S4 Episode 13: Stephanie Buscemi from Confluent on the future of real-time data and marketing

06/11/22 • 40 min

If you had the chance to speak with the former CMO of Salesforce about the future of Marketing what would you ask them? I had the chance to do just that on this episode of the Actionable Futurist Podcast, speaking with Stephanie Bushcemi who is currently the CMO of Confluent.
She was previously EVP and CMO of Salesforce and held the same role at IHS Markit, and also spent a number of years at SAP heading their Marketing functions.
We recorded the episode live at the Kafka Summit in London and spoke about a range of topics related to Confluent, and the platform Kafka that came out of LinkedIn, as well as hearing her thoughts on where marketing and events are headed in 2022 and beyond.
Stephanie is a strong advocate for real-time data, especially when it comes to marketing campaigns.

She was previously EVP and CMO of Salesforce, and held the same role at IHS Markit, and also spent a number of years at SAP heading their Marketing functions.

Prior to SAP, Stephanie was at Hyperion, acquired by Oracle, where she spent nearly a decade, in various marketing leadership positions building the performance management category and Hyperion's presence within.

An example used at the Kafka summit we were both attending was:
“When you cross the road you prefer to use real-time data to make a decision that the road is clear or would you use data that is 5 minutes old?”

We discussed a broad range of topics including:

How Confluent came out of LinkedIn
The birth of Project Kafka
The need for real-time streaming data
The role of Confluent
Data in Motion is the future
Why Stephanie became a Marketer
Stephanie's experience as Salesforce CMO
Why Stephanie moved from Salesforce to Confluent
The similarities between Confluent and Salesforce as category creators
Working on the Confluent IPO
Tips for writing an IPO S1
Advice for companies considering an IPO
Does going public change how you go to market?
The importance of open data
How do you build a business on free, open-source software?
Adapting to marketing in a post-pandemic world
The need for marketers to be more data-savvy
Getting out of the 4 walls of marketing
What "customer 360" really is
The value of communities
The importance of influencers and advocacy in B2B marketing
What the future of marketing looks like
The likely mix between virtual and in-person selling
Lessons learned as a Manager during the pandemic
Three actionable tips for marketing in 2022 and beyond

Resources mentioned in the show
Educated by Tara Westover

More on Stephanie
Stephanie on LinkedIn
Confluence website

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She was previously EVP and CMO of Salesforce, and held the same role at IHS Markit, and also spent a number of years at SAP heading their Marketing functions.

We discussed a broad range of topics including:

How Confluent came out of LinkedIn
The birth of Project Kafka
The need for real-time streaming data
The role of Confluent
Data in Motion is the future
Why Stephanie became a Marketer
Stephanie's experience as Salesforce CMO
Why Stephanie moved from Salesforce to Confluent
The similarities between Confluent and Salesforce as category creators
Working on the Confluent IPO
Tips for writing an IPO S1
Advice for companies considering an IPO
Does going public change how you go to market?
The importance of open data
How do you build a business on free, open-source software?
Adapting to marketing in a post-pandemic world
The need for marketers to be more data-savvy
Getting out of the 4 walls of marketing
What "customer 360" really is
The value of communities
The importance of influencers and advocacy in B2B marketing
What the future of marketing looks like
The likely mix between virtual and in-person selling
Lessons learned as a Manager during the pandemic
Three actionable tips for marketing in 2022 and beyond

Resources mentioned in the show
Educated by Tara Westover

More on Stephanie
Stephanie on LinkedIn
Confluence website

Previous Episode

S4 Episode 12: Charlotte Gregson from Malt on the role of expert freelance platforms

For many the interim model of working is not new, where senior, experienced staff are brought into a firm before a permanent role is filled. With work moving towards a more distributed model, and access to talent being widened beyond the city centres, will a hybrid workforce model, utilising freelance and permanent staff emerge?
To answer this question and more, I spoke with Charlotte Gregson, PhD the Country Head UK of Malt, a marketplace for independent management consultants and industry experts.

Charlotte is a former consultant with a career that didn’t take a conventional path. After an academic career culminating with a PhD in Chemistry at Imperial College, her mind for molecules exposed a love for leadership after a stint in healthcare consulting.

When she moved to consultancy Eden McCallum to build independent consultant teams, Charlotte began to recognise the potential the professional gig economy could bring for companies and their employees.

We discussed a range of topics to do with the hybrid working model including:

What does COMATCH do?
How COMATCH compares to Fiverr and Upwork
How traditional consulting firms are embracing experienced freelancers
How does a talent on-demand platform work?
What sort of experts and consultants use COMATCH
What's the future for "Exec" Gig Workers?
Is "The Great Resignation" real?
Managing the consulting "bench"
Tips for working with a distributed workforce
Emerging tools to help distributed teams
Using COMATCH StyleMatch technology to match consultants to jobs
Using AI to match clients with consultants
Are clients developing a self-service mindset to source talent?
How COMATCH drives innovation
A view of the freelance world in 12-24 months
Challenges of being a tech leader
The impact of the freelance model on traditional consulting firms
Attracting quality freelancers to the COMATCH platform
The rise of the "The Third place"
The COMATCH business model
The differences across international markets
The resistance to adopting a hybrid workforce model
The need for talent transformation
Advice for companies looking to integrate freelance talent into key roles
Dealing with issues around due diligence, IP, security and confidentiality
The future of flexible working?
3 actionable things to consider when setting a hybrid workforce strategy

Resources mentioned in the show
Miro whiteboard
Padlett whiteboard

More on Charlotte
Charlotte on LinkedIn
COMATCH website

Next Episode

S4 Episode 14: Heather Kernahan from Hotwire PR on the future of PR and communications

Public relations is no longer just about sending press releases - increasingly PR has become integrated with sales and marketing functions and relies upon practitioners having a solid grasp of data.
To find out more about the future of PR and communications, I spoke with Heather Kernahan, the Global CEO of Communications company Hotwire.
Heather has spent her career immersed in technology and moved over to Hotwire from Eastwick Communications after its acquisition in 2016.

Prior to this, she was at Autodesk, where she focused on integrated brand communications and led the development of the company’s first sustainability report.

Heather says she “builds outrageously successful teams, companies and brands”, and is the author of an upcoming book UNSTUCKABLE, to be published in 2022.

We recorded this episode live and in person at Hotwire’s London office.
Hotwire has a concept called "Behaving famously" - which means purposely going out and making connections with people; It’s an expectation of everyone that works at Hotwire, no matter the role - you need to behave famously.
We discussed a number of topics related to communications and PR including:

How PR has changed during Heather's career
The most effective campaign over the last 12 months
How dynamic can communications be?
The need for data literacy in PR
The role of PR in revenue generation
Selling more "shirts and shoes"
Account-based Marketing (ABM)
PR reps as business people
The role of PR in remote selling
The importance of your digital first impression
Diversity and inclusion in modern communications practices
The Hotwire Into Tech initiative
Evolving the agency
Hotwire's team "Behaving famously"
Content that cuts through the noise
Coaching Executives around thought leadership
Are print and broadcast still important in the comms mix?
Meeting the needs of a 24-hour news cycle
Branded content opportunities
Heather's upcoming Book - "Unstuckable"
The one key message from the book
The importance of Podcasts in the PR mix
Using LinkedIn for promotion & recruitment
Lessons from the pandemic
The role of data in the PR company of the future
Quickfire round
3 Actionable tips for using communication in your business

Resources mentioned in the show
David Goggins: Can't Hurt me
Jane Wurwand: Skin in the game

More on Heather
Heather on LinkedIn
Heather on Twitter
Heather's Website
Hotwire Global website

Digitally Curious - S4 Episode 13: Stephanie Buscemi from Confluent on the future of real-time data and marketing

Transcript

Voiceover00:00:01.649

Welcome to the Actionable Futurist Podcast® a show all about the near term future with practical and actionable advice from a range of global experts to help you stay ahead of the curve. Every episode answers the question what's the future all with voices and opinions that need to be heard. Your host is international keynote speaker and The Actionable Futurist, Andrew Grill.

Andrew Grill00:00:30.140

My guest today