Omer Waysman (Michelin) | Trust at 70 Miles Per Hour - Tires, Dining, and 24 Hours of Le Mans

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But somewhere between that moment and the register, the moment the signal gets lost, you cannot see what actually drove the sale. You are making optimization decisions on inference, not truth. Well, that changed in February. Infilion acquired Catalina. Four decades of deterministic purchase intelligence. 130 million US households, 70 retail banners. $600 billion in verified annual consumer spending. And here is what really matters. Over 90% of consumable purchases still happen in store. Infilion and Catalina together can close the loop from digital advertising to in lane purchase and incentivize the next one. This is not a measurement tool you consult after the campaign. This is a live signal that runs through your media while the campaign is in flight. You can now optimize from attention to action in real time against people whose actual purchase behavior you know. A consumer products brand needs return on ad spending. It needs foot traffic. Infilion now delivers all of it. Not as separate vendors. You reconcile later as one connected platform. That is what closing the gap looks like. I spent years at Procter and Gamble trying to answer that question. We had the creative, we had the reach, we had campaigns that genuinely stop people. And then we watched that value quietly disappear somewhere between the moment of engagement and the proof of a business result. That gap between attention and action is where most media budgets go to die, and most digital media platforms have been content to live inside it, just a little upstream from accountability. Infilion is the company that decided to close it. They started as the original attention company, built on the idea that a consumer choosing to engage with an ad is worth more than one who ignores it. But they did not stop there. They have built the infrastructure to Connect the moment of attention to the proof of action across every screen, every format, every vertical. That is not a feature. That is a fundamentally different idea of what an ad platform should be. And it is the one brands have been waiting for. Learn more in the show Notes what's the first brand you remember as a young boy making an impact on you as a young boy? It was Nintendo. I was a gamer, definitely, and I think that they managed to have exactly this balance between the historical mascot heritage from Nintendo and to bring innovation with their device, with the services, etc. And I see a lot of similarities in terms of connection to the Michelin brand and how connected you can be from day one to your later stage in your life to the Michelin brand. Because great experiences and that's what Nintendo created for me. Hi, I'm Jim Stengel. I've helped hundreds of major brands discover and activate their purpose. Because when a brand's purpose is clear, compelling and authentic, profit naturally follows. Each week I welcome the CMOs, the chief marketing officers of your favorite brands, to speak to how their job is so much more than marketing. These leaders share their inspiration and challenges along with how they try to build a full, healthy and happy life in and out of the office. And it's that energy that reaches everyone they touch. And we're glad you're here to feel that energy and to learn from these remarkable leaders. So here we go. This week we're hitting the road, literally, as I welcome Omer Waisman, vice president of B2C marketing for North America at Michelin. Founded way back in 1889 in France, Michelin has grown into a $30 billion by Revenue Global company. While the brand Michelin is the company's largest business, it sports a diverse portfolio including BFGoodrich, Uniroyal, and of course, the Michelin Guide. Beyond that, Michelin leverages its material sciences capability in fields such as aeronautics, healthcare and construction. My guest, Omer, was born and educated in France. He's been with Michelin for nearly four years where he leads marketing, brand strategy and go to market execution. Previously, Omer had senior leadership roles at Danone and Microsoft, where he led global e commerce and digital growth initiatives across markets and channels. Omer is a graduate of the Sorbonne and HEC Paris, earning a Master's in management. One of the many things that drew me to Omer's story is his experience leading marketing in a category where consumers may only make a purchase every three to five years. That's a fascinating challenge for any marketer. How do you stay relevant Build trust and create long term loyalty in a low frequency category. We'll talk a lot about that and a lot more, including how old the Michelin man is. Here's my conversation with a Frenchman who feels perfectly at home in Greenville, South Carolina, which is the North America headquarters of Michelin. Here's Omer Omair. Welcome to the CMO podcast. Finally, you've been at Michelin about four years, living and working in Greenville, South Carolina. And you moved there from Paris, correct? Correct, Jim, Correct. Okay. And you're in Paris for this interview, correct? I am, I am. So first of all, thanks for having me, Jim. It was not easy. We had to postpone it a couple of times. But I'm glad that I'm able actually to have some time with you. And I am in rainy Paris at the moment. Nothing surprising, to be honest. Well, you're there at the beginning of the World cup, before the Le Mans race, before the Cannes Festival, so you're in a good place, I have to say. No, that's fair. That's fair. And also after Paris St Germain won the Champions League for the second time in a row. So that's very true. It's a good place to start, I would say, this summer. And France is pretty much favored for the World cup, wouldn't you say? The odds are pretty good. You know, Jim, I don't like being favorite. I know the feeling. But I think that we have a pretty good team, I would say with Spain and Argentina, probably those three might go to the end and we'll see. If I was, if I was right in a few months when people, we might listen to the podcast. Are you going to the race this weekend, Le Mans? Unfortunately, I will not be able to go. I've been here. But you know, I'm coming back once a year. And so that's a very precious time that I have to spend some time with families and friends. And so I will not be in Le Mans. I was actually in Daytona this year for the IMSA race. And that's kind of the kickoff of the season, both, you know, the international one and obviously the North American one. And I don't know if you had the opportunity to go to one of those races, Jim, but the Daytona 24 in Palm beach, that's a very engaging race. And for the first time that, that was where we launched a new, a new tire line, the pilot endurance range. Sport endurance range. And that's for the first time we have a tire line that is specific, dedicated for Motorsport, but it's 50% made from recyclable and renewable material. 50%. Now, Michelin was the first brand to provide that commitment, and we managed with this new tire line to be the first, obviously, to have a motorsport tire line that is 50% made from recyclable and renewable material. But it's still just a step because we want to have 100% of our tire line by 2050 that will be made by recyclable and renewable materials. So it's a long race, but I think that we are definitely very, very proud of this new tire line that we launched. Well, we'll talk more about that in a moment, but I want to get back to your move from Paris to Greenville, South Carolina. I've heard you in another interview call this change in lifestyle, quote, outstanding. You were married with two children. So talk more about. I mean, Paris is not a bad city to live in. So talk about why this change is so outstanding for you and your family. That's an interesting question, Jim. It's always easier for me to talk about Michelin than to talk about myself, but I'll try to do my best. We'll get to Michelin. Don't worry. Okay? No, I'll try to do my best here. Look, I've been living for Paris most of my life, and Paris is obviously a very crowded city. And you have plenty to do, plenty of restaurants, you have plenty of culture, museum, etc. And it's a very stressful life, okay? Traffic is, is a mess. It's a stressful, I would say, city like New York City. At the end of the day, when you move to Greenville, South Carolina, you start to enjoy, I would say, some very specific moment of your life where you can spend more qualitative time with your kids. I'll give you a quick example, Jim. In France, I was coming back home around 6:37pm, 7:30pm and so I was seeing my kids probably for like 10, 15 minutes. Now coming back home between 5 and 6, I have the pleasure to have dinner with my kids and my wife. So even if obviously you are a bit tired after the day, but still you have this opportunity to exchange. How was your day, by the way? I stopped asking how was your day? Because we never get an answer. So now I have a different trick. I don't know if it's working or not, but a little bit better. I'm asking both of my kids what was the best moment of your day? And so they try to reflect on that. And so I got a few. Sometimes I don't get any but sometimes I do get actually what was the best moment of their day. And I find it very engaging. And so I think that that's a shift. The second one is I love the South. People are so. So welcoming, so nice. And I would not say that Parisians are not, but a little bit different. It's different. A different nice. I agree it's a different nice. But people are so nice in the south that you feel welcome from the first day. And, you know, it's different as well, because in France, you can argue with someone, you know, very loudly, etc. And the next day you can be best friend. And so it's a different type of culture that you need to adjust because there are some topics that you can bring directly. Some of them you need to wait to get, I would say, the right level of intimacy and proximity with the person. And I think that the moment that. There's two moments for me that really struck me in the past 24 months. The first time was when we got invited by, I would say, American people to their house. That was kind of a win. We say, okay, that's the first step. We got into the house, and it shows that there's some proximity, that you can develop a relationship. And the second one is a few months ago, and I shared it with my team as well. We were having dinner at the dinner table, and my son say, bro. And I looked at him and I say, I'm sorry. And he said, bro. I say, okay, I think you're bilingual now. That's fine. We're good. Have you developed any new habits or rituals or hobbies since being in the US for four years? I mean, did you pick up anything hiking or bicycling or. So we've been exploring the US in the past 24 months pretty heavily. The family, because the American culture is so rich. And so having the possibility to go to North Carolina and then the next day to Yellowstone, and then the next day to be able to go to Vegas or to New Orleans and then to go to the Everglades has been outstanding. Outstanding. And my kids are still young, so they will. I hope they will. They will. They will remember that in a few years. And for me, having this displeasure of discovering different culture even by state, you know, at the end of the day, you know, the US Is so big. Texas is bigger than, I think, France and a couple of other European countries. And driving long time know, we. We've been not used to that. So We've been driving eight, nine, 10 hours in the US while in France, we would probably not do that. Yeah. Yeah. And so that was one second. One that I pretty enjoy is that finally I can watch NBA because of the time difference. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So I don't need to wait, you know, for the summary in the morning when I wake up. So that's, that's pretty enjoyable. And, and I obviously I've been, I've been watching the, the finals as well now between the Knicks and the spurs. So that discovering that and, and last but not least, I think that the parks we've been to, to Yellowstone a few weeks ago. Amazing. Outstanding. The beauty of the, of the country is speechless. Speechless. Yeah. You have to get your Yosemite too in California also. Mindboggling. That's on the bucket list for, for next year because I need my, my little son to be slightly older because otherwise it will be like more struggling than anything else. Yeah. Now, you were working for Danone before moving to Michelin. Tell us the story of how you connected with Michelin, because I think it seems to be going exceptionally well. I heard you say that Michelin was basically love at first sight. So tell us about the connection and what was it about them that was so magnetic for you? So first of all, I was not looking to leave Danone. Danone is a fantastic company. I enjoyed my time there and I was very happy there. And then, you know, out of curiosity, you just accept the first call and then the first call went well. You have a connection that is different. You have a human connection. You don't feel that it's an interview. You feel. It's almost a discussion like the one that we are having now, Jim. It's not about what can I achieve, what I've been achieving, but more who I am, what are my values, where I'm coming from, where do I want to go, can I culturally fit or not? But it was more on that. And then you have the second one, the third. And every time you don't understand how come that everyone is kind of having those similarities in terms of behaviors, being humble, being open and kind of cultivating the eye care model that we have at Michelin, which is really centric around people. And the more I was talking to those different people, the more I was. I want to work with them. You know, it's like we can talk about Picheland. It's an iconic brand and everything that we all know about, but it's nothing without the people. And the people that I met until today, by the way, when I meet some of them, they're still in the company. Some, some are left but some are still in the company. I tell them that that's thanks to those interview that I continued the process because I was really not looking and for something else. And then during the process if you ask yourself many questions, we are all human at the end of the day, am I good enough? Am I not performing? In the interview you ask yourself those questions and at the end you do understand that they want to put you in the best spot not only for them, but also for you. And that's a difference because you can actually be put in a spot gym and just execute greatly your job. But you will maybe not be happy on the long term, but when you are actually starting on the right place, you have the time to discover this culture. You have this time to discover the history history of the group that helps you actually embrace all of that in order to move forward faster for the long term. And that was why 18 months, less than 18 months after I joined my first job, they already asked me to join the North American team. And I was very happy and very grateful of the opportunity to be able to lead such an amazing marketing department. And the rest is history, as we used to say. One of the things I have learned from years of talking to the best CMOs in the world is this. The question is never just whether your creative is working. The question is whether your infrastructure can keep up with it. Because a brain campaign still has to travel through an ad stack, through data, through decisioning, through supply, through measurement. And every hop in that journey is a place where value leaks out. Most platforms solve one piece of that. A data company, a dsp, a measurement vendor. You stitch them together and pay a fragmentation tax in performance, in speed and in accountability. Infilion built something very different. Demand supply, data measurement and creative connected in a single composable platform. The highest performing opt in attention formats via Infilion's proprietary tech in the industry, Agnostic Identity Resolution Solutions and now Catalina. 130 million US households of verified purchase truth running as live signal through every campaign they execute. No black boxes, no hops, no fragmented vendor relationships to manage. The only company I know of that can take you from the first moment of attention to the final proof of action for any vertical on any screen without leaving the platform open. Composable agentic that is Infilion. It's a large and diversified company. What do people do you feel not understand about this brand and this company? So there are several things to your question. The first one I would say when you're not inside. You don't understand why people are staying so long at the company. I remember eight months after I joined the North American team, we were having our marketing and sales conference, yearly conference. And I was with my good friend Stephen, who is leading the sales department, and we were having fun, etc. You know, obviously end of the year, celebrating some successes. And the MC of the evening was sharing with me backstage. You know that there's 2,500 years of experience in this room. 2,500. Yeah. You take a step back and I was like, that's a huge responsibility. It's a huge privilege to be able to support people in their development while they gave already so much to the company. So I was obviously a little bit shocked by the number and then very grateful. And then when you talk to people, you know that they are at the company for 25, 30, 35 years. And one thing that really caught my attention was last year we had a retirement party for a couple of people that were retiring. And one of them and I came, it was part of our consumer care team. Okay. The one that is obviously in direct relationship and connection with our consumers. And I asked the question, I say, clay, give me your best memory of Mishla. Your one, just one. And he had 30 years of experience. And he said, omer, just the fact that I was able to wake up every morning and come to a job that I like with people that I like was actually what made me stay and what made me actually answer this type of answer to you. And I was shocked because, you know, as a professional, if you ask if you would have asked me, Jim, kind of to share one or two achievements in my career, I'm not sure that I would have been able to share the exact same sentence. I would have probably stay on a business achievement. The fact that it was a people achievement made me think, how can we balance that? How can we balance the people engagement with your business achievement? And more and more, the more that I spend time with people at Michelin, I see why this culture is so strong. And it's not easy, by the way, when you join the group, you need also to make some effort on yourself to adjust to the culture. But at the end of the day, if we've been here for 135 years, we've been innovating and leading on the tire manufacturing business for the past 135 years. We are and we have been actually elected the nine most powerful brand by brand index in the world. The nine most powerful brand. I don't think that you are able to build such amazing innovation, such amazing brand without this strong connection from the people that are working there. And so maybe someone that will listen to the podcast might say it's a bit cheesy, etc. But if you hear the interview that you mentioned earlier, that's exactly what I feel. And I keep saying every time that I meet people outside of Michelin and inside Michelin. And that's why I think that the melting pot and this merge between I would say historic experience from the Michelin employee and the new one that are coming to kind of bring the external perspective to stay leader and to continue and push the boundaries further is an outstanding melting pot. And that's why I'm very proud of, I would say, the company that I'm working for and the people I'm working with every day. What could others learn about how this culture has been not just built, but maintained? It's one thing to build a culture that has its moment, but it's keeping it special. And everything you describe, that's hard. Over years and years and years, what do you think it has been about the leadership of this company that has built and maintained this culture? I think we developed a very strong leadership model, which is the eye care model that we try to embrace and cultivate and share with all of the employees. Obviously we have a very specific ramp up and period when people are joining the company. And I think it's kind of a legacy that the more you move, I've been three and a half years, less than four years, and I'm able to talk to you as if I were maybe 10 or 15 years in the company. And I think that this magic connection between the values and the purpose of what we are doing at Michelin is clicking directly. And when you're part of this story, you just want more people to be part of this story. So when I'm hiring someone, for instance, Jim and I will share a small anecdote here. I'm not hiring someone for a position, I'm hiring someone for a career because I do believe that the more you continue to embrace the culture, plus I would say the outstanding innovation of in our product, the more you're able to develop outstanding leaders. And that's what makes me happy, is when I'm able to develop people in my organization that are moving faster into different roles and different countries. Because at the end of the day, as a leader, you think obviously about the company, but you think about the people that you are working with every day. So I Hope that I pay enough attention to it. My boss might tell you if yes or no. But I think that you have 135 years of history that you need to respect. And disrespect comes with the respect for people. And we have in our company respect for people, respect for fact, respect for our customers. And those three are very important to remain and stay all the time when we are working and trying to move forward the company. And I hope that that's why we are so successful as a company worldwide. The Michelin Man I had no idea before the show that you've been using this character since 1898. Correct. I don't know if I can think of any brand off the spot that's had a consistent character for 128 years. So why has he stayed relevant? Maybe also a funny anecdote on this one, Jim. The Michelin man spoke just once, just one time. Once it was launched the first time on the motor show and that's it. And I think that the Michelin man has been evolving into a more, I would say family friendly mascot. And if you find some old portrait or some old painting of the Michelin man, you would see I would say also the difference in terms of how he has been evolving across the years. But it's crazy because my kids, again 4 and 7, they saw it a couple of times, but you couldn't say that they saw it, you know, since 15 years. And now every time that they see a tire or that they see, they immediately actually recognize the Michelin man and the Michelin brand. So I think that this iconic Michelin man is really iconic. And the fact that it has been so much into the culture and we really sustain, I would say that connection with consumers. Jim. Something that I was amazed I was in Le Mans actually. It was. It was a few months after I joined the company. Great way also to start a company and to go to Le Mans. And I saw that the passion that the people have for the Michelin man, he was unable to walk 5 meters. Unable. So he had to have a security guard and actually does it. No, it's not joke Jeep. There's a security guard actually always working with the Michelin man man because it's such an idol and cross generation, okay. From seven to 77 years you will see people actually being just happy to take a peek with the Michelin man and is today in the social media environments can see. And by the way, every time that we have a post about with the Michelin man on our social network, that's the post that is working the best. And try me. We've been trying to do different things as well. The Michelin man is always the one that works the best. You know why changing when something is so related to your roots, so related to your history and so recognizable, you know who you know as a marketer having a recognizable item is what you just wish at the end of the day. And so I love other mascots like Mario and Luigi for me from, from Nintendo are definitely one of my favorite one. But they were very linked to a specific moment on my of my life which is not the case for the Michelin Man. I think the Michelin man is independently from the moment of your life, you are getting actually the connection directly and very proud of the fact that as you said, it's over almost 130 years of Michelin man being an iconic mascot for for the group. What's your counsel for others who have a character or an icon associated with their brand? I mean we had them at P and G. What's your counsel for them? Because you have to be one of the world's greatest experts your company on leveraging an asset. So what's your counsel for others who have something? It's very hard to not jump of buzz opportunities. When you have an opportunity of a buzz, you want to jump instinctively because you believe that it will provide something different for your brand, different from your consumers. So trying to balance and the respect for the history of your icon and your mascot and maintaining it no matter what's going on. And you have so many opportunities and it's okay to turn down opportunities. For me, it's the respect for your legacy, the respect for the tradition and the respect for what this icon has brought in the past 130 years. Who am I that will change an icon that has been by the best marketers steady in the past 130 years? My job is to sustain that. My job is not to change it. My job is to I would say, take the best of what we could do in our modern world across a different touch point, but making sure at the same time that we are not changing the nature of why we had this Michelin man from day one. And so I think it's being patient and not being eager to jump on getting some extra visibility for a short period of time. And I think that that's also why the Michelin Group has been innovating for the past 135 years. You know, recently, for the past four years we've been awarded best tire brands in the. In the United States by Consumer Reports. And I'm very proud of it, obviously, because that's something that's very important where, you know, it's not only nice to be a marketer and have a mascot as a marketer. You want good product. You want the best product. You want to be able actually to deliver above expectation for consumers. And so the fact that you are able to have a great icon, a great brand linked to great products that are underlined as best in the market by independent reviews is what makes my life easier, I would say. When I think about your company, I obviously think about the Michelin man, but I also think about the Michelin Guide. And so this is another really interesting part of your brand. And I'm just really curious why that is still important for your company and your marketing. I mean, when I Google Michelin to look at your latest earnings or whatever, what comes up is the Michelin Guide. And I had to get much more focused in my search. So I have to imagine there have been discussions about, is this the right thing for us now? Is it part of our business model? I'm just curious. I mean, it's massively popular. It's a brand of itself, and it's a brand that's well respected. So talk a bit about how you think about the Michelin Guide vis a vis the Michelin Group and the Michelin brand. You know what's interesting, Jim? When you started talking about the Guide, I saw a start of a smile on your face. And I think that that summarizes what we're trying to achieve within the Michelin Group. We want to create experiences across all of our products and services. And I don't know if you've been to a Michelin Guide restaurant recently. Okay. And you remember, you remember it. It's not something usual, but it's an experience. And you remember why you went there. When I was my first Michelin guy at the restaurant, I remember very well. It was with my first salary and I invited my parents. I would remember that all my life. But that's actually what we're trying to create with the brand and with the products and services that we have. This notion of experience is important on the guide, but it's also important on the tires. We want, when you are riding, we want you to have the best possible experience. We want it to be safe, we want it to be enjoyable, we want it to be quiet, and we want you actually to not feel anything else than the pleasure of driving. And that's exactly what we want to achieve as well with the experience that we create a unique experience with the Michelin Guide. And funny enough, the Michelin Guide was born based on an idea of creating an experience for riders and traveler to help them find places to stay, but also to repair their bicycles. And this connection again, I'm coming back to the legacy and history of the reason why it was created that way. And today definitely we are in a different world. And definitely the Mission Guide has been very, very popular. And we just launched a few months ago the Mission Guide for the South. We have a star restaurant actually in Greenville for the first time. So I think that there's a lot of excitement obviously about the guide we've been launching in several states in the US and we'll continue obviously to develop new region and new states in the United States. But it's important as well to understand that for us it's maintaining this strong connection of best and premium experience for our consumers through the guide, through our tire lines. And that's why we continue actually to work on that. And I think you mentioned in your question, obviously there's always question about how do you position it, how do you link it to your historical business. But at the end of the day, if you have a brand and a product and a service that is matching the group DNA and values, why wouldn't you actually continue and develop it? Foreign. Hi everybody, I'm Andrea Sullivan, the CEO of Vive and we have produced the CMO podcast with Jim Stengel for many years and I'm sitting in his seat right now. It's so exciting. I wanted to tell you a little bit about one of our programs. It's called Vive by Vayner. It's a 12 month program that's designed for C suiters and founders. And we want to help people to grow their business, but also to grow themselves. And so we bring in people from Shark Tank to talk to our founders, but we also focus on wellness. We want to make sure that people are leaning into becoming their best selves, their best and happiest selves. So if you are someone that wants to learn how to grow your business and grow yourself, check us out at vive co. That's v y v e.com co we'd love to talk to you. Now we've said you've been at Michelin about four years, promoted I think about two years ago to VP of marketing, B2C in North America. I mean your category is super interesting, right? I grew up in categories which were purchased every week. Yours is Purchased every few years probably. So how do you think about marketing strategy in a category like that? So it's interesting because I've been, as you said at the beginning, working for different categories. Microsoft on the consumer side where you can actually purchase monthly when you have a subscription to Office or whatever. You can also have several years between a device, if it's a Surface device, then on to your point FMCG product that you purchase every week and then entire category where as you said, you're not purchasing every day. So there's three elements here that are important, Jim. The first one is how you maintain the connection with your consumers across all their usage of the tire. And so this is where you need to develop tools that you know better than I in terms of the connection in order to continue and fuel your consumer with tips with information that might suit to their driving habits. And by the way, the North American consumer, the North American market have such a high expectation of their tire performance, way higher than in all markets in the world. And so you have to fuel, I would say that expectation with your consumers. The second element is the need to prepare well in advance all your product launches because you're not launching product every 12 months like you can do in FMCG. The timeline is way more important because the innovation as well that you put into a new product must be very deep. And so you're having way more strategic thinking about how am I going to be positioned in a few years versus in a few months. And so you need to have a blend of I would say strategic horizon and tactical horizon when you plan your go to market plan because you're going to extend your product entire line. And the third element that is way different is connection that you have with your consumers. You need to find different touch points to continue and talk to them. And so you need to develop those touch points through partnership, through obviously social media to all the partnership that you can have in motorsport with the car manufacturer, etc. Etc. So my job and my team job is to be able to develop as much touchpoint as we can own touch point, earn touch point partner touchpoint and to be able to have a consistent approach of content across all of our touchpoint in order to fuel my first point which was how do you feel I would say the expectation from our consumers about the tires. So those three elements are kind of, I would say top of mind when I look about the mid to long term horizon in terms of positioning the brand. Why are North American consumer expectations so much higher? Is it the poor quality of the roads or the distances they travel, or the kind of cars and trucks they travel in. I think that there's an emotional connection to cars that is probably higher than in the rest of the world. I think that's historical. I think that that's the first element. The second one is the importance obviously of the long lasting performance. As I said at the beginning, you're not driving 10, 15 hours in France like that. And the fact that it's important makes us develop some very specific tireline for the North American market. And for instance, our two major tire lines, Cross Climate 2 and Defender, last on average 25% more than our major competitors. I don't know if you can imagine what's 25% more, Jim. It's a lot. It's huge. When you talk about 10,000 of miles that you are actually spending on the road, it's a huge benefit. And our promise is the long lasting performance, meaning that from the first mile to the last mile, you have the same quality of performance on your tires. That's why we've been awarded four times in a row the best tire brand in the US Because I think that we continue to commit and deliver to the expectation of our consumers and the wear element is so important for them that we are trying as much as we can to continue and develop the right tire line for the highest expectation in the market. And by the way, you also need a tire line that can hit the best possible performance no matter the condition. If it's on snow, on wet, on dry, and if you're driving 15 hours from east to west or from north to south, you know better than I that you can actually be in front of those conditions. So that's why The Cross Climate 2, for instance, that's my favorite child, if I may say. Half of my team will not be very happy. Part of it will be. But the cross climate 2 is my preferred one because you have a very important range of long lasting performance in terms of mileage. And at the same time you have a all weather product that can work perfectly across all conditions. So that's. For me, I would say my preferred child, that's. Don't share it outside of here. Yeah, no, it's, it's crazy how you, you know, the innovation of being able to do that is pretty remarkable. So where are you focused these days in terms of your personal. If I looked at your diary, what would I surmise from that in terms of the two or three things that you're personally spending your precious time on? So the first One would definitely be my people. The first one is how do I continue to develop my people? How do I make sure that we develop the right competencies, the marketing skills within my team? How do we continue to increase the collaboration that we have with the sales organization? Marketing and sales are always best friends, best enemies. But for us it's my day to day life talking to my VP sales every day. That's how you build the connection and the culture. For me, the first one is continue to extend this culture that we built in the past years on collaboration and developing my people in the marketing meteor. The second one is continue and try to bring the best product to the market. We've been launching in January the excess snow plus which is a new tire for winter condition that I'm very, very proud of. Consumers will start seeing it coming during just after September. We'll start seeing them probably in the north when we'll see some snow. Consumer will start experiencing what is, is what's the best possible tire line in winter. So continue to do that in the few next months and years. We'll continue to have good news as well with some other interesting product launches. So we'll definitely continue to have this obsession of continuing bringing the best possible product to each segment and category to the market. And the third one is how we can continue and be connected with our consumers. Today I'm not selling directly to consumers. Some of my competitors are doing it, but we are not selling directly. We're selling through our retailer partners. But we want to continue and be able to help them understand the Michelin DNA, the values, why behind a product. And Jim, I would extend an invitation for you if you want. I'll be happy to host you in our next IMSA race in what we call Petit Le Mans in Atlanta. It's a Petit Le Mans, so we call it because it's also there's a connection with the Grand Le Mans, the big Le Mans. If I may and if you accept, I'll be happy to host you for a day. There you'll see the passion that people can have for their tires and the connection to the tires because obviously we need to work with all the car manufacturer to optimize because it's a combination between the best possible tire with the car and how you adjust it to the car to have the best possible performance on the track. And so I'll be more than happy to show you first the passion of the people around the brand. But two also how we work with a different engineer of a different car manufacturer to try and optimize the performance on the truck because it's small seconds that are making the difference even on a 12 hours race. So that's, I would say my top of mind, my people, my product and my consumers. No, it sounds great, sounds super. You've had a great couple of years there. What's been more challenging than you would have imagined? Because it all sounds like it's been a really nice wedding with you and the company. What's been tougher than you would have imagined, Jim, it's interesting when you are on social media you see like Instagram versus reality. And to answer your question, the gap between Instagram or what I'm saying in reality is not that far away there. Obviously I was facing some difficulties at the beginning. You know, I had to adapt to the American culture. It's not easy. Even if I've been working for American company or international environment. You're here and you need to make sure that you understand the different sensitivity that people might have, the different topics that you might or might not be able to talk about. You need to understand how you can take care of people with a different culture. And it's not that easy, Jim. It's not that easy because the codes are something that we are born with and we, you know, we've been, we've been to school and to institution that are helping us to better understand that but, but still nothing like real life. So I think the first one is definitely took me a few months to be able to adapt to the American culture. When you try to develop a culture of collaboration yourself needs to be number one, collaborate the person collaborating with, I would say your partners. And so I had to work on myself as well. The second one is I'm not a huge fan of small talk gym. Okay. I don't think that I'm outstandingly good at that. But I had to actually obviously step up my game, as my teammates will say, because that's part of the culture and that's taking me outside of my comfort zone. But at the end of the day that's something that I had to do so people could feel that I'm close to them. And I'm not just here to lead the marketing department, but I'm here to lead marketer to a better place. I think that's a slight difference and nuance in terms of how you stated, but in reality it's very important. The second one is obviously understanding the American market from a business standpoint takes time to learn to understand what are the trends, the history, what are the reason to believe from an American consumer versus European one versus the Asian one. When I was in my global world before, I was able to have it high level. But then when you need really to address that in a very specific point, you need to get way more intimate with the knowledge of the American market. And last but not least, my partner and retailers because at the end of the day we work with them every day, we need to develop a relationship with them, we need to develop a new kind of joint business plan as we say, to make sure that it's not just a one way relationship but it, it's a both ways relationship. And in order to do that you need to create connection but also you need to bring value. And to bring value you need to bring knowledge. And to bring knowledge you need to work on what's inspiring, what's the latest and how you would help their business grow. And not necessarily only your business because that's an easy call if you go and you say I'll help you help my business, that's, that's too easy. So you need to come with a different approach, different mindset. So I'd say probably those three things. If you ask me from a professional standpoint, I would say those three things. Yeah, that's very helpful. Your company is full of partnerships, right? And they're very, very critical to your business model. And all companies partnerships are important, but I think especially in yours, I mean you have retailers as you talked about, truck and auto manufacturers, motorsports agencies, entertainment companies, on and on. So where do you personally focus in terms of partnerships? Is there one category of those partnerships or group of them where you spend the disproportionate amount of your time? That's a tough question Jim, but if I would have to pick, motorsport is definitely an important laboratory for me, the laboratory because we bring the latest innovation to the truck that we want to bring to the street afterwards for our consumers. So I would say from an innovation standpoint and from a collaboration with our OEMs, with our car manufacturer partner, I would say the motorsport environment. That's why also we, we just renewed our long term partnership with IMSA which is the endurance race in North America to 10 more years. So that's definitely an important one. It's a laboratory of test as well for our interaction messaging content with our consumers. As I share, we have fans on, we have CRM programs, we have opportunities to interact with consumers and people passion that are passionate about tires and cars. So here we can better understand the trends, what we are doing well, what we are not doing well. Getting a better sense of that. You can do focus group. I mean, you know it better than igm, you can do focus group, but there's nothing like reality check. So the laboratory test for that and the last one is people engagement. I love to see my teams as well on races. And you'll see we have some people that are volunteering to come to those races to help and support the team. And I think that I like to see the passion about that for Michelin employee to be, to be completely honest. So I hate to choose, but if you ask me to choose, I would say that the motorsport partnership is an important one for us. You worked in consulting, tech and consumer products before Michelin and we talked a bit about that. But I've heard you say that your eight years at Microsoft were profound for you. What was it about that experience that was so foundational for you? So Microsoft was my first big company. I've been in consulting before, as you said. But again you're not linked to the brand because you're working on so many different projects, so many different companies, but there's no strong connection with the brand. So Microsoft was my first, I would say big experience. I said almost a decade and I still have Microsoft blood. I have to say. You know, I think that it's interesting because we have. I was leading a Windows Phone product marketing team as well when I was at Microsoft. I was very in love with the product with Windows Phone. Unfortunately Windows Phone is not, is not anymore with us. But it was really something I was passionate about. So I think that it stick to me. And today I don't have an Apple Phone for instance. And so I'm the green bubble. Okay, so they call me the green bubble at work. And so I try to convince my VP Sales, they say I will switch only if you bite. He's a sales guy, so he still didn't buy it but, but that's actually pretty, pretty interesting. It's something that stayed with me and so I would say the connection as well. And I love the pace at Microsoft. I love the innovation and just something, some similarities with the value that I see about the importance of innovation at Michelin. And so I think the innovation is kind of almost a common thread across my career. I've been through many innovative companies. That's something super important for me because I think that there's innovation but also the right pace of innovation. And I think that's also kind of what those three companies are kind of having in their DNA. It's not like launching 10,000 of product every year, but launching the right one and the focused one with the right audience, the right segments. And so that's probably why. Very enjoyable experience at Microsoft. Let's move into the creative brief. I don't think you were a motorsports enthusiast before this role, but you are now. So what tipped? I mean, I know it's your job in a way, but you clearly enjoy it. Definitely. Yes. I think that I cannot consider myself yet as a motorsport enthusiast. I think that I unfortunately will not be able to answer all the questions that the motorsport enthusiast is able to answer. Honestly. I've been like three and a half years into that. So please, I have so much respect for all the knowledge that they have. I'm a fan now, definitely a fan. I think that my first experience in Le Mans was mind blowing. I was able to have a nice experience, go into the garage, go into the fan zone, feel the temperature. And then the one that really that I remember the most was when I spoke to the Michelin engineer and you would probably ask yourself that's the most. I would say the one thing that you remember from the race. I do. Because you understand the passion behind the tire and why you need to have those engineers in contact permanently with the car manufacturer engineering to optimize the performance and the amount of data that they were able to collect, to analyze, to optimize, to try to really have the best possible combination for the team on the track and then afterwards to be able to take all those data points and better understand what do we need to improve, how can we continue and be the best. This passion around it, I would say was speechless for me. And so since then I obviously had opportunity to attend several races in North America. And I saw the same, and I saw the same passion and I saw the same commitment and the same strong engagement from the team. And also I saw the benefit, the benefit that we as a company are also taking for the motorsport activity because as I said, it's a laboratory test not only for the innovation and performance, but also for our consumers feedback. And at the end of the day, that's also the way I can connect with our consumers to have them reacting to our latest content, latest brand campaign. And so that's probably what I would say trigger my interest. Even though I have to be honest, I used to watch, I would say some racing on TV when I was younger. But when you're there with people that know and explain you the why change completely? It's when you're knowledgeable about something and you and you transfer this passion. We can talk for hours, Jim, about that. Unfortunately, I will not be able to communicate as much passion as those people might be able because they know so well actually their business. So I'm very humble when I talk about motorsport. What do you believe is the single most important characteristic of a senior marketing leader today? Patience. You know, we've been seeing in the past six months so many comments about other brands from other sectors, about their cmo, about the vision, about the brand campaign, the choices that they did on partnership, the players that they selected, the brand that they protected or not protected. I think that time is what's today important for a marketer. Understanding that there's a balance between your historical legacy and the willingness to go fast and hit the buzz as fast as you can. And I think that having this balance is crucial for some company. For other companies, going very fast will be actually the most important. When you're a startup, you don't have time to wait, obviously. But if you are in a corporate marketing position with a large corporation that is a global player or even a regional player that has a lot of history, you need to respect that history, maintain, adjust, and create different stories and different experiences for your consumers. And so having these patience while creating differentiated experiences, I think those two things are definitely top of mind for me. You've talked about how you've changed since coming to the US You've gotten better at small talk and you're traveling and you're understanding the nuanced culture in the US Almost city by city. How do you think you've shifted as a leader since moving to the US you would need to ask my team because it's a very good question, Jim, but it's more a question that my team will be able to answer or my boss eventually, but probably more my team because they see me daily. They could sense, you know, based on my face. I'm bad at poker face, by the way. So you probably see when it's a good or it's a bad day, and I'm trying to improve. But as you know, we are all human at the end of the day, so things can impact us. And I don't like to hide too much. I think that definitely you need to absorb the pressure as a leader. That's 100%, but you cannot not express your emotion. You are not just a superwoman or a superman achieving things because you are a leader at a certain stage of your career. So I hope that I became more patient. I hope that I was able to continuously Support my team in their development without bias. And I hope that as a marketer I was able to continue and bring inspiration to my team because that's something that I think drives me every day to find what is trendy but long term, what can actually help us but not impact us negatively. So it's really all this balance that I think that marketer could and should have today. But you need to inspire and you need to be inspirational specifically on marketing because if you don't inspire your team, it will be hard to inspire your consumers. And so I hope that what they might think about me, I will not ask them. But if you do, maybe I'll have the chance to do it on my field trip. Maybe when you will come to Atlanta property, Le Mans, I'll do a focus group. That would be great. But yeah, that's what I hope that my team can think about me. I know you love sports and luxury categories. I've heard you talk about that. What's the first brand you remember as a young boy making an impact on you? So it will not be in that category because as a young boy it was Nintendo. I think that I shared earlier about the Mario and Luigi story. I was a gamer, definitely. I stopped since, you know, for many years, unfortunately, even though my son. And it's interesting how they manage as well to have this generational gap, you know, no generation gap. Basically, you know, my son and myself. My son is seven years old, Jim, and he has in mind that I, that I will give him my Nintendo Switch. So every day now he's telling me, you know what, I'll be better in writing, I'll be better in math, you give me the Switch. And I say, no, way too young. And he said, but look, let's try to see if it's nice and if we can play together. So he knows that I like to play with him, etc. But I was a Nintendo fan and I think that they managed to have exactly this balance between the historical mascot heritage from Nintendo and to bring innovation with their device, with the services, etc. And that's what I like about Nintendo, even though I was working for Xbox with Microsoft. But I still believe that the Nintendo generation is still very strong. And we see that with the results obviously of the company. Nintendo is a great brand and I see a lot of similarities in terms of connection to the Michelin brand and how connected you can be from day one to your later stage in your life to the Michelin brand, because you create experiences and that's what Nintendo created for me. Who has been the most inspiring person in your life, Omer? My father, definitely. I have to say that still today I call him probably every day or every two days. He knows perfectly all my strengths and weaknesses. He can definitely tell me everything, even if I might not be happy with that. But also from I would say, business standpoint, he was able to as well be in marketing and a bit high level when he had his career back in time in the tech industry. And so I think that having his blessing is also important for me and making sure that I make him proud. I feel like it's C therapy now, but it's definitely inspiring to see what he was able to achieve and how he's able to not only achieve himself, but also communicate and help, I would say others too. So I would say that, well, that's a good place to stop. Omer. We could keep going, but I've kept you long enough. It's been a wonderful interview. We're at the beginning of the summer. As we talked about, we have football ahead of us and races. And I have to ask your French. So my last question has been, how has your diet changed since moving to the U.S. do you cook different things? Have you developed a fondness for different kinds of foods? No, I'm terrible because I love junk food. Well, you're in a good place. I am, I am. And you know what's funny enough is that I've been having bets with the sales team, obviously marketing sales, and the bets are always on donuts. And so they love that. There is a specific brand that I that I prefer in terms of donuts. And so there's sometimes donuts on the floor in Greenville. Outside of that, you know, my wife is an amazing cooker. So thanks to that, I don't have to change too much because she's outstanding. But I do like actually some junk food sometimes. So again, I'm happy to be back in Paris sometimes because there's a big diversity of restaurants that I'm able to go to. But I also, I do enjoy very much my life in the US So I think that I can keep the gastronomy. Sometimes when I'm traveling more, I would say maybe or just leaning into my wife cooking skills. But I will continue to eat some donuts and junk food. I still like it. Okay, last question. Favorite junk food brand. It's hard because I don't know if you can say it's a junk food brand, but I would say favorite donuts, it's Krispy Kreme. Oh, yeah, yeah. So also from the south, apparently, if I understood well. And so, you know, I continue into that, but definitely that's one that I enjoy the most from a product standpoint, from a branding standpoint, that's maybe different, but for a product standpoint, definitely the one that I prefer. This clip will probably make the social clips. Krispy Kreme will love it. Okay. Okay. Hey, thank you. Jim. Before we finish, I would like to congratulate you for the recent hall of Fame award. So congratulations to you. Really, it's a great achievement. It was one of the best days of my career, if not the best because of who was there and the people that I got to thank. I can't imagine. Jim, I think that you've been doing a lot for the industry and you had the right recognition. So again, congrats and I was honored and very happy to be able to share an hour of discussion with you today. Thank you, Omir. I appreciate that very much. Have a great summer. Sound good. Thank you. You too. Here's the Michelin guide to takeaways from Omer's conversation, which was a wonderful, wonderful one. The first takeaway is priorities. This guy has the right priorities and I loved how simply he stated them. Developing his people, bringing the best possible product to the market, and ensuring the customer experience is wonderful and that the brand has happy customers. That's where he's focused. That's where he spends his personal time. I can't imagine a clearer and stronger set of priorities. The second takeaway, Patience. As the most important characteristic of a senior marketing leader today, that was unexpected, maybe to hear that from him as the most important characteristic, but he is right about that, especially when you're the steward of a brand like Michelin, which so many people have gone before you and has such strengths and assets and how to be respected. And the third takeaway, I thought this story was a best practice, a benchmarking study and how to adjust to and throw thrive in a new culture. I think the way Omer came to Michelin and came to the US and took the time to understand the company, the culture, the people, the nuances. He spends his time with family, traveling to understand the country in which he is living. I think if you're ever transferred to a new company, especially in a new country, this is a case study for how to do it right. That's it for this week's episode of the CMO podcast. As always, I would be grateful if you shared our show with your friends along with subscribing and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. The CMO podcast is a Vive Original production.