Turning Complexity Into Alignment, Execution, and Measurable Outcomes

CONTEXT

B2B and B2C marketer’s reliance on mass-media simplicity was giving way to fragmented audiences, proliferating channels, and early digital touchpoints. Holding-company consolidation increased coordination costs while raising expectations for scale, efficiency, and profitability. Advertisers demanded integrated plans, defensible investment decisions, and measurable outcomes. Effective marketing required operating discipline - clear priorities, cross-functional alignment, and fast feedback - in order to adapt messaging and spend as conditions shifted, while making accountability visible as work passed through the various stakeholders.

Mandate + Scope

Started in an agency-wide training program spanning core advertising disciplines at DDB Needham Worldwide; advanced into planning/supervisory roles - owning strategy, investment choices, and delivery quality while managing $60M+ and leading a two-person team. Later launched an independent consulting practice, partnering with agencies ranging from global networks to NYC boutiques (McCann Erickson, True North/FCB, Gotham Inc.) on existing client work and new-business pitches. Clients included Volkswagen, Michelin, Amtrak, Samsung, AT&T, Campbell Soup Company, Toshiba, NYC MTA, and Comedy Central.

Solutions

Translated objectives into prioritized plans, clear audience/segment definitions, and investment logic that leaders could defend. Built a practical framework - briefs, timelines, checkpoints, clear accountability and ownership - to align stakeholders and remove bottlenecks. For new-business pitches, ran rapid market and competitive analysis, shaped positioning and storylines, and orchestrated cross-discipline teams into integrated plans with roles, proof points, and measurement expectations. Created and shared timely feedback with these teams to refine plans as needed.

IMPACT

Repeatable routines replaced ad-hoc decisions. Clearer priorities, trade-offs, and ownership improved alignment across teams. A steady checkpoint cadence surfaced issues early and reduced redundancies. Simple reporting and routine reviews linked investment choices to measurable outcomes. In new-business pitches, the same disciplines sharpened differentiation and delivery plans - helping agencies win work and grow incremental revenue faster with less friction.

Relevance To Today

I built my strategy-to-execution toolkit: creating clarity amid ambiguity, designing practical operating systems, and driving alignment across stakeholders with different incentives and working styles. New-business work sharpened my ability to quickly learn unfamiliar industries, test assumptions, and craft differentiated positioning under tight timelines. My formal marketing training - less common in the industry then - helped me connect creative craft to commercial objectives and measurement. These experiences remain foundational to how I lead cross-functional growth and delivery.