Keith Weed joined Unilever in 1983 and, after a variety of global and
regional management and marketing roles, has been the company’s chief marketing
and communications officer since March 2010.
“Before being
appointed CMO, I ran some large businesses within Unilever, so I was aware of
IT and the chief information officer. What has changed over the last 10 years
is that we now see IT more as a source of competitive advantage, rather than a
cost.
I was clear from
the start that I needed IT at the table to achieve our vision. I could see
straight away that the growth of digital and social media offered incredibly
exciting opportunities to foster dialogue and generate brand advocacy. But
while we already had pockets of great success, there was an opportunity to do
more - and Mark McClennon understood this. It was a realisation that if we
wanted to fulfil our ambition of being one of the best marketing companies in
the world, we needed to reposition IT from necessary evil to true competitive
advantage. We knew that building a stronger information capability was going to
be pivotal for us.
One of my secrets
is that I’m an engineer by training so the world of technology isn’t that
foreign to me. Also, from the start we had a shared vision for what we wanted
to achieve, so communication was fairly straightforward. Mark is an integral
part of my team; his insight is always welcome and expected.
One of the big
differences is around speed. We have a great IT team but they were often used
to working to the beat of an internal drum - in marketing, we have to move at
the pace of our consumers, which is much more real time. We are now finding new
ways of working that enable us to turn around activities in days and weeks,
rather than months and years, which is exactly what we need.
I think of Mark as
part of my core team so we’ll speak often. I can’t really see how any business
hoping to be successful these days can do it without IT at its side.”
Mark McClennon has been chief information officer at Unilever since
January 2011. He was previously vice-president, head of IT for Unilever in
North America.
“The day that Keith
was announced as CMO he called me and said he had the greatest role ever for
me: to help him take marketing in Unilever to the next level, with technology
at the heart of many of the changes. At the time I was CIO of our North
American business and fairly settled in the US, but the role was too good to
turn down.
To work
successfully, we had to make it a true partnership. From day one, the whole of
the senior marketing leadership embraced the idea of working closely.
This ensured that
IT had a seat at the table for all the core business debates and that we were
not an afterthought. Wherever possible we sit in the marketing team rather than
separately, and I probably speak to Keith or someone in his marketing
leadership team on a daily basis.
There is this
fallacy of IT people sitting in basements surrounded by dismantled PCs. I’ve
spent the last 20 years of my career mostly in IT - the last four on the board
in a $10bn organisation - mainly working on real business issues. Most of my
peers in Unilever IT have similar backgrounds and all my team members move
easily between IT and marketing.
One of the biggest
cultural differences between the functions is the approach to experimentation.
In a digital world, you have to be able to experiment. Many of us in IT had
lost the ability to do this as the core of our agenda had been largely around
large-scale internal programmes. Working closely with the marketing team has
helped us to rediscover a passion for the art of the possible within IT and
push back the boundaries.”
