Marketing Leadership Programme

You will explore forces that could substantially change the industry landscape (e.g. Artificial intelligence, financial illiteracy, ageing population). Your emerging expertise will provide the foundations on which to build your profile and credibility. You will be part of a community learning with and from other leading industry marketers. All of which will give you the confidence to unleash your true potential.

There is also a strong social element to QU enabling you to meet with like-minded people at similar career stages to share experiences and common challenges.

More than ever, now is the time for marketers to stand up and become key drivers of business strategy formation and delivery. The marketing landscape is changing at an unprecedented speed. With ever increasing data sources at our disposal, marketers can truly become the voice of the customer at main board level.

But achieving this goal will not be easy. Marketing is still undervalued in many sectors. When developing this programme, we interviewed dozens of marketing leaders.

Overview

The Leadership programme is designed to build individual profile, skills & confidence in senior marketers aiming for the c-suite, providing development across technical skills, soft skills, and strategic perspectives in an exclusive group. It is a six-day programme spread over six months.

Objective

The goal - to become a recognised, respected thought-leader.

Suitability

Typically for marketers with at least 8-10 years’ management experience, it will provide technical and soft skills and strategic perspectives for those looking to progress in their leadership role. As well as developing strategic and ‘soft’ skills, the Leadership programme provides an inspiring environment for forward-thinking marketers to build their personal profiles.

Format

The programme consists of three, two-day sessions. Each day is focused on a core topic, offering insights and debate from industry experts and other leading marketers.

Leadership

In addition to the programme portfolio, we also have the informal aspect, the network, consisting of a combination of online resource and live events. The online resource comprises of podcasts, videos and a wealth of useful material to help you keep up to date with the latest trends in marketing. We host monthly Expert Speaker Series where guest speakers both from the investment industry and from general marketing backgrounds give insights into the latest thinking in those marketing techniques and specialist areas.

There is also a very strong social element to the network, more specifically, networking. We realised that there was a lack of opportunity for marketers at similar stages of their careers to share experiences and share challenges. This is best exemplified by the post leadership group, where a cohort who had recently completed the leadership program realised that they wanted to maintain that dynamic. We have created a post leadership group, a bi-monthly gathering, where we bring in specialist speakers to facilitate a discussion and start to explore a particular issue that one or more of them may have and use the group's expertise and knowledge.

Programme Components

The programme consists of three, two-day sessions. Each day is focused on a core topic, offering insights and debate from industry experts and other leading marketers.

Contemporary Challenges

Exploration of the macro trends and issues. Building marketing credibility by being a thought leader on these wider issues, beyond the marketing department.

Data/Digital Marketing

Understand the impact of data and digital transformation/ and its influence on every aspect of the marketing function’s contribution.

Strategic Leadership

Exploration of the strategic drivers for business leaders including how to create a culture of innovation, of idea generation as well as the ability to adapt to change.

Commercial Acumen

How to read financial statements, prove marketing ROI and use the ‘language of the boardroom’ to communicate effectively with hard-nosed financiers.

Strategic Marketing Planning

How to devise compelling strategic marketing plans, to elevate the marketing function as well as develop your own profile.

Impact & Influence

Develop the tools, strategies, and confidence for influencing and creating an impact at board level.

What's Included:

White Paper Assignment

You will be encouraged to research a major trend that could fundamentally change the industry landscape. Your analysis of this trend will provide the foundation for a white paper. Former candidates have presented their assignments to senior management and industry events, written blogs, and even created podcasts.

Whilst the assignment isn’t mandatory, to maximise your return on investment in the programme, you are actively encouraged to take on the challenge. You should treat the assignment as the starting point of the next phase of your career, rather than your destination.

There is also a graduation ceremony at the end of the programme to celebrate your successful completion of the programme.

Ongoing Support

Taking on the assignment challenge takes courage. You will be exploring new ideas and concepts in a voyage of discovery. It is almost inevitable that you will be overwhelmed by the array of new ideas and opportunities presented to you.

You will not be left in isolation. You will receive regular support through 1:1 coaching and feedback to guide you and support you through your journey.

Workbooks

At each session you will receive a topic-specific workbook. These workbooks provide you clarity and structure and a consistent place to keep notes and ideas. The workbooks also contain useful resources and provide a convenient aide-memoire during and after the programme.

Accountability Groups

We also encourage you to form ‘Accountability Groups’ with other candidates on the programme. During this process you will regularly ‘check-in’ with your peers to provide mutual support, advice, and inspiration.

Alumni Mastermind Group – the Marketing Leaders Forum

During your six months on the programme, many candidates find they have formed some very strong bonds with other members of the group. To maintain that dynamic, you will have the opportunity to join an alumni group. Every two months you will meet for a morning to use the group’s combined expertise to help resolve each other’s’ marketing challenges.

Key Benefits

If you were to Google yourselves in 3 years’ time, what would you like to see? ‘What do you really want to be known for?’

Senior marketers are usually so busy, they rarely have time to take that ‘helicopter view’ and really think about bigger strategic issues.

Having time away from the distractions of the office to focus on learning, sharing, and developing key leadership skills is invaluable both to your personal development and the value you offer your employer.

Focused

You will learn from and be mentored by leading marketing experts. You will learn how to transfer best practice from other industry sectors.

You will be sharing experiences and best practice with like-minded marketers who understand and empathise. Very quickly this mutual understanding forms strong bonds and lasting professional friendships.

The programme doesn’t finish at graduation. The alumni group continues to function and provide support if you need it. Gathering every two months, you will have the opportunity to tap into the combined experise of your peers on a regular basis.

Exclusive

Limited to maximum of just 12 candidates per intake, you will be part of an exclusive group. This means you will be an integral part of a senior peer group exchanging views on strategy, disruption, regulation, and leadership.

Limited numbers also ensure the ideal learning dynamic. You will not be lectured at or spoken down to. You will have the time to explore key issues in depth. You will learn key marketing concepts, explore them further in fun, dynamic activities and then reflect on how you can apply this learning to your role.

Practical

Although there is an assignment, this is designed to be used in the real world. Ultimately, you will create the basis of a ‘White Paper’ on your chosen industry challenge that in turn will inform a strategic plan for a C-Suite presentation. You will start to ‘own’ a key strategic issue.

You will be achieving much more than just voicing a subjective opinion. Your assignment will be robust, well- argued and based on substantiated evidence.

Many previous candidates have presented their assignments to senior management teams, immediately enhancing their reputations. They have then progressed to present at industry events, in turn building their personal brands.

The Leadership Programme is designed to help ambitious marketers like you to unleash your true potential. Throughout the intensive 6-months, you will be guided and supported to build your profile and credibility.

PR Smith

PR Smith is an international speaker, integrated digital marketer, author (6 books in 8 languages) and founder of SOSTAC® Planning system, voted in the Top 3 business models worldwide by the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s Centenary Poll and now adopted by innovative companies like LinkedIn, KPMG, Greenpeace and disruptive start-ups. He has just launched the SOSTAC® Certified Planners online portal where visitors learn to write the perfect plan in 4 minutes (video). Paul also founded the Great Sportsmanship Programme www.GreatSportsmanship.org an inspirational NFP edutainment programme which inspires a new generation of global citizens from Dubai to Dublin through short stories about sportsmanship.

Charlie Walter

During the past 14 years’ Charlie has worked as a trainer/coach/facilitator, delivering programmes on 4 continents, from trainee level, right through to senior board-level coaching interventions. Working for several training companies, his client types have varied from Financial Institutions, Investment Management Organisations, Investment Banks, Sovereign Wealth Funds, Project Managers, Technology and Telecoms organisations, Construction, Infrastructure, the Military, Government bodies, and even a Gaming Company!

Quentin Crowe

Quentin established and built training businesses to help accelerate the careers of marketers at different stages of their development. Quentin focuses on marketers at critical career cross-roads including promotion, redundancy, ‘glass ceilings’, returning from maternity leave. Quentin also maintains his current marketing credentials as a consultant specialising in customer experience (CX) research, brand proposition and operational alignment. He has worked with a diverse range of clients including construction, quality assurance, education and IT sectors. His more unusual international experiences include designing and delivering programmes in Switzerland, Vietnam, Albania, Bulgaria and Nigeria.

“I gained so much from the Leadership course. The content was highly relevant to my role and my industry. The pace and format of the course facilitated in-depth discussions on a broad range of topics as well as providing ample opportunity for interactive learning. The network I developed through the course continues to be a resource for insights and best practices as well as friendships! I have already taken the tools and knowledge I received and applied them directly to my day-to-day work as well as providing a platform for career development. I would highly recommend the course to investment marketing leaders looking to advance their career, develop their skillset and deepen their network.”

Kenna Roberts, T Rowe Price

“The Leadership course was challenging, confidence building and commercially oriented. It was packed with high quality, practical, personal and professional development tools and ideas. The course has given me the confidence and belief to help me take my marketing career to the next level, a more strategic mindset and a practical assessment completed to take back into the business. I particularly enjoyed spending the day learning from world renowned marketing guru and author, PR Smith. I also met a dynamic network and community of like-minded senior marketing peers. The best marketing course I have attended in the last 20 years!”

Andrew Ward, St. James’s Place Wealth Management

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