CMO for the Day

Marcos Oliveira, a Healthcare ECLP, Class of 2010, recounts his experience as “CMO for the Day,” which was his reward for being named ECLP of the Year.

Last fall, I had the opportunity to spend a day shadowing Beth Comstock, GE’s CMO. Originally, the plan was to have me go to GE’s headquarters in Fairfield but, to my surprise, the plan changed. Beth and the global manager of ECLP had scheduled a trip to Brazil. So, I was going to spend my CMO day in my hometown!

My first thought was that my responsibility had grown tremendously – now I didn’t have to just be the “CMO for a Day” but would also need to be the “Host for a Day.” However, I soon realized how unique the experience would be, and how privileged I was to work in an emerging market that is such an area of focus for GE.

The day started with a lunch with Beth, the Global ECLP manager and executives from Brazil’s corporate team, where I shared a few achievements from my rotations and my thoughts on the environment in Brazil. I also had the opportunity to discuss the challenges of the Brazilian healthcare market.

After that, the President and CEO of GE Brazil, João Geraldo Ferreira, together with his team, showed the Company to Company Strategy for Brazil. My first takeaway of the day came by observing the meeting dynamics, and realizing that no matter how complex the topic was, 30 minutes and simple slides were more than enough to convey what was necessary to a C-level leader.

The Company to Country pitch highlighted the momentum that Brazil is experiencing right now and the strategy to take advantage of that momentum, considering the investment of more than US$500 million in the Global Research Center that GE is building in Brazil, and the fact that Brazil will host the World Cup and the Olympics in the coming years. The pitch clearly demonstrated the true meaning of GE’s strategy to “Go Where the Growth Is.”  In Brazil, that growth is in Rio, so it is not surprising that much of our go-to-market strategy centers on this city.

When asked about funding requests, Beth joked and said that all decisions were to be made by me as the “CMO for the day,” which prompted my second takeaway of the day: Funding should never limit new ideas for growth. If you have a sharp idea with a concise business plan, ask for the funding!

Later, Brazil’s Corporate Marketing Director and Communications Director pitched the Brazil 360-Degree Strategy, a plan to explore potential digital and other media opportunities for GE in Brazil. During Beth’s insightful feedback session, I realized that simplicity is the key to GE’s quest to Go Digital.

The third meeting of the day was a two-hour ECLP and Alumni Roundtable. I was amazed by how many ECLPs are leading marketing areas in the region, and it is also incredible to see that development of individual ECLPs is really on the top of the list of priorities for the GE Global Marketing organization.

The day ended with a dinner with an important aviation customer’s marketing intelligence team. As this customer is one of the largest and most important customers in Brazil, it was great to listen to their feedback and, even more importantly, share some mutual best marketing practices that GE and customers can both leverage to solve their own market challenges.

At the end of the day, it was even clearer to me that ECLP is a tremendous opportunity and GE is evolving quickly to become a Gold Standard marketing company. It was certainly an incredible opportunity for me and a day I will never forget.