Jennifer Vaillancourt (EMBA 2018), who joined the Aldo Group just before receiving her McGill-HEC Montreal Executive MBA diploma in the spring of 2018, has been promoted to Sr. Director, Marketing Strategy at Aldo Group. Her new role will have her collaborate with key business unit owners of Aldo Group’s global business to develop and adopt a multi-year marketing strategy that will help the organization to achieve their growth goals.
Jennifer reveals that for his new role, one of her main challenges is that with developing any large strategy across an organization of the size of the Aldo Group, there is always the possibility of a “not invented here” mindset, which is why her primary focus is set on co-creation amongst key stakeholders. In addition, she also has to consider the fear of change and the unknown, which comes when you move away from the status quo. She is ready to tackle this challenge and shares that: ‘this is where key partnerships with consumer insights and market data become paramount. While we can never know everything before we set out on a new strategy, knowledge is power. Knowing as much as we can and making solid inferences in a time-sensitive manner is as best as we can get at the start, while confidence and acceptance that plans may need to be modified or changed given market conditions or consumer acceptance, allow us the flexibility to pivot if need be.’
She feels that her time during the EMBA program instilled the discipline of always asking questions, and never settling into a mindset of accepting the status quo. Jennifer notes that today’s business moves much faster, therefore we have to accept this as our new normal and change with it- or be left behind!’
She has always found great inspiration by André Gide’s quote: “Man cannot discover new ocean, unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
