What did I learn in 2022?

As this epic year is finally ending, it is time to reflect on what happened, what I learned, and how I scaled up my skills.

As a marketing and sales professional for more than 20 years, I had the chance to keep on learning at the same rhythm my profession was changing. Not so many people and jobs changed as much as marketing and sales did in the past 10 years. So, it is already quite an achievement!

Nevertheless, it is also clear that seniority is not a hot soft skill for companies in France.

?And 2022 showed me how much I could still improve. I grew so much more in the past 12 months thanks to the Executive Master’s in Management from 法国里昂经济管理学校 Lyon. The Master is a holistic approach to business and aims to update know-how and methodology for managers working in a VUCA world.

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Let me explain to you how I leveled up my skills, enlarged my vision, and how it is impacting my profession and my business. I am specialized in creating marketing strategies for companies and startups who want to accelerate their growth, scale, and change the world.

From my own expertise in marketing strategy, I could develop a higher vision, more connected, and holistic approach in some surprising areas that help me to understand better my passion for management, business, and transitioning in the next economy. It opened a renewed connection between marketing strategy and the rest of the business.

Marketing strategy is an essential blockchain of value creation and growth for any company today. It impacts, interacts, and ripples into the company’s strategy, the CSR strategy, the change management, and the people’s management. Let’s go deeper into these 4 aspects of a business.

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1. Company Strategy

It is good to remember that a marketing strategy is nothing less than the continuity of the company’s strategy focused on how to develop the competitive advantage to turn it into revenue and growth.

It is crucial for any company to be aware of its uniqueness and how to use it to create value and revenue.

It really gives a totally new perspective on marketing. The first step of the strategic work I do with my clients is to uncover their DNA as a company and brand.

It has extra power for startups as it is also great to work to line up the company culture, values, and vision. Even if most of the supported startups do this work, we go a step further into marketing strategy and define the tone of voice, wording, and presence. We make it real.

This part results be essential whenever you work on a strategic or operational level. It impacts all departments of the company from the top management to HR, Communication, Customer Success, Sales, etc. Your DNA will help to define your culture.

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2. CSR Strategy

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It is interesting to also focus on CSR policies, which most companies are implementing nowadays. And it is not a surprise if it often comes from the marketing department. Most people think this is because CSR policies are mainly communication and marketing tactics.

What I learned this year from the deep work done about CSR, is that it is much more linked to company strategy and business model than what we first think.

Marketing strategy is a crucial work around competition and the market environment. My work is to open the perspective of my client and to be aware of all the stakeholders. In this case, we are working between the company strategy process, the market trend monitoring, and stakeholders’ power and action. This is really close to the materiality assessment in the CSR strategy. This is why CSR and marketing are so tied together.

Furthermore, marketing strategists are the only ones in the company to define the marketing mix and have an overview of how it impacts the business model. Marketing has the tools and methodology to create, shift and deliver new business models, products, and services aligned with CSR challenges.

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3. Change Management

One of my biggest learning in 2022 is a deep understanding of the process and how to implement successful change in an organization.

Change management is deeply linked with the company strategy in our VUCA world. Companies need to constantly adapt and adjust to the market and beyond. As it is against the nature of all the organizations we designed till now, change management becomes one of the main issues of any company growing today.

Marketing strategy is again a powerful tool to implement change in an organization through creativity, engagement, and collective intelligence. As a marketing strategy is one of the pillars of designing the company’s culture, interactions, and value creation, it also ripples on how people are working together.

We design a special service for companies who want to infuse marketing culture into their organizations tapping into the creativity of their workforce. This workshop series has multiple effects and allows us to move faster and more efficiently toward change implementation.

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4. People’s management

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Finally, the EM Master’s in Management helped and reinforced my manager posture in a much more aligned way with my values and vision giving me the right tools to stay authentic and supportive of my coworkers at the same time they deliver better.

In the continuity of the position of marketing strategy into change management, as I said earlier, it can be used as a tool to move efficiently into a better way of working together. Because new generations need different management, the way we create and implement our marketing strategy can be a powerful tool to engage coworkers and keep them motivated as they are more involved and part of the process. This works at the marketing department level as much as other departments in the company.

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And we close a golden circle as 2022 is closing. This year enlightens how much I love my job and why I do it. My mission at SPIN Ideas is to help professionals and companies to create value and grow. Marketing strategy is an interpretation of the company’s strategy, more focused on how we turn a competitive advantage into revenue. It, of course, defines sales plans, but growth is much more than that today.

Growth and success lay in the ability to change paradigms toward a new economy while we can include and support everyone to reach their full potential.

It always had been there inside me, and I always worked this way. Thanks to this journey with EM Lyon, now I can put words on my mission and share my vision.

?I will also be happy to help you include more marketing strategies in your business in order to empower your growth allowing you to be the changemaker you want to be in this world. Beyond international markets, I use marketing strategy to help companies as a tool for CSR, change management, and business growth.

Is there anyone who can relate to this? I would love to start a conversation about any topic from these thoughts. Feel free to connect or contact me directly.