2008 Summit
Featured Presenters
Check back with us as we add presenters from top CAB programs.
Customer Engagement Strategies to Drive Loyalty and Business Growth
by Heidi Lorenzen, Vice President, Corporate and International Marketing, Interwoven
Heidi inherited an Interwoven CAB program which wasn't providing
meaningful value to the company's strategy or overall marketing
efforts. Heidi's team redefined and overhauled the global
membership, created a programmatic approach toward continual
engagement with fresh interactive meeting approaches, and
effectively integrated the program into Interwoven's innovation and
strategy process as well as other key input programs such as
Executive Summits, and their user conference. Heidi will share her
experiences and practices in aligning her executive team, integrating
the CAB into the strategy and innovation process, and applying
unique, high value interactions with other customer programs.
For more about Heidi, please click here.
Case Study: How Cisco Built a Scalable Global CAB Program
by Nicole Siegal, Operations & Events Marketing/CMO, Cisco
Six years ago, Nicole was charged by Cisco's Chief Marketing Officer to rationalize the firm's many autonomous Customer Advisory Boards into an organized global program.
Today, the program Nicole built has over 30 CABs worldwide, consisting primarily of Cisco's highest revenue-generating customers and partners. Nicole and her team reduced CAB program costs by millions of dollars and took control of global CAB strategy. Nicole will share her lessons learned on such topics as:
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For more about Nicole, please click here.
Case Study: How Wells Fargo Attracts and Leverages its CAC Members
by Jeff Tinker, Senior Vice President, Wells Fargo Bank
Well's Fargo Customer Advisory Council (CAC) program is as innovative as you'd expect from a famously customer-centric firm that's a favorite of investor Warren Buffett. Jeff will show how the firm's program has evolved from one CAC in 2004 to 10 today, how it has expanded from marquee customers to mid-market and most recently into the SMB (small and medium business) market, and how he and his team have recognized and leveraged the opportunities encountered with each group.
You'll Learn:
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For more about Jeff, please click here.
How Intel's Enterprise Board of Advisors Keeps the Conversation Going
by Rhett Livengood, Director of Enterprise Customer Programs, Intel Corporation
Rhett will show how Intel keeps its Enterprise Board of Advisors (EBOA) talking throughout the year. It's not an easy task. EBOA members are all busy C-level executives of Fortune 500 customers - its tough enough to get them to meet once a year. One of the most effective tools Rhett and his team use is to facilitate user groups on topics (such as security and data management) selected by the EBOA members at the yearly meeting. Such is the enthusiasm for the subsequent monthly virtual meetings, that EBOA members recruit members of their staffs to participate, hand picked for their expertise in the particular topic under discussion. Rhett's team then distributes the results to EBOA members via video podcast.
Rhett will also show how its CAB and EBOA programs fit into the larger picture of Customer Programs at Intel. "We are taking our entire array of Customer Programs online. Whether it involves Customer References, Customer Loyalty, Customer Communities, and yes, our CAB and EBOA programs - we're moving the discussion from a 1-way communication to a 2-way conversation." And he'll describe how many ideas he and his team gained from the 2007 CAB Exchange Summit dramatically improved the last EBOA meeting in October. The result: attendees gave it an average rating of 4.1 out of 5, followed by immediate funding by Intel management for the next EBOA.
For more about Rhett, please click here.
Case Study: How SAS Builds C-Level CABs
by Phebe Walsh, Program Manager, Office of the CTO, SAS Institute
Often compared to Southwest Airlines for its ability to develop a loyal customer following, SAS has developed a remarkably dynamic C-level CAB program. Phebe will show how SAS gets an 85% acceptance rate among the CIOs and CTOs it invites to join its CABs, how to develop a successful agenda for a C-level CAB meeting, how she works with Product Managers to ensure they deliver successful presentations, and how she and her team are extending the C-level CAB concept to EMEA and AsiaPac with all the cultural challenges that presents.
For more about Phebe, please
click here.
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How Adobe Recruits Prime Customers for its CABs
by Michelle Knight, Group Manager, WW Customer Programs, Adobe Systems
Far from ignoring or even obstructing CAB recruitment, Adobe sales people vie to
place their customers onto Adobe CABs. And Adobe senior management is delighted
with the quality of prime customers who agree to serve on its CABs and attend CAB
meetings. Michelle will show how her program has achieved these important goals.
Important keys to her success are the total view of the customer she has developed,
a well thought out process for attracting and involving sales in the CAB recruitment
process, and a superior customer value proposition.
For more about Michelle, please
click here.
Panel: An Executive's Perspective on CABs and Other Customer Input Programs
facilitated by Sean Geehan, Founder, Geehan Advisory Boards
Customer Advisory Boards – indeed, Customer Programs in general – are moving “upstream” in many firms, seeking to move beyond user groups and engage the customer’s business leaders. Naturally, these leaders want to interact with your firm’s senior executive, creating significant demands on their time. That makes it essential for these programs to articulate clear objectives, prove their value, and integrate with other related programs to ensure long term success. Sean Geehan, a respected thought leader in this space, will lead a lively panel discussion that will provide attendees with an “executive's eye view” on what it takes to meet these goals. The panel will include the VPs of Marketing from Amdocs and Interwoven.
You'll Learn:
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For more about Sean, please click here.
Getting Started, Getting Better Track: How iCrossing is Building its CAB Program
by Evan Klein, Senior Director of Client Satisfaction, iCrossing
Started just 10 years ago as a search engine marketing firm, iCrossing
today has 550 employees and 13 offices worldwide, along with a highly customer centric management team. Evan will show how his team has built
iCrossing's CAB program in the last year, and how it fits into the firm's efforts to inject strong customer behaviors into the firm. In particular, he'll
describe the CABs his team has developed, what their roles are in the firm, outline reasonable goals to establish for a new CAB program, share
what he's learned in organizing and running CAB meetings, and reveal lessons learned and major pitfalls to avoid along the way.
For more about Evan, please
click here.
A Structured Approach to Uncovering Customer Needs
by Jeff Baker, Consultant – Innovation & Growth Strategy, Strategyn
This presentation goes to the heart of a CAB’s purpose: to uncover actionable customer needs. Every firm talks about the importance of doing so, but very few have a systematic, research-based process that can get the job done. Too often, efforts to uncover customer needs result in either amorphous, non-actionable information that lacks coherence, or too much data that product developers or strategists can’t make sense of.
Jeff will present a highly respected, structured approach that can be applied in CAB meetings and post-meeting interactions with customers, and used to improve product development and innovation, strategic initiatives, marketing, and business operations. “Anything,” says Jeff, “that impacts how well you’re meeting customer needs, or customers’ perception of how you’re doing so.” Jeff will show, for example, how Microsoft more than doubled renewals by its WW Licensing Group customers, using this process. [Jeff, can you provide a couple more B2B examples?] Known informally as understanding what “job” the customer is trying to get done, it’s been published in Harvard Business Review (“The Customer Centered Innovation Map,” HBR, May 2008) and touted by mega-business guru Clayton Christensen.
For more about Jeff, please click here.
Peer Exchange Workshops: Experienced CAB Pros Exchange Ideas and Best Practices
led by Mike Gospe, Partner, KickStart Alliance
In this two hour track, experienced CAB practitioners will gather for intensive, facilitated brainstorming sessions that will address the most important challenges facing CAB programs today. (There will be a separate track for newer CAB programs). Mike will organize and lead the roundtable discussions, which will address specific issues identified by a pre-event survey. These peer exchange sessions lie at the heart of the CAB Exchange Summit philosophy: that the best insights for building and running CAB programs come from the CAB community as a whole, rather than any single practitioner or expert.
For more about Mike, please
click here.
Case Study: How PAETEC Scales its CAB Program to Provide Deep Market Intelligence
by Brian Benjamin, VP, Strategic Customer Advisory Boards, PAETEC
Brian will present a mind-expanding view of the role a CAB program can play. Most CABs gather in-depth information from a few well selected customers. PAETEC'S CEO developed a CAB program that gathers in-depth information from entire markets. Today the firm has more than 800 of its customers participating in more than 40 active boards – supported by sophisticated processes to develop, capture and put to use a wealth of market intelligence. This intelligence drives business strategy, product development and customer service processes at PAETEC, and positions the CAB program as a central player in the firm's business. By generating such powerful information, the program receives substantial support from Senior Executives, who in turn provide active support that keeps the program dynamic and relevant.
An additional benefit to such an expanded CAB program: PAETEC customers who participate in its CABs provide Net Promoter Scores that are two to three times higher than other customers do. Given the large number of customers who participate in its CABs, this results in substantial increases in the firm's profitability.
For more about Brian, please
click here.
Results and Key Insights From the 2008 CAB Programs Survey
led by Noël Adams, President, Phase Forward
Noël will present results of the first comprehensive survey of Customer Advisory Board programs, including analysis that will be furnished exclusively to attendees at the July Summit. You’ll learn how other CAB programs organize their CAB programs, how much budget they control, how they recruit customers, how they plan and conduct meetings, how they ensure follow-up, how they utilize executive sponsors, and more.
For more about Noël, please click here.