CMO Spotlight | Mary Renner Beech - Scholastic

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

Setup CEO, Joe Koufman, virtually sat down with Mary Renner Beech, the Chief Marketing and Transformation Officer of Scholastic, to discuss how she helps marketers foster creativity, the importance of pausing and listening to others, and more. 

“As a younger person, I thought that if things were going to be done well, they needed to be done by me. I had to learn that there are so many people out there who know so much more than I do, and the best thing I can do is bring them together, remove the barriers, and enable them to do their best job.”

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Q1 | Is there any advice you would like to share?

“Well-rounded marketers are very valuable.”

Beech believes that having a wide range of experiences in the Marketing field is beneficial, and advises marketers to continue to learn and take risks. 

“It's more about gaining the experiences you need to continue to build your career. There might be a pivot and a path that you face where there's a lateral move in a new area. I would always recommend taking the lateral move in the new area if you're excited about it.” She even suggests exploring different marketing disciplines to gain a better understanding of the Marketing industry from a generalist perspective.

Q2 | What is your superpower?

Beech explained that her superpower is helping marketers hone in on their creativity and “realize the vision.” 

“I love being part of creative organizations. I love partnering with creative people who have an amazing vision or an amazing gift to bring to the world and helping them do that. I really get a ton of fulfillment out of that creative process and being part of it, so it's both what I think I'm good at, and what brings me the most joy.”

Q3 | What values do you demonstrate to your team?

Transparency is a tenant that Beech lives by and demonstrates to her team and other leaders. She is also a proponent of giving her team members space to work and not micromanaging.

Listening is also a skill she’s mastered over her career. She advises leaders to allow space for others to share. 

“Listening is incredibly important and, if you're quiet, you get so much. I learned that just by asking something and then waiting, you get a lot of information. There's a space for silence and we don't leave a lot of room for it today, but I think it's a big part of being a Manager.”

Q4 | Tell us about an impactful campaign.

As the EVP and Chief Marketing Officer at Kate Spade New York, Beech’s team conceptualized and executed a campaign called "#Missadventure" - a series of short films that starred Anna Kendrick. The campaign was developed during a time when branded video content was new to digital channels, so Beech’s team had a lot to learn about creating engaging content and distributing it properly. 

“We learned a ton. I think there were five or six of them and we just kept making them more effective. It was a great experience combining art and technology, which I think is what we do in Marketing. It really is about learning how to marry those two things together.”

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For more marketing leadership advice and a view into the mindset of marketing executives in various industries, be sure to watch the full interview with Mary Renner Beech, and keep an eye out for more thought leadership from our CMO Spotlights.

Watch the full interview to the right.