CMO Spotlight | Katie Kirschner - NCR

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The CMO Spotlight is a chance to get an inside look into the minds and journeys of high performing marketing leaders. 

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Setup CEO Joe Koufman virtually sat down with Katie Kirschner, the VP of Brand, Content + Digital Marketing for NCR. In this interview, Katie discusses the importance of digital in a marketer's career, the value of communication when coaching a team, rising up after hardships, chemistry in the agency partnership, and her love for Harry Potter.

“If you, as a leader, add passion and conviction together, you inspire people to change behavior and changing behavior changes lives...”

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW AND READ THE RECAP BELOW. 

Q1 | Tell us about your career path.

Kirschner’s path did not start with the traditional marketing route, but instead with Corporate Strategy Development. A background in Corporate Strategy prepared her to be a successful marketer since, as she put, “You need a corporate strategy before you can then develop your marketing strategy.” Corporate strategy is knowing the company’s long-term vision and goals, while marketing strategy is activation. She started doing both in the company she worked for prior to NCR, and then did strict marketing when joining NCR. 

“I started in what's traditionally called product marketing and moved more towards where I had been which is brand strategy - that’s corporate strategy development, but marketing helps to envelop that...so I helped to develop the corporate brand strategy. The narrative that we take out to the market and then kind of that value chain after that...so once you've established who you are as a company and how you're going to portray that externally, you have to build content on it and then you have to activate that content on some sort of platform.” 

Q2 | What is your superpower? 

“Resilience is one of them.” 

Kirschner is big on embracing challenges and using adversity to foster growth. Her favorite quote from a Maya Angelou book and poem, “And still I rise,” embodies her outlook on life. 

“You will always have tribulations and trials in your life. If you have a perfect life, you’re fooling yourself...and if you have a perfect life, you’re not growing. I think we grow so much out of trials and tribulations - even though something feels so horrible right now or what I’m going through is not something that’s particularly nice...there’s a reason for it. There’s something I’m learning out of it, and I will rise out of it. And having the will and the power to believe that you can rise out of it is important.”

Her second power she claims to learn from her mother - trust building. “I gain trust from individuals that I want to trust me, but not in a malicious way. Not like I'm trying to manipulate you. I just sincerely make it a second part of me - what do I need to do as an individual, as a human in order to build trust with other humans.” She mentioned how trust is a precious commodity and the hardest thing to earn back once lost. 

Q3 | Is there a piece of advice that you would like to pass onto other marketers?

Focus on data, analytics, and digitization in marketing. 

“If you'd asked me this question 10 years ago, I would have said do not get a degree in marketing...get a degree in management consulting or management finance because you always have to know about cash flows, how business works, or operations...because you can always go into marketing. Now, I will tell somebody you should get a degree in marketing and you should definitely concentrate on the digital aspect of marketing - data and digitization.” 

“ I will tell somebody you should get a degree in marketing and you should definitely concentrate on the digital aspect of marketing - data and digitization.”

Q4 | What is a challenge marketers face today?

The expectation of marketers has changed over the years as the industry becomes more digitized. Because of that, talent is ill prepared with experience to master all of the different components in addition to proving marketing’s overall value to the company. 

“A lot of your legacy marketers that may have longer experience building teams, bringing a lot of great skill sets and capabilities, did not move with the times to understand the digital component or content strategy or storytelling component of marketing. I think companies are now looking to be more marketing-led - especially given the pandemic. Therefore, you have a lot of these marketers who are struggling to say, ‘Oh I've never been responsible for revenue, I've never had to kind of attack that top line and grow.’ A lot of the marketers who are now joining companies that used to be more sales-led and marketing was sales support rather than being a hand-in-hand effort have a harder job because now they're convincing the organization that marketing can truly be of value. And I think the talent needed to do that isn't quite there yet.” 

Q5 | What are the most important values that you demonstrate as a leader?

Communication 

“Communication is very important in building a relationship.” Kirschner referenced “Fierce Conversations'' by Susan Scott that explores the root of the words “conversation” and “confrontation.” 

“Conversation starts with the word ‘con.’ ‘Con’ in latin means ‘together’ or ‘with.’ And so when you have a conversation, it should be with someone, not at someone.”

She mentioned how leaders are sometimes afraid of feedback, but that confrontation and dialogue leads to better mentoring opportunities and growth.

Passion + Conviction

Passion is important, but people who are passionate still need to be skilled, and conviction is literally dying for what you stand for. “If you, as a leader, add passion and conviction together, you inspire people to change behavior and changing behavior changes lives which, at the end, you hope that you're doing as you're developing someone towards a certain goal or growing them into the individual that they want to be.”

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For more marketing leadership advice and a view into the mindset of a marketing executive, be sure to watch the full interview with Katie Kirschner, and keep an eye out for more thought leadership from our CMO Spotlights.