What’s keeping me up: Moët Hennessy’s Patrick Madendjian

Budgeting remains a key focus for marketers today, particularly in a landscape characterised by dynamic markets, the emergence of new social platforms, and ongoing economic uncertainties.

While it may be challenging for marketers to convince management to dish out big marketing dollars, it doesn't signify the end of the discussion, according to Patrick Madendjian (pictured), managing director for North Asia, Moët Hennessy. Negotiating budgets can reflect long-term ambitions, allowing marketers to reassure the business that they are steering the brand in the right direction, he said.

Overseeing a team of around 150 individuals across the North Asia cluster, which includes Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, Madendjian has emphasised the importance of communication and collaboration with his team, highlighting the need to share a common vision and ambition to work together effectively.

In this episode, Madendjian shares with us his biggest worry and what keeps him going.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What is the biggest thing you worry about? How do you deal with this worry?

I tend to worry less about things I can control than about things I cannot control. Today, what worries me the most is what’s happening in the world that could affect the business as well.

For me, there are probably two big issues: wars on one side, with more and more conflicts starting than coming to an end. I hope we won't see new ones begin anytime soon.

And the other issue is trade wars, which are shifting and changing everything. If you add to this the potential crises from natural disasters, pandemics, or other events, it becomes something that keeps me up at night and worries me.

We’ve seen fires recently in France. I just came back from there, and it was the biggest fire in 60 years. Climate change is a factor as well; we’re also seeing earthquakes, among other events. These are things that worry me.

To deal with this worry, I tried to shift all of my focus and attention to things that I can actually control.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: As a leader, how do you deal with it when your staff tells you the work is creating mental pressure and wellbeing issues?   

This is my favourite question. I think today, we are living in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) for a gazillion reasons, and I deeply believe that this is what causes stress. This contributes to the mental pressure and mental health challenges for teams because everything is changing by the second. They lack certainty about how the year will end and often don’t understand what’s at stake. Things are becoming more and more complex; something happening here is changing everything over there.

As leaders, we need to transition from VUCA to VUCA Prime, which encompasses vision, understanding, clarity, and agility.

VUCA Prime provides a vision that counters volatility. For example, during budget negotiations, sharing a five-year plan can instill reassurance by outlining our collective ambitions and direction as a team, helping to reduce volatility. For uncertainty, you need to turn it into understanding by providing people with the keys to decipher situations and comprehend why certain things are done a particular way. This will help bring them reassurance as well.

And for complexity, you need to turn it into clarity. Regardless of how complex your plans are, you must be able to explain them to your team in a very clear manner, so they can embrace them, make them their own, and have a reason to believe.

Finally, we need to transform ambiguity into agility. When things are not fully understood or clear, how can we create learning opportunities and build teams that can adapt to situations with agility? Sometimes, this may involve making decisions that you might consider as hurting, but it’s important to understand the reasoning behind them. We need to stop framing decisions as “cutting” for reasons A, B, and C. Without understanding the rationale, it may feel like we are reducing resources. 

However, with full understanding, it becomes clear that we are not cutting; we are repurposing. Whatever will not be continued will be redirected to support our largest initiatives, fueling those efforts for greater growth.

So I'd say my answer is, go from VUCA to VUCA Prime.  

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: How do you boost employee morale when facing obstacles/ challenges? 

For me, you need to be over-communicating internally all the time as well. Sometimes we communicate a lot externally and tend to forget about the importance of internal communication. Additionally, it’s often a question of optics. How can you make people see that any obstacle can represent an opportunity and that any tough situation may lead to future growth?

I'll give you the answer in Taiwan. If I look at Taiwan today, it appears to be in decline. That’s one way of viewing it. However, if I consider next year’s perspective, Taiwan is poised for growth. The way you spin the narrative makes a difference, and it’s important to associate people with victories, making them aware that it’s their story as well. You cannot come in as a new leader and say, “This is my vision. This is my ambition”. No, it’s our vision and our ambition. How can I involve you in that journey? You will write the plan just as much as I will. You will have skin in the game, and the success will be as much yours as it is mine.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What keeps you going?

For me, positive thinking is one of the things that keeps me going. Positive thinking is not about a naive or candid view of the world; it's about supporting that positivity with a plan that allows you to adapt and turn things around.

And coffee helps me keep going.

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