What Omnicom’s Big Move Means For Marketing Careers

[00:00:00] Tessa Burg: Hello and welcome to another episode of Leader Generation, brought to you by Mod Op. I’m your host, Tessa Burg, and today I am joined by our VP of AI transformation, Patty Parobek, or actually you’re a Senior VP now, recently got a promotion. Patty, thanks so much for joining us.

[00:00:19] Tessa Burg: Uh, we are so excited to jump into this conversation, which for all the listeners, we have not rehearsed this. We scheduled this yesterday, coming off the heels of Omnicom’s announcement to cut 4,000 jobs and retire some really iconic advertising and marketing brands: FCB, DDB, and MullenLowe. So, Patty, we’re excited, but this is, this is kind of a, a, a stressful and anxiety inducing time.

[00:00:50] Patty Parobek: Yeah. And I’m happy to be here. And yes, there are some things that, that give you some pause and can create some anxiety, but I’m also so excited to talk about the topic ’cause there’s so much potential, especially for marketers.

[00:01:03] Tessa Burg: Yes. And both of us have worked in environments where, and I think everyone has layoffs, is really a part of our experience professionally, especially as millennials.

[00:01:15] Tessa Burg: Uh, if people haven’t read the book, I think it’s in Good To Great by Simon Sinek, which is tells the story of the origin of layoffs was started in the Ronald Reagan era. But this is a tool that has been used for a long time to cut costs, restructure, realign the business. And while I think some people jump to the conclusion that this is all due to AI or they’re planning on doing AI, and there was mention of that in the announcement.

[00:01:45] Tessa Burg: Uh, there are much bigger economic, socioeconomic, um, and business implications at play. So before we get into it, what was your initial reaction when you saw this announcement? Um, what did you think and, and, and how did you feel?

[00:02:05] Patty Parobek: So, my first reactions were empathetic. Of course, we at American Greetings worked with MullenLowe.

[00:02:12] Patty Parobek: Back when I worked at American Greetings is when MullenLowe helped us create the world’s toughest job, viral video. And there’s a lot of people there who were impacted and uh, I could see from their posts that it, it seemed to have come as a big surprise and I working in the space that we are in with AI and the future of work and transformation, it wasn’t as, as large of a, a change and as large as a layoff as it was in a consolidation in the retirement of those marquee brands.

[00:02:55] Patty Parobek: It wasn’t a huge surprise to me that something like that would happen. And that’s, that’s the scary part. The people it happened to was surprising because I know them, I know their skills. I know their abilities. And when you, when I read about it in press, it was like, well, there was duplicative skills and there had to be consolidation for the duplicative skills. And that made me think, how can we expedite the expansion of skills so that duplication isn’t, isn’t a thing, you know?

[00:03:30] Tessa Burg: So my initial reaction was one of surprise and shock mostly because, uh, Omnicom had just announced this massive acquisition and they had already done layoffs and lack of duplicate roles, and then they’re doing it again, which does make sense when you’re making a ver a big acquisition, there’s gonna be duplicity and you need to eliminate that.

[00:03:56] Tessa Burg: But like for us, you know, Mod Op has grown through acquisition. And we are going look at it a very different way. We’re not acquiring people who are competitive with us. We’re actually acquiring knowledge, uh, skill sets, services that we want to bring under a single roof. But it’s in a way easier for us, easier for any mid-market company because we’re not as big and bloated as an Omnicom.

[00:04:30] Tessa Burg: And a lot of the layoffs that we’re seeing at some of the largest companies and the largest brands, be it Omnicom or Amazon, um, or Verizon or any other large company that’s recently done layoffs is also a reset from the job explosion or over hiring that occurred more in 2022. So we have, we had a lot of over hiring at really, really large companies where they were crushing it and they needed people. We have now a more cautious economic scenario with still higher interest rates. Capital is not as available. And then we have this third lane of technology explosion, which the technology is saying you need to focus on efficiency, and now you have the tools to do it.

[00:05:24] Tessa Burg: But as we know. Adoption of those actual tools, the ability to measure the ROI and those investments is still lagging, but the lagging doesn’t matter. Companies need to make decisions today, even if short term, to show that they are controlling costs, that they are being smart about consolidation, bringing a brand together because in the long run.

[00:05:54] Tessa Burg: It’s going to be the brands that are singularly focused on the value they deliver and deliver it really, really well, faster, better, smarter, um, that will win. And so, yeah, it was, it was a surprise. But at the same time, when you look at what’s contributing to it, it’s not just AI. Um, there’s a lot of factors at play that are sort of driving this to be, uh, where we’re at today.

[00:06:23] Tessa Burg: So then the other piece that I wanted to get your thoughts on, Patty, is given that, what are the bigger implications if we sort of bubble out and look at what does this mean for marketing and advertising profession as a whole? Because I think we felt for the people who were impacted, we get that this is a massive company with duplicate skills and everything, so it’s going to happen.

[00:06:50] Tessa Burg: But at the same time, are there implications for our profession, whether you are at an agency or on a marketing team at a a large company? What does this mean for us as marketers and marketing technologists?

[00:07:07] Patty Parobek: Yeah, I, you know, we were talking earlier about how in our careers as being client side and agency side, we, we are not strangers to.

[00:07:18] Patty Parobek: Uh, being in a company where layoffs are happening, and I think it’s, it’s part of that experience being at large enterprises or, you know, going through the pandemic and having to make hard choices at, even at small organizations that when layoffs happen, and whether you’re a part of that, that wave or not.

[00:07:41] Patty Parobek: It, it, it should create a sense of urgency in you to look at your. Your job, look at the value that you are offering your organization and, and taking a hard look at has that value increase or decrease based on the things that you’re doing. I think marketers right now, um, it’s, it’s an interesting time because as much as, I don’t wanna say it.

[00:08:09] Patty Parobek: You know, the sky is falling and marketers will be fine. And marketing is a profession that will go on forever. There’s too many reports and too many studies out there that show, uh, that, that the skills. Uh, that we have the group of, of skills that marketers and media professionals have right now. A lot of those practical skills can be largely replaced, like the capacity for generative AI to replace those skills is there.

[00:08:36] Patty Parobek: And the broader implications for marketing and media professionals then is of the value that I’ve provided to the company, the skills that I have to offer are. Are they transferable? To other parts of the company that would add greater value or I’m even just looking at the, the pie. Take a pie chart of the tasks that you do today, you could pretty easily narrow out.

[00:09:06] Patty Parobek: These are the tasks that I do today that I can for certainly guarantee that they are providing immense value to the company versus either the task today that probably aren’t providing that much value to the company in today’s state, or maybe won’t. You know, in the next 2, 3, 4 years. Um, so I think for marketing and marketing professionals, media and media professionals, if you have been kind of burying your head in the sand about skill development and what skills that you have or what tasks that you’re doing can be easily replaced versus not, or.

[00:09:46] Patty Parobek: You know, or any of those kinds of lines of thought. This is certainly the time to start brushing up that, that research for yourself. And it’s not meant to be a, I’m not trying to scare people. I’m not trying to make people worry about, uh. You know the seat that they’re in today, and I’m trying to balance that with a real sense of urgency that if you are somebody who’s been in your role in an enterprise for 10 years with one discipline, and you are great at pushing these set of buttons in Google Ads that might not be and can’t be what you’re doing five years from now, it can’t because that is.

[00:10:29] Patty Parobek: Easily going to be very easily repeatable and execution, you know, uh, be able to be executed by the technology, but you Google button pusher in an enterprise certainly have developed skills and expertise that are transferable. To other parts of the organization that can provide real value. And uh, and I, I think that right now is the moment for marketing and media professionals to really take a survey of their own skills and experience and expertise and understand what might be next.

[00:11:08] Tessa Burg: Yeah, I agree. There are some brutal truths. That exist and are not being echoed in one report, but being echoed in many reports and a lot of the, the roles that had duplicative skills, those roles like the people left in the same role will also be replaced. And it is largely because what marketers do, the tasks they do are.

[00:11:36] Tessa Burg: Being commoditized and automated out. So I like the framework of looking at what is the value that our business drives and all agencies do the same. Like if we were to bucket them, do very similar things. They concept, they create, they deliver, they measure. All of them. So what is going to make one agency different from another?

[00:12:06] Tessa Burg: It’s going to be how clients experience that agency. So I think that if you are sitting in an agency seat, you wanna spend some time thinking about what does that experience look like today? And imagine what it could look like tomorrow. And where are you playing a role in driving that value?

[00:12:29] Tessa Burg: On the client side, ’cause like you said, on the client side. Same. Same fear we’ve been there. My very first role was on a client side role and early in my career I saw the entire department get laid off and the jobs all go to an outsource contractor in India. And at the time, that was a trend that was happening. And I was an intern, so it wasn’t, it did like I wasn’t a full-time employee, so I was there.

[00:13:04] Tessa Burg: Then one of the only folks left on the domestic side. And it, it was a real eye-opening experience. But again, you had to accept the truth of where am I gonna provide value? And I would say if you’re on the client side, it’s the exact same formula. It can’t be the things that you do. It has to be the value you provide.

[00:13:27] Tessa Burg: And for this is a major moment. For brands B2B brands, consumer brands, e-commerce, retail, to look at the experience that they’re providing their partners. If you’re in channel marketing, what does that look like From the moment you onboard a channel marketing partner, how are, what is the value you’re giving your distributors and sales?

[00:13:54] Tessa Burg: What’s that ecosystem in which you’re operating in and where can there be solutions to solve age old problems, and there is a ton of opportunity. We’re seeing layoffs now though, because we are not investing enough in the value to those opportunities as the economy, the duplication of skills, the commoditization of work is moving faster.

[00:14:18] Patty Parobek: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:14:23] Tessa Burg: Uh, so as we think about opportunity. What kinds of leaders will succeed in actually realizing the benefit of being able to move faster and bring people along?

[00:14:47] Patty Parobek: Mm-hmm.

[00:14:49] Tessa Burg: I feel like I just gave it away because that, that’s what you need to do. You need to move faster and bring people along. But Patty, as you know, the VP in Transformation, what does that take?

[00:15:02] Patty Parobek: So it’s actually the number one irreplaceable skill, and it’s empathy. It’s so, it’s, it’s really interesting. And if you haven’t read any of McKenzie’s latest. You know, state of AI skill reports or the World Economic Forum, take a look at those first. Um, especially the ones from the last recent months, uh, what you’ll find is when they are looking at increasing skills, decreasing skills, uh, of, of course, you know.

[00:15:37] Patty Parobek: The, the bucket of skills that might likely be replaced faster than others are kind of those practical skills that you’re likely applying to your marketing roles today. But the ones that are going to be durable are the ones like empathy, active listening, leadership skills, strategic capacity, and the leaders that are going to succeed probably naturally have those things.

[00:16:03] Patty Parobek: But let’s. Let’s assume that leader is not in title. Everyone can be a leader. There is not a person in an individual contributor role all the way up to, you know, a senior leader executive who cannot. Be a leader. If you have the ability to be empathetic to the people around you, and especially as a marketer, be empathetic towards your end consumer, your customer, you’ll certainly succeed because we’re not talking about just bringing people in your organization along, but bringing along the people who also are your consumers who are just trying to do their best also and get their needs met.

[00:16:47] Patty Parobek: So, um, you know, and change management and, and. Change management is so applicable to marketing. So another career avenue marketers, if you are looking for a, what other kind of skills can I largely build that are largely needed in the market today? Change management and transformation. Certainly one of those avenues that marketers naturally are great at because a lot of the same principles apply.

[00:17:11] Patty Parobek: Empathetic thinking, you know, influence, um, you know, psychological behavior, decision making, that kind of thing. But in change management, leading with empathy is, and leading with a support first servant base kind of strategy is generally the most effective. And so any person, and we’ll say leader, but any person in any seat that can demonstrate those things will, will likely have an advantage.

[00:17:39] Tessa Burg: Yeah, I agree. And I like that. Shout out to what kinds of skills can you be building if you’re already an empathetic person that can really connect the dots? Change management, transformation management, digital transformation leadership, awesome frameworks for navigating this space right now. And then I’ll also throw in, uh, product management.

[00:18:00] Tessa Burg: Like what does it mean to productize a service And how do really strong brands, and if you have a strong vision, strong brand values. Then how are you living that in your culture? And this is something that I thought was really interesting. I cite this all the time, but from the book, Good to Great If, if you haven’t read it recently, now is the time to read it again.

[00:18:27] Tessa Burg: Because there are so many lessons that we can take in how we navigate these next two to three years as the pace of change external will continue to outpace what we are able to do. Internal. And there, you know, it’s gonna talk about the reactive nature of layoffs. It’s gonna talk about the types of leaders and the type of leadership qualities you need, and those are timeless.

[00:18:53] Tessa Burg: And when I think about product management and the discipline of product management, I’m not talking about, you know, learn how to document requirements. But I am talking about making sure that you are getting close enough to your customers, that you’re showing up with that empathy. And you’re really hearing them.

[00:19:12] Tessa Burg: There are issues that have always existed that I think bad leaders at all levels of the organization write off. Well, that’s just because people just don’t wanna spend that much, or it’s because we were missing this feature and so that’s why they didn’t pick us over this other company. Or, you know, we lose customers after a couple of years because, uh.

[00:19:36] Tessa Burg: They, they always do price checks. They always are comparing every two years. It’s cyclical. Don’t be so fast to write off persistent issues. Use the data and pull out and understand where have we always been falling down? How many quality relationships have we generated? What are the features within those relationships that make them quality, that make them high growth and important for our business.

[00:20:10] Tessa Burg: I think sometimes we’re too quick to write things off before we’ve actually deeply understood them. And I, again, I’m seeing this agency side, I’ve seen this client side over the years and I always say my pet peeve is the phrase, it is what it is. I think too many times people. Don’t take responsibility for the decisions they’re making.

[00:20:34] Tessa Burg: And it, it doesn’t until you have actually sat down and looked at the data and said, where do we need to take responsibility? Or where is there an opportunity for us to do something that hasn’t been done before? Um, I wouldn’t just write this off as a business cycle and the, and the companies that can reimagine what that, what value creation looks like.

[00:20:58] Tessa Burg: Uh. Will win. And to your point, Patty, that can really happen at any level. But I, some of the most amazing product leaders I’ve seen be able to do that.

[00:21:10] Patty Parobek: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know, it’s so interesting ’cause as you’re talking, uh, I just think about. The product and innovation, AI and technical chops you have and, and how that’s reflected in your answers.

[00:21:24] Patty Parobek: And I think about my own answers and, you know, and people and support and empathy and it, it’s important to call out because both you and I in our careers certainly had marketing titles. You were the head of marketing at American Greetings Interactive, and you’ve done marketing specific roles and I have been in marketing.

[00:21:45] Patty Parobek: I would spend a decade in marketing strategy. I still like and do marketing strategy, but when you look at the core skills that you and I have, yes, we are marketers and. Marketers are so much more than the title of marketer. And the the thinking and the things that you’re demonstrating with innovation and product development and things like that.

[00:22:10] Patty Parobek: That’s your passion area and your core skills. So certainly you were going to evolve past. A title of marketing into, you know, technology leadership and product leadership and AI leadership and, and all of the things that you are today. So much as I, my core skills and my title of marketing also were, I loved supporting people and training and development and learning and education, so I don’t want.

[00:22:35] Patty Parobek: I, I want us to be two really good representatives, examples for people listening to this in marketing titles and marketing roles today, that your skills are far beyond your title today. And even if your title today might, let’s, let’s face it, might not exist. In five, 10 years, if you’re a, if you’re a media planner, that could be a real truth for you.

[00:22:59] Patty Parobek: But your skills are so far past media planning, and I think that that’s the point, that it’s understanding your core skillset, your clusters, the things that make you uniquely passionate about something. Uh, and all of the experience that you developed in your role, and then what’s to come next for you?

[00:23:17] Patty Parobek: You’re Tessa, you’re the CTO. You lead innovations in AI for, for Mod Op, and, and I’m sure you’re gonna continue growing and in millions of different ways. I’m now, you know, leading AI transformation for op less than five years ago I was a director of marketing strategy, so I just want, I want that to be a, a takeaway for today’s listeners too.

[00:23:41] Tessa Burg: Yeah, no, I totally agree. And it’s the, I was listening to this podcast on how to come up with your elevator pitch, and it was for startup founders, but I actually think coming up with an elevator pitch and the going through that process. To create one for yourself really helps unlock the value you bring, not the things that you do, because that is what makes a great elevator pitch

[00:24:07] Patty Parobek: A hundred percent.

[00:24:08] Tessa Burg: So there, that’s a great place to start and you know, we’re definitely talking at an individual basis, but it is because the companies that are gonna see succeed are made up of really competent strategic problem solvers. And that’s where you are moving to is not I do tasks. I am a person who creates value because I can analyze and strategically solve and bring new solutions to life.

[00:24:36] Patty Parobek: Mm-hmm.

[00:24:37] Tessa Burg: And there are many paths to that.

[00:24:41] Tessa Burg: So this is, I feel like we’re really hounding that this is a massive reset for agencies, for marketers, and we think that it should be, we think these are realities that should be. Accepted. What can, what are some, we’ve given some frameworks, but if we talk about what are the next things people can do or invest their time in, what would you recommend?

[00:25:12] Patty Parobek: Mm-hmm. So I think that you’re gonna have some really, really sound advice for marketing leaders like the executives. I’m gonna, I’m gonna stay within, uh. Individual contributors and, and managers. ’cause I think everyone has a slightly different takeaway, but for the every marketer listening, uh, I, I think you definitely need to, I, I love the elevator pitch.

[00:25:38] Patty Parobek: Take a stab at, uh, your own elevator pitch. What are the skills that you have, the experiences that you have, apart from the tasks that you do. And reflect on what might be next for you in, in adding value to your organization, your industry, the things that you care about. Um, if you are looking to have a resource to help guide you through that.

[00:26:09] Patty Parobek: I think we mentioned the McKinsey 2025 AI State of AI report, world Economic Forum were really helpful. But also Google Gemini Career Dreamer is really good at helping you reflect and, and think through that too. Um, so have that ready. I think that the. The, we didn’t say this, but hopefully that this is kind of just understood at this point.

[00:26:35] Patty Parobek: If you haven’t started upskilling and reskilling yourself towards AI literacy and data literacy and AI fundamentals, that was a given a year ago, so. You, uh, you need to do that. And if you need s resources for that, check out the Mod Op blog, Mod Op website. And we have our own, but also, you know, point to various that, that we love and trust.

[00:27:01] Patty Parobek: Um, that is going to be a necessary skill for a hundred percent of everyone, uh, especially marketing. So do that and think through, uh, next step skill development in to.

[00:27:17] Tessa Burg: Yeah, I love that. And then I think, yes, for, for marketing leaders, if I am sitting and I’m thinking about, um, all right, I have to reduce these roles.

[00:27:27] Tessa Burg: These are duplicate roles. I have to drive efficiency, I have to increase and improve margin. I have to meet my revenue goals and throw on top of that, I need to de-risk. And doing automation also introduces a lot of risk using AI. Um, introduces a lot of risk. So what do I need to do? I would say that consistency beats out quantity every time, and you need to have shared goals, shared actual, measurable metrics with more than just, uh, your team.

[00:28:10] Tessa Burg: So. Roles, if individual roles are becoming more director level. I’m directing how agents do the work and we’re, we’re accepting that as truth. I am focusing my energy on continuously solving problems. What, what are the consistent frameworks that are being used in your organization that cut across, uh, research, design, execution, delivery, and measurement.

[00:28:36] Tessa Burg: And at organizations, that means that. Sales and marketing and product roles are merging. There will be new roles, but the most important thing first is to start with what is that process gonna look like? And then underneath it, what are the kind of new roles that will need? And then from there, map into, so who needs to develop these skills to fulfill these specific roles?

[00:29:07] Tessa Burg: What I have seen is that companies, instead of going through that process first select a technology, you know?

[00:29:15] Patty Parobek: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:29:16] Tessa Burg: They’re like, we’re gonna go ahead. And what we’re seeing right now, because companies are jumping to will select a technology. SaaS companies, technology companies are leaning into professional services and they’re saying, well, we’ll bring the people to help you stand up our technology.

[00:29:33] Tessa Burg: And I would just caution that before you do that. Get really intentional. Again, what’s the experience you’re gonna deliver? Break down the silos. Leaders in technology and product and marketing and in sales need to come together and look at that journey, their client journeys, their partner journeys across the entire ecosystem, across their business, and then in the ecosystem.

[00:30:00] Tessa Burg: And there will be new roles that go across these divisions and, and I think. We’ve talked about breaking down silos for so long, but if you are not the person who’s going to do it, then you will be the person who is displaced. So yeah, that, that’s my, I think one of the, the biggest takeaways, and two, a lot of things I keep mentioning, again, are coming from the book a degree.

[00:30:27] Tessa Burg: So if you have not reread the book, I know you’ve probably read it before, and this seems like a very simple. Um, suggestion, but great leaders who are growth-minded never stop learning, always want to be a part of defining and designing what’s possible. I always tend to get those moments of inspiration or connect the dots really quickly from learning from and hearing from other great leaders.

[00:30:58] Tessa Burg: And I, I think that that. You know, that paired with what, um, you would get in Leaders Eat Last, like the Simon Sinek book. I think for me, spark moments of inspiration, I think could for a lot of other leaders too, when we, we right now need to have that roadmap and plan for how our brands and our companies will differentiate, thrive, and grow.

[00:31:19] Tessa Burg: Um, made up of the right kinds of people in the right kinds of seats in 2026.

[00:31:28] Patty Parobek: Well said.

[00:31:29] Tessa Burg: Oh, thanks. Uh, we’ve hit all of the points in our conversation guide. So we’ve talked about, you know, our initial reaction to this layoff. We’ve talked about what does this mean for marketing advertising overall, and the truths that we have to, um, accept. We’ve given some advice on the different types of skills people can start looking at, where they can start to connect the, the dots.

[00:31:52] Tessa Burg: Being accountable for being a leader at any level of the company and where to start to like take this step back. And I know it’s so hard because we’re, it’s the end of the year. There’s a lot of pressure to meet our numbers, but we have to balance this, how much time we work in the business to work, working on the business.

[00:32:12] Tessa Burg: Patty, before we close out. Is there anything else you want to add or resources you wanna give to, um, our clients and to our fellow Mod Opers?

[00:32:26] Patty Parobek: I think another, another thing that I’m really. Hoping that marketing, marketing leaders do and realize, and I love the thought of, you know, start with the goals, start with the vision, understand the strategy, and then understand, well, what roles do I need then to meet the strategy. The new roles that we’re creating can be filled by the people in the seats of the roles that are going away.

[00:32:50] Patty Parobek: So I, I just want to ensure that, that we’re all. Doing, uh, our due diligence in surveying transferable skills. That everyone has. If you are a content marketing today, content marketer today, and you have a team of content marketers, all of those content marketers and especially the best ones are going to be amazing.

[00:33:21] Patty Parobek: Next level insight translators for business decisions. Today’s media planners can be tomorrow’s amazing. Algorithm supervisors, there are so many transferable skills in your organization today, so don’t feel like you always have to look out and starting that journey of surveying and doing strategic assessments against your own staff is going to unlock so many new potential opportunities for you.

[00:33:54] Tessa Burg: Yeah, I agree. I mean, we just yesterday posted seven jobs and they’re all roles that we currently don’t have today and that have never existed inside a marketing advertising industry. And the jobs are for those roles that go across departments, that go across discipline and uh, for me, are really responding to what.

[00:34:21] Tessa Burg: We’re fairly confident is going to happen next year, and so I’m gonna leave some folks with a few predictions that we have for next year that I are really unlocking, uh, these new roles. One, we zero party data and creating value exchanges with your customer is going to be your performance engine. So when you start to think about how are we gonna learn more about how our customers discover us, change up that experience all the way through to engagement, that requires different skills, UX/UI people who don’t just know how to do great UX/UI, but also have the ability to use data, data analysis and no-code, low-code skills to quickly test prototype.

[00:35:09] Tessa Burg: Reiterate or iterate upon, um, different types of experiences and you, you need, that’s a new role that will be really important. Next year is not okay. We have a ton of data and we all know we need a data strategy and we all have to architect it, but what are the new value exchanges? To get more continuous feedback loops so that you are able to fuel your performance engine.

[00:35:36] Tessa Burg: Another prediction is customer obsession. I think this past year we’re seeing with all the economic pressure and the pressure to work faster, better, smarter is step why. What value have you really delivered to your end customer? Have you measured it? And if you haven’t, then now is the time to hire and roles that can measure where you’re driving value.

[00:35:57] Tessa Burg: Because how you deliver your value is going to change. It might not be at the point of sale. It might not be on your e-commerce website. If you really look at where your customer’s, uh, challenges are in finding, engaging and buying from you, you are going to be able to circle some opportunities that are going to allow you to deliver in different ways and you that will unveil new roles that you’ll need to fulfill that delivery.

[00:36:24] Tessa Burg: Um, the other piece is partnerships. And we see this a lot in CPG, where you have consumer product goods partnering with different types of retailers. But there is going to be an explosion of the need to partner in different ways so that you are where your customer. Is in the moment that your brand is delivering that value.

[00:36:46] Tessa Burg: So I think revisiting, uh, and looking at roles that not just negotiate business development and partnerships and on the B2B side channel marketing, but are bringing that product and data mindset to bear so that you’re able to standardize that value creation, value delivery. And combine it with the new expectation of personalization.

[00:37:07] Tessa Burg: So yes, I have this framework, yes, I have this process, but do they have the skills to know where personalization delivers the value? So those are a few of the big, um, opportunities. The last prediction that we have is, or the, that I have shouldn’t say. While I, there’s always the super ‘we’s’ personal opinion that I think, Patty, you share.

[00:37:28] Tessa Burg: I don’t think colleges and universities are gonna be able to keep up. With the types of skills that, and that are needed for these new roles. And I think that’s a massive opportunity for businesses because the rate of change and the technology shifts and the economic shifts are happening faster. And one of the things that you know, we’re exploring is what does reinvigorating the entry level management training program look like?

[00:37:54] Tessa Burg: We need people for these roles, uh, and these roles need to. Are tied to de-risking and growth, you know, a lot on the de-risking. So that’s a whole new skill set and I don’t think a lot of marketers have ever really had to spend too much time in risk compliance governance. What does that mean? Um, but a lot of new roles are gonna emerge in that space as well as in these new ways to create and generate value.

[00:38:27] Tessa Burg: So, you know. People learning on the job is gonna look really different. The types of roles we need to hire them for are really different and, um, I, I, you know, I look at like some of our best employees today and even our own experiences and came up through management training programs and, and there’s an opportunity to reinvigorate and reimagine what that can look like for the next generation.

[00:38:54] Tessa Burg: And it will very much benefit companies that do it well.

[00:39:02] Tessa Burg: So that’s our episode, Patty and I. This is like, obviously we had lots of thoughts and lots of reactions to this massive shift in the advertising and marketing space, and we wanted to do this to help others who might be kind of swimming in their thoughts, give you some tips on organizing. Um, give you some things to think about and to take back to your teams and start to reimagine your own role and reimagine the value that your company can start to create for your partners, customers, and clients.

[00:39:38] Tessa Burg: So Patty, thank you so much for joining us.

[00:39:41] Patty Parobek: Thank you for having me, as always, Tessa.

[00:39:44] Tessa Burg: And if you wanna hear more episodes of Leader Generation, you can find them at modop.com. That’s modop.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. Just search Leader Generation. And until next time, have a great December.