It All Starts with Data: Interview with Jacqueline Woods, CMO of Teradata

I recently went one on one with Jacqueline Woods, CMO of Teradata.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?

Jacqueline: Thanks for inviting me, Adam. I’ve been working in technology for over 25 years in just about every role you can imagine. I have a dual Bachelor of Science in Managerial and Agricultural Economics but was initially considering majoring in computer science. I could often be found in the computer lab, and I joined the Black Engineering Association and took the math courses designated for engineers. I'm a very math-and analytics-oriented person by nature – not something you’re likely to hear from all marketers.

I got my start in telecommunications at GTE, now Verizon, with roles in finance, accounting, and business development. Working at GTE was a great foundational experience that influenced who I am today: a data and results-driven, no-fluff marketer, focused on driving business growth.

From there, I went on to get an MBA in marketing and entrepreneurship. I had my first P&L role, $650M, relatively early in my career at Ameritech, now AT&T, and later took on leadership roles at Oracle and General Electric. What I love about blending marketing with my quantitative background is getting to focus on storytelling that meets business objectives. Using data to tell a more compelling story on how to help move a business forward and help other people realize your vision is so fulfilling.

I also spent about 10 years at IBM in several roles, including chief marketing officer where I focused on growing partner momentum in IBM’s cloud and AI technologies. While at IBM, I embraced IBM Watson, cognitive computing tech, blockchain, and other artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions, which sparked my passion to help companies leverage insights from data and analytics to make smarter business decisions and fuel innovation.

After IBM, I took on the chief marketing and communications officer role at NielsenIQ, where I directed the company’s transformation from a division of Nielsen into an independent organization.

About two years ago, I joined Teradata as Chief Marketing Officer. I guide all storytelling efforts here, and recently completed a major brand transformation to refresh the company’s 40-year-old image as a well-known database and enterprise data warehouse provider into the formidable cloud and AI player it is today.

With every career, it’s never linear. I always took roles that I thought leveraged my experience and expertise but also helped me expand my capabilities at the same time. Most times, people took chances on me because they knew I had the grit to figure it out – even if I did not have direct experience to take it on. Then I would get in and grit my way through it – there may have been people who had more direct experience, but the leader or organization was looking for something and someone more transformative. Early, I learned that was part of my personal secret sauce and I began to take on more opportunities where I could demonstrate that I knew how to lead change. This helped me create a pathway where I could then begin to ascend and elevate into bigger and more strategic roles.

Adam: What have been the keys to revitalizing a 40-year-old brand? What are your best tips on the topic of branding?

Jacqueline: Rebranding a company doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning your roots. Instead, embrace the strengths of your heritage and leverage them as differentiators. What changes are trends – how to do something or how to talk about it. What stays the same is what most businesses, NGOs, or governments desire to do – to make their customers, consumers, and constituents better off in the simplest terms.  Whether you're selling ideas (consulting or politicians), soap (CPG), or technology (IT) – at the core is how can you achieve that fundamental objective. Building on our ambition – of why – it is a focus on empowering people with better information and helping them thrive, ultimately elevating human potential, which helps everyone. 

For instance, at Teradata, we’ve transformed the brand image of a 40+-year-old database company into an innovative cloud analytics and AI leader. Rather than shying away from our past, we leaned into our deep and trusted expertise in advanced analytics as a competitive differentiator. This has allowed us to go toe-to-toe with cloud-native upstarts.

As we bring forth a fresher and more modern brand, making the customer a star is also key to success, demonstrating how our rich expertise enables our customers to use cloud analytics and data as an accelerator for growth. Of course, it doesn’t stop there. We’re continuously evaluating ourselves to ensure we’re pushing the frontier on our customers’ current and future needs, particularly as we navigate this AI-driven era and take advantage of the massive potential of generative AI.   

Ultimately, when you’re authentic to your brand while bringing it forward and continually evolve to deliver on your customers’ priorities, you'll be rewarded.

Adam: How do you know when it is time to rebrand?

Jacqueline: Your brand is the ethos of your company. For me, it’s almost like a living, breathing organism that either grows or contracts. Much like a person, it needs to be nurtured and well-understood in order to thrive. 

As marketers, we often find ourselves asking the question; why are some brands perceived as current while others are not? Tech companies, specifically, are in a position where they constantly have to evolve and reinvent themselves, keeping up with the ever-evolving landscape and their place within it. As a company innovates, it must also have a brand that leans into the new themes and solutions it is now delivering in the marketplace. Generative AI is a great example as companies begin to refresh and update their brands based on new offerings.

 Another simpler example is Jeff Goldblum; he is the epitome of someone who has continued to transform and reinvent himself throughout the years. Now the pitch person for Apartment.com, a product generally targeted to younger people looking for their first living space, he is associated with being an unassuming fashion icon. He’s got a whole new brand from his initial nerd phase. 

Relevancy only endures with a perpetual assessment of where your brand is, where it needs to be, and what you need to do to keep it top of mind for your constituents.

Adam: What are the most important trends in technology that leaders should be aware of and understand? What should they understand about them?

Jacqueline: At this point, most leaders are well aware of generative AI. What makes GenAI so enticing is now anyone can harness the power of AI to improve business and personal productivity without needing to be a technologist. It can help all of us, no matter the industry or job, gain faster access to data-driven insights to make better decisions that add value to businesses, customers, and society. 

This is a bold ambition that we should absolutely pursue, but only when balanced with accountability. We need responsible leaders to drive compliance and governance to ensure accurate, verifiable, and trustworthy outputs from AI models. 

And it all starts with data. 

I like to think of data like water. The earth, affectionately known as the blue planet, is composed mostly of water – over 70%, however, only 2.5% is clean and usable, with only 3 tenths of 1% being accessible to the over 7 billion inhabitants on the planet. We can’t survive without clean, usable, accessible water. Likewise, there’s no shortage of data - in fact, so much data is created every day that it's actually a tremendous challenge for companies to handle and make sense of all their data. What’s missing is clean, usable data and trustworthy information leaders can readily act on. In short, we have a tsunami of data, but a drought of usable data and actionable information.

Addressing this is a two-step process: understand and prepare. First, leaders must understand that we can’t survive the AI era without clean data. A lack of clean data for analytics and AI models leads to bias, bad outcomes, and poor customer experience. If you're using information for critical decisions, you can’t afford a do-over. Leaders must prepare now and approach AI responsibly. Otherwise, the consequences for a brand can be worse than a data breach, and it could take years for a brand to recover.

Adam: What are your best tips on the topic of marketing applicable to all leaders?

Jacqueline: Effective marketing starts with customer-centered data and insights. Best guesses and previous learnings aren’t enough. Do your research and connect with customers directly to understand their needs and ambitions, then communicate how you can help.

Marketing is about showcasing the solution. It’s about putting the focus on the customer, not the product. Whether you’re selling shampoo or software-as-a-service, make the customer the hero of the story and highlight how your company is their advocate. At the end of the day, marketing needs to convey the brand promise and what the customer can expect from the company. 

Adam: What are your best tips for fellow marketing professionals?

Jacqueline: Ride the AI wave or get left behind. There are many ways that marketers can remain creative and authentic while using the tools at hand to boost efficiency and productivity. For example, using AI to build more robust propensity models for ideal customer profiles and getting more precise in speaking to prospective customers based on their phase in the buyer’s journey. 

First, know your metrics. It’s the first thing you’ll be asked – what is the Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI), so you’ll need to have a firm grasp on how you’ll measure your efforts, align spend with actions, and tie them to business results and business metrics that everyone agrees with and understands. Brand reputation is a major component of marketing, but I’ll admit, it’s not always the easiest to measure from a dollar perspective. Helping all of your peer groups understand how much brand reputation is worth is crucial. Trust in your reputation is critical and it is even more important today with the uptake in discussions and expectations regarding generative AI.  The old adage is true, “trust comes in drops and leaves in buckets,” and not having a strong, ethical brand has actually taken companies down – WorldCom and Andersen come to mind. So, while the actual value or return to shareholders of the brand is not always perfectly measurable – it is often a company’s most important asset, right behind their products or services. That's one of the essential skills I’ve picked up along the way – how to communicate what you’re doing, why it’s important, and how it's valuable to the company. 

Second, beyond being your authentic self, encourage your brand and the people you work with to always have an authentic voice for the brand. This means having the courage to do the right thing and having the integrity to ensure what you represent in this profession, which will only drive us forward and leave us better off than before.

Finally, never stop learning and evolving. Technology, businesses, and our world are constantly changing, and likewise, you’ll want to keep reinventing and transforming yourself to elevate your expertise and prove your impact. Having that mindset has helped me build an enduring and fulfilling career so far. 

Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader?

Jacqueline: The most important quality is right in the name – lead. Leaders need to articulate a vision that people can easily understand, embrace, and want to follow. This helps get everyone on board with the same ambitions you have and rowing in the same direction. Teams that buy into and work toward the same vision in this way are virtually unstoppable. That said, of course, there will be challenges. Along the way, you’ll come across people who are not fully on board or are disrupting your progress. It’s tough, but not everyone belongs in the boat as you forge ahead.

More than awards and accolades, effective leaders define success as helping others thrive. I’m always asking myself, “What opportunities can I create for people on my team? How can I help people early in their career to expand their skills? What spaces can I open for people?”

Leaders should create and nurture an environment that allows people to learn, grow, and innovate. Rewarding exploration and trying something you’ve never done before is how companies make discoveries that change the game. Be a facilitator, not an inhibitor for those around you and your company.

Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?

Jacqueline: As a leader, you hold a high degree of influence on beliefs, trends, and behaviors. With that comes the responsibility to tell the truth and be an ally, not a bystander. 

Determine what kind of person you are and who you want to be, such as the issues that you want to stand for - and then back it up with your actions. Business leaders no longer have the luxury to sit on the sidelines when it comes to societal issues. Instead, you must take an active stance on environmental and social issues that go beyond a DEI or ESG checkbox. Being a leader means making genuine, concrete commitments that are true to who you are and that help contribute to a better world for all humans. 

Never forget that others are looking to you as a role model, and while negative impressions last, leading with authenticity and integrity can have an enormous positive impact.

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams?

Jacqueline: Start and lead with empathy. My best managers and my best experience with others happen when I lead with empathy. Seek to understand, rather than to be understood. That is more than listening. You’ll often hear people say, “you have two ears and one mouth for a reason.” I think that’s trite. Lots of people listen, without really listening for understanding. When you try to understand what others are saying and why, what motivates them, what concerns them and how you can work together to meet common goals, is when I think teams and people work best.

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

Jacqueline: While I was at General Electric, I worked with Larry Light, who retired as CMO of McDonald’s. From Larry, I learned how to change the trajectory of a company from what it had been to what it can and should be. Instead of proposing getting rid of the hamburger, Larry built on other opportunities and segments that were important to their customer base, such as adding salads for moms who wanted healthier options. At the end of the day, what he shared with me was how to ensure relevance. Companies and people that continue to reinvent themselves remain relevant and ensure that they are providing products and/or services that people need and, more importantly, want. It’s an opportunity to delight again and again. I've taken this lesson with me across my career to Teradata today.


Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally-recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.

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