ICCG Fortune 1000 CXO Interview Panel: Tina Lai Liedtky, Global Vice President, Marketing & Product Development at Alere

We are proud to present ICCG Close-Up, sponsored by RoundWorld Solutions. ICCG Close-Up is a Fortune 1000 CXO Interview Panel Series that focuses on Governance, Big Data, Supply Chain Analytics, Enterprise Mobility, and Portfolio Management – where C-Level executives share their views on their main areas of priority, the challenges associated with those areas, and their future plans to address those challenges.

ICCG (Industry Council for Competitiveness and Globalization) is a 501C (6) non-profit organization with a network of CXOs/professionals dedicated to identifying, sharing, and establishing strategies to compete in a global economy. ICCG’s objectives include cultivating communications and networking opportunities amongst its members, defining and establishing best practices and ethical standards, and creating & maintaining a link between business leaders and devising global strategies. These objectives are accomplished through events, presentations, roundtables, focus groups, and committees organized and sponsored by ICCG. One of ICCG’s missions is to serve underrepresented communities and the people who live within those communities. The ICCG network accomplishes this mission by leveraging its relationships and network to help build better local business ecosystems, ensure future local job growth, and create local internship opportunities.

As part of these ongoing initiatives, The Industry Council for Competitiveness and Globalization (ICCG) hereby releases the Fortune 1000 CXO Interview Panel with expert knowledge on Global Marketing and Product Development by Tina Lai Liedtky, Global Vice President, Marketing & Product Development at Alere, Inc.

This CXO video interview features panelist, Tina Lai Liedtky of Alere, and addresses issues surrounding the effect of technology on global marketing and product development. When asked about her role and how it relates to both technological and business prerogatives, Tina Lai Liedtky states, “Alere is a leading global rapid diagnostic device company. Every year, we deliver over a billion of these tests to customers in over 100 countries. The motto we have at Alere is the idea that knowing now matters, meaning that having immediate and actionable information can better improve clinical and economic outcomes.” When asked how modern marketers are using technology to achieve business goals, Tina Lai Liedtky further explains, “I think that the overarching challenge that we have in healthcare today, whether you are a clinician, an administrator, or a marketer like myself, is how to deliver higher quality at lower costs. What that means for us as marketers is that you need to very clearly describe and articulate the value proposition of our products and services to our customers. We need to make them understand why it is that if they take our solution, they will end up w/better outcomes over time.

So, what we are seeing in my space is the use of systems and data to empirically show that fact. And by showing that, you can lower re-admission rates in hospitals, you can lower the length of stay in hospitals, or improve on other performance metrics, all of this over time, translates into lower costs for the healthcare system, or for society in general. There are a lot of companies and platforms out there. I think the ones that are most useful are the ones that can allow you to target your intended audience quickly and will allow you to see the progress over time that you might have. For example, within an awareness campaign, you can see easily how many impressions you are making and how many of those actually turn into leads, and if you can dovetail that data into a software solution, you can see how many of those leads then actually turns into sales.”

San Diego – ICCG hosts the Fortune 1000 CXO Knowledge Video Vault Program which serves a broad audience of C-Suite office bearers and professionals for sharing the innovative and collective knowledge related to IoT (Internet of Things), Big Data, mainly in the context of Big Data Governance, Big Data Security, Big Data Visualization, and Big Data Mobility in various domains, including Healthcare, Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Finance, and Retail.

“Our Fortune 1000 CXOs have a unique platform to share, promote, and exchange best practices in many domains of knowledge that is transferable and adaptable, so that the CXOs learn from each other and not have to reinvent the wheel,” says Ajay Sarkar, who heads ICCG (iccgusa.org) along with Roundworld Solutions(www.roundworldsolutions.com). At the heart of the ICCG (ICCGUSA.org) Fortune 1000 CXO Video Vault is the library of CXO wisdom on various topics from Big Data to Data Governance in various industry verticals such as Healthcare, Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Finance, and Retail. These short and informative videos incorporate a global perspective with local flavor and focus.

When asked about how her priorities have been influenced by technology and if her pricing improvement initiative at Alere resulted from data or if it resulted from a strategic discussion, Ms. Lai Liedtky explains, “That is a really great question and it was a little bit of both. So, it was a strategic discussion because I think everyone has an awareness that we need to improve our pricing. The problem that we faced is that we don’t have the right systems in place to allow us to analyze the data that we have. It’s really difficult to do something if we can’t measure it. One of the things that we realized is that we need better systems. Alere certainly is a fantastic company and has grown over the years through many acquisitions. Usually what happens in this sort of situation is that you get a lot of sites with different legacy systems and it’s difficult to harmonize those systems. It takes a lot of manpower, time, and effort in order to do so. One of the things that we need to do is to put the infrastructure in place so we can get the data and be able to analyze it.

We all live in a global economy and must learn to collaborate with those who have different business and cultural norms. When asked how she has successfully navigated global environments to achieve business goals, Ms. Lai Liedtky discusses, “I think one of the most important things you can do when you work for a global organization is to try not to be ethnocentric. So, you need to realize and acknowledge that the way that people do business and what their cultural norms are could be very different in the way you do things and what your cultural norms are. There is no one size fits all. The way you do things may not be the best solution for everyone. You need to put yourself in your colleagues’ and your customers’ shoes. Think about what is common and what is different. And, try to adapt to their way of doing things so you can speak a common language rather than try to make them adapt to the way you do things. I think you will find that when you do this, people will be much more responsive to you, and will begin to trust you, and will follow along with what you are trying to achieve much more readily. What I try to do as well is to really instill this kind of thinking with my team. I also find that what helps is to meet people and work in person. While today, you have this great technology that allows us to work virtually together, there is nothing like meeting someone in person. Meeting that individual in person, shaking their hand, and having a side conversation with that person, will really go a long way in terms of advancing your working relationship and your understanding of each other. If you need to get on an 18 hour flight to meet someone, then consider doing it because it is usually very appreciated and it will go really far!”

RoundWorld Solutions is a global IT Consulting and Execution Firm with a ‘Best in Class’ proven track record with a global delivery model. Headquartered in beautiful San Diego County, California, with a global reach, RoundWorld Solutions provides IT consulting services, BPO services, software development services, and staff augmentation, which are always customized to cater to the needs of each and individual client. Whether your organization is in Healthcare, Life Sciences, Retail, Manufacturing, or Finance, RoundWorld Solutions has the expertise to assist you in meeting urgent deadlines, support special projects, or even the creation of new development teams. RoundWorld Solutions is a leader in IT Consulting within the arena of Big Data — specifically in Big Data Visualization, Big Data Governance, Big Data Security, Big Data Mobility, and Big Data – Social Media.

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To get involved in the Fortune 1000 CXO video vault project or share your CXO knowledge, please visit our ICCG Fortune 1000 CXO Panel page, where you can learn about our interviewees, and see more interviews like this.