Reinventing yourself, Reinventing your company

With Paul Stewart, North America CEO

I've been a part of a technology company now for 3 1/2 years. I am fortunate enough to be able to work with the North America CEO, Paul Stewart, sitting just down the hall from me, and have been able to meet several of the C-levelers from across the pond. In my first year at Atos Origin, (and my first trip to Paris) I met then CEO, Bernard Bourigeaud at a marketing communications meeting. he was very cordial, had no real speech... just stopping by. 

Paris 2007, Just before Beijing Games

I met our newest CEO Thierry Breton when he first took his position in 2009. Naturally I admired his curly locks. I even had to google him to see if I was the first one to mention his fabulous hair (I wasn't). He offered a lot of news regarding the financial side of the company. He had a swift presence that let you know big changes were coming, and the change would be good.

This year, I was able to meet Gilles Grapinet (yes he has nice hair too). Mr. Grapinet attended our Global Marketing meeting in Paris back in April. He spoke after our Sales Director Hervé Payan with a quick speech on how marketing will play a large part in helping change the company in a way I had never thought of before.

His voice was soft, capturing attention of 20 chatty marketeers. He started with the story of evolution for television. He explained how they were easy to sell-all TVs had the same technology, and we all wanted one. Instead of becoming a commodity, and being a simple choice of price, the TV kept reinventing itself. Now, nearing 100 years later, the television is still being reinvented.

Mr. Grapinet says Atos Origin should follow this model. There will always be services that are contingent on price, but us marketeers will be the ones to help promote the newest most advanced solutions to become an "enhanced business function". He used an example of cellphones, and how companies offer them for free, yet we wait in line for hours to spend over $400 on the latest smartphone. So true!
So, what am I getting at? I'm trying to say that (besides being a great speaker), Mr. Grapinet really has a point here. As marketing managers, we don't create the technology, but we must be able to utilize the "best of the best" thought leaders. We must make sure other companies know about our solutions before they even know they need it. It is our job to make sure those innovative thinkers get their time in the spotlight.
It has been 3 months since this meeting. We have implemented thought leadership into our Facebook account, the marketing department has dove into ways of working more strategically with our partners, our CIO/CTO Atos Origin Blog is more popular than ever, more training and a new way of thinking is afoot.

Stay tuned folks, Atos Origin has an entire community of smart folk, and we're not afraid to use it.

My new title: Jack of all Trades

So, I'm sitting down this morning with my work mentor (I like to refer to it as my personal counseling), and we came to the conclusion that being a "Jack of all Trades" isn't all bad.

I decided a long time ago I liked design. Then, I decided I liked PR, no wait--trade shows...and multimedia..oh! Maybe I should just be a "marketeer"? Well, I've been doing this for about 13 years, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Now, Marketing has encompassed personal client outreach, analyst relations, industry knowledge, social media, community relations, and even more. What's a girl to do?

We talked this morning that maybe its OK to be a little scattered. It seems that gone are the days where you could hire one person to do one job. I like working in groups, I like volunteering, I like my social media attempts, I like project management... Perhaps if I stop trying to find my niche, and just embrace the mayhem that is "my work", I'll find the inner peace that I've been looking for.

I've been invited to join our Global Marketing campaign groups, flying into Paris to get face-to-face collaboration meeting time; I work directly with the service lines to make sure their vision is what we are selling; I'm working on proposals to make sure our clients are receiving the most up to date information. And at this very moment as I feel overwhelmed, I'm writing a blog about being overwhelmed. :)

So, how do I skim the top of all these projects, and still dive deep enough to create impact? I'm still working on that part. For now, I will continue working with my team to deliver on all our promises.

Question for you... is it better to under promise, over-deliver? or to Offer the moon?!

*Note to self: Used 7 Cliche's. Re-read first Blog post.

...and just like that, its over

Wow... It hurts a little seeing this photo. The fish being scraped off the wall of the TOC in Vancouver. Alas, the show must go on--or I guess the show must close in this case. The teams have had there celebration parties and everyone is either ready to try to find some resemblance of their normal Vancouver lives, or they move back home, or they move on to follow the Summer Games in London. The room is all but a sea of monitors either turned off or running the screensavers.

Ward Chapin, the VANOC CIO was kind enough to speak to a group of analysts and sourcing partners from the US during a trip in late February. He said a lot of the equipment is sold or donated, and the infrastructure that was improved for the games is there for the city to enjoy.


So, my question is what happens now? We have had our first successful global/social campaigning with these games, and now what do we talk about? Do we just let the blog die? Do we start talking about London (its 2 years away!)

I was thinking our Olympic time campaigning is much like the Houston Rodeo. The event consumes a city, then its gone as quick as it came up. And if I'm not mistaking this is the first year for Houston Rodeo to participate in the social media space, where you live and die by how much you communicate. So will the Rodeo continue to their outreach on myspace, facebook and twitter? Or will the postings cease until next year's line up? ...maybe--just maybe they are waiting for Atos Origin to make the first move?

To be continued...or not?