OneHaas

Yael Zheng, MBA 92 – The Art & Science of Marketing


Listen Later

OneHaas is pleased to welcome Yael Zheng, class of 1992, who is a seasoned marketing executive with two decades of experience in the tech industry. She’s served as the Chief Marketing Officer for companies like Bill.com and VMware, and has sat on seven different boards including MeridianLink and UC Berkeley’s  Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology.


Yael moved to the U.S. from China when she was a teenager and found herself drawn to the world of engineering. After getting an undergraduate degree at MIT, she felt like her true calling was elsewhere and decided that business school was the best way to find it. 


Yael chats with host Sean Li about finding her passion for marketing at Haas, her family’s experience emigrating from China after the Cultural Revolution, and some of the top lessons she’s gained from serving as a Chief Marketing Officer and now a board member. 


*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*


Episode Quotes:


On coming to the U.S. from China in 1981


“ When I came to this country, I went to New Jersey and was finishing up the last few years of high school. And it was such a completely weird experience. Eyeopening would be an understatement. And I remember going to a local supermarket and finding the shelves just full of stuff like everything was stocked with stuff, and I was telling my sister like, oh my gosh how could there be so much stuff in the store? You know, of course, I came from a country back then, stuff was still kind of scarce.”


On the misconceptions of what a Chief Marketing Officer does


“ It's not about just taking a product and then, you know, go put out a website and some blogs and whatever, some market advertising. I mean, that's kind of the tactic. [But] far more important and far more interesting is to really figure out, behind all the tactics, [the product market fit i.e. what customer problems need to be solved and how big and how pressing,] what strategy you need to adopt, how you price it, how you package it.”


On the importance of doing your homework on a company before working there


“ I've known people who kind of feel like, oh, you know, you seem to have got pretty lucky with several companies that have really gone somewhere. I think luck is definitely a big part of it. But I think like anything, as we all know, you improve your luck or increase your luck by really doing your homework ahead of time, right? You try to see, okay, this company is really trying to attack a problem that's really big. A lot of customers, right? A lot of businesses feel the potential pain. And so there's a really potentially big opportunity to try to solve that problem.”


On being a board member vs. an operational executive 


“ I think that we are constantly reminded as board directors that it's not our job to actually run the company. That's the job of the leadership team, the management team. We're supposed to provide oversight and governance. So having been an operator for many years, you know, I have to constantly remind myself   nose in and then fingers off. So it's our job to ask questions and ask good questions to help the management team to make sure that they have the right strategy in place and that they're executing effectively.”


Show Links:


  • LinkedIn Profile
  • Yael’s recommendation – HubSpot blog




Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

OneHaasBy Haas School of Business (Produced by University FM)

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

37 ratings


More shows like OneHaas

View all
WSJ What’s News by The Wall Street Journal

WSJ What’s News

4,362 Listeners

HBR IdeaCast by Harvard Business Review

HBR IdeaCast

177 Listeners

Motley Fool Money by The Motley Fool

Motley Fool Money

3,195 Listeners

This Week in Startups by Jason Calacanis

This Week in Startups

1,273 Listeners

Freakonomics Radio by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Freakonomics Radio

32,291 Listeners

Energy Gang by Wood Mackenzie

Energy Gang

1,251 Listeners

a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

a16z Podcast

1,040 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

111,917 Listeners

The Journal. by The Wall Street Journal & Spotify Studios

The Journal.

5,942 Listeners

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway by Vox Media Podcast Network

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway

5,414 Listeners

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley by BG2Pod

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley

461 Listeners

Prof G Markets by Vox Media Podcast Network

Prof G Markets

1,127 Listeners