The Secrets of Marketing Leadership in the Modern Era

0:00HPE has undergone a pretty major brand transformation. from like 29 brands to two. Is that accurate? It is, yes. What were the driving factors behind that decision? Because that's pretty impactful to HPE's market presence. The core of it was really all about simplification. As we started looking to the future and the positioning that we wanted to own, we realized candidly that we had too many brands. And when you have that many brands, it makes it harder for the customer to easily find the right offering for them. It also spreads our marketing spend and our marketing dollars over multiple areas versus focusing them on a couple where you really want to break through and see that resonance happening.

0:37I would say the other thing that was really important is our CEO was very engaged and very supportive and he did not put any constraints in place. So sometimes, you know, you can get these things where people say, hey, I want you to go simplify, but we can't touch X and you can't touch Y. He basically said, come back to me with a plan and make us more relevant with customers.

1:02Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Marketing Trends. Today, we have a powerhouse in the room, in the virtual room. Jim Jackson is the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HPE, almost 26 years at this storied brand. And Jim has, without a doubt, orchestrated some monumental shifts at HPE. We're thinking brand consolidation, you know, radical digital pivots, and for sure leading AI strategies, which I hope we talk about today. Jim is someone who has deep experience as a marketing leader. So buckle up because Jim is without a doubt going to drop some serious knowledge in the prep conversation.

1:47He was already dropping knowledge. So I had to press record right away. Jim, welcome to the show. It's such an honor to have you. Excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Oh, man. Excited to just I mean, I went on a rabbit hole of HPE Discover Las Vegas a couple hours ago and to see. Well, one, I immediately had FOMO because within 30 seconds of that, I'm like, wow, this is there's no one does events like this. It looked incredible. And then everybody I'm there's a lot of buzz around Antonio's keynote and just a lot of the sessions that were happening there. So give me a little bit more about what HPE Discover was about.

2:27I saw you talking about it was the biggest thing, the biggest activation HPE's ever done. So what's happening in and around HPE right now? This sounds exciting. Yeah, for HPE Discover, we didn't really approach it as an event. We approached it as our biggest marketing activation since we became HPE and separated from HPE Inc several years back. So it was a huge, huge program for us. One of the things that we did is we did the first keynote in Spear, and it was an amazing experience. I believe that the Spear is truly going to reimagine brand storytelling. It's multimedia, multisensory. The ability to combine our story and our message with the incredible graphic and capabilities that the Spear brought, it was amazing.

3:13And our customers were blown away. For most of them, it was the first time in the Spear. they were just really, really excited. And it was an experience that you cannot get anywhere else. So that was huge for us. The other thing is we had some breakthrough announcements in AI with NVIDIA. We had Jensen on stage with Antonio. This was our biggest event that we've ever done. We had 14 ,000 attendees. We had our biggest technology showcase that we've ever done. And of course, you know, we did a lot digitally, right, to get the message out beyond Vegas. But it was a huge, huge event for us. We're still going through all the data right now, but the feedback has been really, really positive.

3:54And, you know, I looked at this as an event, this event as a catalyst to continue to drive the HPE brand and get people to think differently about our capabilities. And we seemed and really led a lot of this event with AI. It is the big buzz in the market today. And we had some significant announcements in AI. So it was a really exciting event for us. And, you know, obviously now we're going through all the data and we're looking at how do we translate this into business value as we go forward. You mentioned NVIDIA, which I was going to touch on for sure. Another, you know, pretty huge iconic brand and a lot of talk around the growth of NVIDIA.

4:32This is a significant partnership, you know, between HPE and I'm really excited about this. Can you expand on the significance about this partnership, like and the collaborative efforts this really brings to both brands? Yeah, HP and NVIDIA have had a decade-long partnership. So we've been working together with them for a long time, and they were fantastic partners, particularly leading up to Discover. We wanted to do a big announcement, so we co-developed a private cloud AI solution. It's branded HPE Private Cloud AI. We announced HPE NVIDIA computing with Hewlett Packard Enterprise or with HPE.

5:09So a lot of things coming together. And we really wanted to talk about how our innovation, innovation that NVIDIA is bringing, and how that really gives customers a very unique solution for the market. You'll see us continue to partner and do other work with NVIDIA as we go forward. We had some announcements actually in the fall, so last year in the fall. So this continues just bringing to market additional capabilities that address different use cases for our customers. And again, for us, it was all about unique differentiation. And what problem are we solving for customers, particularly in that enterprise space, which we're seeing is now starting to really get some traction?

5:50Wow. So I want to click up a little bit because I have to realize that I'm connecting with someone who has seen many things in the world of technology and advancement. Right. I mean, just in your couple plus decades at HPE, we're talking about, you know, you've been there through the rise of cloud computing. Right. Things like advancements in high performance computing. You've been you were there, AI machine learning before. It was a sexy buzzword. Right. Like you, you've been through all of these things, the convergence and virtualization. Right. And so many really interesting innovations like you were actually there.

6:29This is not someone who, you know, can read about it and talk about it. Like you've gone through this. Oh, and by the way, with a brand that's been, you know, you know, contributing in meaningful ways. What does that do to shape your perspective as a leader and as a marketing leader? Because you, I mean, one, you've, you've maintained relevance through all of it, which is incredible and exceptional. And you've like seen so much, like, what is it? How could you even, can you even put that into words? What it's like to go through that kind of ride? You know, it's interesting. That's, that's a great question.

7:00and one I have to really think about because when you're in the middle of it, a lot of times it's not that clear exactly what's going to happen on the other side. But you're right, been through cloud, been through multiple other trends that have happened in this space. And I think the positive thing is you start to be able to see and learn from what happened previously and then apply it to the next opportunity. Clearly, right now, we see AI as being one of the biggest buildouts ever, right? I think it's going to be as big, certainly, as cloud and as the internet when you start to just think of the impact that it's going to have.

7:38And you're right, HPE is very well positioned to help our customers on that journey. We're a trusted brand. We're a company that has deep partnerships everywhere. So we can bring and curate that ecosystem and then really start to focus with customers in terms of how we can help them navigate what is a transforming market. Because for many customers, they obviously can't start from scratch. They have to be able to evolve their technology and their strategies. They're looking for a transformation partner that can help them on that journey. And that's what Hewlett Packard Enterprise does, right? And that's where we've been through almost every major technology inflection that's happened for the last 80 plus years.

8:23And we feel that we're very well positioned to help our customers as they go on the next set of big transitions that will be happening. In the note of transformation, I mean, HPE has undergone a pretty major brand transformation, right? I mean, there's been a pretty big consolidation. Now, is it accurate? Is it from like 29 brands to two? Is that accurate? It is. Yes. Yes. Okay. If that is accurate, what were the driving factors behind that decision? because that's pretty impactful to HPE's market presence. It is. The core of it was really all about simplification. And I've been at the company for a long time, as you said, and I'm very proud of where HPE has come from.

9:03But as we started looking to the future and the positioning that we wanted to own, we realized candidly that we had too many brands. And when you have that many brands, it makes it harder for the customer to easily find the right offering for them. It also spreads our marketing spend and our marketing dollars over multiple areas, versus focusing them on a couple where you really want to break through and see that resonance happening. So we looked at, okay, how do we approach this from a way that is thoughtful, that is data-driven? We had 20 different pieces of research that fed into this effort.

9:38We heard and analyzed opinions from our top customers, prospects, from partners, analysts, from executives, employees. We talked to a lot of different people. And I would say the other thing that was really important is our CEO was very engaged and very supportive and he did not put any constraints in place. So sometimes, you know, you can get these things where people say, hey, I want you to go simplify, but we can't touch X and you can't touch Y. He basically said, come back to me with a plan to help simplify. That's going to make it easier for us to really reposition the company for the future and make us more relevant with customers.

10:18So that was a key part of it. Basically, like I said, we took all of that data and all that analysis. And then we came back with a strategy where we said we want to go from 29 brands to ultimately two end state brands, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which is our corporate brand and HPE GreenLake, which is our cloud offering. We did have a bridge because we had some key products that we want to make sure that we didn't lose equity there. So we had five or six brands that, you know, are kind of bridge brands as we're going on this journey. And then we had a whole lot of work that we had to do to communicate this out.

10:54And that was a Herculean effort just to be candid, right? We did an ATM and an all team member meeting with everybody in the company. My CEO and I, we led that. We talked about why we're doing it, what it means, and how we're going to roll this over roughly a three-year period because we didn't want to disrupt business. Obviously, that was one of our core tenets. So we're able to intercept natural points in time where we have an NPI or we have a new product coming out. That's where we can start to roll in some of these changes. And we also are working with our COO office. His whole team is helping us with the management of change to make sure that we're driving this, you know, in a, in a very coordinated way, I would say overall it's, it's gone quite smoothly.

11:41I won't say it's perfect because you always have, you know, some, some challenges and there's also emotion and something like this, right? Cause people's there, some of their identities tied up in these brands. So we had to work through that. But again, I think a lot of it was the, the data really helped. So I could go on and on here, but it was a huge undertaking. We're still in the middle of it and, and executing it, but it's, it's actually going quite well. Wow. That's incredible. Yeah. I can imagine, you know, going that, that kind of a shift is, I mean, the amount of trust that has to be built and execution.

12:14And I mean, the timing and all of that's got to be huge. And then ultimately, like you said, you're probably getting feedback and saying, Hey, are we, are we moving in the right direction? Which inevitably you have, and you are, let's click a little bit into AI. And I mentioned, I know that Antonio emphasized the importance of human creativity and AI working together, a big one. How is HPE fostering that kind of integration? Yeah, I mean, we definitely see AI as a huge, huge opportunity, but humans will continue to play a huge role in all of our solutions and how we're rolling this out. So for us, you know, it's about how do we use AI to bring more productivity and really enable us to deliver, you know, a better experience for our customers.

13:04So, you know, if you take it more from a marketing standpoint, for example, because, you know, that's where, you know, obviously I spend more of my time for us from an AI perspective, we actually started, and you touched on this earlier, we started several years ago thinking about this and the first part of it was really getting our data right right we we have a lot of data in marketing and we treat it very responsibly i want to make that point but we curate close to 300 terabytes of data and data signals that refresh on a daily basis you know both within and outside of hpe and then we have an in-house data science team they help us take all of that data and then really leverage it into insights so that we can make better decisions.

13:51And, you know, things like propensity to buy and other kinds of programs that we're looking at. So the key thing here for us is that it's really about productivity gains as well as delivering a better customer experience. And again, I'll just come back to where you were touching, you know, for the vast majority of our use cases, the human is the decision maker, you know, with automation being the tool. And that's how we're thinking about it. And we'll continue on that journey that way. It's got to be an interesting seat to sit at the intersection where you are seeing so much velocity happening around product and around the way the world's responding to the things that is being created.

14:31I want to get your perspective on just kind of leadership, generally speaking. Again, you've been a leader for many, many years. You've seen the evolution of the executive leadership team now serving a really powerful team at HPE. What have you just seen shifting and changing and evolving in terms of just being an executive leader over the years? A modern day marketing leader versus a marketing leader years ago. Are you seeing a difference in how things were as you were coming up in the game as a leader till now? What sticks out as some of the maybe learnings there or key distinctions? I think it's a lot faster today.

15:12Definitely. Things are, things are moving a lot faster. It's a lot more data and analytics driven. That, that is a huge part of it. I mean, I, I, I get this question from a lot of different people, but you know, what has changed about marketing and marketing is one of the biggest users of it, right? You know, there's a, there's, we have a, a lot of it spend in the company and, and marketing is a, is a big part of that. We obviously had to go build out a whole IT stack. We had to think about everything from a digital standpoint and how do we architect that? How do we build the right architecture behind it?

15:49So there's a, you know, people have always said marketing is an art and a science. I'm definitely seeing a lot of focus on the science part of it. You know, from a leadership perspective, this is something that I take very, very seriously. And, you know, I think you have to really surround yourself with people who can do your job. So I have, you know, I try to always make sure I've got people on my staff who are ready to step in, you know, if I win the lottery or something like that. And, you know, my job is ultimately to lead the company in a stronger place for the future. And I played baseball in college, always been a very competitive person.

16:26And, you know, I think it's always, you have to think about having the best players on the field. That is critical. And, you know, for a company like HVE, we're a very culture driven company. And we require that our leaders model our culture beliefs, you know, from the front and the what and the how are equally important. I think the other thing that I've seen just my own personal way of thinking about it is giving people space. I believe in, you know, bringing in strong leaders, letting them run their programs. They need help for some there for them. But, you know, These are smart folks and they don't want to be looking over their shoulders.

17:03They want somebody who they know is there to guide them and help them. But my management style is more hands-off. I also think it's important to give them visibility to senior management. I think people always tell this because one of the things that we have done actually in HP Marketing is we have spun off quite a few CMOs. It's a good thing. Obviously, you know, sometimes when you get that conversation where somebody says, do you have five minutes later in the day? It's like, no, I don't. But, you know, my view is that I want people to know that their career goals can be met at HPE. And if they need to leave for whatever reason, I want them to look back with fondness and communicate to the market that HP marketing is a place where you can go and build the right skills to be a leader.

17:50And then, you know, one final point, because I think this is an important one. I really try to focus on having fun. I like to get to know people. Whenever we do off sites, I have dinner at my house so they can meet my wife and my kids. We spend so much time with our jobs. It's a lot more than just work, right? We have to get to know people, let them know that we care about them. And the final is just collaboration. You talk about leadership teams. I think what really matters is that everybody knows what their position is on the field. Sometimes you're carrying the ball. Sometimes you're blocking for the person or you're doing something else to use a sports analogy.

18:30And I believe you have to bring the same energy for both. So at the end of the day, it's about the team and that is the team winning. Yeah, you mentioned successfully leading a team that has spun off multiple CMOs. I was going to ask you about that, which I love that. And I'm curious about your approach to nurturing and developing marketing leaders, because certainly, you know, the proof's in the pudding there. What qualities do you look for in future marketing leaders? I look for people who are collaborative. I look for people who are competitive and driven. I want people who have a bias for action, right, who are coming in because they want to make a difference.

19:12They want to move the needle. They're not afraid to make a mistake. I always tell people, you know, if we're not making mistakes, we're probably not pushing hard enough. We're not trying hard enough. But, you know, also that they're not making the same mistake twice. And obviously, I touched on it earlier, the what and the how. And again, in our company, those things matter equally, right? You have to do good work, but also you have to do it the right way. You have to treat people with respect. You have to spend time with your teams and all those kinds of things. So, you know, I'm looking for people coming into the organization that can not only do really good work, but can also live the cultural values that we have here at the company because it's really, really important.

20:00And, you know, from a marketing standpoint as well, people have a bias to wanting to be in the field, spending time with customers. I talked about that earlier. That's very, very important to me. It's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day activity of chasing emails and being on calls and those kinds of things. But I strongly believe that it's marketing's job to really understand the voice of the customer. And you have to be out there. You have to be talking to customers and partners and understanding, you know, what are their challenges? Because if you can do that, then you can develop the right messaging, the right positioning, and really, really help the company, you know, as we go forward.

20:38And then depending on different disciplines, you know, obviously you might have somebody that is much more creative or somebody who is more in the data analytics side of the house. So it depends on the role. But a lot of those are those things that I'm looking for and people who can assimilate and be part of the team. We talked a little bit about teamwork and I believe at the end of the day, it's teams that win. It's not just individuals. So people who can be part of that. I imagine that with such a collaborative effort at HP, there's got to be a pretty robust strategy around, I guess the best word, account-based marketing, right?

21:22Like ABM type of things, right? Where you're really identifying who you're wanting to target and work with, et cetera. What's working well in that space, connected to media, storytelling, content, angles, like what sort of things are you seeing work really well in the space that you're serving around those kind of B2B, ABM convos? Yeah, I mean, I think when we think about, you know, ABM and ABX and everything like that, first of all, for us at HPE, everything that we do with sales is really about one sales and marketing motion. And that's really important because we think of go to market as marketing and sales together.

22:01And you kind of touched on digital and offline, right? I think the other part here is how do you get the balance across both to give you that digital scale and coverage and then offline being more targeted, engaging close to the customer. And a key element that we really focus on here is how do you think about that from two ends of the same thing rather than thinking about them as two separate things. And then obviously using data, propensity data, and that's where our database and all the data lake that we have created enables us to really be much more targeted in terms of propensity to buy. What are those accounts that we think have the highest opportunity within the next six months to purchase from us for a variety of reasons?

22:47And we've got data on that. Then what you can do, to your point, is bring things like ABX where you have marketing and sales together in a very coordinated way to help understand, target different personas, and really move that sales motion forward. So we're doing a lot across HPE with our sales colleagues around, again, that ABX and that ABM motion. And it's something that, you know, again, I'm lucky to have a sales leader who understands the power of marketing and who really loves the collaboration and the partnership. You talked a little bit about the sales and marketing alignment, which is, you know, we'll never get old, you know, as the world continues to spin and technology and strategy start to shift and tighten the relationship between these age old, you know, parts of the business, these core functions.

23:38And I'm curious about just clicking into this with you, how you're doing this really well. What works really well in terms of aligning sales and marketing and maybe lifting up the hood a bit and talking into some of the strategy of like, not just saying, got to talk, got to be in communication, got to align. How do you do it well at scale? I mean, it's not easy. And certainly over my career, I've had times where it wasn't near as strong as it is today. But there's a philosophy, and as I said, certainly from me, and then from our sales leader and multiple other people at different levels, that sales and marketing essentially operate as one go-to-market motion.

24:19So thinking about it that way, I think that's, first of all, one of the core elements. And I do have a very strong relationship with our sales leader. Our teams are connected at multiple different levels across the geo. So we've got marketing and sales together. and then we goal them to have common targets. This enables us to think about joint performance and sales and marketing together. And again, I know it's an overused analogy, but one plus one equals three, right? I don't want marketing just in the same place. I wanna figure out how do we leverage what marketing brings, what sales brings, and then that will ultimately enable us to deliver better impact.

25:01and by doing it this way as well like back to pipeline you touched on that instead of saying hey you're going to go out and generate x amount of leads and then other leads will come from here and then later on we can argue about the quality or what happened we really try to think about it as one go-to-market motion with the right size shape and velocity and that enables us to then constantly look and use data to say what's working, what's not working, how do we flex marketing differently, how do we think about sales differently, you know, to deliver the right results. So it's something that's taken candidly quite a while.

25:40I do think it's personalities as well. You know, people who think that way and truly think about that partnering. And, you know, I sit on sales meetings, I attend off sites. so I'm very engaged. The sales team knows that I'm out in the field. I'm meeting with customers and partners. We look at our CIC, which is our Customer Innovation Center. We work with our sales teams where they can bring customers in for very, very personalized days where they get all the right technology, access to all the right executives. So thinking about all of this kind of end-to-end, But I would say it's something that is unique to HPE, particularly when I talk to some of my other peers in the industry.

26:26And I'm thankful for it. Wow. Yeah. And again, I think you've got to – I'm assuming the speed of trust is something you've got to be really good at now. And you said things are moving really fast, which also means you've got to be able to build trust really fast and be able to move that along as well. Um, have you found ways to improve, improve that, increase the speed of trust amongst leaders, amongst your team in such a fast paced world? Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of it is to your point, like, you know, what are, are people coming with the right intent or in it? And also it's that you can say certain things, but it's really what you do, right?