The CMO Podcast

Latest Episodes:

The Creative Collisions Roundtable with the Black Executive CMO Alliance Jul 05, 2023

Show notes

Creative – it’s what all individuals, teams and companies strive to be. Today, the podcast welcomes guests from The BECA Playbook and BECA, the Black Executive CMO Alliance. BECA provides a safe and trusted space for black marketing executives to share, learn, elevate, and pay it forward.

Joining Jim for this Creative Collisions roundtable are BECA members, Julius Robinson of Marriott, Nadja Bellan-White of Vice Media – and Future Leaders from The BECA Playbook, Amanda Mitchell of AT&T, and Brianne Boles-Marshall of General Motors. We recorded this animated roundtable while we were all “taking it in” at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Enjoy and get ready to take plenty of notes...

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Ken Favaro & Cait Lamberton | How Brand Building & Performance Marketing Can Work Together Jun 28, 2023

Show notes

Today’s episode is about one of the most difficult questions facing marketers today–how can brand building and performance marketing work better together? In the recently released May/June issue of the one-and-only Harvard Business Review, Jim collaborated with two other authors to write an article about how to maximize both brand and performance marketing.

For this week's episode, Jim is joined by his co-authors of the Harvard Business Review story, Professor Cait Lamberton from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and Ken Favaro, the former CEO of Marakon Associates and currently the Chief Strategy Officer at BERA brand management.

Join Jim, Cait and Ken as they break down lessons learned from the article, their experiences working together, and what new questions they have now that the 11-page article has been published. Plus, tune in for advice from Ken and Cait on how listeners can work toward having their own writing published in the Harvard Business Review.

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Margaret Molloy (Siegel + Gale) | How to Generate Pride as a CMO Jun 21, 2023

Show notes

Today's guest on The CMO Podcast is Margaret Molloy, the Global Chief Marketing Officer at Siegel+Gale, one of the largest agencies focused on brand strategy, design, and brand experience. Siegel+Gale is part of Omnicom, one of the world’s largest marketing, media, and communications holding companies.

A native of Ireland, Margaret grew up on a dairy farm as the eldest of six children, and graduated from the University of Ulster as a first-generation college graduate. Margaret later earned her MBA from Harvard, and has had a variety of roles in marketing before taking on her Global CMO role at Siegel+Gale in 2013. Margaret says her personal purpose is to never lose the drive for community and connection, and after this conversation, there is no doubt she will ever lose it.

On this episode, Margaret and Jim combine their podcast skills to chat about the job of a CMO, from generating pride in a brand, to leaning on simplification as a driver in building financial value. Since stepping off the plane in NYC from Ireland, Margaret has worked to achieve a successful and long career, all while working to build her own personal brand--emoji's, fashion and all!

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Nathaniel Ru (sweetgreen) | Expanding the Customer Experience Through Technology and Automation Jun 14, 2023

Show notes

Today's guest on The CMO Podcast is Nathaniel Ru, Co-founder and Chief Brand Officer of sweetgreen, the fast-casual restaurant chain that serves creative, healthy salads. Fueled by the movement to reimagine fast food for a new era, sweetgreen's core values guide their actions and they aim to empower their customers, team members and partners to be a positive force on the food system.

In 2007, Nathaniel founded the company in Washington, D.C., with two classmates from Georgetown University. Sixteen years later, the three are still running the company today–now with about 200 restaurants and 5000 associates. In 2021, sweetgreen went public, with a market cap of roughly $1 billion at the time of this recording.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Nathaniel is the son of immigrant, entrepreneurial parents: his mother has Mexican heritage, and his father is Chinese. Within three months of graduating from Georgetown University, he and his co-founders had opened the first Sweetgreen on M street in Georgetown.

On this episode, Nathaniel and Jim talk about how brands can work to make the overall customer experience better through technology and automation. Over the course of his career at sweetgreen, Nathaniel has learned how to build a brand with strong customer loyalty and facilitate a fantastic internal culture at the company.

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Anton Vincent (Mars Wrigley North America) | The Importance of Driving Culture As A Brand Jun 07, 2023

Show notes

Today's guest on The CMO Podcast is Anton Vincent, the President of Mars Wrigley North America. Anton oversees brands including M&Ms (Jim's favorite!), Skittles, Twix, Mars, 3 Musketeers, Snickers, Orbit and many more.

At about 100 years old, Mars is one of the largest private companies in the world with sales of about $40 billion. Of course, Mars markets confection brands, but it also touts a variety of products and services for people and their pets.

Anton has worked at Mars since 2019, after spending the majority of his career – 20 years – at General Mills. Anton is a native of Jackson Mississippi; he earned a Bachelors in Finance at Sam Houston State University and an MBA in Marketing from the Kelley School at Indiana University. On top of his responsibilities at Mars Wrigley, Anton serves as a board director for International Paper.

On this episode, Anton and Jim talk about the responsibility of big brands to drive & support culture. Anton describes his instrumental role in BECA (the Black Executive CMO Alliance), how he keeps the Mars Wrigley brand exciting and motivating from the inside out, and how his time at General Mills prepared him for his current role.

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Jay Livingston (Shake Shack) | How Storytelling is Crucial to Brand Building May 31, 2023

Show notes

Jay Livingston is the the Chief Marketing Officer of Shake Shack. While we use the term "renaissance" man or woman too much, this week's guest truly fits the description. A graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Jay's career has included a 20-year stint at Bank of America and two years at BARK, makers of BarkBox. He has now worked for more than four years at Shake Shack, a nearly-billion-dollar brand with locations in 19 countries.

Jay also makes time for his "side hustles" - He is an active angel investor, helped start the nonprofit Unite America, and has executive produced three feature films.

In this episode, Jay and Jim talk about Jay's "career meadow," moving from Bank of America to BARK to his current role as CMO at Shake Shack. They explore the importance of consistency in the restaurant industry, how his 2-year hiatus after 20 years at Bank of America helped him to refocus his career path, and his many ventures outside of business & marketing.

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Freddie Adenuga & Kaitlin Loomis (Kellogg School of Management) | Insights from Future Marketing Leaders May 24, 2023

Show notes

This is the final episode of a three-part series inspired by the 2023 Marketing Leadership Summit at the Kellogg School at Northwestern. The Summit is an annual gathering organized by Kellogg faculty and executives from Egon Zehnder and McKinsey.

For this special episode, Jim welcomes Freddy Adenuga and Kaitlin Loomis, two MBA students who attended the Leadership Summit and currently serve as co-presidents of the Kellogg Marketing Club.

During this conversation, Jim, Kaitlin, and Freddy cover a wide range of topics, including authentic leadership, the characteristics of a great company culture, and how to appeal to the next generation of marketers. Plus – the podcast wraps up with a special interactive creative brief section, in which Freddy and Kaitlin ask Jim some fun questions and share their hopes for the future of marketing and more.

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Karuna Rawal & Martha Williams (Nature's Fynd & Egon Zehnder) | Brand Building Starts with Purpose May 17, 2023

Show notes

Karuna Rawal is the Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Marketing Officer of Nature's Fynd and Martha Williams is a consultant with Egon Zehnder specializing in the retail and consumer sectors.

This is the second installment of three episodes inspired by the 2023 Marketing Leadership Summit at the Kellogg School at Northwestern. The Summit is an annual gathering, organized by Kellogg faculty, with executives from Egon Zehnder and McKinsey.

Nature's Fynd is a remarkable company that emerged from NASA research on microbes in Yellowstone National Park, where they unearthed a groundbreaking nutritional fungi protein. This protein offers a sustainable alternative to traditional agriculture methods by significantly reducing resource consumption. The company has raised more than $500 million in capital, and its first consumer products are breakfast patties and dairy-free cream cheese.

During this episode, Jim, Karuna and Martha discuss purpose, leadership, and resilience while reflecting on the summit. They provide advice on navigating career changes and Karuna shares what it’s like to be the CMO of a unicorn company.

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Alison Lewis & Pree Rao (Kimberly-Clark & Egon Zehnder) | Age of Authentic Leadership May 10, 2023

Show notes

Alison Lewis is the Chief Growth Officer of Kimberly-Clark and Pree Rao co-leads Egon Zehnder’s Global marketing and sales practice. Egon Zehnder is a top leadership advisory firm, which includes executive search. Kimberly-Clark is a leading consumer goods firm, with revenue of $20 billion with brands like: Huggies, Kleenex, Cottonelle, Kotex and Scott.

Both guests bring rich career paths in the CPG industry, with Alison having previously worked at Kraft-Heinz, Coca-Cola, and Johnson & Johnson, and Pree having worked at Unilever and Danone before joining Egon Zehnder over four years ago.

In this episode, Jim, Alison, and Pree reflect on the Kellogg Leadership Summit and highlight themes from Alison's keynote speech on leadership. They discuss the importance of having a growth mindset, using criticism as a motivator, and the evolving titles and roles of CMOs.

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Dara Treseder (Autodesk) | Lead with Trust May 03, 2023

Show notes

Dara Treseder is the Chief Marketing Officer of Autodesk. The company’s tagline is “Make Anything,” and their software has made a significant impact on a number of industries, such as architecture, construction, media, entertainment, and manufacturing. Based in San Francisco, the company's revenue is north of $5 billion and growing.

As the leader of worldwide marketing, brand, communications, demand generation, and education business teams at Autodesk, Dara sets the strategy and goals for building the brand and marketing the product portfolio. Dara is a veteran in the industry, with previous experience as CMO at Peloton, Carbon, and GE Business Innovations & GE Ventures, and having led marketing and growth efforts at Apple and Goldman Sachs. In fact, last year, Forbes Magazine named her the #1 Most Influential CMO.

In this episode, Dara shares insights on being a people-first leader and the importance of serving your team. She and Jim discuss what drew her to Autodesk, lessons she learned from her parents that she continues to carry with her, and the essential capabilities that marketers must possess to be successful.

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