Omer Waysman (Michelin) | Trust at 70 Miles Per Hour - Tires, Dining, and 24 Hours of Le Mans

24:48Jim Stengel:What's your counsel for others who have a character or an icon associated with their brand? I mean, we had them at P &G. What's your counsel for them? Because you have to be one of the world's greatest experts, your company, on leveraging an asset. So what's your counsel for others who have something? It's very hard to not jump on buzz opportunities. When you have an opportunity of a buzz, you want to jump instantly because you believe that it will provide something different for your brand, different from your consumers. So trying to balance and the respect for the history of your icon and your mascot and maintaining it no matter what's going on, And you have so many opportunities and it's okay to turn down opportunities.

25:37For me, it's the respect for your legacy, the respect for the tradition and the respect for what this icon has brought in the past 130 years. Who am I that will change an icon that has been by the best marketers steady in the past 130 years? My job is to sustain that. My job is not to change it. My job is to, I would say, take the best of what we could do in our modern world, you know, across a different touch point, but making sure at the same time that we are not changing the nature of why we had this Michelin man from day one. And so I think it's being patient and not being eager to jump on getting some, you know, extra visibility for a short period of time.

26:23And I think that that's also why the Michelin Group has been innovating for the past 135 years. You know, recently, for the past four years, we've been awarded Best Tire Brands in the United States by Consumer Reports. And I'm very proud of it, obviously, because that's something that's very important. You know, it's not only nice to be a marketer and have a mascot. As a marketer, you want good product. You want the best product. You want to be able actually to deliver above expectation for consumers. And so the fact that you are able to have a great icon, a great brand linked to great product that are underlined as best in the market by independent reviews is what makes my life easier, I would say.

27:09Jim Stengel:When I think about your company, I obviously think about the Michelin man, but I also think about the Michelin guide. And so this is another really interesting part of your brand. And I'm just really curious why that is still important for your company and your marketing. I mean, when I Google Michelin to look at your latest earnings or whatever, what comes up is the Michelin guide. And I have to get much more focused in my search. So I have to imagine there have been discussions about, is this the right thing for us now? Is it part of our business model? I'm just curious. I mean, it's massively popular.

27:49Jim Stengel:It's a brand of itself. And it's a brand that's well-respected. So talk a bit about how you think about the Michelin Guide vis-a-vis the Michelin Group and the Michelin brand. You know what's interesting, Jim? When you started talking about the Guide, I saw a start of a smile on your face. And I think that that summarized what we're trying to achieve within the Michelin Group. We want to create experiences across all of our products and services. And I don't know if you've been to a Michelin Guide restaurant recently. Okay. And you remember, you remember it's not something usual, but it's an experience.

28:25And you remember why you went there. When I was my first Michelin Guide restaurant, I remember very well, it was my first salary and I invited my parents. I would remember that all my life. But that's actually what we're trying to create with the brand and with the product and services that we have. This notion of experience is important on the guide, but it's also important on the tires. We want, when you are riding, we want you to have the best possible experience. We want it to be safe. We want it to be enjoyable. We want it to be quiet. And we want you actually to not feel anything else than the pleasure of driving.

29:03And that's exactly what we want to achieve as well with the experience that we create, a unique experience with the Michelin guide. And funny enough, the Michelin Guide was born based on an idea of creating an experience for riders and travelers to help them find places to stay, but also to repair their bicycles. And this connection, again, I'm coming back to the legacy and history of the reason why it was created that way. And today, definitely we are in a different world. And definitely the Michelin Guide has been very, very popular. And we just launched a few months ago the Michelin Guide for the South.

29:39We have a star restaurant actually in Greenville for the first time. So I think that there's a lot of excitement, obviously, about the guide. We've been launching in several states in the U.S. and we'll continue, obviously, to develop a new region and new states in the United States. But it's important as well to understand that for us, it's maintaining this strong connection of best and premium experience for our consumers through the guide, through our tire lines. And that's why we continue actually to work on that. And I think you mentioned your question. Obviously, there's always a question about how do you position it?

30:18How do you link it to your historical business? But at the end of the day, if you have a brand and a product and a service that is matching the group DNA and values, why wouldn't you actually continue and develop it?

30:42Jim Stengel:Now, we've said you've been at Michelin about four years, promoted, I think, about two years ago to VP of Marketing B2C in North America. I mean, your category is super interesting, right? I grew up in categories which were purchased every week. Yours is purchased every few years, probably. So how do you think about marketing strategy in a category like that? So it's interesting because I've been, as you said at the beginning, working for different categories. Microsoft, on the consumer side, where you can actually purchase monthly when you have a subscription to Office or whatever. You can also have several years between a device if it's a surface device.

31:25Then on, to your point, you know, FMCG product that you purchase every week. And then a tire category where, as you said, you're not purchasing every day. So there's three elements here that are important, Jim. The first one is how you maintain the connection with your consumers across all their usage of the tire. And so this is where you need to develop tools that you know better than I in terms of the connection in order to continue and fuel your consumer with tips, with information that might suit to their driving habits. And by the way, the North American consumer, the North American market have such a high expectation of their tire performance, way higher than all in all markets in the world.

32:16And so you have to fuel, I would say, that expectation with your consumers. The second element is the need to prepare well in advance all your product launches because you're not launching product every 12 months like you can do in FMCG. The timeline is way more important because the innovation as well that you put into a new product must be very deep. And so you're having way more strategic thinking about how am I going to be positioned in a few years versus in a few months? And so you need to have a blend of, I would say, strategic horizon and tactical horizon when you plan your go-to-market plan because you're going to extend your product entire line.

32:55And the third element that is way different is connection that you have with your consumers. You need to find different touch points to continue and talk to them. And so you need to develop those touch points through partnership, through obviously social media, to all the partnership that you can have in motorsport with the car manufacturer, et cetera, et cetera. So my job and my team job is to be able to develop as much touchpoint as we can, own touchpoint, earn touchpoint, partner touchpoint, and to be able to have a consistent approach of content across all of our touchpoint in order to fuel my first point, which was how do you fuel, I would say, the expectation from our consumers about the tires.

33:34So those three element are kind of, I would say, top of mind when I look about the mid to long-term horizon in terms of positioning the brand.

33:42Jim Stengel:Why are North American consumer expectations so much higher? Is it the poor quality of the roads or the distances they travel or the kind of cars and trucks they travel in? I think that there's an emotion connection to cars that is probably higher than in the rest of the world. I think that's historical. I think that that's the first element. The second one is the importance, obviously, of the long-lasting performance. As I said at the beginning, you're not driving 10, 15 hours in France like that. And the fact that it's important makes us develop some very specific tire line for the North American market.

34:19And for instance, our two major tire lines, Cross Climate 2 and Defender, last on average 25 % more than our major competitors. I don't know if you can imagine what's 25 % more, Jim. It's a lot. It's huge. When you talk about 10 ,000 of miles that you are actually spending on the road, it's a huge benefit. And our promise is a long lasting performance, meaning that from the first mile to the last mile, you have the same quality of performance on your tires. And that's why we've been awarded, you know, four times in a row, the best tire brand in the US, because I think that we continue to commit and deliver to the expectation of our consumers.

34:59And the wear element is so important for them that we are trying as much as we can to continue and develop the right tire line for the highest expectation in the market. And by the way, you also need a tire line that can hit the best possible performance, no matter the condition. If it's on snow, on wet, on dry, and if you're driving 15 hours from east to west or from north to south, you know better than I that you can actually be in front of those conditions. So that's why the Cross Climate 2, for instance, that's my favorite child, if I may say. Half of my team will not be very happy. Part of it will be.

35:36But the Cross Climate 2 is my preferred one because you have a very important range of long-lasting performance in terms of mileage. And at the same time, you have a world weather product that can work perfectly across all conditions. So that's, for me, I would say my preferred challenge. Don't share it outside of here.

35:52Jim Stengel:Yeah, no, it's crazy how the innovation of being able to do that is pretty remarkable. So where are you focused these days? In terms of your personal, if I looked at your diary, what would I surmise from that in terms of the two or three things that you're personally spending your precious time on? So the first one would definitely be my people. The first one is how do I continue to develop my people? How do I make sure that we develop the right competencies, the marketing skills within my team? How do we continue to increase the collaboration that we have with the sales organization? You know, marketing and sales are always best friends, best enemies.

36:34But for us, it's, you know, my day-to-day life, talking to my VP sales every day. That's how you build the connection and the culture. So for me, the first one is continue to extend this culture that we built in the past years on collaboration and developing my people in the marketing medium. The second one is continue and try to bring the best product to the market. we've been launching in january the excise snow plus which is a new tire for winter condition that i'm very very proud of consumers will start seeing it coming during just after september we'll start seeing them probably in the north when we'll see some snow consumer will start experiencing what is is what's the best possible tire line in winter so continue to do that in the few next months and years we'll continue to have good news as well with some other interesting product launches.

37:27So we'll definitely continue to have this obsession of continue and bring the best possible product to each segment and category to the market. And the third one is how we can continue and be connected with our consumers. Today, I'm not selling directly to consumers. Some of my competitors are doing it, but we are not selling directly. We're selling through our retailer partners, but we want to continue and be able to help them understand the Michelin DNA, the values why behind a product and Jim I would extend an invitation for you if you want I'll be happy to host you in our next IMSA race in what we call Petit Le Mans in Atlanta there's it's a Petit Le Mans so we call it because it's also there's a connection with the with the Grand Le Mans the Big Le Mans if I may and if you accept I'll be happy to host you for a day there you'll see the passion that people can have for their tires and the connection to the tires because obviously we need to work with all the car manufacturer to optimize because it's an, it's a combination between the best possible tire with the car and how you adjust it to the car to have the best possible performance on the track.

38:37And so I'd be more than happy to show you first, the passion of the people around the brand, but to also how we work with a different engineer of a different car manufacturer to try and optimize the performance on the track, because it's, you know, small seconds that are making the difference, even on a 12-hour race. So that's, I would say, my top of mind, my people, my product, and my consumers.

39:01Jim Stengel:No, it sounds great. It sounds super. You've had a great couple of years there. What's been more challenging that you would have imagined? Because it all sounds like it's been a really nice wedding with you and the company. What's been tougher than you would have imagined? Jim, it's interesting. When you are on social media, you see Instagram versus reality. And to answer your question, the gap between Instagram or what I'm saying in reality is not that far away. There, obviously, I was facing some difficulties at the beginning. You know, I had to adapt to the American culture. It's not easy. Even if I've been working for American company or international environment, you are here and you need to make sure that you understand the different sensitivity that people might have, the different topics that you might or might not be able to talk about.

39:50You need to understand how you can take care of people with a different culture. And it's not that easy, Jim. It's not that easy because the codes are something that we are born with. And we, you know, we've been, we've been to school and to, um, um, institution that are helping us to better understand that, but, but still nothing like real life. So I think the first one is definitely took me a few months to be able to adapt to the American culture. When you try to develop a culture of collaboration, yourself needs to be number one, collaborate the person collaborating with, I would say, your partners.

40:23And so I had to work on myself as well. The second one is I'm not a huge fan of small talk gym. Okay. I don't think that I'm outstandingly good at that, but I had to actually obviously step up my game, as my teammates would say, because that's part of the culture and that's taking me outside of my comfort zone. But at the end of the day, that's something that I had to do so people could feel that I'm close to them. And I'm not just here to lead the marketing department, but I'm here to lead marketer to a better place. I think that's a slight difference and nuance in terms of how you state it, but in reality, it's very important.

41:06The second one is obviously understanding the American market from a business standpoint. It takes time to learn, to understand what are the trends, the history, what are the reasons to believe from an American consumer versus the European one versus the Asian one. When I was in my global role before, I was able to have it high level. But then when you need really to address that in a very specific point, you need to get way more intimate with the knowledge of the American market. And last but not least, my partner and retailers. Because at the end of the day, we work with them every day. We need to develop a relationship with them.

41:44And we need to develop a new kind of joint business plan, as we say, to make sure that it's not just a one-way relationship, but it's a both ways relationship. And in order to do that, you need to create connection, but also you need to bring value. And to bring value, you need to bring knowledge. And to bring knowledge, you need to work on what's inspiring, what's the latest, and how you would help their business grow. And not necessarily only your business, because that's an easy call. If you go and you say, I'll help you help my business. That's too easy. So you need to come with a different approach, different mindset.

42:17So I'd say probably those three things. If you ask me from a professional standpoint, I would say those three things.

42:23Jim Stengel:Yeah, that's very helpful. Your company is full of partnerships, right? And they're very, very critical to your business model. And all companies, partnerships are important. But I think especially in yours, I mean, you have retailers, as you talked about, truck and auto manufacturers, motorsports, agencies, entertainment companies, on and on. So where do you personally focus in terms of partnerships? Is there one category of those partnerships or group of them where you spend the disproportionate amount of your time? That's a tough question, Jim. But if I would have to pick, motorsport is definitely an important laboratory for me.

43:02It's a laboratory because we bring the latest innovation to the truck that we want to bring to the street afterwards for our consumers. So I would say from an innovation standpoint and from a collaboration with our OEMs, with our car manufacturer partner, I would say the motorsport environment. That's why also we just renewed our long-term partnership with IMSA, which is the endurance race in North America, to 10 more years. So that's definitely an important one. It's a laboratory of test as well for our interaction, messaging content with our consumers. as I shared we have fans on we have uh CRM programs we have opportunities to interact with consumers and and people passion that are passionate about tires and cars so here we can better understand the trends you know where we what we are doing well what we are not doing well you know getting a better sense of that you can do focus group I mean you know it better than I gym you can do focus but there's nothing like reality check so the laboratory test for that And the last one is people engagement.

44:03I love to see my teams as well on races. And you'll see we have some people that are volunteering to come to those races to help and support the team. And I think that I like to see the passion about that for Michelin employee to be completely honest. So I hate to choose, but if you ask me to choose, I would say that the motorsport partnership is an important one for us.

44:25Jim Stengel:You worked in consulting, tech, and consumer products before Michelin, and we talked a bit about that. But I've heard you say that your eight years at Microsoft were profound for you. What was it about that experience that was so foundational for you? So Microsoft was my first big company. I've been in consulting before, as you said. But again, you're not linked to the brand because you're working on so many different projects, so many different companies. But there's no strong connection with the brand. So Microsoft was my first, I would say, big experience. I said almost a decade. And I still have Microsoft blood, I have to say.

45:02You know, I think that it's interesting because we have, I was leading the Windows Phone product marketing team as well when I was at Microsoft. I was very in love with the product, Windows Phone. Unfortunately, Windows Phone is not anymore with us, but it was really, you know, something I was passionate about. So I think that it sticked to me. And today I don't have an Apple phone, for instance. And so I'm the green bubble. Okay. So they call me the green bubble at work. And so I try to convince my VP sales. I say, I will switch only if you bite. He's a sales guy. So he still didn't bite. But that's actually pretty interesting.

45:45It's something that stayed with me. And so I would say the connection as well. And I love the pace at Microsoft. I love the innovation. And there's some similarities with the value that I see about the importance of innovation at Michelin. And so I think the innovation is kind of almost a common thread across my career. I've been to many innovative companies. That's something super important for me because I think that there's innovation, but also the right pace of innovation. And I think that's also kind of what those three companies are kind of having in their DNA. it's not like launching 10 ,000 of product every year, but launching the right one and the focused one with the right audience, the right segment.

46:26And so that's probably why I enjoy about the experience at Microsoft.

46:40Jim Stengel:Let's move into the creative brief. You were, I don't think you were a motorsports enthusiast before this role, but you are now. So what tipped? I mean, I know it's your job in a way, but you clearly enjoy it. Definitely. Yes. I think that I cannot consider myself yet as a motorsport enthusiast. I think that I unfortunately will not be able to answer all the questions that the motorsport enthusiast is able to answer. Honestly, I've been like three and a half years into that. So please have so much respect for all the knowledge that they have. I'm a fan now, Definitely a fan. I think that my first experience in Le Mans was mind-blowing.

47:18I was able to have a nice experience, go into the garage, go into the fan zone, feel the temperature. And then the one that's really, that I remember the most was when I spoke to the Michelin engineer. And you would probably ask yourself, that's the most, I would say, the one thing that you remember from the race? I do because you understand the passion behind the tire and why you need to have those engineers in contact in permanently with the car manufacturer engineering to optimize the performance and the amount of data that they were able to collect, to analyze, to optimize, to try to really have the best possible combination for the team on the track.

48:04And then afterwards, to be able to take all those data points and better understand what do we need to improve? How can we continue and be the best? This passion around it, I would say it was speechless for me. And so since then, I obviously had opportunity to attend several races in North America. And I saw the same. And I saw the same passion. And I saw the same commitment and the same strong engagement from the team. And also I saw the benefit, the benefit that we as a company are also taking for the motorsport activity. Because as I said, it's a laboratory test, not only for the innovation and performance, but also for our consumers' feedback.

48:46And at the end of the day, you know, that's also the way I can connect with our consumers to have them reacting to our latest content, latest brand campaign. And so that's probably what I would say triggered my interest, even though I have to be honest, I used to watch, I would say, some racing on TV when I was younger. But when you're there with people that know and explain you the why, change completely. It's when you're knowledgeable about something and you transfer this passion. We can talk for hours, Jim, about that. Unfortunately, I will not be able to communicate as much passion as those people might be able because they know so well, actually, their business.

49:31So I'm very humble when I talk about motorsports.

49:33Jim Stengel:What do you believe is the single most important characteristic of a senior marketing leader today? Patience. You know, we've been seeing in the past six months so many comments about other brands from other sectors about their CMO, about the vision, about the brand campaign, the choices that they did on partnership, the players that they selected, the brand that they protected or not protected. I think that time is what's today important for a marketer. Understanding that there's a balance between your historical legacy and the willingness to go fast and hit the buzz as fast as you can. And I think that having this balance is crucial for some company.

50:21For other companies, going very fast will be actually the most important. When you are a startup, you don't have time to wait, obviously. But if you are in a corporate marketing position with a large corporation that is a global player or even a regional player, that there's a lot of history. You need to respect that history, maintain, adjust and create different stories and different experiences for your consumers. And so having these patients while creating differentiated experiences, I think those two things are definitely top of mind for me.

50:54Jim Stengel:You've talked about how you've changed since coming to the U.S. You've gotten better at small talk and you're traveling and you're understanding the nuanced culture in the U.S., almost city by city. How do you think you've shifted as a leader since moving to the U.S.? You would need to ask my team because it's a very good question, Jim, but it's more a question that my team will be able to answer or my boss eventually, but probably more my team because they see me daily. They can sense, you know, based on my face. I'm bad at poker face, by the way. So you probably see when it's a good or it's a bad day and I'm trying to improve.

51:36But as you know, we are all human at the end of the day. So things can impact us. And I don't like to hide too much. I think that definitely you need to absorb the pressure as a leader. That's 100%. But you cannot not express your emotion. You are not just a superwoman or a superman achieving things because you are a leader at a certain stage of your career. So I hope that I became more patient. I hope that I was able to continuously support my team in their development without bias. And I hope that as a marketer, I was able to continue and bring inspiration to my team. Because that's something that I think drives me every day to find what is trendy, but long term, what can actually help us, but not impact us negatively.

52:25So it's really all this balance that I think that marketer could and should have today. But you need to inspire and you need to be inspirational, specifically on marketing. because if you don't inspire your team, it will be hard to inspire your consumers. And so I hope that what they might think about me, I will not ask them, but you do. Maybe I'll have the chance to do it on my field trip. Maybe when you will come to Atlanta. I'll do a focus group. That would be great. But yeah, that's what I hope that my team can think about me.

53:03Jim Stengel:I know you love sports and luxury categories. I've heard you talk about that. What's the first brand you remember as a young boy making an impact on you? So it will not be in that category because as a young boy, it was Nintendo. I think that I shared earlier about the Mario and Luigi story. I was a gamer, definitely. I stopped since, you know, for many years, unfortunately, even though my son. And it's interesting how they manage as well to have this generational gap. you know no generation gap basically you know my son and myself my son is seven years old jim and he has in mind that i that i will give him my nintendo switch so every day now he's telling me you know what i'll be better in writing i'll be better in math you'll give me the switch and i say no way too young and he say but look let's try to see if it's you know nice and if we can play together.

53:59So he knows that I like to play with him, etc. But I was a Nintendo fan. And I think that they managed to have exactly this balance between the historical mascot heritage from Nintendo, and to bring innovation with their device, with the services, etc. And that's what I like about Nintendo, even though I was working for Xbox with Microsoft. But I still believe that the The Nintendo generation is still very strong. And we see that with the results, obviously, of the company. Nintendo is a great brand. And I see a lot of similarities in terms of connection to the Michelin brand and how connected you can be from day one to your later stage in your life to the Michelin brand because you create experiences.

54:44And that's what Nintendo created for me.

54:47Jim Stengel:Who has been the most inspiring person in your life, Omer? My father, definitely. I have to say that still today, I call him probably every day or every two days. He knows perfectly all my strengths and weaknesses. He can definitely tell me everything, even if I might not be happy with that. But also from a business standpoint, he was able to as well be in marketing and be at a high level when he had his career back in time in the tech industry. And so I think that having his blessing is also important for me and making sure that I make him proud. I feel like it's a therapy now, but it's definitely, you know, inspiring to see what he was able to achieve and how he's able to not only achieve himself, but also communicate and help, I would say, others too.

55:47So I would say that.

55:48Jim Stengel:Well, that's a good place to stop, Omer. We could keep going, but I've kept you long enough. It's been a wonderful interview. We're at the beginning of the summer, as we talked about. We have football ahead of us and races. And I have to ask your friend, so my last question has been, how has your diet changed since moving to the U.S.? Do you cook different things? Have you developed a fondness for different kinds of foods? No. I'm terrible because I love junk food. Well, you're in a good place. I am. I am. You know, what's funny enough is that I've been having bets with the sales team, obviously marketing sales, and the bets are always on donuts.

56:27And so they love that there is a specific brand that I prefer in terms of donuts. And so there's sometimes donuts on the floor in Greenville. Outside of that, you know, my wife is an amazing cooker. So thanks to that, I don't have to change too much because she's outstanding. and but i do like actually some junk food sometimes so uh i'm again i'm happy to be back in paris sometimes because there's a big diversity of of restaurants that i'm able to go to but i also um i do enjoy very much my life in in the u.s so i think that i can keep the gastronomy sometimes when i'm traveling more i would say maybe or just leaning into my wife cooking skills but i will continue to to eat some donuts and junk food i still like it okay last

57:17Jim Stengel:question. Favorite junk food brand? It's hard because I don't know if you can say it's a junk food brand, but I would say favorite donuts, it's Krispy Kreme. Oh yeah. Yeah. So also from the South, apparently, if I understood well. And so, you know, I continue into that, but definitely that's one that I enjoy the most from a product standpoint. From a branding standpoint, that's maybe different, but from a product standpoint, definitely the one that I prefer. This clip will probably make the social clips. Krispy Kreme will love it. Okay. Okay. Hey, thank you. By the way, Jim, before we finish, I would like to congratulate you for the recent Hall of Fame award.

57:54So congratulations to you, really. It's a great achievement.

57:58Jim Stengel:It was one of the best days of my career, if not the best, because of who was there and the people that I got to thank. I can imagine, Jim. I think that you've been doing a lot for the industry and you had the right recognition. So again, I congrats and I was honored and very happy to be able to share an hour of discussion with you today. Thank you, Omer. I appreciate that very much. Now have a great summer. Sounds good. Thank you. You too. Here's the Michelin guide to takeaways from Omer's conversation, which was a wonderful one. The first takeaway is priorities. This guy has the right priorities.

58:32Jim Stengel:I loved how simply he stated them, developing as people, bringing the best possible product to the market, and ensuring the customer experience is wonderful and that the brand has happy customers. That's where he's focused. That's where he spends his personal time. I can't imagine a clearer and stronger set of priorities. The second takeaway, patience as the most important characteristic of a senior marketing leader today. That was unexpected maybe to hear that from him as the most important characteristic, but he is right about that, especially when you're the steward of a brand like Michelin, which so many people have gone before you and has such strengths and assets and have to be respected.

59:09Jim Stengel:And the third takeaway, I thought this story was a best practice, a benchmarking study in how to adjust to and thrive in a new culture. I think the way Omer came to Michelin and came to the U.S. and took the time to understand the company, the culture, the people, the nuances. He spends his time with family traveling to understand the country in which he is living. I think if you're ever transferred to a new company, especially in a new country, this is a case study for how to do it right. That's it for this week's episode of the CMO Podcast. As always, I would be grateful if you shared our show with your friends, along with subscribing and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

59:55Jim Stengel:The CMO Podcast is a Vive original production.