Smart Savvy

10 Minutes With is a series highlighting some of our city’s finest marketers.

.

With an expansive career that has spanned a surprising array of sectors, Warren brings a unique depth and breadth of experience rarely available in his industry. Now the Managing Director of Vancouver operations at Karo, Warren has enjoyed senior roles in a diverse number of industries, including real estate, manufacturing, recreation and consulting. He’s generated success for regional, national and international organizations, often in challenging market conditions.

Warren’s education includes undergrad studies at BCIT in Business and Marketing and an M.B.A. from Royal Roads University, where he graduated first in his class. Warren has also taught marketing strategy at the post-graduate level.

It is the less obvious successes that truly empower Warren’s abilities. From fending off a hostile acquisition to integrating two competing companies into a unified organization, Warren brings the lessons learned to Karo and its clients. Warren’s client experience includes Bentall Capital, Dilworth Homes, Four Seasons, Goldman Sachs, Grosvenor, Hilton, Intrawest, JELD-WEN, Lowe Enterprises, MAC Real Estate Solutions, Okanagan Hills Development Corp, and Radical Enterprises.

How have you learned what you know about marketing?

I think the question should be where haven’t I learned? It’s been through education (student and teacher), working in different sectors, running my own business as well as divisions for multinationals, being responsible for sales budgets from less than a million to the hundreds of millions. Maybe to sum it up; it’s 20+ years of incredibly diverse input and experience.

How would you say the ‘face’ of marketing is changing?

I think the face of marketing is changing in that there is (for the second time) an overwhelming focus on digital. That in itself is not a bad thing. But what I hear too often is a lack of consideration for marketing as a strategic discipline that sets the overall value proposition for an organization, which requires the integration of all parts of a business. Let’s not forget Michael Porter (again, for the second time).

How do you stay current and ‘in the know’ when it comes to marketing?

By ensuring I solicit input from as broad a spectrum as possible. It’s easy to stay on top of the current trend (and thereby take the same approach as everyone else, diminishing your brand in the process). But again, if you treat marketing as a strategic discipline, you need to be reaching further. For example, I wonder how many marketers read the Economist. They should.

Which companies do you think are marketing well in this city?

MAC Realty has done an amazing job as of late. And I’m not talking about the campaigns they’ve been running. What they have done is shifted gears in this market and truly branded themselves as the company to turn to in this soft market – whether a developer or a buyer. They now own that space in the marketplace. They took the lemon that is the real estate sector for so many and made it into lemonade for MAC.

Books (or other reading material) you have read/are reading that offer(ed) some lasting value?

I don’t think I can nail down a singular book. However, I find myself reading more journal articles for business purposes while my books are more about the human condition. This genre of books in itself is very empowering from a marketing perspective because at it’s core, when we strip away all the analysis tools, plans and models, what we are trying to do with marketing strategy is connect with people.

If you were beginning your career over again, what would you do differently?

Somewhere in the mix of it all, I’d add an an accounting designation to my CV. Simply because the optics (not the ability) would provide a better opportunity to build the bridge between finance and marketing, thereby empowering my ability to convince that marketing – properly employed – is a profit centre, not a cost centre.

In your opinion, describe what you would consider to be the biggest employment trap a person could ever fall into?

Not being authentic in an interview. The trap is that the ‘real you’ will not get hired. Sooner or later the act will crack and your employer will discover you’re not the person they hired. Then all bets are off. Better to be yourself and not get hired into the wrong culture, reporting to the wrong personality type. You will have avoided a ticking time bomb. And when you do get hired, the real you can go to work each and everyday, relaxed – and far more productive – because you truly fit.

On Monday, we’ll be launching a two-week series of daily posts featuring interviews with several of our city’s finest marketers. We’ve called the series 10 Minutes With…

We’ve asked each of them seven questions to gain their perspective on:

• How they’ve learned what they know about marketing
• How they see ‘the face of marketing’ changing
• How they keep their marketing ‘know-how’ current & fresh
• Who in Vancouver they think is marketing well
• What they feel is the biggest career trap someone could fall into
• What they read
• What they would do differently if they had a ‘do-over’ with their career.

Watch for it.

I read an article this morning on BNET that tackles the issue of attitude vs experience. 

Experience tends to equate with baggage. Behaviour is learned. We do what we do on the basis of it having led to success in the past. We’ve all been annoyed by people who insist on telling us how things were done in their last company or last job. There are benefits to learning how other people do things, but the underlying message is that what we’re doing is no good, and that can be demoralising.

So what about hiring on potential? This, too, comes with some small print.

For “potential”, read “lack of directly applicable experience”. That means giving the individual time to learn, which implies training, coaching and the provision of development opportunities.This one of the reasons many companies fall back on what they hope is the quicker-fix solution of hiring so-called experienced people — it takes less effort.

I think we can add one more identifier- process. Attitudes can be fleeting and short lived. Experience can leave large blind spots. But a person’s process (how they look at problems, deal with conflict, persaude) is consistent.

The right people have processes in place that allow them to adapt to different situations- and those are the people you want to have on your team.

Link to full article

“Life is like a box of crayons. Most people are the 8-colour boxes, but what you’re really looking for are the 64-colour boxes with the sharpeners on the back.”
John Mayer, Singer-Songwriter

I’m perpetually surprised by how few companies know “who” they need. Some can identify a needed skill or two but even those are the exception rather than the rule. And the temptation in a tight job market is to take a narrow set of skills, a beating heart and be damned to the rest.

Mistake. Potentially costly. Possibly fatal.

The adage, “hire for character, you can always teach skill” is a useful framework particularly when hiring someone who is responsible for critical intangibles like media relations, artistic direction or marketing strategies.

A great character hangs from the solid framework of a balanced ego – all the positive “self” qualities: self-aware, self-motivated, self-restrained, self-confident. The balance is maintained by a reasonable sense of judgment or perception – an ability to gauge yourself in relation to others in diverse situations - and a desire to self-correct. You don’t have to be right 100% of the time (because you wont be!), but you should always be willing and able to correct yourself when you’re wrong.

On the other hand, an imbalanced ego creates a framework with potential weaknesses – all the negative “self” qualities: self-centred, self-seeking, self-righteous, selfish, and sometimes self-conscious. Unfortunately, these are often compounded by a lack of perception and an unwillingness to self-correct.

With a balanced ego to anchor them all, desirable characteristics like curiosity, creativity and eloquence, become further assets for your company. The curiosity of a balanced ego is inspired by ideas and plans generated by others not just themselves. They are capable of focusing their creativity on other people and their projects, not just their own. They bring their communication skills to bear as fluent interpreters between client and customer, or product and consumer.

A person with this kind of character doesn’t just work for your company they are your company.