As part of our Thought Leader’s Voice podcast series, we are excited to be in conversation with Jennifer Smith on the evolution of the CMO, and how today’s marketers can drive purpose and growth in an uncertain world.

Our podcast series, The Thought Leader's Voice, explores how independent thought leaders bring their ideas to scale within the business world as they share powerful, thought-provoking insights with our audience. We amplify the voices of senior-level marketers and business leaders, who share their thoughts on solving some of today’s most pressing business challenges, as well as on identifying new opportunities.

We are thrilled to be joined in this episode by Jennifer Smith, Chief Marketing Officer and Fractional CMO practice lead at MarketingProfs.

With over 20 years of experience helping B2B marketing teams prove their value to businesses, Jennifer has worked within the financial services, insurance, manufacturing, technology, consulting, and healthcare industries.

Jennifer is a strong advocate for the power and value of Marketing, particularly in demonstrating its impact on business growth, as well as its relevance across the organization. She wears many hats: senior marketer, creative director, digital strategist, writer, designer, developer and editor.

Throughout her career, she has led on creative strategy and execution, brand building, digital strategy, demand generation, events, product marketing, and PR at B2B companies and agencies, large and small.

With her unique combination of knowledge and experience, she solves large, complex challenges for organizations, utilizing her wide skillset to build and implement effective strategies and campaigns.

Key Takeaways:

• Amidst uncertainty brought on by a global pandemic and the rising importance of online channels in B2B, there has been a shift in focus on approaching marketing communications with empathy and emotion. Do B2B marketers need to pivot their strategy in line with this transition? How can they ensure a better customer experience in the long run?

• Due to the speed and ease of exchanging information at our disposal today, due diligence has taken a backseat, leading to a spiral of inaccurate content. This poses a problem for businesses worldwide. What role does thought leadership play in this? In a world crowded with content, how can you make sure that someone engages with yours?

• Agility has become the new mantra for B2B marketers, partly down to digital transformation. How can B2B marketers contribute to business growth while remaining true to purpose? What is the best way to deploy agility in your marketing to achieve business goals?

• The pandemic has led to the speedy implementation of new marketing and data technologies to help marketers understand and engage more effectively with audiences, and deliver on business objectives. What is the role of leaders in enabling this transition, and in implementing the right technologies at the right time?

• Data privacy is bringing about a gradual goodbye to third-party cookies and stricter laws, creating new obstacles to marketers’ digital advertising efforts. What strategies and capabilities can businesses look to adopt now to future-proof brands?

• What are the key challenges that CMOs face today, and what are the top opportunities?

• Marketers are more stressed than ever before, and are joining the ‘Great Resignation’. What can leaders do about this? How can they retain talent and foster team success?

As part of our Thought Leader’s Voice podcast series, we are thrilled to be in conversation with James Redgrave on ‘The Future of Asset Management: Key Trends and Insights'.

In the Thought Leader’s Voice podcast series, we explore the world of how independent thought leaders bring their ideas to scale within the business world and share powerful, thought-provoking insights with our listeners.

Our objective from this podcast series remains to educate senior-level marketers, business and thought leaders to help them solve some of the most pressing questions today and in the future.

This is an independent and self-sponsored series aimed towards enhancing the profiles and importance of thought leaders.

We are thrilled to be joined by asset management expert, financial journalist, and researcher, James Redgrave, Head of EMEA Insights at State Street.

With over 15 years of journalistic and content creation experience across respected titles and financial services firms, James has seen the growing importance of insight, thought leadership, and quality content in the financial services industry, particularly in the drive for sustainability across the asset management sector.

James has degrees in History & Politics and Journalism. He has extensive experience providing distribution-focused research and market intelligence consultancy services to Europe’s largest institutional asset managers. As a journalist, he has worked with specialist financial publishers, including the Financial Times, covering institutional investment and retail financial services.

James regularly speaks at industry conferences on the evolution of the asset management industry and sustainability in the sector.

Join the conversation for an inside view of the challenges and opportunities in asset management marketing and communications.

Key Takeaways:

• The asset management industry has faced a tumultuous and unprecedented time since the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, challenging the global regulatory environment, and changing demands from investors. Asset managers are required to not only make good portfolio investment decisions but also help navigate their businesses through challenges. How are asset managers adapting to these challenges?

• The asset management industry has seen an increasing role of thought leadership and content, not only to connect internally and externally but also to inform and drive action. How is the role of marketing and content evolving within the asset management sector?

• Most global asset managers seem to continue to accelerate the investment in data scientist teams, data analysts and technology, especially in the last 3 years. Has a comprehensive data strategy become paramount for asset managers? How is this process being managed?

• How are asset managers adapting to help broader financial institutions to provide more personalised, unified customer journeys and in doing so, maintaining a competitive edge?

• A fundamental priority for asset managers and all financial services companies is ESG and they are using several sustainability partners to drive this. How are these unique partnerships evolving in the industry? What other kind of partnerships are asset managers likely to look for in the future?

• What are the challenges faced by asset managers when it comes to ESG reporting standards? Is there a need for support and a top-down push in this space to create a more level playing field?

As part of our Thought Leader’s Voice podcast series, we are thrilled to be in conversation with Adrian Del Maestro on ‘The Energy Evolution: A Sustainable Energy Transition for Growth’.

In the Thought Leader’s Voice podcast series, we explore the world of how independent thought leaders bring their ideas to scale within the business world and share powerful, thought-provoking insights with our listeners.

Our objective from this podcast series is to educate senior-level marketers and business leaders by bringing together thought leaders to help solve some of the most pressing questions we face now and in the future.

This is an independent and self-sponsored series aimed towards enhancing the profiles & importance of thought leaders amongst CXOs.

We are thrilled to be joined today by global energy expert, Adrian Del Maestro, Director of Research and Head of Global Thought Leadership in Energy at PwC Strategy&, PwC’s strategy consulting business.

With his unique experience spanning three decades of consultancy, financial and professional services, Adrian has deep insights into the challenges and opportunities facing the energy sector, and to leading thinking in this space.

Adrian possesses deep industry knowledge of oil and gas and broader energy trends, such as low carbon, electric vehicles and digitization. He is a front runner in driving the development of thought leadership to building leading research capabilities.

Join the conversation and listen to meaningful industry insights from a true sector thought leader.

Key Takeaways:

• It is a pivotal time for the Energy sector, especially in light of a sense of urgency to decarbonize and with a growing focus on ESG. How has this impacted the industry and what are the other factors influencing an energy transition?

• Covid-19 probably accelerated the energy transition and governments in various regions around the world are looking to build back better. However, the dependence on hydrocarbons is not likely to disappear in the near future and organizations will need technologies to mitigate and abate their impact. What are the technological innovations that are helping in driving this?

• Collaborations are key to facilitate solutions to the current industry challenges. How are various partnerships paving the way for an energy transition?

• How does the energy transition tally with the current regulatory framework and where will it need to evolve?

• Businesses need to step back and have a look at their overall strategy to deal with the industry changes. With more stringent regulation, accounting for costs and keeping the consumer at the center, how are business strategies evolving to shape a cleaner business?

• With a change in strategies, careers and key roles in the industry are evolving in line with the energy transition. What challenges/opportunities does this evolution bring to light? How is this changing the focus on the skills required and the way businesses operate?

As part of our Thought Leader's Voice podcast series, we are thrilled to be in a conversation with Paul Nunes on 'Becoming a future-ready organization: See and seize the future.'

In the Thought Leader's Voice podcast series, we explore the world of how independent thought leaders bring their ideas to scale within the business world and share powerful, thought-provoking insights with our listeners.

Our objective from this podcast series remains to educate senior-level marketers & thought leaders to help them solve some of the most quizzing marketing questions propping up right now.

This is an independent and self-sponsored series aimed towards enhancing the profiles & importance of thought leaders amongst CXOs.

We are thrilled to be joined today by renowned innovator, author, and speaker on business strategy, Paul Nunes, Global Managing Director of Thought Leadership for Accenture Research.

Through more than 35 years at Accenture, Paul has researched technology-led changes in business and marketing strategy. His findings and writing on marketing and business strategy are regularly featured in publications worldwide, and he writes a regular column on disruptive innovation for Forbes with author Larry Downes.

Paul is co-author of three award-winning, international-bestselling books – and frequently speaks at industry and management conferences around the globe and top business schools, including Harvard, Columbia, Wharton, and Dartmouth.

Paul was a front runner in pivoting strategies, having been awarded a U.S. patent in 2010 for his systematic method of improving organizational innovation processes. He earned his Master of Science in Management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Join the conversation to access actionable advice shared in an incredibly insightful way.

Key Takeaways:

• The amalgamation of an increasingly complex business landscape, the proliferation of data, and the pressing desire to be at the forefront of competition have led organizations to focus on using analytics to make strategic business decisions. How important is it for businesses to embed data analytics and AI into their core strategy rather than focus on the past for insights to stay at the forefront of digital disruption?

• In the Financial Services sector, we have seen banks leading the analytical space by discovering new ways to leverage transactional and behavioral consumer data by going beyond traditional structured information and looking for unconventional sources of information that predict an applicant's creditworthiness. How can organizations leverage risk analytics to find themselves better positioned to quantify, measure, and predict risk?

• The need for adaptability and speed while remaining cost-effective will not end with the pandemic. How has the growing fragmentation and changing consumer preferences made moving decision-making authority to people at the edges not just possible but necessary?

• Redesigning structure and decision-making processes demand rethinking the skills of the workforce. To give people the right mix of skills at speed, how can organizations take a data-driven approach to identify and predict new pockets of skills demand while still empowering employees to chart their course?

• How important is it for organizations to build sustainability into their operations' fabric and make social responsibility sustainable?

• Can continuous innovation and reinvention become a learned behavior/process and be built into business routines, as well as operating and strategic models?

As part of our Thought Leader's Voice podcast series, we are thrilled to be in a conversation with Simon Barnby on ‘Tailoring your B2B Integrated Marketing Strategy for FinTech.’

In the Thought Leader's Voice podcast series, we explore the world of how independent thought leaders bring their ideas to scale within the business world and share powerful, thought-provoking insights with our listeners.

Our objective from this podcast series remains to educate senior-level marketers & thought leaders to help them solve some of the most quizzing marketing questions propping up right now.

This is an independent and self-sponsored series aimed towards enhancing the profiles & importance of thought leaders amongst CXOs.

Our guest today is Simon Barnby, CMO at Archax, a company bringing to the table crypto assets/blockchain technology combined with capital markets and traditional financial services expertise to create a unique platform.

Simon is an internationally experienced executive, having worked for both entrepreneurial start-ups as well as US and UK headquartered global corporates.

He has spent much of his career in senior marketing, commercial and management roles within financial services, specifically, capital markets and most recently, the FinTech space and crypto assets/blockchain-based financial platforms.

Simon has experience in strategic digital and traditional marketing, brand building, entrepreneurship, business development, project management and international commerce, board-level reporting, ownership and growth of significant revenue streams and budgets.

Crucially in this specialist area of financial services, Simon has also been actively involved in the design, launch and support of trading systems across various asset classes. Perhaps rather helpful in achieving that, Simon has an Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree.

With a background spanning engineering, financial markets, the technical side of financial services such as creating and building platforms, and of course, marketing at a senior level, Simon’s wealth of business experience is key in addressing new markets and leading the way in the crypto assets space.

Join the conversation to access actionable advice shared in an incredibly insightful way.

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Key Takeaways:

• What are some of the key marketing challenges when it comes to navigating existing or upcoming financial regulation and how to navigate these challenges?

• Regulatory uncertainty is probably the biggest concern for fintech companies. What are some of the key marketing challenges that when it comes to navigating existing financial regulations and how can one overcome these challenges?

• What PR/Marketing tactics have proven to be most effective in building relationships with traditional financial institutions?

• Fintech startups lack the big budgets of traditional firms, and are often dependent on venture capital funding, which can constrain budgets for marketing and PR. How can this barrier be overcome?

• How should FinTech startups market themselves differently to traditional financial services?

• There must be significant emphasis on education and information, so how important is Thought Leadership in various guises in this space?

Guest speaker details:

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonbarnby/

Website: https://archax.com/

As part of our Thought Leader's Voice podcast series, we are thrilled to be in a conversation with Ali Ahmed on “Reimagining Thought Leadership: A design thinking and visual storytelling approach.”

In the Thought Leader's Voice podcast series, we explore the world of how independent thought leaders bring their ideas to scale within the business world and share powerful, thought-provoking insights with our listeners.

Our objective from this podcast series remains to educate senior-level marketers & thought leaders to help them solve some of the most quizzing marketing questions propping up right now.

This is an independent and self-sponsored series aimed towards enhancing the profiles & importance of thought leaders amongst CXOs.

Ali Ahmed is a visionary strategist and an exponentially creative leader with an innate ability to bring a team together, set the broad vision, and infuse a high degree of autonomy into work products.

In his professional and personal life, he has been always curious to know three things:

1. Why is “this” the way it is?

2. How do we make “this” better?

3. What’s next?

That kind of curiosity has led him to many different places: teaching young minds as a high school science teacher in Baltimore, supporting the redesign of digital infrastructure for Amtrak’s Customer Experience program, creating materials to address prepare for and deal with the most catastrophic disasters in FEMA’s Preparedness Division, figuring out the next big startup idea in an innovation lab, and his latest gig: crafting research to understand how older Americans will support themselves as they age as a member of the Workplace Thought Leadership team at Fidelity Investments.

Ali considers himself lucky to ask those 3 questions throughout his career, even if the “this” changes. The way he answers those questions usually comes down to three fundamental values: accessible human-centered design, data-driven problem solving, and compelling storytelling.

Join the conversation to access actionable advice shared in an incredibly insightful way.

Key Takeaways

• How do you make thought leadership ideas accessible so that people understand them effectively?

• Data on its own is just noise without narrative – and weak storytelling is why many thought leadership projects fail. How can you weave fact and evidence with storytelling to make sense of the data and answer the “so what?” in your thought leadership?

• How can good data visualization change the way audiences experience thought leadership?

• The very best thought leadership campaigns are built around the audience journey, and that means thinking about design from the start. How do you encourage and inculcate that approach across the organization?

• How important it is for designers and marketers to work with thought leaders early in the process of design through to product launch to build the right relationships and ensure that products are seen in the right light?

As part of our Thought Leader's Voice podcast series, we are thrilled to be in a conversation with Chris Hines on ‘Sustainability: Paving the way for People and Planet alongside Profits.

In the Thought Leader's Voice podcast series, we explore the world of how independent thought leaders bring their ideas to scale within the business world and share powerful, thought-provoking insights with our listeners.

Chris is the core of ‘A Grain of Sand’, an organization dedicated to delivering positive change. He is a highly respected communicator and driver of positive change. He was the founder and Director of Surfers Against Sewage for ten years.

Described as "Some of the government's most sophisticated environmental critics" by BBC News and Current Affairs and "Britain's coolest pressure group" by The Independent.

With a strong focus on "solution to problems", Chris has helped deliver £5 billion in the UK coastline.

Chris sees effective communication as a key driver to change and has appeared on everything from Panorama to BBC Newsnight live, BBC Children's TV and the BBC World Service and CNN Skewed View.

Key Takeaways:

• How can sustainable finance be used as a force to address the environmental and social challenges we face? Can sustainable finance help us transition to a sustainable planet?

• Have we reached a tipping point where it is no longer acceptable to make any profit without considering its impact on the planet and the people who live on it?

• Can the blue bond follow its older sibling, the green bond, in drawing investment into ocean conservation?

• Just how possible is it to eradicate greenwashing?

• In our global survey, 45% of financial services professionals say cost is the most significant barrier to adopting more sustainable strategies.

What are some ways in which companies can overcome this barrier?

• While responsibility lies with us all, who should be doing more to create a more sustainable financial services ecosystem? Organizations themselves, policymakers, governments…?

• What is the role of an individual in advancing sustainable developments and how can an individual make a difference?

• How committed are businesses and governments globally to continuing the momentum that has gathered to date on sustainability?

Guest speaker details:

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-hines-98029914/

Website: https://www.agos.co/

As part of our Thought Leader's Voice podcast series, we are thrilled to be in a conversation with Tom Newbould on ‘The Future of Fintech Marketing: Key trends and insights.

In the Thought Leader's Voice podcast series, we explore the world of how independent thought leaders bring their ideas to scale within the business world and share powerful, thought-provoking insights with our listeners.

Our objective from this podcast series remains to educate senior-level marketers & thought leaders to help them solve some of the most quizzing marketing questions propping up right now.

This is an independent and self-sponsored series aimed towards enhancing the profiles & importance of thought leaders amongst CXOs.

With over 20 years of experience in Digital Marketing and E-Commerce, Tom Newbould is an Experienced Financial Services Senior Leader Well versed in start-up and scaling via paid and organic growth in highly regulated and competitive business environments.

Tom Newbould is a results-focused and dynamic professional with extensive experience in generating and increasing sales in B2B and B2C markets throughout Europe and the World.

Join the conversation to access actionable advice shared in an incredibly insightful way.

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Key Takeaways:

• How is Fintech marketing evolving and driving innovation in Financial Services?

• The future of community marketing in Fintech and how to best leverage it.

• With the Fintech app market getting increasingly crowded, how can brands gain a competitive advantage?

• How does Fintech Marketing play a role in protecting and enhancing the company’s reputation, especially communicating the values of trust and security to the customer?

As part of our Thought Leader's Voice podcast series, we are thrilled to be in a conversation with Eric Jan C. van Putten on “Leveraging Marketing Personalization in 2021: How to Get Ready for It.”

In the Thought Leader's Voice podcast series, we explore the world of how independent thought leaders bring their ideas to scale within the business world and share powerful, thought-provoking insights with our listeners.

Our objective from this podcast series remains to educate senior-level marketers & thought leaders to help them solve some of the most quizzing marketing questions propping up right now.

This is an independent and self-sponsored series aimed towards enhancing the profiles & importance of thought leaders amongst CXOs.

Join the conversation to access actionable advice shared in an incredibly insightful way.

Eric Jan C. van Putten is a data-driven marketer who brings more than 10 years of experience in B2B marketing technology and customer experience marketing and has been involved in operational excellence as well as driving significant marketing efficiency and performance.

He is passionate about new marketing technologies and using them to drive business results. He always sees opportunities to increase marketing performance and efficiencies.

Key Takeaways:

• How can brands provide relevant, personalized content at every stage of the marketing funnel, and how can they take this process and perfect it beyond delivering emails?

• What do you see as the biggest challenges faced by marketing leaders on both an operational and strategic level right now and coming up in the future?

• How can you really measure that and demonstrate the ROI of that level of personalization?

• How important is it for brands to invest in customer data and analytics foundations & build up agile capabilities to drive personalization?

As part of our Thought Leader's Voice podcast series, we are thrilled to be in a conversation with Samir Agarwal on ‘Intelligent Banking Operations: Strengthening Resilience and Accelerating Transformation.’

In the Thought Leader's Voice podcast series, we explore the world of how independent thought leaders bring their ideas to scale within the business world and share powerful, thought-provoking insights with our listeners.

Our objective from this podcast series remains to educate senior-level marketers & thought leaders to help them solve some of the most quizzing marketing questions propping up right now.

This is an independent and self-sponsored series aimed towards enhancing profiles & importance of thought leaders amongst CXOs.

Join the conversation to access actionable advice shared in an incredibly insightful way.

With over 20 years of experience leading Technology, Vendor/Procurement, Sales Operations, Product, Operations, & Risk Management, Samir Agarwal is an Experienced Financial Services Senior Leader with a substantial track record of running businesses and joint partnerships.

Samir is Accomplished strategic visionary with a clear sense of purpose and urgency when faced with diverse challenges He is effective at building high energy and motivated teams with excellent business acumen and technical skills. Key Takeaways:

• The biggest challenges that banks are faced over the past 12 months, particularly from the operational side.

• How have Financial Services and their sub-sectors gone about this change management, from the normal physical architecture to a digital transformation?

• Will Automation and artificial intelligence, already an important part of consumer banking, will penetrate operations far more deeply in the coming years?

• What are the roles with AI and automation within banking institutions both from a product or services play, but also creating an employee workflow?

• How can the use of predictive analytics improve the management of operations?

• What kind of challenges could be paced in the next couple of years in integrating technology & digitization?