CMO Spotlight | Don McGuire - Qualcomm
The CMO Spotlight offers an inside look into the minds and journeys of high-performing marketing leaders.
Setup CEO + Founder, Joe Koufman, sat down with Don McGuire, the EVP and Chief Marketing Officer for Qualcomm, to talk about seizing the moment of opportunity, empathetic leadership, Louis Vuitton, and more.
“Don’t be afraid to see opportunity as opportunity.”
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Q1 | What advice would you share with marketers?
“Just don’t be afraid of opportunity, especially when you’re starting out.”
Listening to McGuire’s interview is like listening to the life coach speech that will change your life. He inspires people to find their own path, or destiny. McGuire encourages people to lean into the uncertainty and the unknowns of a job, taking comfort that your first job will not be your last. He advises, “Get some experience, dive in, get the process started, and then also just always be in control of your destiny. Don’t let someone else control where you go, what career paths you may want to choose or not choose. If you stay in control of your destiny, I think you can stay true to yourself and you can kind of get where you want to go.”
He uses Gen Z as an example of the attitude people need to possess to steer the course of their own lives. Despite life throwing unexpected challenges your way, he urges people to stay in control.
“Every generation has challenges and opportunities, but Gen Z is so unafraid of charting their own path because there’s never been more options for someone to earn a living and to make a career for themselves. The shared economy didn’t exist before. They’ve really embraced that and entrepreneurship in ways that we never did. We were like, ‘Gotta get a job, gotta go to work for a company, gotta get stability.’ Those were the things we focused on. And I think this generation is all about exploring what they really love to do and their passions, and then finding a way to make a living at it. It’s pretty cool. And like I said, I’m a little envious—but even in that environment, still be in control of your destiny, and don’t be afraid to see opportunity as opportunity.”
Q2 | What is your superpower?
McGuire’s strength is compartmentalizing. “If you can sort your thoughts, sort your emotions, and sort your reactions to things into buckets, and avoid crossover—which can get you in trouble or be dangerous sometimes—you can get through difficult times or find a way through a challenge. It’s when things get mixed together and you can’t separate them that things tend to go wrong.”
He gives great advice that compartmentalizing can help people survive through tough times. It is a “skill that can not only help you survive, but even thrive and come out on the other side in a better place than you were before. If you can compartmentalize in a positive way, it can build resilience.”
Q3 | What values are important to you?
Empathy, transparency, and being solution-oriented are three important values to McGuire. He noticed that empathy has increased in corporate environments since Covid due to understanding people’s home lives and isolation.
“The pandemic brought out a lot of challenging situations we hadn’t experienced as a society, as individuals, as families, or as colleagues. That really tested a lot of things. It made empathy much more important because you had to understand individual situations— I think it brought empathy back into the leadership ecosystem where it may have become less of a priority before. That’s been really important.”
He also mentions how transparency helps organizations become stronger and bring to light challenges and solutions. “Transparency [is important], even when things are going bad or there’s a problem. It’s difficult for people to surface problems and bring them forward because they’re afraid—they fear getting in trouble, being looked at differently, or being seen as a failure. I’ve always been like, just talk about the problem. Bring it forward. Be transparent, but also think about solutions and bring solutions forward.”
If problems are pointed out, however, McGuire values team members who can fix them. He shares, “if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” He understands that problems happen, but it’s important to have a spirit of problem solving to fix them when they do. “There’s a solution to every problem. That’s something I encourage people to think about.”
Q4 | What brand do you admire?
McGuire admires LVMH, specifically Louis Vuitton because of their ability to adapt while also maintaining a consistent brand. “They’ve stayed true to their brand, but I also love that they’ve evolved. From bringing in Virgil Abloh as their Artistic Director and how he refreshed, rejuvenated, and modernized the brand, to now bringing Pharrell in. Seeing what they’ve been able to do and how they’ve stayed so relevant, so premium, and so luxurious—they haven’t gone the way some other brands have for short-term gains and diluted or damaged their brand under financial pressure. I have a lot of respect for that brand.”
For more marketing leadership advice and insights into the mindset of marketing executives in various industries, be sure to watch the full interview with Don McGuire, and keep an eye out for more thought leadership from our CMO Spotlights.
If you know an impactful marketing leader who would be a good candidate for the #CMOSpotlight series, nominate them here.
Watch the Full Interview to the right.
Setup CEO + Founder, Joe Koufman, sat down with Don McGuire, the EVP and Chief Marketing Officer for Qualcomm, to talk about seizing the moment of opportunity, empathetic leadership, Louis Vuitton, and more.