Bringing People Along: My First 100 Days as CMO
Credit SAP

Bringing People Along: My First 100 Days as CMO

Has a leader ever brought you along the journey? Tell me here or @MaggieCJ.

When I started as Chief Marketing Officer of SAP, I inherited an amazing team of people with different skill sets and different culture at different points in their careers. I knew I would need the support of my team around the world to help our customers and partners succeed. From day one, it was my mission to bring people along the journey with me.

I was lucky in my career to have managers, mentors, and sponsors who did the same for me – tell me where we are going, how we are going to get there, and most importantly, what my role is in our success. In celebration of my first 100 days as CMO of SAP, I wanted to share the three biggest lessons I’ve learned so far.

1. Immerse yourself in the culture and people

In the short three months since I joined SAP, I’ve had over 100 one-on-one conversations with people from my marketing team; face-to-face meetings with people in the executive leadership team representing development, finance, and sales; eight town hall meetings with employees around the world; tens of customer and partner meetings; informal meetings with our Business Women’s Network, and “office hours” with future SAP all-stars. That adds up to 150 vanilla lattes from Starbucks, yes, it’s a habit I picked up after spending 10 years in Seattle. I dubbed this period my “listening and learning tour.” It’s one thing to say you are going to listen. It’s another to log the 47,000 air miles and look people in their eyes and actively listen. This is how I build trust. The results are amazing.

2. Don’t be a know-it-all

Sometimes humility and ascending to senior management don’t necessarily mix. But I’ll give you the secret: you don’t have to know everything all the time. In fact, you can’t.

My first address to the marketing team was also my first morning on the job. One of the questions that came through was about my 2015 vision and strategy. It would be easier to say anything than to say nothing. But I answered truthfully – our vision and strategy is a collective journey. I want to learn about SAP from the inside first, find our strengths and how they help our customers, our partners and ecosystem, and then map our Marketing vision and strategy for the future.

3. Have a Jam session

Our marketing team is an expressive bunch on social media. We’ve channeled this internally with SAP Jam (think social media, not intranet), a communications tool that breaks down silos. I write and talk with everyone on my team in the same way, regardless of tenure, position, location or title. SAP Jam lets me share plans and information across the team and get their feedback instantly. It is also simpler to comment, share documents, and establish a regular communications cadence with your team.

My advice is to bring people along the journey. Not only will you have a higher chance of success, but you’ll find the success even better when you can share it and close the feedback loop with your team.

I won’t be a stranger to the comment section, so please post your thoughts and opinions here, or follow me @MaggieCJ. I’ll leave you with a question: has a leader ever brought you along the journey? Did it make a difference in your career?

All the best for your new position. Keep going!

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Kevin Kerner

CEO and Founder at Mighty & True | 20+ years in Tech and Digital Marketing | Strategic and Operational Expertise | Helping tech brands scale their marketing campaigns and ROI | No-Code and Systems Building Fan

9y

Congrats on the milestone, Maggie. I'm sure you're killing it! Hope all is well.

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Margaret Molloy 🙋♀️

Global Chief Marketing Officer | Board Member | CMO/CEO Advisor | Simplifier | I ask questions | B2B | MC/Host | 🇮🇪 Irish-Born, Global Citizen | @MargaretMolloy

9y

Sounds like you are off to a great start Maggie. Looking forward to tracking your journey.

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I, too, have always believed in the necessity of face-to-face and of listening, to develop trust and collaboration, and getting the "lay of the land" first. Kudos for your accomplishment, as I haven't met too many leaders willing to stand up for that or to embody that. Don't assume or suppose, just ask. It's also positive that SAP is getting more progressive about female leadership. Wishing you all the best, and send the elevator back down, please!

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Eartha Joy Atwell Mohammed

Changes such as compliance in our industry will bring positive as well as negatives that will affect us

9y

Extremely critical information to any one in management role. Your method i use some of.its great stuff.

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