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By Catherine Ndungu
It was called CMO breakfast for a reason, I can’t remember the last time I sat in a session and learnt so much at a go. Call it mentoring, coaching, and hard truths all combined in the most inspiring of ways!
Being a Friday morning, the energy that comes with a Friday was already high, but nothing had prepared me for how better this day was about to turn….not just for a day, but for a lifetime…..but as they say, success is sweeter when shared, I will share my key takeouts and urge us all to look forward to the next one because it is so worth it!
It was quite an honour and a pleasant breath of fresh air to be seated in a room full of fellow marketers, listening to insights from speakers that ‘came before us, saw and conquered’.
In the world of marketing stars, few shine brighter than Susan Nsibirwa and Baker Magunda, our distinguished panellists at the 2024 Annual UMS CMO Breakfast. Susan and Baker who serve as the Managing Director of Nation Media Group-Uganda and the Chairperson of the Board of Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited respectively shared generously from their long and illustrious careers as marketers and leaders.
It was as juicy a buffet as I’ve tasted anywhere, and today, I’ll share with you just 3 of the most delicious dishes that I enjoyed that day.
Success starts with purpose.
Sharing from Martin Luther King Jr’s speech titled ‘What is your life’s blueprint? ’Baker emphasised the role that purpose plays in setting one’s life at individual, career and organisational levels.
My favourite quote from that speech?
“If it falls to you to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.’’
Collaboration is the key to unlocking the C-Suite
Susan cautioned the marketers against ‘working in silos’, emphasising the need to assess every strategy against its contribution to the organisation’s objectives.
‘’Marketing is the process of creating preference for one’s products and when I adopted that definition, I began the gospel of marketing not being a department but rather encompassing the entire organisation,’’ Nsibirwa explained.
She advised marketers to identify and have meaningful relationships with key decision-makers in the organisation and avoid ‘departmental wars’ that only serve to draw those involved from the prize.
Advice to young marketers; the CMOs of tomorrow
The moderator of the day, Immaculate Ngulumi had proudly positioned everyone present in the room as a chief marketing officer by virtue of the work they are doing today. Immaculate, who is the Chief Manager of Marketing and Branding at Centenary Bank, tasked Baker and Susan to give some tips to young marketers who strive to lead marketing teams and organisations in the lifetime of their careers.
Baker generously shared up to 7 nuggets of wisdom for you who aspire to be the CMO of your organisation.
- Our thoughts govern our belief systems which guide our actions hence having an outcome.
- Always be clear, and passionate about who you serve.
- Invest your energy in creating a great working relationship with your CEOs.
- Do not stop learning.
- Champion your organisation’s purpose.
- Fall in love and remain in love with marketing.
- Define what you are doing and do it well.
By the end of the two-hour session, it was not Friday as usual. I was determined to take the learnings head-on and share them with other fellow marketers. I was inspired to be the marketer I have envisioned in my head, and to bring this to life, I need the support and collaboration of all functions and departments around me. So it’s time to bring the joy in marketing and drive passion for what we do, as we aim to celebrate life every day, everywhere.
Catherine Ndungu is the Marketing & Innovations Director at Uganda Breweries Limited.