The Agile Brand: Building a Change Maker Culture, with Steve Blum, Autodesk
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®
The award-winning podcast and best-selling books on MarTech, AI, and digital transformation by Greg Kihlström.
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About the Episode
Thriving amidst change as an organization requires placing the customer at the center and focusing on improving both the customer and employee experience. By understanding and prioritizing the needs and expectations of the customer, organizations can deliver a world-class #customerexperience and gain a competitive advantage that fosters loyalty.
Today we’re going to talk about building a change maker culture and how you can help your teams to thrive among change, instead of being disrupted by it.
To discuss this topic, host Greg Kihlstrom welcomes Steve Blum , Chief Operating Officer at Autodesk .
About Steve Blum
As Autodesk’s Chief Operating Officer, Steve oversees the teams responsible for sales, marketing, customer success, digital platforms, and customer experience. Together, these teams create and provide high-impact experiences for customers. Their aim is to help people achieve their business outcomes using design and make technologies.
Steve believes in having an “expect to win” attitude. It’s a mindset built around confidence, determination, focus and perseverance. Steve guides his teams to have a vision of the customer’s success, a game plan to achieve it, and the drive to make it happen. He also believes no one accomplishes great things by working alone. It takes a great team. He has experienced this firsthand in his 30-year career in technology. Since joining Autodesk in 2003, Steve has led the field organization through the company’s business model transition, introduced Named Account programs worldwide, implemented a new partner channel framework, and established the company’s first Customer Success organization. Prior to Autodesk, Steve held leadership positions with Parago, Inc, Mentor Graphics, Advanced Micro Devices and NCR Corporation. Steve holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Florida, and he started his professional life as an engineer. He earned a patent for developing a testing technique to evaluate undershoot and overshoot resistances in programmable logic devices.
Steve is usually on the road more than in his office and home in Texas. But he always makes time for family, even if it means getting on another plane with his wife to see his kids. His two adult children have started their careers and now seek out dad for advice. Steve loves hearing about their experiences, getting their insights as young professionals, and seeing them learn and grow.
Resources
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Here are three key takeaways from our conversation:
1️⃣ Embrace Change and Take Chances: Steve emphasized the importance of being open to new opportunities, even when you're comfortable in your current role. By having the courage to try new things and learn from different experiences, you can gain a greater understanding of where you want to go in your career journey. 🌍
2️⃣ Over-Communicate the "Why": When driving big changes or transformations, it's crucial for leaders to over-communicate the reasons behind the change. By helping your team understand how the change will benefit them, their customers, and stakeholders, you create a sense of purpose and motivation that fuels their passion and perseverance. 💪
3️⃣ Make Change a Team Sport: Successful change initiatives require a team effort. Leaders must bring their team along for the ride, ensuring that everyone is aligned and engaged. By involving your team in the decision-making process and providing a clear vision of the desired outcome, you empower them to contribute their best work and navigate any challenges that come their way. 🙌
📚 Book Updates
COMING JANUARY 16: Priority is Action: 7 Principles for Better Strategies and Decisions
Thanks to Thinkers360 for naming 2 of our books: The Agile Brand Guide to Generative AI & The Agile Brand Guide to Marketing Measurement & Analytics to their "Top 50 Books to Read in 2024" list!
🎤 Events & Speaking Engagements
1/15-16: NRF '24 (New York, NY): Greg Kihlström will be doing a book signing for his Agile Brand Guide to Generative AI and doing several onsite podcast interviews
2/5-7: Medallia Experience (Las Vegas, NV): Greg Kihlström will be talking with industry leaders for the podcast.
2/26-28: eTail West 2024 (Palm Springs, CA): Greg Kihlström will be moderating a panel at this premier retail event.
3/17-20: Shoptalk 2024 (Las Vegas, NV): More details forthcoming
6/9-11: PegaWorld iNspire 2024 (Las Vegas, NV): More details forthcoming.
9/10-12: MAICON 2024 (Cleveland, OH): It's (Past) Time for AI Operations. Greg Kihlström will be presenting on the topic of setting up AI Operations to run in parallel with your Marketing Operations.
Links: Books | Podcast | Blog | Consulting | Book Greg as a Speaker