Morning Brew for Marketing Executives

About Morning Brew for Marketing Executives

Welcome to a podcast where senior B2B marketing leaders from globally recognized brands in complex industries share their stories and experiences of what it’s like to be a marketing leader. You’ll hear inspiring career journeys, leadership philosophies, and key learnings — so let’s dive into the world of marketing leadership! The podcast is produced by Mavenfirst.

Publisher

Mavenfirst

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

3 Mar 2025

Latest episode

11 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

16 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   11 Aug 2026

   16 Jaspreet Arora from TCS | How I lead my marketing function: From support function to strategic business partner

   Marketing in complex B2B is no longer just about running events or creating more content. But how do you build intimate, trust-led relationships in the Nordics when your global corporate engine moves at the scale of 600,000 employees? Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is one of the largest tech services companies in the world. With nearly 60 years in business and a presence in over 50 countries, they operate at a massive scale. Still, the TCS Nordic team takes strategic global goals and localizes them to match the specific market maturities, industry focuses, and cultural demands of Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark. In this episode, we’re happy to have Jaspreet Arora, Head of Marketing, Nordics at TCS, as our guest. Over her 17-year career at TCS spanning India, the UK, and now the Nordics, Jaspreet has seen marketing evolve from a traditional corporate support function into a true strategic advisor. She shares her insights on regional differences in marketing, there have been – from speed and scale to trust-led and collaborative approaches, and why successful B2B engagement in the Nordics relies on building trust, intimate roundtables, and relationship-led activities rather than mass outreach. Also, you’ll hear practical ways to navigate a matrix organization, how to manage dual reporting lines, and Jaspreet's best practices for communicating the value of marketing. Connect with Jaspreet on LinkedIn.  (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaarora/)

2. 

   12 May 2026

   15 Susanne Ejsted Isaksson | From marketing to growth: turning market insight into strategic choices and revenue

   “Spend less time discussing the value of marketing. Spend more time understanding how you can impact strategy and help execute it.” This perspective defines the leadership philosophy of Susanne Ejsted Isaksson. With experience from global companies like IBM and HPE, as well as Universal Robots, Susanne has worked with growth in complex, high-paced environments where clarity, not activity, determines progress. She argues that if you constantly need to defend marketing’s value, you are not sitting where the most important decisions are made. In this episode, we explore growth as a leadership discipline – and what it takes to turn market insight into strategic choices and revenue. Listen to more about: Alignment starts at the top: Why clarity between leadership, board and commercial teams is essential for growth From function to leadership: Why your role is to be an executive first, and use marketing as a lever – not a boundary Turning insight into action: How market, customer and competitor understanding shape strategic decisions Focus over activity: Why growth comes from making a few clear choices and aligning the organization behind them Susanne’s work focuses on helping leadership teams translate market insight into strategic choices and align the organization so the company can move faster than the market. Contact and follow Susanne on LinkedIn. (https://dk.linkedin.com/in/susanneejsted) Find out more about the podcast: https://www.mavenfirst.com/morning-brew-for-marketing-executives This is a podcast where senior B2B marketing leaders from globally recognized brands in complex industries share their stories and experiences of what it’s like to be a marketing leader.

3. 

   28 Apr 2026

   14 Katrin Marquardt from Kyndryl | How I lead my marketing function: How Kyndryl rebuilt its ABM engine to drive clarity, confidence, and commercial impact

   How do you move a massive $19 billion company – the world’s largest IT service provider – to a customer-centric strategy in just a few years? Katrin Marquardt, who leads Account-Based Marketing (ABM) for Financial Services and Insurances at Kyndryl in Germany, joins us to share their journey. Kyndryl, which spun off from IBM in 2021, instantly became a global enterprise with 75,000 employees and 4,000 IT service customers. Katrin is here to tell how they made ABM the main way to stabilize their market presence and build trust with their most important accounts. She also shares how to get full leadership commitment from the CEO and CMO to invest in ABM as a long-term strategy – and why that is crucial. If you're a B2B marketing leader looking to get inspired and learn more about aligning with stakeholders, this episode is food for thought. You’ll hear more about: How do you move marketing from a 'supporting function' to an equal partner at the account team table? What happens when a B2B company chooses ABM as its main strategy for growing its most important accounts? How a 60-person global ABM team uses AI tools like Account 360 and Stakeholder 360 to act as a "force multiplier"? What is the most important first step you need to get right to successfully start or scale your ABM program? Connect with Katrin on LinkedIn. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrin-marquardt)

4. 

   22 Dec 2025

   13 Behind the scenes | One year of podcasting: the stats, the strategy, and the learnings from 15 episodes

   Host Jani Hovila reflects on the first year of the Mavenfirst podcast, sharing insights into its strategic reasoning, subscriber data, production realities, and success measurements in this solo episode.

5. 

   11 Dec 2025

   12 Asbjørn Severin from Danelec | How I lead my marketing function towards commercial growth to unlock its full potential

   Asbjørn Severin, SVP of Marketing and Communications at Danelec, discusses transforming a traditional B2B marketing team into a strategic revenue engine by aligning marketing KPIs with commercial goals in this interview.

6. 

   2 Dec 2025

   11 Delfin Vassallo from Georg Fischer | How I lead my marketing department: where planning is important, plans less so, and where B2B doesn't mean boring 2 boring

   Delfin Vassallo, Global Head of Marketing Communications at Georg Fischer, shares insights on leading a marketing department, emphasizing planning, humor, video, and agile methodologies in B2B environments, in an interview.

7. 

   28 Oct 2025

   10 Matti Tiitinen from Valtra | How I lead my farmer-focused marketing and sales team at Valtra

   Matti Tiitinen, VP for Sales and Marketing at Valtra, discusses leading a farmer-focused marketing and sales team, emphasizing decentralized decision-making and prioritizing customer experience to drive value and sustain high retention rates in this interview.

8. 

   25 Sept 2025

   09 Viktor Wallström from Saab | Why you shouldn’t make your CEO the crisis manager

   Viktor Wallström, Saab's SVP, explores crisis management, advising against CEOs leading and emphasizing structure and practice for effective communication in this interview.

9. 

   12 Aug 2025

   08 Andrea Alter from Workday | How do you empower your team to embrace challenges and learn from mistakes? Discussion with Andrea

   Host Andrea Alter from Workday interviews marketing executives on empowering teams to embrace challenges and learn from mistakes.

10. 

    24 Jun 2025

    07 Helena Kappen from Microsoft | CMO’s perspective on AI

    Helena Kappen, Microsoft CMO, discusses AI's transformative power in B2B marketing and provides strategies for executives to leverage AI effectively, offering insights on AI's role as a transformational engine in this interview.

11. 

    4 Jun 2025

    06 Pia Posio from Glaston Corporation | A Marketing Director's perspective on change

    Pia Posio, VP of Communications, Marketing & IR at Glaston Corporation, shares her expertise on navigating organizational changes, managing stakeholders, and maintaining momentum through effective change management and communications in this interview.

12. 

    14 May 2025

    05 Matti Salakka from KPMG | What’s the role of marketing when every executive knows your brand?

    Let’s step inside the world of professional services marketing, a space where brand recognition is high, strong executive relationships matter, and knowledge is key. It’s a world where the lines between selling and consulting blur, and understanding the true value of marketing can be a unique challenge. Where does marketing fit when consultants are also driving sales? What happens if marketing stops? And can marketing truly be a competitive advantage in this space? In this episode, you can listen more about the role of marketing in a unique environment: a Big Four professional services firm. Our guest, Matti Salakka, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing Lead at KPMG, will share insights on marketing in a high brand awareness environment. Currently, he leads marketing at KPMG Finland, where he has been working for around six years. Prior to joining KPMG, he focused on the digital landscape within a technology company. In this episode, you will hear more about marketing and the importance of brand in professional services. Professional services firms are often seen as content powerhouses. You’ll hear more about whether this provides a unique advantage and how it translates to marketing success. When everyone has access to great content, how do you truly stand out?

13. 

    10 Apr 2025

    04 Bita Popovic from Trimble | The Engineering Mindset: Revolutionizing Customer Experience in B2B

    Who should own the customer experience within a company in a B2B complex industry? How do you measure its impact? How do you translate strategic vision into actionable, data-driven initiatives that drive real results? Why is marketing uniquely positioned to lead customer experience initiatives and drive organizational alignment? And where to start if you work in an industry where customer experience has not traditionally been a priority? Today, we discuss customer experience and retention with Bita Popovic from Trimble. As the Global Head of Customer Retention Marketing, Bita has a diverse background in customer success leadership, marketing, sales, and engineering. She shares her insights on the importance of breaking down traditional silos so that customer experience (CX) becomes a shared responsibility across the entire organization. In this episode, you’ll hear more about the evolution of customer experience: From buyer experience to the full customer journey, how to balance short-term and long-term goals, what is the cost of inaction, and what the future of customer retention looks like. Bita shares practical advice for marketing executives to implement immediately to improve their customer experience efforts. Connect with Bita on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/bita-popovic-0392ab8/).

14. 

    2 Apr 2025

    03 Sirpa Ikola from Schneider Electric | Sales and marketing as a spectrum of one – insights from an experienced former VP of Marketing and current business leader

    In this episode, we welcome Sirpa Ikola, a seasoned business leader with a global career in the telecom, consumer electronics, and energy industries. Currently, she is Vice President for Strategy and Development, and the Country Sales Director for Home and Distribution & Power Products at Schneider Electric Finland. With nearly 20 years in telecom at Ericsson, Nokia, and HTC, she has led international marketing and sales teams across Europe and Asia before transitioning to B2B marketing and leadership in the energy sector. In this episode, she shares her thoughts and learnings on how to succeed at the executive level and work with and in management teams. One key factor for success is adopting the mindset that sales and marketing are connected aspects of a single spectrum. Both functions need to work together to realize their synergy in both the short and long term. In this episode, you will also hear about Sirpa’s leadership philosophy and her perspective on the differences between leadership in B2C and B2B environments. Are there significant differences, or is leading simply leading? And what is good leadership? Additionally, Sirpa offers insights on how marketing leaders can navigate management teams, the challenges and opportunities they face at the executive level, and how to create a cohesive story that aligns with business value. Reach out Sirpa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sirpaikola/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sirpaikola/)

15. 

    3 Mar 2025

    02 Patrícia Namba from Atlas Copco | How do you succeed in decentralized marketing? Lessons from Patrícia

    This episode highlights a conversation with Patrícia Namba, Senior Global Marketing Communications Manager from Atlas Copco. With over 15 years of global experience in marketing, communications, and sustainability, she shares her thoughts on working in a decentralized company. Patrícia has an interesting and somewhat unconventional background for someone in marketing. She studied law before switching to communications and marketing. As she puts it, "That's the beauty of academics: We learn how to learn." This background has equipped her with strong analytical and strategic thinking skills, allowing her to analyze various perspectives and understand the bigger picture before making decisions. In this episode, Patrícia shares her insights on working in companies that operate in a decentralized manner. If someone were to start a new role in a decentralized company, what tips would she offer? Working in a decentralized company is all about collaboration – joining forces to drive better outcomes. But how can you ensure that global and local teams work together effectively rather than operate in silos? How can you take successful local marketing initiatives and scale them for global impact? You’ll hear more about the power of co-creation, collaboration, and scaling in decentralized marketing. Patrícia emphasizes the importance of working closely with customer-facing teams to achieve better outcomes. You’ll also hear how to balance structure and flexibility in decentralized marketing, and how to make global campaigns work across regions with vastly different team sizes and resources, why co-creation with local teams is essential, and what key lessons new marketing leaders in decentralized organizations should keep in mind. Connect with Patrícia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-namba/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-namba/) The links and resources mentioned in the episode: Gartner: https://www.gartner.com/en (https://www.gartner.com/en) Forrester: https://www.forrester.com/bold/ (https://www.forrester.com/bold/) B2B Insiders: https://open.spotify.com/show/5f59iqzShvJc7Hb7dMaiRP?si=7665188f7037416b (https://open.spotify.com/show/5f59iqzShvJc7Hb7dMaiRP?si=7665188f7037416b)

16. 

    3 Mar 2025

    01 Sandra Anderstedt from Sandvik | How do you make a 60-member ambassador program thrive in marketing?

    In this episode, we’re joined by a seasoned marketing and communication leader with nearly 20 years of experience in Sandvik, a global, stock-listed engineering company. As Vice President and Head of Marketing and Communications, and member of the business area segment management team at Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions, Sandra Anderstedt leads a global team with 8 employees. In this conversation, she shares insights on one of her favorite topics: setting and following up on goals and targets, as well as empowering team members by providing them with clear responsibilities and expectations. You will also learn about the organization's innovative ambassador program, which engages experts from across the company to contribute valuable insights into marketing. We discuss the strategy behind this program, including its structure, the factors that encouraged voluntary participation, and how it continues to provide value. Additionally, you'll discover more about Sandra's interesting background and her successful approach to leading the marketing and communication team. What is Sandra's leadership philosophy? What has motivated her to remain with the same organization for nearly 20 years? How does she handle ad hoc requests while guiding her team in managing their workload? Get in touch with Sandra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandra-anderstedt/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandra-anderstedt/) The links and resources mentioned in the episode: The Eisenhower Matrix: https://www.eisenhower.me/eisenhower-matrix/ (https://www.eisenhower.me/eisenhower-matrix/)

Who has been a guest on Morning Brew for Marketing Executives

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Asbjørn Severin
• Delfin Vassallo
• Matti Tiitinen
• Viktor Wallström
• Helena Kappen

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

822

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Spotify

5.0 / 5

10 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 38 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

51

Social presence

0

YouTube

64

Engagement

0

Contact Morning Brew for Marketing Executives

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.