Greg Gerik @ggerik of 3M moderates a panel of pioneering brand marketers at the 3M Think Tank. Kevin Hunt (General Mills), Susan Emerick (IBM) and Mason Nelder (Verizon) openly discuss core challenges companies face when embracing digital & social.
Mason Nelder @MasonNelder cites “Closing the leadership knowledge gap” as a huge challenge and how “It’s on us to communicate and educate” and help drive change. “We’re in a big incubator – fail fast, fail often — but learn from it and find incremental gains. … We must keep the voice of the customer at every point of the product lifecycle.”
Kevin Hunt @kevin_hunt explains the talent gap. “There aren’t enough rubber bands and sticks of gum”, currently staff is stretched really thin and lack of funding is a challenge. There’s an expectation that people will where many hats. In the future, it’ll be a luxury that we’ll be able to have staff who are more well rounded, demonstrating higher levels of aptitude to support your company’s needs. “There are scores of new leaders on the horizon, soon a new landscape will be upon us.”
What is Nirvana? Susan Emerick @sfemerick shares that “social must become integrated into the way we work, a part of every aspect of the work we do, and gone are the days of silo’s. Soon, it will be integrated into Sales, Customer Service, HR, in addition to Marketing & Communications. …. We have a vast opportunity to expose the expertise of employees through Employee Advocacy.”
Seated left to right: Kevin Hunt, Susan Emerick, Mason Nelder and Greg Gerik
Touring the 3M Innovation Center was an amazing immersive experience. The space, set up with interactive demo stations, chronicled thousands of product discoveries, advancements and featured how each makes life better. Burgeoning with stories about the work passionate 3M employees do, all just waiting to be told.
A huge Thank You to Greg Gerik @ggerik of 3M and his team for organizing and hosting such a great event. I was honored to be included.
