Challenge For my current company, I am in charge of Customer Experience for the Asia region and a large part of my activities are dedicated to Digital Acquisition of New Customers. The project I was aiming to launch was about harmonizing our ways of running Search Engine Advertising campaigns across Asia. As of today, within the Asia region, there are 4 subsidiaries that run Adwords campaigns with 4 different budget lines and 4 adwords accounts. This means duplicating the agency costs by the number of countries, managing the campaigns in silos and not benefiting from each other learning to optimize campaigns. This results in an average performance of the current campaigns. The challenge that I am facing is that I do have the authority to impose such a project to all the different countries. Therefore, I have to convince each Managing Director to create a common budget for those campaigns and work with a regional agency that will execute the campaigns on our behalf based on each country's business strategy.

Selection Storytelling I have chosen Storytelling. Storytelling is a very powerful tool that I feel I underutilized so far. The main exercise here was to convince the Managing Directors that are controlling both their team and their budget lines to loosen their grip and to take a leap of faith by changing our way of working with a common agency. Even though the budget was small as a start, they needed reassurance, they needed arguments to go into that direction.

Application So I have decided to look into each country's performance in order to have a What is statement. I also had to measure the current local team level. This enables me to illustrate with laiman words but fair words the current picture of the situation. In a nutshell, our performance could be better if our team would be supported by an agency. I tried to paint the “rainbow” with my knowledge and the first answers to the tender I launched with agencies. I tried to embark my Managing Directors on a journey, where growth and strategy were at stake and not anymore execution, optimisation and reporting. This would mean more time for the team to think, observe, record, assess and adjust. I tried as much as possible to project them for them to imagine the what if. But with no success. The business language I was using was too far from their own one. They could not understand the real benefit and would be overprotective about their team and their budget.

Insight: First key learning, a lot of ideas have to fail before one will be picked up and succeed. Then, it is important to have the right stakeholders convinced. If not, there is no point. You will always run into the wall. I should not have been so confident about my project and that everyone would adhere to it. For me, I thought it was a no-brainer and did not pay as much attention as I should have in working on my talk track and creating the whole story about it. On the contrary, I built up the defensive attitude within the MDs who thought I was here to destroy their organisation. This ended up in my project to be paused until further notice

Approach: I would completely change my approach, if I would be able to redo this project. First, I would start small by convincing one supportive country to join the project with the intention to share small wins with other countries. I would have used the learning launch tool to collect and record data. This would have enabled me to confidently build my library of pros and helped to craft a strong storytelling for other countries which were much more reluctant to join. Eventually, the convincing part of the MDs would have been less of a burden and hurdle and this would have completely put the project in a different sphere. Less of an obligation and more of an opportunity of doing business differently.


Challenge For my current company , I am in charge of Customer Experience for the Asia region and a large part of my activities are dedicated to Digital Acquisition of New Customers . The project I was aiming to launch was about harmonizing our ways of running Search Engine Advertising campaigns across Asia . As of today , within the Asia region , there are 4 subsidiaries that run Adwords campaigns with 4 different budget lines and 4 adwords accounts . This means duplicating the agency costs by the number of countries , managing the campaigns in silos and not benefiting from each other learning to optimize campaigns . This results in an average performance of the current campaigns . The challenge that I am facing is that I do have the authority to impose such a project to all the different countries . Therefore , I have to convince each Managing Director to create a common budget for those campaigns and work with a regional agency that will execute the campaigns on our behalf based on each country 's business strategy . Selection Storytelling I have chosen Storytelling . Storytelling is a very powerful tool that I feel I underutilized so far . The main exercise here was to convince the Managing Directors that are controlling both their team and their budget lines to loosen their grip and to take a leap of faith by changing our way of working with a common agency . Even though the budget was small as a start , they needed reassurance , they needed arguments to go into that direction . Application So I have decided to look into each country 's performance in order to have a What is statement . I also had to measure the current local team level . This enables me to illustrate with laiman words but fair words the current picture of the situation . In a nutshell , our performance could be better if our team would be supported by an agency . I tried to paint the “ rainbow ” with my knowledge and the first answers to the tender I launched with agencies . I tried to embark my Managing Directors on a journey , where growth and strategy were at stake and not anymore execution , optimisation and reporting . This would mean more time for the team to think , observe , record , assess and adjust . I tried as much as possible to project them for them to imagine the what if . But with no success . The business language I was using was too far from their own one . They could not understand the real benefit and would be overprotective about their team and their budget . Insight : First key learning , a lot of ideas have to fail before one will be picked up and succeed . Then , it is important to have the right stakeholders convinced . If not , there is no point . You will always run into the wall . I should not have been so confident about my project and that everyone would adhere to it . For me , I thought it was a no - brainer and did not pay as much attention as I should have in working on my talk track and creating the whole story about it . On the contrary , I built up the defensive attitude within the MDs who thought I was here to destroy their organisation . This ended up in my project to be paused until further notice Approach : I would completely change my approach , if I would be able to redo this project . First , I would start small by convincing one supportive country to join the project with the intention to share small wins with other countries . I would have used the learning launch tool to collect and record data . This would have enabled me to confidently build my library of pros and helped to craft a strong storytelling for other countries which were much more reluctant to join . Eventually , the convincing part of the MDs would have been less of a burden and hurdle and this would have completely put the project in a different sphere . Less of an obligation and more of an opportunity of doing business differently .