Catching Up with Our CMO After 6 Months On The Job

Wow, Halloween came and went. Thanksgiving is around the corner. Here I get to reflect on how quickly time has passed since Orion Governance recruited me, and I became its Chief Marketing officer (CMO) on April 15.

Lucky for me, what began as an easy interview process resulted in an easy job transition. I recall Orion’s recruiter reaching out to me on LinkedIn and telling me I was a good match for Orion’s needs. He quickly facilitated the appropriate conversations. Coincidentally, three other companies reached out to me at the same time, but the Orion opportunity felt like the right one.

Making Waves with Marketing

I was confident in my ability to build and lead a first-class marketing organization. With that said, my excitement grew once I explored data management and discovered that the space is red-hot. Long ago, I learned a valuable lesson: “A rising tide floats all boats”. In other words, it’s fun to join an organization that operates in a growing marketplace with plenty of competitors. In addition, the opportunity to work with a great team was a significant motivator for me.

At the beginning, I couldn’t have possibly known that joining Orion would turn out to be a good cultural fit. However, the first “aha” moment happened in the second week. By then, I decided I would demonstrate personal accountability by presenting a single PowerPoint slide with the prior week’s marketing accomplishments during our CEO’s staff meeting on Wednesdays at 6:00 am PT! (Yes, needing to get up early is the biggest sacrifice I’ve had to make since joining Orion. Thanks to a hot cup of mocha, sounding coherent over Zoom is possible.)

Next, I began learning about Orion’s platform and its market space as quickly as possible. Doug, our vice president of North American operations, was an invaluable resource. He was the first among the senior management team to make time for sharing his in-the-field experiences and knowledge.

By the end of the fourth week, I had worked hard to make sure Orion was in contention for upcoming analyst/industry awards and recognitions. Thus far, Orion has been ranked #1 on the list of data catalog vendors in the Dresner Advisory Services 2022 Data Catalog Market Study. We have also been named the Best Graph Database Solution for Data Management as part of the 2022 USA Data Management Insight Awards, orchestrated by the A-Team Group. We couldn’t have achieved these awards without our talented development team, effective sales leadership, and our founder/CEO Ramesh Shurma’s vision.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

What else brings me satisfaction on a day-to-day basis? For sure it’s working with a highly collaborative and motivated marketing team. Knock on wood. I had the good fortune to inherit my trusty marketing manager, Christine, who helped me get up to speed quickly. Our wonderful graphic design talent Francisco was recruited by our CEO, Ramesh, even before I asked for a creative resource. Finally, knowing we needed a digital marketing heavyweight, I reached out to my trusted and beloved MarketingOps community for a referral. Here’s a big shout-out to Mike Rizzo, the founder of MarketingOps, for introducing me to Sarah.

Initially, Sarah contracted with us to revamp our website. I had high expectations, which Sarah managed to exceed. Competition for great talent is always tough, so I began my recruitment pitch early and with persistence. According to Sarah, I did a good job selling her on joining Orion full-time as our Director of SEO, SEM, and Web Development. Fortunately for us, Sarah accepted the offer after she completed her consulting contract.

Now that our core marketing team has been built, and the marketing engine has begun to show results, what lies ahead in the next six months?

• Earn more awards and industry recognitions. Spoiler alert: We’ve been notified that Orion’s next award will be announced publicly on December 1.
• Ramp up content generation to satisfy customer needs and to fuel sales momentum.
• Explore guerrilla marketing ideas and have fun.

As I look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with my family and friends, I feel very blessed to have joined Orion on its journey to disrupting the data management world. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

 

 

About the author: Nancy Chou is the Chief Marketing Officer at Orion Governance, Inc.