The Modern Retail Podcast

Companies have to be more than buildings -- they have to stand for something. It’s a tall order, especially if you sell products like toothpaste or deodorant. On this week’s episode of Starting Out, Anheuser-Busch U.S. CMO Marcel Marcondes discusses his mission to make it happen. 

Richard Edelman, president and CEO of Edelman, inherited the family business from his father 40 years ago. Since then, he has expanded the company to 29 different countries, while remaining independent and family-held. Edelman discusses growth, challenges and marketing challenges in this episode of Starting Out: Cannes Edition.

Adapt or die. It’s something most business say they practice but rarely do. An exception is Tracy Wong, the founder of Wongdoody, a 25-year-old creative agency whose acquisition by Indian IT and consulting giant Infosys was announced in April. On this episode, he discusses changing models, being irrelevant, democratic cultures and more.

In the year of the pivot to reality, marketers are rethinking their reliance on agencies and relationships with platforms. The General Data Protection Regulation has forced companies to reconsider business approaches, but good businesses are resilient. Antonio Lucio, HP's chief marketing officer, prizes resilience. On this episode of Starting Out, Lucio discusses championing diversity, the role of marketing in driving the business and more.

As managing director of Wieden+Kennedy, Neal Arthur is an independent spirit who grew up as the only black kid in his California neighborhood. At Wieden and Kennedy, his independence found a home. On today’s episode, Arthur talks about stumbling into advertising, and how the independence at Wieden+Kennedy fuels tough creative decisions.

Andrew McKechnie is the chief creative officer at Verizon, where he’s building the company’s in-house agency, 140. McKechnie, who last served as global group creative director at Apple, spent years on the agency side, which he says left him frustrated and more convinced than ever that the agency model as it stands is careening toward irrelevance. On this episode of Starting Out, McKechnie discusses his path to the industry, the problem with ego in advertising and the future of agencies.

PJ Pereira is the founder and creative chairman of Pereira & O'Dell. He also wrote a trilogy of West African myths. On this episode of Starting Out, Pereira discusses how writing helps maintain his business and creative acumen, and he talks about the pressure he felt to assimilate into America.

Nancy Reyes is the managing director of TBWA\Chiat\Day in New York. Reyes grew up in Long Island City in New York amid rundown houses and warehouses. Her mother was a housekeeper, and her father drove taxis. On this episode of Starting Out, Reyes discusses her path to becoming a leader who values working for everything in life.

Mark Tutssel is the executive chairman at Leo Burnett. Early on, he learned to watch people to understand them and the value of their attention. On this episode of Starting Out, Tutssel talks about the cruel yet kind decision of an agency executive in Bristol, England, that led him to London and a lesson he learned in a cab. 

Christian Juhl is the global CEO at Essence. Juhl, who majored in political science in college, sees modern work as being inherently political -- from running a company to building consensus and avoiding factions. On this episode of Starting Out, he discusses how he went from beginning his career during the dot-com bust to landing at a scrappy office at Essence.