TRENDSETTERS: Iris Meijer, CMO of Vodafone Business, Talks About Succeeding in Today's Digital World

The Internationalist Trendsetters is written by Deborah Malone, founder of The Internationalist.

Ask Iris Meijer to describe her role at Vodafone Business, and she'll likely tell you that she helps customers succeed in a digital world. Vodafone Business is the vibrant enterprise division of British multinational Vodafone, one of world's largest telecommunications companies. With expertise in connectivity, the Internet of Things and global scale, Vodafone Business serves customers of all sizes-- from thousands of small to medium-sized companies, as well as large multinational customers. As Global CMO and a member of the senior leadership team, Iris Meijer champions a wide variety of programs that help build customer trust and overcome their challenges.

Two such programs are very much on her mind now as both were in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To better support small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Europe, Vodafone Business launched V-Hub this July to provide these vital and often hard-hit customers with online guides, videos and webinars, as well as direct access to experts, as they strive to quickly digitize their businesses. Topics include website creation, digital marketing, working remotely, and cyber security.

The other is the Vodafone Business Future Ready Report 2020, which provides a fascinating deep dive into what it takes to adapt to today's challenges for any company striving to be digitally first. The Report identified five key challenges that span almost all industries, countries and business sizes; then it outlined how "future ready" businesses show very different approaches to these challenges, compared to other businesses.

In our conversation, we discuss the following:

• Five macro-challenges that are common to all businesses.
• What defines a "future ready" company and whether that definition changed during COVID.
• The evolution of a CMO's responsibilities.
• How Data is central to both serving customers and to the role of marketing within the corporation.
• The new significance of internal and external communications.

Iris Meijer leads marketing and communications for Vodafone Business globally and is an advocate for building customer trust through great insight and deep understanding of customer challenges. She also believes in putting ethics at the center of the marketing practice. She is a member of the Vodafone Group Senior Leadership Team.

Since 1998 Iris has focused her career in marketing and communications within the technology telecommunications space, specializing in business to business solutions on an international stage. Before joining Vodafone Business, Iris was Vice President of Customer Marketing and Communications at Nokia, responsible for a global team and diverse digital, product and customer marketing strategies.

Iris holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business. She was born and raised in Finland, started her career in Helsinki, and is now based in London.