Interim VP Marketing
During a recent summer, this business consultant received a phone call from the CEO of a still-private CAD enterprise. The CEO's then-current VP Marketing had abruptly up-and-left the company right in the middle of a make-or-break year, with a half dozen key marketing thrusts hanging fire. Could the consultant step in quickly and help out without sacrificing any critical company market momentum?
But of course! Owing to the consultant's extensive CAD/PDM and business background, he was able to grasp the essential marketing priorities in a matter of a few days, despite the absence of his predecessor. He met immediately with the CEO, the other company officers, and then every person in the Marketing Department, some based in the USA and some offshore.
While several decades old and nestled in a comfortable niche in a few countries overseas, the company had endured several false starts in recent years trying to penetrate the US market against formidable and entrenched US rivals. Six months earlier, the company raised a major amount of venture capital and had just launched its best and final inroads in the USA. The company could ill-afford any missteps in what was promising to be a defining year.
The first challenge that the new consultant's marketing team faced was to create and execute a 3-day Sales Kickoff Meeting for 30 new USA and Japanese sales & applications engineers in a different city and only three weeks distant! Via a crash effort by the entire team, the Kickoff was prepared and carried out with excellent results by all accounts! (During the first few weeks of this engagement, it became obvious to both the CEO and this consultant, that the interim VP Marketing job was far more than the half-time assignment initially envisioned. The arrangement was quickly changed to full-time).
Hard on the heels of the Sales Kickoff came the new product release planning process, involving all the marketing product managers as well as the heads of the company's much larger R&D Department. This ordinary process was made extraordinary by the fact that both the marketing product managers and the more numerous R&D heads are spread among almost a dozen cities around the world. Moreover, this would be the first time in 20 years that the company's next product suite release would be planned by any other influences than those of the R&D team acting alone. Accordingly, both internal and external stakes were high. Through the magic of modern virtual telecommunications, web collaboration and live videoconferences, followed by extensive documentation via PowerPoint slides, Excel spreadsheets and WORD, along with relentless personnel dedication, all the new release's planned features, functions, benefits, differentiators and roadmaps were successfully scoped and built in a few months' time, despite chronic interruptions of day-to-day business chores.
These actions were carried out, all the while ensuring that the Marketing Department greatly intensified its continuous hands-on support of the field sales and AE forces worldwide, including on-site Marketing personnel presence at customers and prospects, as well as additional and frequent differentiators training and competitive training of the field personnel. Creating "win-win & win" relationships among the "factory-field sales & customers", was one of the hallmarks of this consultant's corporate career. Not coincidentally, the Company enjoyed its best new bookings quarter of the year, double the Q4 results of the previous year!
Through Q4 of that year, the following additional tasks were added by this consultant to the Marketing Department's agenda and accomplished under his interim Marketing Department leadership:
- Improved the Marketing Department's support of Customer Support groups worldwide, including Customer Education. - Integrated and rationalized Corporate Marketing & PR and established smooth worldwide responsibility chains. - Increased the company's worldwide PR and press/analyst momentum. - Rolled out a powerful WW Consulting Services program & PR in November. - Established a fresh plan for Corporate Identity & Advertising Programs worldwide for the following year. - Reviewed current Press Agencies overseas for renewal or possible replacement in the following year. - Prepared & participated in that year's key Trade Fair in Germany. - Supported a major trade show in Tokyo. - Established additional 3rd Party software partners. - Resurrected and enhanced Competitive Analysis. - Reviewed company Pricing Strategy worldwide. - Hired a new Marketing Department PR & Marcomms Manager offshore. - Hired an additional Marketing Department PDM product/engagement manager; issued a new PDM competitive market report, seconded Marketing people to execute company consulting projects. - Organized the worldwide Marketing financial budget for Q4; carried out WW Marketing Business Planning for the following year. In so doing, resolved issues of slim staff in both numbers of heads & skills distributions, vs. growing tasks and challenges faced. - Provide smooth transition from this consultant as interim VP to a new, permanent VP Marketing hired outside CA to reflect Company decision to build its future executive team there.
The Consultant's Agreement was extended into Q1 of the following year! Prognosis for this CAD enterprise was very positive indeed.
Contact Dr. Henke for more info or to gain access to additional Case Histories.