The Marketer's Journey Ep #97: How NetApp Reinvented Itself with A Netflix Like Experience w/ James Whitemore
Feb 25, 2022
29:21
On this episode of The Marketer’s Journey, I interview James Whitemore, EVP and CMO at NetApp. During the episode, we discuss sales and marketing alignment, the benefits of maintaining a startup mentality even as a 30-year-old company, and the importance of staying authentic.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer’s Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!Key takeaways from this episode:
- Embrace a startup mentality. During his career, James has spent over a decade running startups. He says these experiences have imbued him with several applicable skills, teaching him the importance of taking a data-driven approach, staying agile and understanding the test-learn-iterate cycle. Even if you’re not working in a startup environment, this mentality can be applied in any role to ensure continuous improvement.
- Pick your battles. James emphasized the importance of compartmentalizing to focus on your top priorities, especially in a leadership role. In other words, pick your battles, and don’t disrupt something that’s working just for the sake of disruption.
- Manage expectations. As someone who has bounced around various sales and marketing roles throughout his career, James has learned the value of an upfront communication style and setting expectations within a team setting from the get-go. This philosophy has ultimately served him well at the leadership level as he builds a team founded on trust and inclusivity.