
And then what's my exit strategy? It going to be if you think about your career that that way, not necessarily what your exit strategy is going to be, but how you're going to grow for is on to Lee. I'll tell you, it really worked for me because the experience of these different industries made me think about companies much differently.

00:28:25:18 - 00:28:47:21
Speaker 3
They typically make money the same way they typically go to market differently, and they typically engage their stakeholders differently depending on their comfort level or what they're trying to achieve. So you see all the learning that you can get from that if you go horizontally and then don't forget to take your steps upward up the ladder. Those are really important.

00:28:47:21 - 00:29:00:18
Speaker 3
But those sideways horizontal steps and by the way, those relationships as you move horizontally, to me, they've been the most important in my entire career. Don't lose sight of those. Those are really good ones.

00:29:00:20 - 00:29:18:11
Speaker 1
Yeah, it's interesting because so often I feel in life and not just in business, people get pigeonholed. You know, it's like people want to put you what's the box, Sharon? And I've seen that, you know, I've been on the agency side my whole career. So it is. And by the way, I agree with you. This field in general, the learning that you do is unbelievable.

00:29:18:13 - 00:29:42:07
Speaker 1
And then I've discovered topics and things through clients. I never knew about it, never thought I'd be interested in. And it's just you if you embrace that. It's such a wonderful career. But it is interesting how so often there's a sense in like agency is a look at maybe a and a candidate and say, oh, but they've done this and that, but they haven't done this, you know, and it's, it's it's just a human nature to pigeonhole people.

00:29:42:07 - 00:29:52:00
Speaker 1
And that's can be that can be neutral or can be actually really, really negative. But how do you advise people to avoid that trap, you know, and how did you avoid that yourself?

00:29:52:02 - 00:30:18:13
Speaker 3
When are you talking about categories. So if your mind wants to categorize things because it's easier, right. And so you think about a, let's say a bus driver, you think about what are the skills a bus driver has and it's easier for you to categorize them. And I think a lot of times people will categorize commas in chaos because it's easier, oh, this is what they do.

00:30:18:13 - 00:30:38:06
Speaker 3
This is what they bring to the table. The best thing you can do is think outside of that box if that's what you want. Do you want them to think about you in the old stereotypical way and show up that way, and that's what you'll get. It'll be comfortable for them. It will hold your career back and probably not going to be very satisfied.

00:30:38:06 - 00:31:02:18
Speaker 3
You're going to get frustrated because every time these you try to push out of that box and hit your head against it, or the side they're going to push you back in. So how you show up matters. How you educate people on what your capabilities are, how what you bring to the table, how you practice in the C-suite as a member of a team that's driving a business.

00:31:02:20 - 00:31:26:20
Speaker 3
It's not always about what your function is, and that's what I love about what we do is because we don't have to show up that way. Now, that's easy for me to say, right? Because it takes a lot of courage. But the opposite of that is just pure frustration, because you're always going to be held to that standard over there of that category that they want you to be in.

00:31:26:22 - 00:31:48:17
Speaker 3
Here's the thing, too, is it doesn't help your people who doesn't want to help their team grow, evolve, get bigger. I always tell them, build a resume. You know, what we're doing is resume building because we're going to do things very unconventional here. And at first employees are like, wait a minute, what language is she talking? What is she talking about?

00:31:48:17 - 00:32:13:08
Speaker 3
What what did we just inherit here? And, after they start singing after a few months that they're getting called not to write, just a press release, but called for. Hey, you know, Joe, what do you what do you recommend? I'm going to market with this new product. We want to bring you in on the team and advise us, you know, what's the best way for us to really position the market?

00:32:13:12 - 00:32:38:19
Speaker 3
That's very different. Those are two very different things. And when you get that phone call of the second request right now, your resume building your resume building in a way that's going to help not only career, but how you feel about how you show up to work every day. And that's what we as leaders. Sometimes we don't really fulfill that because we're comfortable in the way we're always seeing.

00:32:38:21 - 00:33:01:20
Speaker 3
And progress is really about going in the right direction. And it's not just about movement and cranking out a lot of information and content and all those things. It's about going in the right direction. So as leaders, you got to figure out what's your right direction. Where are you taking the team? Make sure they know so that they can continue to build on that.

00:33:01:22 - 00:33:04:05
Speaker 3
But switching direction is hard.

00:33:04:07 - 00:33:30:21
Speaker 1
Some of what you're talking about, it's really what we hope to be in communications, which is counselors and partners. Right? Not just oh, what is the news? Okay, I will as you said, I will write announcement call media. And that is unfortunately a lot of the dynamic that I've seen over the years. You know, we've all experienced and but a lot of it has to do with how you're showing up and then how you're dealing with what's coming at you, how you're, you know, bringing yourself to the table as a, as a peer.

00:33:30:23 - 00:33:32:23
Speaker 1
You know, I think that's really important.

00:33:33:01 - 00:33:51:08
Speaker 3
And you change stereotypes. Right. And so when you change the stereotypes, not only does it help you think about that entire team that you're leading. And if you're in a underrepresented of group, think about how you're changing the world for them.

00:33:51:10 - 00:34:12:11
Speaker 1
And it's interesting because I know in terms of your intersectionality, you've been the only one, in some cases in many of your jobs as a Latina, as a as a senior woman. And, and that opportunity to bring others along and to kind of open minds about it. What are your thoughts about that journey, that piece of your journey and how you're able to make an impact today?

00:34:12:13 - 00:34:30:17
Speaker 3
You know, when I was younger, I took my husband's name. That's where New Heart comes from. It's my husband's name, and it's, a well-known name. It's not a common name, but it's a well-known name. And so it worked very well for me. And I got advice early in my career that said, you know what? This whole like nothing.

00:34:30:17 - 00:34:56:11
Speaker 3
You know, this whole Latina dad case that's haciendo. What? Let's just call you Martin. New hearts fact. You know, we could even call Yamada. Let's just call you Martin Newhart. You know, that sort of thing. And it's interesting because it it sort of suppressed a part of who I was in a way that I didn't realize was really coming to a head.

00:34:56:11 - 00:35:22:04
Speaker 3
I joined about four years ago at the Latino Corporate Directors Association. And and you'll love this. I went into one of their first convenings, and here is a room full of Latinos. And I walked in and just took a big, deep breath. And the CEO said, you're at home now. These are your people. You're at home. And I said, this is more diverse than my cousin's wedding.

00:35:22:07 - 00:35:56:17
Speaker 3
I've never been in a room like this, and it just felt so comfortable. And I continued to spend a lot of time with this organization to advance Latinos on boards and to have representation on boards, because we are 20% of the U.S. population. And that matters because we are the fastest minority group growing in the US. And so when you talk about intersectionality and where it is and how you show up, you know, so easy to be yourself, it's so easy to be yourself and no one's going to criticize you.

00:35:56:17 - 00:36:23:12
Speaker 3
I hope for being yourself because that is where you can add the most value. And all of us are in one category when it comes to corporate America, and that category is advancing business, being competitive and moving the organization forward. Now, how you come to that strategy hopefully is in different ways. We can get the most value out of those eight seats around the table.

00:36:23:16 - 00:36:45:15
Speaker 3
There's not very many. And so to get the most out of that, you've got to bring a perspective that they may not have thought of and you've got to have the courage to do that. It's not always easy, but I learned that I got more respect in a room full of mostly males and people that weren't from my ethnicity.

00:36:45:17 - 00:36:57:03
Speaker 3
When I did show them a way that would add to the value of strategy and then the advancement of the company wasn't always popular. But I got more respect for doing that.

00:36:57:05 - 00:37:18:23
Speaker 1
And you're more in the conversation that they need to be having. You know, it's interesting too, because this piece about how you show up authentically and when, when is it easy, when is it hard? You know, we sometimes in corporate world you bring your whole self to work, which is not always possible or easy for everyone, but it's so powerful when you can remove those frictions and allow people to show up.

00:37:18:23 - 00:37:44:09
Speaker 1
And I've been thinking a lot about some of the cultural pushback around areas like diversity, equity and inclusion, some of which is kind of, I think, easy part chance people are taking for various reasons, you know, a little a little bit cynical about some of those things. But, you know, one of the things that I think about a lot is what does it really mean to have an inclusive environment, which to me, from a business leader perspective, it means removing that friction so that people's ideas can flow.

00:37:44:09 - 00:38:06:14
Speaker 1
So you can have divergent thinking, so you can bring out the best in people so you can move faster. So you're not having people stuck on what did that mean. And do they want me here? And you know, and I think it's I think it's important that we spend time being really nuanced and thoughtful about what we mean when we use terms like this and to, to lean into understanding inclusion in new ways.

00:38:06:14 - 00:38:07:18
Speaker 1
I don't know, do you have thoughts on that?

00:38:07:18 - 00:38:35:06
Speaker 3
Yeah. I think, that's why you and I get along so well and because we think alike and that people just want to be seen and heard, people just want to know that what they can contribute has some meaning. It's really that simple. And, you know, as CEOs and see CEOs and we have to think about that because we're in the center of an organization where everyone listens to us.

00:38:35:08 - 00:39:05:01
Speaker 3
What are we doing to listen to our people? How are we spending the time with them so that they feel that and actually appreciate that we're getting the best out of them? Who doesn't want to go to a job every day where you don't have that dynamic? You know, people in the medical field really feel like they're really changing lives, saving lives, making people healthier and so they can see and feel it every day.

00:39:05:02 - 00:39:36:01
Speaker 3
To your point, is more nuanced in what we do and no matter what we call it, DNI and I know some companies are changing what they call it. Some companies are rethinking how they implement it. There's the data is overwhelming, and the data has never changed. And the data shows that when you have a highly functioning, fully complete leadership team, your company performs upwards of 20 to 30% stronger than your competitors.

00:39:36:03 - 00:40:03:07
Speaker 3
So if you want to just look at the data, which is important, that's where it really matters. And then you also want to make sure that your leadership team in your board reflects the demographics of your customer. And we're starting to get into that. We're starting to make those changes. You're starting to see different people on boards that you didn't used to see 15, 20 years ago, even five years ago.

00:40:03:11 - 00:40:26:03
Speaker 3
And so that part is evolving slowly, but it's evolving. And that's the good news. And these companies are going to benefit from it. And the CEOs that really push for that, they're going to be much more successful, especially the new CEOs, because sometimes CEOs come into the job and they just keep the leadership team that's there because it's comfortable.

00:40:26:07 - 00:40:39:19
Speaker 3
Things work well, why not? But when you start making changes, your customers are not only noticing, they're reacting in a much more positive way because they can see that you value them more.

00:40:39:21 - 00:41:05:15
Speaker 1
And it reminds me, you know, the old phrase representation matters and it really, really does. And that's that's a quick phrase, but it has a lot of depth to it. You know, one of the things I wanted to ask you about, and I think it has to do, again, with sort of mindset and how comes is centered and also having the best minds at the table to to deal with a very volatile world is the kind of uncertainty we're managing through the kind of volatility we're facing.

00:41:05:17 - 00:41:27:09
Speaker 1
And with the comms area and brand and the C-suite overall, there's a real danger in getting mired in crisis mindset as a crisis after crisis after crisis. Right. And you and I talked briefly about this, but I'd love to share your thoughts on how do you balance that and needing to do it. I mean, they must be dealt with and it has to be the best.

00:41:27:09 - 00:41:47:02
Speaker 1
You have to bring the best thinking every time. And it's sometimes it's a marathon, not a sprint, right? So it's not easy. But at the same time there's proactive strategy and there's the things you still hope to advance. So how do you how do you think about balancing those two things that I'm in the mindset, I've got my head down in it, but I also have to have my eyes up and look ahead.

00:41:47:04 - 00:42:13:15
Speaker 3
You know, and the fortune 100 companies I've worked in any day can be a crisis. You know, some are smaller than others and, you know, some affect, the sales for some effect, the legal team, some effect, the comms team, some effect, different parts of the organization, but they all affect the comms team. They do. They do because you got to help manage it.

00:42:13:17 - 00:42:44:23
Speaker 3
The thing to really think about there and, and I really enjoyed that conversation that we had about it was because there's something happening every day on many levels. If you look at any of these geopolitical, companies in the fortune 100, they are involved in any of the issues going on across the world today, we have upwards of 60 to 70 democratic elections going on around the world today that are going to shift markets and that we have to think about.

00:42:45:01 - 00:43:13:14
Speaker 3
And so that's the long term view. And I bring that up because Crisises every day when you spend so much time on them and rethinking them, and how are we going to react to them. That's where you're, you're you should spend some of your time, but not the majority. So it's that taking a step back again and thinking about what are the major issues, the black swan events that are going to happen to your company, that you got to really prepare for?

00:43:13:15 - 00:43:40:07
Speaker 3
Hopefully they don't happen, but we all learned through the pandemic, major things can happen that none of us prepare for. So now we're starting to rethink that. We're starting to rethink about what are other big black swan events that we should prepare for. And when you create a strategy and a map for when those happen and how you're going to work through it, hopefully it collects dust.

00:43:40:09 - 00:44:03:00
Speaker 3
But, you know, the recent history shown us that they won't. It's likely that you're going to use them. So if you have that map that shows how all of the functions, how all of the organizations, how everyone in the company is going to manage through this crisis and they understand it. Your stakeholders are going to be so comfortable.

00:44:03:02 - 00:44:29:09
Speaker 3
Oh, and really got that handled. We don't have to worry about those guys. That's why there are partners, because they're going to help us manage through this. That's what they do. It takes planning. So we talk about strategy. We talk about planning. We talk about mapping. You got to do those things on steroids because especially at bigger companies where these things can really shift markets.

00:44:29:11 - 00:44:48:01
Speaker 3
And it's hard to get the, the the boat back on track once it's off of track. That's where it really matters. You got to be a leader in that. And we've talked about courage earlier. You've got to have the courage to stand in front of your leadership team and say, here are the big black swan events I think are going to happen.

00:44:48:03 - 00:45:09:23
Speaker 3
These are the risks and a lot of these companies and have a department that actually looks at risks very frequently, and you've got to be able to show the leadership team how they might think about these and how it's going to affect the business. Now, there's going to be a lot of CEOs out there that say, wait a minute, that's not my job.

00:45:09:23 - 00:45:36:18
Speaker 3
I'm not going to do that. Yeah, it is your job because you're going to have to manage it when it happens. And they're all going to look to you. Now, what are we going to do about this? Not just what are we going to say publicly or internally, but how are we going to manage this? So if you if you come back and you do that mapping and you do that strategy in a scenario based planning, you're going to be much better prepared.

00:45:36:19 - 00:45:59:06
Speaker 3
And you know what? You've also just done. You've changed the perception of your organization. You guys are really strategic. And so these actions mean more than just managing the company reputation. Your stakeholders are going to talk to your CEO, and they're going to commit more to your company because they know when these things happen, you guys are prepared.

00:45:59:08 - 00:46:16:17
Speaker 3
It's not going to be like what we saw earlier this year, where you've got major universities that don't know how to react to something or even manage something that affects their student body, it's going to be different. And the alumni.

00:46:16:19 - 00:46:35:08
Speaker 1
And the alumni bodies and as you said, erodes trust. You know, these are complex issues, but that sense of whether an entity is prepared or not. And I love what you said earlier, that not just what we're going to say. What are we going to do, because we have to have a seat at that table that's so important.

00:46:35:10 - 00:46:51:14
Speaker 1
Mark, as we wrap up today, you know, the title of this podcast is Building Brand Gravity. You know, attracting people into your orbit. What right now in culture or books or travel, what has you in it's gravity. What are you excited about right now to share before we say.

00:46:51:14 - 00:47:16:04
Speaker 3
Goodbye, I'm excited about how we think about our function differently. We're starting to push the envelope about what we're doing. I would like to blow that envelope wide open. I'm excited about it because being on the board a page, I'm able to push that thinking. I'm also very excited about being on a publicly traded board. It will be announced in a week.

00:47:16:09 - 00:47:19:20
Speaker 1
That's so exciting! I can't wait to hear this news. I'll be watching.

00:47:19:20 - 00:47:40:05
Speaker 3
We're going through proxy season, as you know, and so that's got to finalize and then we'll go from there. I want to show our community that we are not just close, we are business leaders. We contribute to the bottom line of the business, and we can be on boards if that's the path you want to take. I'm excited about those things.

00:47:40:07 - 00:47:48:05
Speaker 1
Well that's amazing, Martha, thank you again for your time today. Thanks for your friendship and all you contribute to the industry. And thanks for, thanks for being on the podcast.

00:47:48:05 - 00:47:50:12
Speaker 3
Thanks again. It was a lot of fun.

00:47:50:14 - 00:48:15:20
Speaker 1
Chance to talk to Marta Runkle new heart about such a big range of topics, but all related to that role of the communications leader and executive, and where they need to be positioned within a company. And a lot of it has to do with her own mindset. How do we as communications professionals, especially the most seniors, chief communications officers and others, how do we understand that we must be at the heart?

00:48:15:20 - 00:48:42:19
Speaker 1
Revenue generation two, that we have to sit at the table and understand the business impact we're having and be able to communicate about that and shift our mindset about what communications is meant to do and how we can be a partner to the business. She has such a powerful career trajectory, moving not just vertically but also horizontally between very different industries, from aerospace to medical device to advanced manufacturing materials and specialty metals.

00:48:42:19 - 00:49:11:05
Speaker 1
I mean really, really complex and widely varied subject matters, but always through it, making sure that those core communicate passions, skill sets that are also deeply rooted in the outcomes of the business come with her. And I loved Marta's advocacy for her teams. You know, how is that? The communications leader brings that team along and helps other people see them as partners and counselors and encourages them to show up and a really powerful way.

00:49:11:22 - 00:49:34:04
Speaker 1
We talked a little bit about also the role of things like diversity, equity and inclusion and how we understand those terms relative to how people are enabled to be more authentic in the workplace, which is not just a nice thing to have. It's actually so powerful relative to building trust and removing friction in the business and also bringing better thinking.

00:49:34:06 - 00:49:58:04
Speaker 1
So her story herself has been really powerful in that way, and she's very interested now in, supporting more Latinos and Latinas on boards, which is a journey she's on herself. So, so many exciting things for those that are advanced in their career or just starting out in communications to study a person that has had such a varied career but so intentional.

00:49:58:04 - 00:50:08:11
Speaker 1
I think when she talks about things, it's with such intentionality and mindfulness. I know that's something that I try to bring to my work, and I think I got a lot of inspiration from talking to Marta. Today.

00:50:08:16 - 00:50:37:15
Speaker 2
We are Gans Business Communications. We are a team of media strategists, storytellers and engagement experts who meet you at the intersection of business and communications. To learn more, visit GE's communications.com. You're listening to Building Brand Gravity Attracting People into Your Orbit, a business communications podcast. Keep connected with us by subscribing to the show in your favorite podcast player.

00:50:37:20 - 00:50:49:02
Speaker 2
If you like what you've heard, please rate the show that helps us to keep delivering the latest in industry influence. Thanks for listening. Until next time.