Alicia Tillman, Global CMO, SAP

James Kotecki of C Space Studio speaks with Alicia Tillman, Global CMO, SAP.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, I'm James Kotechi. You're listening to the C Space
Studio podcast interviews with technology, media and marketing leaders from CS. Hi,
I'm James Kotech and you're joining me in the C
Space Studio from CS alongside Alicia Tillman, the global CMO

(00:22):
of s A P. Thank you so much for joining me.
Thanks for having me today. So we're at the Consumer
Electronics Show. I think of SAP as a business brand.
So for those watching and everybody at home, just explain
what SAP is. Sure, So, SAP is the largest enterprise
technology company in the world. Um, we have four hundred
and eighty thousand customers, a hundred thousand employees, we operate

(00:43):
across a hundred and eighty countries and UM. You know,
I like to describe s a P as we create
technology for companies to help them run at their best. Um.
Everything from technology to help support the human resources team, marketing,
sale operations, finance, procurement, accounting. UM. Really is you know,

(01:05):
the the lifeblood of a company. SAP is there to
support all of the operations to help build intelligent enterprises. So,
as an enterprise brand, what are you up to here
at the Consumer Electronics show. Well, UM, you know you've
said consumer a couple of times, and you're right. I mean,
what does it B two B brand want to do
at a consumer based show? And you know, I think
there's been so much evolution in terms of how buying

(01:28):
decisions are made in companies today. So there may be
still a person who signs a contract for enterprise technology,
but the influence into that decision has changed and grown
exponentially over the past few years. UM. Scent of the
world's transactions touch SAP software in some way. So people

(01:50):
who are interested in buying or influencing the buying decisions
of SAP technology are here, and so that means we
need to be here as well. UM. So this week,
I mean it's it's this is my first c E
S it's been yes, thank you. UM. I've been in
the CMO role for two and a half years now
and trying to figure out what's the best way to

(02:11):
have SAP show up here. When I think about next year, UM,
I think being a part of the dialogue and also
one of the things that we're focused tremendously on is
delivering technology to help support and enhance the customer experience,
which when we're operating and living in an experience economy.
That's a big deal. And so how we can think

(02:31):
about showing up next year UM to help support the
c E S experience is something that I'm thinking about.
Can you give me an example of how you support
that customer experience? Yeah, So historically, when we think about
data that we've had access to UM for the past
ten years, that's about as long as as we've had
access to the data that we have access to today.

(02:52):
It's primarily been operational based data. Data that's derived from
the transaction. So when you transact with a brand or
a product to company UM, that brings you a certain
set of data and it's often UM you know, shows
you how you went through that transaction, shows what feedback
was in that transaction. And the challenge with that data

(03:12):
is you're only providing that data back to companies after
a customer has already experienced your brand, and today it's
often too late. There's so many choices that consumers have,
so if they're unhappy with one customer experience with a brand,
they're okay because they have a lot of other choices
that they can go to. We now have this new

(03:33):
form of data. It's called Experience Management Data UM, and
this experience data allows you to understand the needs and feelings,
wants and needs, desires, opportunities customers consumers are trying to
solve for before they interact with your products. So instead
of having to make the changes to the product post transaction,
being able to get closer UM, whether it be servying

(03:56):
data or social sentiment into information. We take all these
data sources together on a single platform to allow companies
to begin to shape products that meets your expectations, so
that we're not trying to change things post transaction. We're
actually shaping it for you in advance so that it's
exactly what you want. And are there certain contexts when

(04:17):
that can happen even in real time? If it's the
texts that I'm having about experience, then something else can
happen and come in and save the day for me. Yeah,
I mean, and that's that's what companies have the ability
to do now. So a lot of times, and you know,
we hear this discussion often in forums is we don't
have access, we don't have the means, we don't know
how to react. And you know, we have countless examples

(04:37):
at a company level where UM, there could be something
that happens. If you think about your airline experience, and
we have lots of airlines that that use SAP qualtric services. UM,
you're flying out somewhere, you have a bad experience, the
company understands that coming back, we can change that experience
for you more to your liking. So we're moving to
this period where real time changes need to happen and

(04:59):
day ETA and the way companies take action from that.
They have the ability to do that now and that's
really exciting. Speaking to the global CMO of s A
P Alicia Tilman, I know AI is huge for you.
Can you give us a peek into what the AI
roadmap looks like as we look into kind of the
things that you're on the cutting edge of almost being
able to do and that you might be able to
say that you can do next year if we talk again. Yeah.

(05:22):
So artificial intelligence, UM, you know it. It gives us
the ability to really take action with incredible announced amounts
of unstructured data sets UM to be able to make
an experience more efficient, more effective. So I'll give you
an example, UM. In our HR product practice, one of
the things that is often a challenge when it comes

(05:43):
to recruiting candidates for roles is there's a lot of
bias in the recruiting process. The way job descriptions are
written often um have a lot of bias UM. Some
would know that, some wouldn't, but it does. It's often
highly criticized, and the way people write resumes it reveals
certain things about them and all this is largely unconscious.
I imagine it's unconscious bias UM, but it exists and

(06:05):
it prevents often the best candidates from getting the rules.
We now have this ability by deploying artificial intelligence into
the recruiting process. This is just one example. By being
able to remove certain keywords, certain ways you're positioning elements
about the job that can create that unconscious bias so
that truly the person who should be getting the job

(06:27):
gets the job. These are beautiful ways when we think
about artificial intelligence and the positive impact it can have
on things that really matter to us as human beings.
And that's just one of them. So I'm fascinated by
how marketers position AI to the broader marketplace because there's
so much hype in this space. There's so many ways
of thinking about do you personify AI in some way

(06:48):
to give people a better understanding of what it means.
Do you think of it in human terms? Do you
expressly not to give it in human terms? Walking through
some of the decision making that you make as a
marketer when you're looking at trying to position yourself realistically
in the midst of all this type, Well, the first
thing that we do is how do consumers feel about
AI technology UM in general? And there's a lot of anxiety.

(07:10):
There's a lot of anxiety about what it's going to replace.
Is it going to take my job away? UM? That's
a lot of what we hear, and so we study
that first and foremost to really help to inform our
positioning UM. And if you were to take that very
bit on anxiety first, one of the things that we're
very clear about at SAP, and we're a technology company,
we're very clear that technology is not going to ever

(07:32):
replace the human being UM. The beauty of any technology
that's created, and that goes with artificial intelligence as well,
it has to be informed by the vision of a
human being UM. And so when we think about how
to position that's one of the things that we are
always very very clear about is artificial intelligence as one
form of modern technology can help augment and support you

(07:57):
gaining greater efficiencies and we all want that. We all
want to kind of move away from things that feel
too busy for us or taking away from our ability
to be creative or think about new revenue streams for
our business, which is really what gets us out of
bed in the morning. And if we can think about
how can some of these more modern technologies help to

(08:17):
replace that aspect of it to make me better as
a human and the value that I'm delivering in life
or to the company I work for. That's what we
focus on in terms of our positioning from a marketing standpoint.
And is that a kind of principled line of the
stand that you're drawing because you think that's important to
draw as one of the most influential companies in this space.
Or do you think there's something fundamental about technology just

(08:40):
based on the technology just physically will not be able
to replicate some things that humans do. It's a fabulous question,
and I will say it's both. Um technology does not
have emotion, Maybe one day there will be a time
in a place where there's going to be a heart
and soul in technology. But that is not the role

(09:01):
of technology. That's the role of us. I mean, we've
got to bring that human empathy. We have to bring
that emotion, we have to bring that feeling, we have
to instruct, we have to build, we have to execute
that piece of technology to be able to make things
faster and more efficient for us. UM, that's a reality. UM.

(09:22):
And I also think it is the line in the
sand that we have to be actively communicating because it's
the truth. You have a ton of data about how
businesses work. Does that shape the way you think about
the role of the CMO generally and kind of where
that role is going. Yeah, I mean, look, I think, um,
there's no better place in the world to work than marketing.

(09:43):
Of course, I'm going to say that as a twenty
year marketer. UM. I think if you take advantage of
these new forms of data, these new technologies, you can
be a leading voice for customers within your organization. And
that is an indispensable asset for any company. And so

(10:03):
you know my call from marketers, especially if the role
or your existence is being question, look at what you
have to take advantage of when you think of what
is at the top or near the top of the
agenda of CEOs of any company of any size around
the world. It's how do I improve the overall customer

(10:25):
experience that my brand delivers. Marketers have a front seat
position to be able to inform that by representing the
voice of the customer and taking that data and that
voice and using it to shape the product and the
overall experience. And so I think it's a beautiful place
and a beautiful time for marketers as long as you
can see the possibilities and you take advantage of them.

(10:46):
Showcasing why Forbes calls you one of the most influential
cemos in the world. I believe you're on that list right. Yes,
one last question fill in the blank, will be the
year of stop focusing on things? Is that don't matter
or aren't going to make a difference. I can't say
it any better than that, Felicia tell me in Global CMO.
Thank you so much, Thank you very much for joining,

(11:08):
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