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Ron Scott, Square Enix's Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing, recently spoke to TS2 about his successful career in videogame and the consumer packaged goods industries.
Why did you decide to take the opportunity at Square Enix?
"I love an opportunity to build an organization. SQEX has a strong foundation and a good brand. It was a perfect opportunity for me to expand and build their North American organization."
Can you tell us a bit about the recent developments in your career?
"The opportunity to build Warner Bros. worldwide sales and distribution organization was a great challenge. The company spent eighteen months testing various strategies, and when they decided to build an internal stand-alone games group, we had four months before our first product shipped in North America and seven months to assemble the European team. It was also interesting to manage the transition from full time manager at Crave Entertainment to consultant at Warner Home Video, and then essentially create a full time position to move into at Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment. Many job search books recommend that you look for opportunities and then find a way to position yourself to fill the need and it was interesting to see the strategy actually work."
What was the toughest experience in your career? What did you do to deal with it? And how did you overcome it?
"One of the more challenging experiences was my transition into Activision from Nestle. The video game category was a completely new one for me and I was hired as VP of Sales just a few weeks before E3, which in those days was the major selling opportunity for the Christmas season. With limited time to learn the category, develop forecasts, and create a sales plan, my strategy was to dive into as much data as I could get my hands on, insure that I had the support and input from the current experienced sales team, and finally to trust my instincts on the changes that needed to be made and adaptations from the packaged goods industry that could be integrated into the new games environment. After several long days and many meetings with the team we put together the necessary plans and had a great show. As I look back on the original document outlining the changes to the process and package goods techniques integration, it’s amazing to me how accurate the initial plans were and how good of a foundation those initial insights eventually became. Launching into the detail, being open to outside input and trusting your base instincts were all integral issues leading to the successful, but quick integration into a new business."
What were some highlights from earlier on in your career?
"The first thirteen years were spent getting a broad based functional training from two of the industry leaders in that area. I put myself through college so going to grad school wasn’t an option for me with mounting school loans and limited financial resources so Procter and Gamble and Nestle became my business school opportunity. I averaged eighteen months per position throughout those years. I spent time in direct sales, broker sales, eventually running the western sales region for Nestle. I was offered an opportunity to transition into marketing and moved to the East Coast directly into a product manager position. I had three marketing positions in the first three years at Nestle eventually being given the opportunity to run our largest confections brand, Butterfinger, when it was acquired from KKR. After building Butterfinger from a $115M franchise to over $225 in the next three years, I accepted a position to start the trade marketing department for the division. After creating that department for the company, I was given a bigger opportunity to build the customer specific business teams for Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, Sams, Costco, and BJ’s under a consolidated department for all seven Nestle product divisions reporting to the CFO of the Food Company. It was this early rotation through the various business functions and the openness to take on new responsibilities that gave me the foundation to move into new categories and take on executive management roles."
When/what was the turning point in your career?
"Clearly the turning point was joining Activision as a VP and executive committee member. The experience of being a key player in the growth of a publicly traded company has been invaluable in a variety of ways. We had the opportunity to experience first-hand the rigors of sustaining 2x annual growth under the microscope of the investment community. We also had the opportunity to condense years of business experience into a few months with both lessons learned from poor decisions as well as very good ones. That was the most challenging and fun period of my career so far and has set me up for most of the opportunities that I’ve had in this industry."
What are some of the keys to your success? What kind of career advice would you give industry rookies?
"Here are a few guiding principles that have helped me over the years:
- Lead from the front…never ask someone to do a job that you wouldn’t do yourself or work harder than you do yourself.
- Remember that the company/employee relationship is a two way street. Know what people’s personal goals and objectives are for their careers and make sure they grow and prosper as the company benefits and grows from their work.
- Do the detail work that gives you confidence in your decisions and direction. The hardest person for me to convince is me, but once I am convinced, I can convert anyone to the cause.
- If you can’t be honest with your co-workers and boss, find another place to work. Markets are too competitive to waste energy on internal politics.
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