Interviewed by Vera Jonsdottir

“At Lenovo, we believe and live up to the fact that technology is not just for the elite few who can afford it, but for everyone,” says Claire Carter, Marketing Director, of the Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Lenovo, a Partner of our Women Talent Pool program, when asked about global trends and advantageous marketing strategies at Lenovo. With an expertise in brand development and marketing, Claire discusses women in the tech, corporate social responsibility, the innovative landscape of Dubai and much more!

Your career trajectory has taken you from the fast-moving consumer goods industry (FMCG) working with brands like Flora and KFC to working with Lenovo over the past three years. What prompted you to work for the tech industry?

What inspired my move was becoming frustrated with FMCG brands and how they were treating social and digital. FMCG brands placed a team of people responsible for social and digital into a separate department; yet, tech, social, and digital are not a department. It is how we live in 2020 and I wanted to get into a space, industry, or brand that engages as such.

What recent trends are redefining marketing strategies in the tech sector and how are you taking advantage of them to better position Lenovo’s services and products?

My personal favourite global trend is inclusion. The cookie-cutter approach of certain people being predisposed to only perform certain tasks is something of the past. I love that the doors are now open, and anybody can be whoever and achieve whatever they want. For example, Victoria’s Secret having plus-size models, moms being CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and model Winnie Harlow being the face of a beauty brand - these are events that a few years ago, would not have been possible.

Lenovo is at the heart of that trend, with our brand essence, “smarter technology for all.” We believe and live up to the fact that technology is not just for the elite few who can afford it, but for everyone. The “for all” part of the “smarter technology for all” is most significant.

We have the products, services, software and tools to make technology available to everyone. No matter who or where you are, you can have access to the best products, software, tools and services, because technology makes life easier.

At Lenovo, we believe and live up to the fact that technology is not just for the elite few who can afford it, but for everyone.

Only 25.1 percent of people working the tech industry are actually female. Why is technology a great career choice for women and how can we attract more women into that field?

Tech is the perfect industry for women because in this industry, we have the ability to provide the tools, hardware and software in order to facilitate and promote genuine agile working. Agile working offers flexibility and incredible benefits for moms, and women in general.

For example, I am judged on my outputs, not on how many hours I spend behind my desk. I can pick up my daughter from school and attend an afternoon leadership team meeting in the boardroom. It’s just simply how we work in Tech!

Agile working offers flexibility and incredible benefits for moms, and women in general.

Lenovo has been a proud partner of our women talent program over the last two years and will be sponsoring our future "Tech for Good" and "Women in Leadership" event in Dubai. Why is it important for Lenovo to commit to corporate social responsibility and promote such initiatives?

It is part of a broader diversity and inclusion agenda that we have as a brand. Having said that, because tech has a historic opportunity area for women specifically, and numbers to be increased, within the broader diversity and inclusion umbrella, we have targeted women as the key focus for us, underneath that whole broader topic.

Women in Leadership at Lenovo (W.I.L.L) is an active program that is meaningful because it provides a measurement-tool in order to gauge progress. If you do not have a formal program, you talk about some great topics and points, but you are unable to judge whether you are making progress. If you do not define it, you cannot measure it.

If you do not define it, you cannot measure it.

Lenovo also has its internal network which you have referenced, the Women in Lenovo Leadership Network, which was founded in 2007 and is active in more than 40 countries worldwide. Why do you think women’s networks are important and what is your experience of them?

There are two main reasons women’s networks are paramount. The first is offering support. It provides a group of people who may be facing similar challenges whom you can reach out to and lean on. The second is creating a movement.

However, merely having a women’s network and talking to the women in the company is not enough. You need to bring men along that journey, because as men lead teams of women, we need them to understand where we are coming from, the challenges that we face, and we also need their support to change behaviours.

Now based in Dubai, you have worked in other countries and areas of the world such as Africa and Turkey. How would you assess the impact of culture on marketing strategies and results?

Culture does not affect marketing strategy, but culture largely affects marketing execution. In my professional and personal experience, having worked and lived in a variety of environments, I believe people are more different than they are similar. For instance, the strategy would be the same, but the execution of the strategy between South Africa, Middle East, and the UK would be very different.

Whether it is from language, humour, or the visuals that you use, small touchpoints need to have a great deal of attention so that you better connect with your local consumers. If you miss truly connecting with the consumers, it can go horribly wrong; and with social media and digital, that “wrongness” can be spread in a matter of seconds. So, it is crucial that you remember to connect with your local consumers, or reserve “freedom within the framework.” Again, we are all more similar than we are different in that strategy is 80% similar, but that 20% execution and having the freedom to take into consideration those local nuances is imperative.

As mentioned above, WIL Europe is organising a future gathering in Dubai, the first time outside of Europe in ten years. What has been your experience of Dubai so far and how do you expect the city to change in the next decade?

I have lived in Dubai for twelve years now and like everybody else, I thought I would come for two years, but 12 years later, here I am, husband, child and honestly, I consider this place home!

What I love about Dubai is the ambitious agenda of creation within a relatively small country. The population is approximately 10 million people, but the UAE has got the whole world talking with our “first to do this,” “biggest to do that,” mindset!

What you will see is what I have seen over the last few years: the increased agenda for technology. Although Europe, or the Western world, is still leading some of those “firsts” in terms of the technology space, I believe that in the next few years, Dubai will be leading that agenda, not only for the Middle East, but globally!