So why was I so worried? Well… I submitted a piece of A4 paper, with a few simple sentences, with no colour and no images. Not quite what you would expect from a  high-flying young marketer. I was so nervous and embarrassed that I showed it to nobody.

This is what I submitted.

Showcase Me – A no frills approach – Daniel Chidley

So I was thinking… if I had to submit a “Showcase Me” now, after 9 months of being involved in the amazing Marketing Academy and the unbelievably inspirational people that I have met; what would I produce?

Well… I don’t think it would look a lot different. I am not saying that the academy has not challenged my thinking, inspired me to achieve great things or taken me out of my comfort zone. It is because, when I wrote my showcase, I was being authentic, it was true to my personal brand and it was ME!  Deep down my values and beliefs have not changed. However, the Marketing Academy has enabled me to dig deep and unearth these. I am now able to communicate them with more clarity, conviction and confidence.

So for those completing their applications for a 2012 scholarship, please ask yourself this…

Is it true to your “personal brand”?

If the answer is no – change it.

If the answer is yes – shout about it!

Good luck to you all. It is worth the time and effort that you are putting in and if you are true to yourself, I am sure you will be successful – with or with or without the academy.

PS. I have just realised that my last academy blog post was posted on my own personal account! Please make me feel better by reading it here: http://dachidley.wordpress.com/!!

All done?

A good reminder.   The Marketing Academy is all about passing on learning, knowledge and insight and giving people the best potential start in life.

So… Wow, where did the past two years go?  I have really gone full circle and here is why.

1.  I had an amazing 2010.  I took advantage of everything Marketing Academy related that I could get my hands on.  I met some amazing people, made some fantastic friends, grew to understand myself in a whole new way and took away leadership and marketing learning’s by the bucket load.  I got married and also was promoted internally to ‘Head of Business Airline Marketing’.  Great stuff!
2. I had a tougher 2011.  Lots of challenges and a more senior role to contend with but again I took away a shed load more learning and developed an even greater understanding of myself than in 2010, just when I thought I had it all!  Again, my access to The Marketing Academy really helped me to tackle some demons which I would have just hidden away otherwise.  As a result I am now a stronger person.
3. As I enter year 2012, I really have gone full circle.  I’ve had my Marketing Academy learning from 2010, implemented this in 2011 and am so, so proud to share my 2012 story….

Going back to August last year, I saw an advert in Travel Trade Gazette for a company called Training For Travel who were looking to place young 16-18 year old apprentices in  12 weeks of employment.   Always wanting to give back and share my Marketing Academy experiences, I took on a young lady, Lucy Stott, who seemed to have an interest in marketing.  17 weeks on and Lucy is still with us!  Lucy has progressed so quickly and significantly that Training For Travel have recognized Lucy as one of their outstanding 2011 Apprentices and I am proud to share with you all Lucy’s piece of fame as her story has featured in this week’s Travel Trade Gazette (skip to page 30).

Lucy – I am very proud of you and wish you all the luck in the world!!  I have loved sharing The Marketing Academy with you (and Emma!) and hope you join the community going forward.

Finally, a huge thank you to Sherilyn for sharing and promoting your vision of proving that everyone can be exceptional is so true….

Our time as scholars of the Marketing Academy is coming to an end. Come May we’ll be alumni; our hair will grey and we’ll tut at the naive thoughts of the scholars that follow us. ‘Oh, ha’ we’ll giggle, ‘you don’t know the difference between management and leadership. How cute.’

The nominations for the new scholars is open. Everyone loves a free maths test, I’d recommend applying for it. In all seriousness – do apply. It’s been an incredible year. I’ve gained so much from it; we all have. We’ve met some amazing people and heard from some of the proper rock stars of our industry. I’ve had one on one contact with some of the CEOs and CMOs from the biggest companies in the country – News International, Disney, Saatchi & Saatchi, O2… their advice has been invaluable. Not to mention the boot camps, the coaches, the mentors… it’s all ace.

In order to intimidate the potential applicants and assert our superiority early on we’ve made a video. I would like it to be noted that this film was not set up, we actually do spend our hours on roof tops looking moodily out at the London horizon. The cameraman just happened upon us one morning.  We are that bloody wise nowadays. Just out there, considering leadership.

Go on, apply. I promise it will change your life.

xx

Well, somehow it did. This month’s Boot Camp did indeed feature a talk from the Big Dawg. Although disappointing in its lack of novelty sound effects, his talk was fantastic. He’s such a passionate man, with principles that I think we all felt a little in awe of. Also, he’s really bloody tall. Like giant tall. Enormous, building toppling, T-Rex fighting tall.

His advice to us was simple: “It’s out being out there, it’s not about chasing the money. The money will just come.” He works really sodding hard. For him, working life is not about the Monday to Friday, 9 till 5 routine. It’s all about doing more of what you do. He spoke of how he’ll play anywhere if he’s booked, that’s easy. But he works hard at the nights he runs. He might not even make money on them, but he uses them as a way to keep in touch with music, with his fans and to keep building the amazing network of street teams that he has working for him. He spoke of his love for Twitter and YouTube, disseminating content wherever he could and using the networks to keep in touch with everyone who attends his nights.

Andy Parfitt described Westwood as one of the best marketers he’s ever met. Westwood’s relentless involvement in his industry was definitely something that made us all wince in shame, I can honestly say that not one single scholar has that kind of connection into our customers or markets. Also, from a purely ego driven point of view, how can we get the kind of reputation and respect that Westwood commands? Sure as hell, Beyonce does not call me when she lands at Heathrow. This fills me with disappointment every single day.

So, some things that Westwood makes us want to do:

• Get out there. I work in fashion but NEVER go to anything vaguely industry related. Why not?
• Get closer to our customers. Hang out where they do. Listen to what they listen to. Watch what they watch.
• Get talking. Build those relationships with peers, customers, colleagues. Talk, talk, talk.
• Get learning. I want to know more about our product, our muses and certainly more about our industry.
• Get dancing. EXACKLY.

Love, as always,

Helen

x

However, if you are thinking but are unsure about nominating a potential scholar to commit to 20 days of the year for learning and development as part of the Marketing Academy, below are 6 reasons why it will be the best thing you ever do, not only for your nominee, but your company, your wider team and yourself.

1. Be a true leader yourself

The definition of leadership that the Academy has instilled since day one is that ‘a true leader leaves their mark of outstanding leadership not just by their own leadership but by how many leaders they develop along the way’, so you can demonstrate true leadership ability and be integral to creating the leaders of the future by nominating

2. Keep your best talent

Look at any recruitment study and you often find that in the modern environment, the best people are attracted to the companies that offer the best training and development opportunities, not necessarily the biggest pay packet. The effect of Generation Y coming into the workplace has meant many of the top companies have ensured workplace flexibility and training is at the heart of the programme. No one wants their star performer moving companies just because they offer more training, so by nominating a rising star to have access to the world class training and networks the Academy brings will in return receive an increased level of loyalty and motivation as you have actively invested in their future development, ensuring you retain your best talent

3. Bring vital knowledge into your company to facilitate growth

I have seen, read and experienced many times that the modern workplace no longer allows a lifetime career in one company and instead seeks talent that has had a broad breath of experience in order to bring in new perspectives to their organization to ensure future growth. For example, at British Airways, they dramatically improved customer satisfaction around their attitude to queuing by adopting an idea from Disney to ‘snake’ the queues back on themselves, making them look shorter and install info screens to keep customers informed. A simple idea adopted due to insight and awareness of how another company solved a similar problem, proved invaluable and this is one of many cases of the benefits this broad insight gives. If you nominate a successful scholar, they will be meeting and learning from some of the best the industry and country have to offer and they will quickly build up a powerful network and level of insight. This new wealth of knowledge will be brought back into your company and can be implemented via their newly acquired leadership skills. Being part of the Academy allows the best of both worlds – having an employee gain a broad breadth of industry insight and experience yet they remain working for you and sharing this with those around them, adding to the growth and development of your company and not someone else’s

4. Increase the whole team’s performance

The scholar will bring back into the workplace new skills learnt around leadership, influencing and developing others that will positively affect the entire team. The stats speak for themselves as a motivated workforce with strong leadership is many times more productive than those that aren’t, so the combined contribution to your newly energized team will more than compensate for the days out of the office by your scholar

5. Gain a ready-made leader for your company & save on recruitment

When it comes to promotion time, it has been very evident this year that many of the scholars have been promoted within their own company, and even more so for the Alumni. Good leaders who nominate their young talent to be a scholar have realised that this is an investment not only in the individual but the company too, as by the end of the scholarship they have someone who was already really competent, that has been trained and nurtured to reach that next level, meaning they are the obvious choice take a more senior role. Also, if the scholar has applied the Academy’s leadership philosophy and developed future leaders below them, then there will already be someone to step into their big shoes that they leave behind, meaning you now have a strong and experienced team and only need to recruit at the most junior levels which come with a lot less risk and cost to recruit, saving you a lot of precious time and money in recruitment

6. Do what the best do

If you look at the best companies and most successful leaders, they all build time into their busy schedule to stop, reflect and learn, giving them access to their true potential. Google is the most famous for this and the evidence shows that a number of Google’s new products were developed by employees in this ‘Learning time’, leading to true innovation and new income streams. ‘Breakthroughs happen when people attend to their professional curiosities and set aside time for deliberate learning’ so why not do this for your staff and your company, as who knows where it could take you?

Summary

The truly successful companies in this time of austerity will be those that continue to invest in their people, who will then in return invest themselves as individuals in growing the company. Therefore, when considering whether to nominate your best talent to be a potential scholar for 2012, it is not a case of can you afford to lose them for 20 days a year, but more a case of can you afford not to nominate them?

Nominate now – http://www.themarketingacademy.org.uk/nominate

Full details of the programme – http://www.themarketingacademy.org.uk/the-scholarship

About a year ago, I wrote this post about why you should apply to the Marketing Academy.  Since then my year as a scholar has come to an end, I’ve jumped the fence to join 101 London, I’ve got half way through the IPA Excellence Diploma, and I’ve written fewer blog posts than I’d like.  Now that nominations for the 2012/2013 scholarship are open, it felt like a good time to remedy that.

All 28 reasons to apply that I wrote about last January still hold true.  It’s an incredible opportunity that I’m truly grateful to have been given, and worth it for the Singstar opportunities alone.  Plus One Alfred Place’s canapés selection continues to go from strength to strength.  At the same time, when you’re no longer receiving regular mentoring and coaching it becomes clear what, of the stuff you learned, rises to the surface on a day to day basis.  Undoubtedly different for every individual, but here’s a few of mine:

Just chill out a bit, yeah?
There’s an interesting tension between the drive that singles you out in your very early career, and the need to either change or temper that drive as time goes on.  I think I probably went into the Marketing Academy with a strong career-oriented drive, partly because of my competitiveness and partly because the corporate world and all it’s hierarchies plays to that kind of individual.  Having come out of it, my drive has changed to focus on different things (and stop caring about others), and it probably looks a bit different on the outside.  It might have taken me another decade to realise that needed to happen were it not for the Academy and its many wisdomful mentors.  Or I’d have burnt out and had to go to my back-up career, Starbucks barista.

Life’s too short to let it be dull
In the words of famous and influential philosopher Sheryl Crow, “every day is a winding road.”  How far ahead of her time she truly was.

Most of the people I met through the Academy told me, in one way or another, to stop looking at my work in a formulaic way and to be more adventurous.  Amanda Mackenzie from Aviva told us all to “risk it for a biscuit” and not worry about the things you do, only those you don’t.

If I hadn’t had that kind of chat from people on the Academy, when I was considering leaving Diageo for 101 London I’d have only thought about what I was risking by leaving the comforts of a huge, inspirational company with an unparalleled stable of brands to join a start-up whose office is, frankly, too tall and thus has far too many stairs.  It’s turned out to be a move that’s made me incredibly happy, and given me thighs of steel.

Importantly, that’s not to say the Academy leads you to leaving your job.  The majority of scholars from my year remain with the employer they started with, and have moved up into increasingly challenging roles.  Given the churn rate our industry faces, a positive result for all concerned.

Be a nice person
Syl Saller from Diageo told us that good relationships start with positive intent – set out to help people and they’ll be there to help you when you need them.  I can pull out lots of other quotes from the people I met that form a theme of just generally trying to be nice.  It helps.

Consciously remembering to both embark on interactions with positive intent, and assume that positive intent exists in others, has been big for me.  We all get frustrated when something goes wrong – with a project, a conversation, a lunch order.  Reminding myself that, behind all of that, people don’t set out to get that outcome has helped me avoid that frustration*.

*A bit.  I still carry around a Timmy Mallet-style mallet to deal with such instances, obviously.  As the people of Pret Tottenham Court Road will tell you.

So one year on, I’d still heartily recommend you either apply for a scholarship, or nominate someone you know for one.  If nothing else, just think of the free biscuits all those mentoring sessions will involve.

Throughout Adam’s career he has placed himself in extremely challenging positions. And like many Marketing Academy mentors and speakers he consciously focuses on ‘learning’ and ‘exposure’ as a means of career progression. It’s hard to comprehend how difficult Adam’s roles must have been at times, but through exposing himself in this way he has intensified his learning immeasurably.

Over the next few years I aim not just to take on difficult situations and challenges but to actively seek them. As Adam advises; the only question I need to ask myself is “do I think I have the ability to learn?”. Hopefully I can do so with the fresh thinking and calmness that he brings to his roles.

The day focused on a number of themes; international leadership, the emerging BRIC markets, the global consumer, but the main theme that I took from the conference was that marketing is currently undergoing a big and fundamental change. 

The marketing rulebook that has been the comfort blanket for many marketers over many years is no longer relevant.  The global economic changes that have rocked the world over the last few years have created unprecedented challenges for brands, leaders and marketers.  The speakers, all global leaders themselves, highlighted how they are tackling these challenges head on.

Mark Brittain, Global Head of Commercial at Syco Entertainment talked about how social media and brands make content more powerful.  This “Brand Fusion” focuses on emotional similarities rather than physical differences and puts passion into marketing – something that is resonating with audiences globally and which Syco take advantage of through their TV formats.

Keith Weed, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Unilever spoke about how his company are dealing with the challenges of illiteracy in some of the world’s developing markets – if someone can’t read the adverts, how they know if they want the product?  Unilever’s solution is to bring back door to door sales people.  A sales and marketing technique that many had thought had died with the era of the internet but in the 21^st century it’s solving a problem.

 Roberto Giolito, Design Director at Fiat echoed Keith Weed’s marketing solutions when talking about how he reinvented the Fiat 500 in the millennium, “Sometimes you need to plunder the past to reinvent the future”. 

Ironically it was non-marketer, Heston Blumenthal, who highlighted innovation as a key to the future. He gave us a sneak preview of the new online experience you’ll have if you are lucky enough to get a booking at his restaurant The Fat Duck – an animated roller coaster ride through the inspiration behind his meals.  It’s bringing an entirely new brand experience into going to a restaurant that will lead to growth (although as he receives 30,000 table booking requests a day it won’t make getting a Heston meal any easier!)

 I feel that Andy Fennell, CMO of Diageo, summed the day up when talking about the potential these changes can bring to marketing and leadership by saying “I’m more excited by what’s possible than scared of what could go wrong”.  It is this attitude that will cause great things to happen, new paths forged and new strategies realised.  The old rulebook may no longer be relevant but for the bravest marketers and leaders there’s a new rulebook to invent!

All the more credit then to the Marketing Academy and the incredible people that make it happen that the response I got was extraordinary. My inbox was flooded with messages from people who wanted to know more. I had to hold another meeting to field questions. Then I had to hold three more, just to fit them all in.

The consensus was always the same – “it sounds brilliant”. And it is, utterly and completely brilliant. Which leaves me, sitting down to write a blog about it, with a challenge. How do you bottle that magic? How can you distill all that into a few paragraphs? All the training, which changed my mindset. All the mentors who inspired me to push myself harder than I’d pushed myself before. All the other scholars, a fantastic network of brainboxes. And my amazing business coach, Adrienne Candy, who devotes so much time and skill to helping me make sense of it all.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to write about it all. You can wake yourself up and keep reading.

 I just want to focus on one of the lessons I’ve learned about  what it takes to be a good leader.  It was the first lesson I learned. It’s the lesson I still struggle to live by every day. If it was the only thing I learned on the Academy (it’s not) then it would still have made the whole experience worthwhile. For me, it’s the foundation of good leadership.

That is, to listen.

I bet you think you’re a good listener. Most people do. I certainly did. But I wasn’t, not at all. I interrupted people all the time. I paid attention to them with half a brain, while the other half wondered what I was going to say next. I went to meetings with my own agenda, and I wasn’t always flexible about having that opinion changed.

It’s actually quite hard to listen to someone actively, with absolute commitment. But it’s entirely necessary if you want to foster collaboration in your team, facilitate strong performance and spark brilliant ideas.

In the spirit of sharing, here are some of the techniques I find useful. Next time you are in a meeting, try:

1)   Closing your laptop and forgetting that item on your to-do list which has been niggling at you for the past hour. Give your total focus.

2)   Allowing double the time for the meeting than you would ordinarily allow.

3)    Ask lots of questions. Not the kind of questions designed to lead the discussion to your own agenda. The kind of questions which encourage the speaker to interrogate and develop his own idea further.

4)   Summarize what people have said. It lets them know that you’ve understood what they wanted to get across.

5)   Build on what they’ve said. Collaborative thinking is about letting different perspectives get to one corker of an idea.

My business coach, Adrienne, taught me what it felt like to be listened to by someone who is very good at it. It feels amazing. It’s like you’ve been speaking a different language to the rest of the world, and finally someone comes along who has taken the time to learn it too.

In practical terms, I have less meetings than I used to have. I want to make sure I take the time to develop our new concepts with the whole team, and that needs commitment. The sessions take longer, but they are doubly effective.  All the best projects I have managed this year have been a true group effort, and better for it.

And it’s helped me get the most out of the Academy too.  Listening and learning is essential to my experience. Recently, some of my mentors have kindly offered to spend time with me after the Academy too, and I truly believe that that’s because I listen and engage with them in a much more genuine way than I did at the beginning. The more mentoring sessions I go to, the more I get out of them. The more I listen, the more I get back. 

This was one of the talking points brought up during my mentoring session with Andy Routley (Managing Director of Church & Dwight) yesterday. In a shortened hour-long session we managed to cover a lot, but these are the points that really stuck with me:

Aim for the perfect balance

At the Academy we’ve been extremely fortunate to meet and hear from a number of great leaders. All have displayed an unflinching honesty, and Andy was no different. He was extremely open in discussing his career to date and the steps he’d taken to get to where he is now – Managing Director of a £90m (& growing) business.

During the conversation he mentioned that we should all strive for a balance in any professional role. It’s something we discussed in our first bootcamp but I really like the simplicity of the concentric circles. From meeting him & discussing his role he has obviously managed to hit that sweet spot and the benefits for him & the business are abundantly clear.

Refine your own elevator pitch

In business you get great at selling a brand, product or service because you have to do it all of the time. Whether it is during an internal meeting, a pitch or talking directly to a customer you constantly refine it and it gets slicker and slicker.

But when someone asks you about your own elevator pitch what do you say? Does it come as naturally? I put Andy on the spot, after all he brought it up, and he very easily rolled off what he is all about. Without buzz words or business speak it was concise, memorable and clear.

Fortunately for me he didn’t ask me to do the same but he did stress the importance of being able to convey to others what it is I bring to the table. A useful exercise that I will giving some thought to.

Be able to switch it on

During an initial chat I found out that Andy had a full day & evening ahead of him with colleagues from the US over for the day to discuss big plans for Church & Dwight. Then a complete stranger rocks up for a mentoring session.

Despite the time constraints & the pressures ahead Andy showed no signs of rushing. He was calm, easy to talk to and made me feel like I had all the time I needed. That ability to make people feel important, and block out the other things going on around you, is an amazing skill & a mark of being a great leader. Apparently it was one of Bill Clinton’s trademark skills.

In short. Mentoring sessions rock. Bring on the next one.