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Effective Leadership: Balancing KPIs and Purpose

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In today’s fast-paced business world, leadership is more than just managing a team or hitting targets. It’s about creating direction, fostering engagement, and encouraging a deeper sense of purpose within the team. But how can you balance the pressure of hard KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) with the need for thoughtful leadership?

Many of us have heard the comparison between the “good” leader and the “dirty” manager. A dirty manager is typically controlling, micromanaging their team while not necessarily rolling up their sleeves and doing the work themselves. On the other hand, a true leader is right there with the team, contributing at a different level but ultimately working toward the same goal. This type of leadership fosters trust, motivation, and a shared sense of purpose.

So, how do you integrate this kind of leadership when you’re faced with hard numbers, KPIs, and expectations? It’s about asking why.

For example, during a stand-up meeting with your marketing team, everyone shares their tasks for the day. You might feel the urge to ask: Why are we doing this? Is this task really aligned with the bigger picture? And is it moving the team toward our ultimate goal?

This is where the concept of “Start with Why,” as popularized by Simon Sinek, becomes crucial. It’s about finding the purpose behind every action. Instead of just focusing on what you’re doing and how you’re doing it, ask your team: Why are we doing this? This simple question encourages reflection and helps team members align their tasks with the larger objectives.

Asking “why” helps clarify priorities, avoid busywork, and refocus the team on the key goals. It’s not just about achieving short-term KPIs; it’s about understanding why those KPIs matter and how they contribute to the bigger vision.

Ultimately, a great leader is someone who combines the clarity of KPIs with the deeper purpose that drives the team. By asking the right questions, you empower your team to think critically, stay on track, and be truly motivated to meet their goals.

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BI teams and marketing, how to make it work

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In this video, I discuss the relationship between BI teams and marketing. I explain why BI needs marketing, how marketing holds valuable data, and the challenges of sharing data with BI teams. I also emphasize the importance of keeping BI teams out of marketing activities to maintain transparency and effective execution. Watch to gain insights on the dynamics between BI and marketing teams.

Hello everybody, thank you for tuning in. Today I want to talk about BI teams. Does marketing need Business Intelligence? How is the interaction, how are we interacting with BI teams as a marketing team or as a marketing leader.

And I will give you the answer right away. Does marketing need BI? The answer is no.

It’s the other way around. BI needs marketing. BI needs marketing because marketing has data. You as a marketing leader, as a marketing channel manager, as a marketing manager, you have the data, you know what people are doing, what they are clicking on, what the efficiency of your campaign is, what this channel brings in terms of conversion, what that channel brings in terms of customer acquisition cost in terms of new customer, you know this.

As a marketing professional, BI do not need, know this one, based on your channels, so they have to ask you, they have to ask you to get access to the channels, to these reporting, to these tools.

I have been in two situations recently and they ask all these data, which is fine, I mean it’s fair, that as a central business intelligence unit within a company, you are need to know what’s going on in terms of sales, in terms of marketing activities, in terms of production, in terms of basically everything based on data.

The issue I have been facing each time happens on two layers:

First, it’s, it’s highly time consuming to give access to these, to these people and, yeah, follow up with them, all tracking and tracking requirements they have, to Meta, can you give me access to, to Tag Manager, depending on how, evolved, your environment is in terms of, centralized tag management using a tag manager and so on. So it can be, become highly technical and also, time consuming. This is one piece… the time consuming piece, I think it’s fair, if you have in your organization, a BI team, it’s, we have to give them this data, right, they, they need this data, this is fair. You want to be’re transparent, marketing has nothing to hide. And you should not give this impression, right.

The problematic piece is that BI team, once they have the data, reaches out to you, and telling you what to do. I.e. the customer acquisition cost should be measured this way, or the KPI for your marketing activity should be this one. And, on a weekly basis, we want to build you Dashboard, and then we can measure the performance of marketing, and this one is no go.

It is no go. I can only recommend you stop this shit immediately. Why? Because they have no clue about campaigns. They have no clue about what marketing activity is. They have no clue. They know the channels, right? They know what a customer life cycle is, obviously. They know what a customer acquisition cost is, obviously, but they have no clue how to bring this to life and how to execute it. So, to drive your execution, to run your marketing, decently and in a transparent way, get them out of the dashboards, get them out of your marketing reportings.

They can do reporting, they can do whatever they want for BI, for the global CEO, whoever it is. They can pull all these figures together. This is fine, but don’t let them step into your marketing activities. Otherwise, you will be very quickly in the situation that not only it is not fun anymore because you will have to work with dashboards that you have not designed and you have no understanding how they’re working (kind of black box).

But moreover, it is not up to them. The data belongs to your growth team, to your marketing, whatever it is.

You have to own the data and you have, the only way to own your data is to bring up your own dashboard.

I hope that makes kind of sense. I hope that can help you. Feel free to reach out if any questions.

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How to Embrace an Innovative Mindset and Push Digital Transformation incl. AI

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In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing business world, it has become increasingly important for traditional businesses to embrace an innovative mindset and push digital transformation, including the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). While many established businesses have been slow to adopt these new technologies and ways of thinking, doing so is now critical for their survival and growth in the long run.

Why Embrace an Innovative Mindset?

Innovation is not just about developing new products or services; it is about finding new and better ways of doing things that improve efficiency, increase productivity, and create value for customers. By embracing an innovative mindset, traditional businesses can stay ahead of their competition and be better equipped to face the challenges of the future.

Innovation can also help traditional businesses to identify new opportunities, such as new markets, new revenue streams, or new business models. By being innovative, businesses can stay relevant and adapt to changing customer needs and expectations, which is essential in a world where consumer preferences and behaviors are constantly evolving.

Why Push Digital Transformation?

Digital transformation refers to the integration of digital technologies into all aspects of a business, from operations and processes to customer interactions and marketing strategies. Digital transformation can help traditional businesses to streamline their operations, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. It can also improve customer experiences, enable personalized marketing, and provide valuable data insights that can inform strategic decision-making.

Furthermore, digital transformation can help businesses to reach new customers and markets, as well as create new revenue streams. For example, by offering digital products or services, businesses can tap into new markets that may have been previously inaccessible.

Why Include AI in Digital Transformation?

Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool that can help businesses to automate tasks, analyze data, and make predictions. By leveraging AI, businesses can improve their efficiency, reduce errors, and make better decisions. AI can also provide valuable insights that can help businesses to identify new opportunities, optimize their operations, and create new revenue streams.

For example, AI can be used to automate customer service interactions, such as chatbots or voice assistants, which can improve response times and reduce costs. AI can also be used to analyze customer data to identify patterns and preferences, which can inform targeted marketing campaigns and personalized product recommendations.

How to Embrace an Innovative Mindset and Push Digital Transformation incl. AI

To embrace an innovative mindset and push digital transformation, traditional businesses should:

  1. Embrace a culture of innovation: This means encouraging creativity, risk-taking, and experimentation, and empowering employees to think outside the box and come up with new ideas.
  2. Invest in technology: Traditional businesses should invest in the latest technologies that can help them streamline their operations, improve customer experiences, and create new revenue streams. This may include cloud computing, data analytics, and AI.
  3. Collaborate with startups: Partnering with startups can provide traditional businesses with access to new technologies and innovative ideas. It can also help them to stay agile and adaptable in a rapidly changing business environment.
  4. Develop a digital strategy: This involves defining the business’s goals and objectives, identifying areas where digital transformation can have the biggest impact, and developing a roadmap for implementing digital technologies and AI.
  5. Upskill employees: To fully realize the benefits of digital transformation and AI, businesses need to invest in upskilling their employees and developing a workforce that is equipped with the necessary digital and technical skills.

Conclusion

In today’s digital age, embracing an innovative mindset and pushing digital transformation, including AI, is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Traditional businesses that fail to do so risk falling behind their competition and losing relevance in a rapidly changing business environment. By embracing innovation, digital transformation, and AI, businesses can stay ahead of the curve, identify new opportunities, and create value for their customers.

Credit photo Viktor Forgacs on Unsplash

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Shall all marketing teams be called user development teams?

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Quick punch into what marketing and communication leaders are doing and how they understand their role and the mission of their team. As I recently worked on the market introduction of a Chinese car brand in Europe and we had been focussing on regular stuff like Brand governance, PR strategy, and supporting communications of the dealers… I was wondering why we were not called “marketing team”!

In fact we were the UD Team, the user development team.

So, yes! Startups that are searching for their business models are doing Customer Development, ok. But here we had an innovative product sure, but functionally well-known… nothing fundamentally new. Even the strategic communication approach was not different from what I have seen from other car brands. So why?

I have not asked the management why, they may not even really know. But maybe the question is rather what this is changing than why this change was done. Because it is changing a lot:

  1. The team is organized in a product-centric way
  2. The core is not the brand but the customer satisfaction
  3. Kind of an inbound approach

Not sure what you think about it, but if I had to create a company today, I would consider calling my marketing department (if any) user development and branding team.

Thanks for reading, speak soon!

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Vimeo completely messed it up

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I mean, this is impressive. I have used Vimeo for years and guys, I was so happy to have full control of my embedded videos (not showing completely unrelated s*** like on YouTube) and this new feature for hybrid screen/face recording… I was more than keen to pay some 60€ a year to have this service.

But this time they just killed me!

So I started upgrading from Plus to Pro plan (200€ / year) as I wanted to transfer my whole video production to Vimeo… and then the nightmare started!

  1. No filters anymore. I just needed to change my footage into grayscale. Impossible!
  2. Sharing not working! As I’m using the record function (which is working fine, ouuhhh), I’m copying the link, and… the video cannot be viewed because it is not rated. Holy, not even an alert when I copied the sharing link that it is not working?
  3. Incomprehensive dashboard. As I did a bigger amount of records for testing my scene I wanted to clean up a little and delete some footage. OMG, this is the most unstructured way to present videos, why?
  4. UI is mixing up different systems. No comment, a real mess.

No guys, you lost me, I downgraded to Plus so I can migrate my file somewhere else… Maybe I need to check the settings of YouToube again and there is a way to prevent Google to push their content at the end of my embedded videos!

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment… Speak soon!!

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Testing Design.ai for my video content

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OK folk, since we are in the AI funnel nowadays and we are unable to think of anything else (ouuuhh, we may miss something important!), so let’s dive into it!

The copy thing is all good, right? I mean everyone has tested Chat GPT or copy/translation tools that are based on its language model. It is working great and we all realized this tool is powerful, but has no human heart. Ouf! All good.

So I move ahead in my discovery with the video maker which is part of Design.ai and must say, I was impressed by its simplicity and how fast I could actually go. With not even an idea about the video I wanted to produce I made a full commercial video in one hour, here you go:

Yes, with stock footage, of cause, yes no transition animation and standard voiceover… but man, in one hour!

If I had some footage done on my own and a real concept here, this would have been just replacing the video agency I have been hiring for 4,5k€ for my last product video. So long story short, this AI-based video maker tool is delivering what it promised: easy and flexible video production in minutes!

Thanks for reading, speak soon!

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Why AI is a game changer for marketers

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When I first heard about chat GPT, I said to myself: yet another metaverse bubble, yet another crappy Microsoft product. I changed my mind quickly after it provided my in some seconds brilliant copy for the app landing page I was working on.

So why AI is a game changer for marketers? Because of speed! We can produce 100 times more content without doing the dirty hands job and focusing on our core: creation, understanding of target groups, and ensuring consistency of communications… we not only going faster but we are doing a better job!

Yes, there are jobs that will need to reinvent themselves! Yesterday I had been producing a small brand video in just 1 hour, with a full voiceover, music, intro + outro. I do not need to dive into this complicated video creation process that takes me days and weeks and where I cannot even change the voiceover because the speaker is not available anymore.

OK, you got me. I’m a fan of AI-based creation. I’m using designs.ai to make logos, copy, and videos. There are a lot of tools out there that are using open AI. I’m just using this one because it is working out for me.

But again, this is not a metaverse bubble, this is a revolution like the invention of the car has been a revolution and the plane. Because it is giving time a completely new scale and enables you to look much further.

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Startups should always consider using CDP (at the beginning)

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We all know how it goes when you are sitting in the rocket after the start-up was launched: 1.000 things need to be done and most of the time only your good feeling or emergencies are telling you what to do first.

But there is one thing you should not miss which is the #1 priority: understanding how your product is received and interacting with users to better understand what you need to improve and understand your target group.

In my last start-up experience, I learned by failing to implement a CDP at the beginning of the project. So we ended up with tons of sheets trying to get insight on product reception and channels… so here is my learned lesson.