TOP CMO: Linda Boff, General Electric (GE) - 'The Soul of a Company'
Linda Boff - GE 0:00
company with five people in a garage might get lucky. I love for entrepreneurs I think it GE you don't get lucky for 13 decades.
Speaker 2 0:10
General Electric your GE niobium your GE remember you can put your confidence in General
Ben Kaplan 0:22
today. Today I am chatting with Linda Boff, CMO of one of the iconic American companies. Ge Ge of course was born out of a merger between Thomas Edison's Edison Electric Company and the Thomas Houston Electric Company and eat T 92 which was arranged by financier JP Morgan. Known originally as General Electric, GE brought electricity to American households and appliances to American kitchens.
Speaker 2 0:54
Exciting COVID It's a General Electric that's gone around.
Ben Kaplan 1:03
Linda currently holds the title of Global Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, a role she's held since 2015. Linda's role at GE over the past 20 years has been diverse, to say the least. She started as a director of GE global employee marketing, became Chief Marketing Officer of one of GES media divisions AI village back in the internet's heyday and also currently serves as chief learning officer and president of the GE foundation. So how do you take the best parts of iconic brand and reimagine it for a digital age? And how do you work with some of America's most iconic and demanding CEOs? Let's find out with Linda, boss. Linda, what is it like to be CMO of an iconic well known company, one that was founded by an iconic figure in American history, Thomas Edison that does so many different things in all the ways that GE probably affects my life that I don't think about what is it like to be the CMO of something that's big, monolithic, iconic, and just has hands in everything,
Linda Boff - GE 2:10
thank you for having me, it's a real treat, I would say being the CMO of GE, and or frankly just working at GE, it's an exercise in pride. Because the work that we do here is done at a pretty massive scale. You and I were just talking about this, we built the jet engines that are on most of the flights, that people who are listening to this podcast tape, we power a third of the world's energy. So chances are pretty good you're in a room will be at a row we're in a room or a hotel or an office that GE helps power. And we also manufacture a lot of healthcare equipment. And Diag, Gnostics. So whether that's an ultrasound that you are a relative may have gotten or a CAT scan or on, you know, a variety of other things. So when I talk about those things, it's humbling, you know, these are really big, important, essential types of work. So to be the CMO, which I've been incredibly blessed to be for going on eight years now, honestly, is a journey in many ways to figuring out how to extract some of the stories behind these technologies, and to find very creative ways to bring them to life. And boys that a tremendous job.
Ben Kaplan 3:39
And you have a little bit of allusion there to the iconic GE tagline over history, which is bring good things to life. Now it's different, as I understand it, building a world that works, Roki building a world that works. What is the through line because there's been at different periods. And even I remember as a kid where GE has been a prolific advertiser where you're gonna see them all the time on TV, there's been other periods where not as much and you've been activated different ways, but what is the through line that if we looked at GE through the decades of marketing that is the same and what is different now.
Linda Boff - GE 4:19
So I would say that there are a few three points. One is humanity. So here we are today, an industrial company, and over the years, we've been obviously a consumer company as well when we own appliances and lighting, which still, by the way, bear our names. So for most of the world that is still GE to some to create on but being approachable and accessible and human. And even sometimes you mentioned where we have been and we have been a prolific advertiser at different times. We've tried been really hard to do that with a level of Humanity showing up the way a person would not the way a big conglomerate would bond. Sometimes that's poignant. You know, people will say you said it to me got it. Sometimes it's brought a tear to your eye. Sometimes it's, it's a, you know, the work that we do is amusing or raw, you're charming. But we really calmly, firmly believe that being a company that is one that is approachable is super important. With over the years, we've been one of the most widely held stocks by retail investors. And again, I think this idea that this is a company that that you can trust and understand really matters. So for sure, humanity is a through line, innovation. Without a doubt. You know, you mentioned in the introduction, this is Thomas Edison's company were Edison sons and daughters, that pets so to speak, and we take that very seriously this idea that, you know, you you wake up at GE and think about, you know, what is the better way? How can we improve these areas that we're in and we've tried been to take a page, if you will, from the inventiveness of the company, and bring that into market, to try to be inventive, innovative, first to market creative in how we tell our story, not just what the story is, and we've had different taglines, we bring good things to life is certainly ingrained. I think everybody can almost hear the notes at the end of that when you when you hear it in your mind. We talked today about building a world that works. We talked about imagination at work, we talked about progress, progress was a big part of early taglines to me, they all say one way or another version of this is a company that shows up, looks at what the world needs and tries to invent it.
Ben Kaplan 6:56
If I'm gonna paraphrase the positioning, you're using technology to advance the world, but you're trying to show it in human terms of what that means for the end result. Hence, the kind of the dual focus and makes total sense now. And when you think about it, you're like, Okay, I can see that. But yeah, it's a positioning that's different than a lot of industrial manufacturing companies that might try to do that in some way. Or say, like, yeah, we try to, when you make parts that go into something else, it's not that inspiring or like, we might want to try to be a little bit more inspiring. But it's interesting in that it manifests itself in GE, and maybe the legacy of now you're not really a consumer focus company, you're a B to B or B to G company. But maybe that those consumer routes for period shifted, and it had an impact on the overall whole. I don't know if you agree or disagree with that.
Linda Boff - GE 7:42
I love the observation. I don't think it I think it certainly was a contributing factor. I would say a couple other things on I think the fact that we think about the impact we have in markets, on people on government to European he point on to us matters more in telling our story than the specific specs and features, right? It's about the results, the impact that we can have. I you know, for a long time, I just I literally been wouldn't butter the phrase b2b. Because to me, it's all it's not b2b, because the people who buy our jet engines or our or heavy duty gas turbines are just people. Right? You know, I don't think you'd wake up in the morning and saying, Well, I hope somebody talks to me, it really boring ways. Because on the business purse, right, everybody wants to be engaged. So I think that's a little bit of the spirit that I think you're talking about. And you say, did we borrow from appliances? I think we just try to talk to people, the way that we think would be engaging, and the way that they would best understand what we do. And I, I've been thinking recently, you know, you know, b2b is and so way so many ways. It's sort of like betta, I write like business to how do we be interesting? How do we be innovative? How do we use imagery? And I think all of those things are, are really important so that you don't kind of put people asleep in your market.
Ben Kaplan 9:24
what's different now then, that's the consistency, there hasn't been radical changes and that positioning, what's different now? And when I say now, I mean, maybe a few different measures, what's different one, Linda Boff, you've been cmo for eight years what changed to weave out of a pandemic? We're in a period of a lot of financial uncertainty for a lot of people and companies. What is different now what is not the through line? How has GE had to evolve in it?
Linda Boff - GE 9:51
I mean, I'll start with the biggest thing, which is, we are you know, if you think of GE as a company that has on innovated through literally generations, right? Generation after generation were 131 will be 131, then on on April 15, so we have big birthday coming up, I would say that probably the biggest thing is we are going to take what has been a single company, General Electric, GE, and we're going to spin into three public companies. So we're going to, we're going to be triplets, we're not going to we're not going to be a an only child anymore, we're going to on respond or healthcare business into a public company enrolling January, GE Healthcare. And sometime in early 24, we will spin our energy business that we call GE for Nova, and then have our third business, GE aerospace. All will be separate public companies with separate boards of directors and separate stop stock ticker. So these are three companies, not one company. But what's really interesting is they share roots, the roots do you and I just been talking about, we made the decision that they will share our brand. And that was a very considered intentional decision. It wasn't well, we can't think of what to do. So let's call them all gee, we really went to the marketplace. We talked to our customers, Esther's employees, and decided that the GE legacy, the 131 years, the innovation, the invention should fuel these three companies. So I spent a good deal of time over this last year on on that strategy, how to think about going to market as three cheese. So that's a really big change. That is something that obviously we wouldn't have been talking about a couple of years ago. On. So I'd start there today. The other one, and maybe you and I talked about this a little more is, you know, the opportunities in terms of how to market how to track that marketing, how to be accountable, or prolific right now. And I think it's in some ways, a candy store for marketers, but you know what happens when you eat too much candy, you get a tummy ache, and just feel so good. So I think it's about being joyful, and placing bets, where there can be the right impact with the right people. That's always been true for marketers something you know, you talked about this on your podcast, but I think we're at a moment where there are so many opportunities that you know, figuring out where to place those bets. And as I said, how to, you know, assess whether they're, they're driving a return for you, is really important. So that's something I think about a lot.
Ben Kaplan 12:58
In the world of marketing, as in life, little decisions, sometimes seemingly insignificant ones, clear the road for the really big Destiny altering changes. Every choice you make leads to another choice. And some choices can change everything. So how do you keep pace with emerging trends and customer needs, and choose the right ones to pay attention to? And let the rest of the noise fall by the wayside? Ask yourself one simple question. Does the emerging trend fundamentally alter how I can engage with and deliver value to my customer companies that lasts more than 100 years or even 130 years never stopped delivering value? Even when the nature of that value can change? Back to this idea of three G G ease? How do you think and is there a concern and even beyond that people are using the GE brand when they're buying a light bulb or doing something else that's owned by someone else? How do you think about coordinating the brand and the usage? And we're a global marketing agency? So we've made many a brand book for clients, we've revised many a Brand Book, do you just go on and say hey Ge is I mean, you have 100 plus years of legacy and people kind of know what it is. And that's just going to stay true? Is there some other put in place some overall guidelines and we give it to you now you're separate company and do with what you will and we just hope for the best or do you even let people reinterpret and reinvent and oh my god, it's magenta GE colours and who approved that? And I don't know but we'd go with it like what what do you do thinking about that?
Linda Boff - GE 14:34
Well, I don't think hopes the strategy so we're not doing outline we we created a brand governance team that has frankly a combination of marketeers lawyers and quality control people because we're in the manufacturing space we want anything we produce to be safe, right first and foremost. So we created a brand governance Key, that's number one, then we'll guide or businesses. So all three of the companies, as well as, as you said, or companies like GE Appliances, a GE Lighting that will still carry that brand forward. So definitely believe in God's governance. At the same time, I think part of the fun for these three companies that we're creating, is to take this foundation and build from it. So, you know, in my view, it's an, I guess it's a little bit, maybe it's like sending your kids to college, you have young kids, I know. But I've set mine to college, and you know, you do everything you can to prepare them, right, hopefully, you've invested 1718 years of pretty good values, and, you know, rules, but some framework, but then at a certain point, it's up to that, and so nobody's going to be magenta, we've already picked all the colours and the fonts. And, you know, again, I played a role there with our really, really talented business teams. So we, you know, we try to approach this, I know from the work you do that you would understand this with a little bit about how did we set these three up in the best possible way, give them a great foundation, you know, sort of the old, you know, freedom within a framework, and it's just sort of how thick the frame is. And I think our frame is the right size, it's enough to give on a huge leg up, you know, if you were starting a health care company, versus you have a health care company called GE health care, you know, two pretty different value props in the workplace. And then when you think about how global we are, so when you enter global markets with, you know, the GE name, the monogram, the legacy, that's a big leg up, but you know, they're gonna have fun creating on top of that, I think of us as the foundation, not the umbrella.
Ben Kaplan 17:01
And how do you think about when you're steering marketing for a big ship, and part of that positioning and that heritage, all the way from Thomas Edison's innovation. But so much of the innovation now occurs with this other approach, which it's in a garage, it's a startup, it's five men and women sitting in a room doing something so nimble that it can totally disrupt industries and start huge companies and all of that, and some of how we think about innovation starts to be through that lens. How do you think about and how do you sort of prevent being like, yes, big company, technology company big and slow? How do you think about that in a different way? And combat that?
Linda Boff - GE 17:40
Yeah, it's a super good question, I want to give you two answers to it. One is that part of the reason we decided then to create these three cheese was to enable a level of focus, that scale can sometimes mass, right, we wanted these three companies to be able to get very deep with each of their customers deep with the their their owners, the stock owners who would own an aerospace company, or an energy or a health care company, and for employees who wanted a career in aerospace to be able to go there. So I think focus is something that has become more and more and more apparent, as an unlock to us to moving quickly. We've spent a lot of the last five years under a fabulous CEO Larry Kolb on with a focus on lean and lean is you may know it from automotive or another industry is all about removing waste, so that you can go faster. So we've been trying to employ a variety of different ways to build focus efficiency in so I would start there. The second thing I would say, though, is, you know, a company with five people in a garage might get lucky. I hope they get lucky, right? I love I love for entrepreneurs, I think, gee, you don't get lucky for 13 decades. You know what I mean? Like something is there that allows us to keep inventing, and well, size and speed are things we think about. I think we also understand the importance that we are creating generational products. Our next jet engine won't be on wit for years. But boy, that jet engine will be the greatest jet and ship ever. It will be safe, it will be high quality. So in some of both, right, you know, there. I think there's a place in the world for both and a number of the things we make are things that or I don't think of them as slow I think of them as last
Ben Kaplan 20:00
Your trajectory is an interesting one in two dimensions. One is that you don't see this a tonne these days you've been with GE since 2003 in a number of different roles and those roles are interesting ones because you can see the progression it makes sense they've moved into different areas of the company and director GE global employee marketing chief marketing officer I village properties that was within NBC and NBC Univision, Executive Director, marketing communications President GE Foundation, chief learning officer is something that maybe you added on with other things you were doing. You're also Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, what is the through line GE story and your story? What is the through line through all of that? And how did those different experiences make you a better cmo today?
Linda Boff - GE 20:50
So I would say my through line is a loved four what's next and figuring things out. So I am still the president of the foundation G foundation, I still on the VP of learning and culture and and run marketing and comms as part of that world communications part of the world. On before I was at GE don't look too far back, LinkedIn, but I was at financial services. Before that. Ivan said, a huge cultural institution in New York City, the American Museum of Natural History, and I was in media and agencies. Before that, and I think Ben mine through mine is I, I love what's next? I love what's ahead of possibility. You know, I'm really fueled by possibility. And I can find possibility you don't want places. I got very fortunate that at GE, I entered a sort of the, I don't know, the centre, a little possibility, right, because it's a company that is so focused on intention, and development of its people and just transformation portfolio wise, it's certainly been one for the books on so I would say I personally look for challenges that don't look much like what I've done before I went figuring things out. I love building teams, I have the world's best team, I never take it for granted. I'm I'm as good as they are. But I put a lot of time into the team around me that's important, I think, give me a lot. I try to give it back on. Sometimes it's even sometimes it isn't. But that's incredibly important to me and in whatever it is. And I think I got really just dive into one thing you had said, I got really lucky to be at NBC and I village when I was there, which was, oh, gosh, 1450 years ago, because it was when the internet and digital marketing and social media was kind of being born. So I happen to be at idle edge, which was then a a portal for women sort of like Yahoo is a portal, right? I mean, it was that's what it was, and let's stay and it was great. And it stay on at a moment where the world was kind of discovering the power of the internet and true engagement. And I got I sound like 107 As I say that because we just all completely take that for granted your kids who never know a different world. But it was a different world before that. And I was able, I think to be in a place where I could take some of those lessons and help embed them in a company that may not have seen things that way. And that was for me a career differentiator
Ben Kaplan 23:49
would you rather have an okay job role with people you really are excited to go to work with and see, or a great role a great job with people that you're less excited to work with? What's more important and thinking about your role? Is it the job? Is it the role? Is it the people you work with?
Linda Boff - GE 24:08
So it's the people I need? You know, I'm certainly not the first to say don't work with jerks, but don't work with jerks. Life is way too short. You know, the fact that I work with people who I respect and have fun with and admire, just makes everything better. Ideally, your job isn't just okay. But I think you make a job what you want to make a job. And I think, you know, that's not to say, Lord knows every job is perfect, or every job as you said, it's like, wow, it's lighting you up every moment and I think part of the job is figuring out how to make it a great job. And by the way, I feel that more today than I did 10 or 20 years ago.
Ben Kaplan 24:53
I want to ask you about relationship of a CMO to one of most important relationships in the world. rumour the C suite, which is the relationship to the CEO. And particularly when you know GE is a company that have had iconic founders and CEOs from of course founder, Thomas Edison, very famous, probably most famous CEO in the world at the time, Jack Welch, to his successor, Jeff Immelt, who, who I think you worked with, it's a interesting relationship for any company. But when you have these iconic, famous larger than life figures and their history and their legacy, which is retained in the company, how do you navigate that? What does that mean, as you think of your role as a CMO?
Linda Boff - GE 25:33
Yeah, it's a great question. So I never worked for Thomas Edison. I haven't been around that long. Nor did I work for Jack. But I've worked I have worked for three GE CEOs. And I feel very fortunate three very, very different leaders in terms of their own superpowers and how they lead on I think the relationship is vital. On because it's some way it's this is something I'll steal from Indra Nooyi, because I thought it was so good, I think Clos that their very best. Try to bring the soul of a company to life. And the soul of the company and the culture of the company and the brand of the company are things that or stored at the very top with the CEO and with the folks who are, you know, in Newport fro. So I think to be able to bring that to life and express it and do it in a way that is very much been in keeping with where the business priorities are is critical. You could be the most creative cmo in the world, which I am not, and you could spy 100 miles, if what you come up with is what is important to move the business forward. So I think in that way, a good cmo has to reflect what is important to grow the business and that is something that CEO sets the agenda for.
Ben Kaplan 27:04
In the grand orchestra of business, a symphony unfolds between the CEO and the CMO. Or is it a jazz ensemble, the CEO sets the cadence, the drumbeat, the tempo. Yet it is the CMO who transforms the rhythm of a company into a melody that is discernible in the market. At its best, the CMO doesn't merely follow they partner they innovate. And the words of a memorable GE ad campaign. They bring good things to life. Being CMO of GE, what does a week look like for you just to get people give a sense of percentages of time? How much time are you spending meeting with your team having one on ones checking in maybe some mentorship? I know that's important to you how much of it is facing with other members of the C suite. And when you have the C in front of your title? It's not just your function, you have responsibility for the whole entity to do you have time to be creative a little bit, you know, get your hands dirty, and some campaign ideas and things like that, or no, what is your week look like? One of
Linda Boff - GE 28:11
the things I have found, and my guess is many of us have had similar experiences is use thumb as you go on in your career, you spend more and more time on talent, and working with the other folks who are in the C suite, and a little less on your craft. And that's probably the hardest part in many ways of being a CMO. Because I think what I absolutely love and what drew me to marketing in the first place is the alchemy of Creative Media Technology possibility, how it all goes together. So I keep my hands dirty I was with I'm missing a studio this morning for two hours with a couple artists and creatives. And we were funding and now funnily enough, you mentioned a brand book talking about that book. So you know, that is I won't give that up. Because to give that up to me is to give up a special July that made me want to be in the space that I'm in. But it's less time than you would imagine. I would say probably 50% of my time is on talent, meetings, staff meetings, one on ones meetings with other members of of leadership and then and then the rest just gets broken down into you know, doing some creative work doing doing some writing, you know, preparing for what have you last week, it was a poor presentation. So um, that's okay. You know, it's part of, to me, what is your give back is making sure that the folks who are you know, going to be the Samos next have those opportunities to see and experience and And to enter coach, I believe in coaching.
Ben Kaplan 30:04
I've heard you have the best team in the world, how does one get the best team in the world? What are you looking for? What are you not looking for? And how do you know yours is really the best? I'm saying that with a little bit of a wink there for you. How do you build the best team in the world and for other CMOS listening? Who are like got a pretty good team? I don't know if I'd say it's the best in the world like Linda, what should they do differently, if they're gonna challenge you for that title?
Linda Boff - GE 30:32
I think things I look for competency, like you have to be really, really good at your craft, whatever your craft is. So I think that's incredibly important humility, when you're working closely with a group of people on it, folks want to hog the ball. I think that's counterproductive, and doesn't really yield great results. Confidence, yes, but but confidence with, with a bit of humility, sort of mixed in there, just a desire to do good work. It's just too amazing. And I've had, you know, experiences where, you know, you spent so much of your job in the politicking part of it, and it's just such a waste of time, bad. So, you know, just wanting to produce good work and get stuff done. You know, the, the tech companies talk about shipping, right, you know, shipping products, I just believe that shipping you right, like I believe in shipping work, you want to do stuff. So I think that's really important. And trust, you know, I trust my team, I think they trust me, I tried to be transparent. I, I tried to coach, you know, lord knows I'm not perfect. And no person on my team is perfect. Together. We're we're really quite a, you know, enviable group, I'd say.
Ben Kaplan 31:54
how would your team describe your style? Would they call you? Tough? Would they call you supportive? With day call you warm and friendly? Would they call you? How would they describe you?
Linda Boff - GE 32:09
just give you three words. How's that? I think they would say kind, curious, impatient.
Ben Kaplan 32:15
And that last one? impatient? Yeah. Is that important, as a CMO
Linda Boff - GE 32:21
vital say it is a compliment to myself, but I think it's important to drive to the finish line, I think you can have ideas and ideas are great. I think if you can't execute ideas, they're just ideas. So I think execution is really important. And I think doing it in a in a way that gets results is is equally important.
Ben Kaplan 32:44
Which is a similar approach to the contrast, you know, big technology company with small startup. But part of that small startup ethos is like, yeah, there's a lot of great startup ideas. There's a lot of great product ideas, but what can you do? What can you execute? What can you allude to GE a little bit but bring to life? And how do you do that. And what's interesting is that it's a different skill to be the smartest person in the room, or, you know, the most innovative thinker has like the doer, and the doer has a lot of value, because it's pretty hard to be a doer.
Linda Boff - GE 33:18
Yeah, I think it is. I am definitely not the smartest person in the room. But I get I get stuff done. And I think, you know, in the end of the day, that matters, doing things and doing them well really matters.
Ben Kaplan 33:30
So how does a manufacturing company like GE stand out from other manufacturing companies? Ultimately, it's a very surprising approach for its industry vertical, have focused on humanity.
Speaker 2 33:44
Because it GE we know there are two things that make a company great ideas and the people love them.
Ben Kaplan 33:53
For Linda, G is in the humanity business. Her job is to understand people their needs their dreams, and to show how GE is diverse portfolio, from aerospace to renewable energy to additive manufacturing, relates to very human needs. Simply put, GE focuses on the Y about the products it creates, not just the what and that y is all about people and are very human needs.
You done things like activations Jimmy Fallon was launching his show, you've done long form programming with movie legends like Ron Howard, as far as I know, you're the first company ever to take over all 27 pages of ads in the New York Times early on at Twitter and other places and using as a platform. Why do all of that did all that work that some of it not work? What did you learn and why does GE have that mix which is a very different marketing mix than a typical industrial or manufacturing company.
Linda Boff - GE 35:00
Yeah, I mean, nothing works all the time. But I think we've had more than our share of, of successes and hits. The reason we do it is actually pretty simple. It goes back Ben to a lot of what we talk about what we've talked about here, which is, you know, we want to remind people that we're a company about innovation. And so we want to innovate in our marketing, we literally want our marketing to be as innovative as our company, because that's our DNA. And it's a way to express that that's one, two, we don't have big budgets, I will tell you what it is, but I promise you, it's smaller than you could ever imagine. So we have to make sure that when we do something, we do it with impact, and that it's remembered. And I think we have the somewhat of the luxury, that we're in a long cycle business. So our customer acquisition cost, is something that we don't think about the same way that a consumer products goods company would have to think about, you know, is their spending going to yield another purchase of a bottle of shampoo, you know, we are businesses conduct business over such a long period of time at such a high price tag, that those upper funnel activities really, really matter in terms of setting the brand, the record he showed, etc. So I would say going for impact and innovation, or two things that have led us to try to work with any number of media companies, channels, you know, tech companies in new ways. And, you know, often when you're first market or early to market, you kind of your your dollar earns a lot more than $1. From a media point of view, you get the attention from Virgin Media, you get the halo from your employees, which is so important. I'll stick with one of the examples used throughout. It's also one of my favourites. So in December, we worked with the New York Times and did the first takeover from an advertising point of view in the papers 171 year history. And it was beautiful. I mean, I promise you these ads were magnificent. We did a beautiful cover, wrap it we featured our employees and adds, one of the proudest moments was we brought a whole group of our employees to the times printing plant in Queens, the night this was being printed, so that we can all watch this coming off the press. And that was just sheer pride. So some of what we do is also for the halo back to our own teams, and we're employs,
Ben Kaplan 37:44
it's funny when you talk about making an impact and being memorable and trying to do something a little bit different. I'm reminded of a quote and I think this is from him. It's attributed to Mutt Lange, who was the legendary producer of Def Leppard. I don't know if you were Def Leppard fan
Linda Boff - GE 37:59
more Springsteen girl, but let's go with that guy.
Ben Kaplan 38:02
But and one of the things that Lange said, I don't know if you agree with this when he was talking about music lyrics, but he said, it doesn't actually matter if lyrics are good or bad, as long as they're memorable. That's what matters. And I don't know if you agree or not, but that memorability standing out being sticky. Having that resonance with the audience. What he was saying was that I don't think probably they aspire to bad lyrics. But that's more important than anything that it sort of sticks with people and people can feel you and I don't know if you think that's true in marketing or not.
Linda Boff - GE 38:35
interesting. I didn't I just have to go listen to some Def Leppard. On I think both matters. I mean, we talk about this law a lot on the team, which is, I think every time we're in front of our customers, investors, employees, you know, through the media, I think each one of those touch points is worth being the best it can possibly be. And to me, that's everything from something we do in a newsletter, to a post on Instagram, to something like the New York Times I think every one of it now, every every touchpoint matters, because they're on. They're all a synchronous at this point. There's no such thing. I'd be curious what you think about this. I don't think there's a campaign in the traditional sense, because everybody's on so many channels at different times, and simultaneously. So you hope these things all work together. But somebody may just see one thing from GE. And yes, I want it to have impact. But I also want it to be good. I want it to bring the brand to life. So like Jeff leopard man and I are on different pages.
Ben Kaplan 39:46
My perspective is I call it getting to wow. And what I mean by that is sometimes you know, something's really good. Sometimes you might even know something's really great. And usually most people are like, hey, it's good. It's great. I'm happy with this. We're proud of this, but when you're that far along, if you can just like get that to wow, get that to that just like that upper gear that higher level the Spinal Tap level 11,
Linda Boff - GE 40:07
but loves Spinal Tap 11 That one work,
Ben Kaplan 40:10
okay, there you go, if you can do that those opportunities are rare. So if you're already doing something great, if it's already amazing quality, if you're proud of it, press the pedal down, get to wow, because this is a chance to do something that is memorable and amazing. And that makes impact. And that is amazing quality.
Linda Boff - GE 40:29
You know, Ben, you're reminding me something we've talked about a lot on the team is, you know, to work at GE he is to kind of fall in love with the company, you probably share that in my voice a little bit, you know, you just get really, really absorbed with the mission and the impact etcetera. And ideally, when we come to life in any number of formats, I sort of want to give people are window into falling in love with us. When we first went on Instagram, and oh my god, think about what now it was, you know, 12 years ago or something on we had a really simple, simple idea. And that was we wanted people to fall in love with the majesty of big machines. And we shot or wind turbine winds and our jet engines from different angles and wasn't for everybody. But if you loved industry and you love technology, we wanted to give you a way to fall off. And that sounds a little funny, right? We're talking about heavy metal, different kinds of heavy metal, tried to get news, the fact that a little bit of a con there. So we're talking about heavy metal, but we're talking about it once again, where we stored it from a human point of view. I think that matters. I think it matters when you think about where somebody could go work. So long places to go work. And you know, there are places that are really, really compelling these days. And if we can show the world, the GE we know and love I know and love and the impact that we have, and find the marketing windows that permit that. That's pretty great stuff.
Ben Kaplan 42:13
When you're an industrial manufacturing company, how important is marketing around sustainability? having an impact? How important is it in your overall mix? There's things and we're tracking for some of our clients in Europe. Now there's been a call a digital product passport that's coming that tracks the impact through the entire supply chain. How much water did you use? What's your environment pack? How much is recyclable? All of that it's coming? Does that come into a lot in your thinking just when increasing numbers of people are looking at that as a key thing? Do you think about that in sort of marketing terms
Linda Boff - GE 42:45
all the time? As I mentioned, we have a very big energy business for 130 years, that business has been about electrification, electrifying the world will define that business going forward is decarbonisation. Without a doubt the wind technology that we have onshore offshore wind will set off the next generation in in chunks of electricity. On the aviation side aerospace. No doubt you've read or hearing about things like sustainable aviation fuels SAF on more sustainable engine. So when we think about the future of flying when we think about things like the energy transition, sustainability is absolutely critical. We talk about it all the time. And we don't just talk about it. We're trying to create products and technologies that can make a difference going forward, so 100%.
Ben Kaplan 43:48
For Linda Barth, CMO of GE, a good cmo brings the soul of a company to life. Her words remind us that marketing isn't just about numbers and metrics. It's also about humanising the brand, telling its story, and embodying it spirits. According to Linda, marketers need to navigate strategic shifts and embrace the winds of change, not as another blocker to overcome, but as an opportunity for reinvention and growth. Linda says the relationship between a CMO and a CEO is vital. This synergy rooted in mutual understanding and common goals is the cornerstone of a successful partnership. Linda's rich experiences and insights remind us that it's not just about leadership. It's also about partnership, collaboration, and shared vision. Top CMO, I'm Ben Kaplan.
Tom Cain 44:52
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