Meet the Masters - Boukje Taphoorn, bol.com

BOUKJE TAPHOORN

Anca Condrea, Director at The Up Group, caught up with Boukje Taphoorn, Chief Marketing Officer of bol.com, the largest online retailer in the Netherlands and Belgium. Boukje shares her thoughts on why it’s important to find a brand voice before taking a stand on social issues and how bol.com are doing exactly that. During a recent win at the Dutch Marketing Awards, the judges described Boukje as ‘a marketer with a mission’ and here you can read why.

In your opinion what are the top three attributes of a marketing leader?

Firstly, I think a marketing leader needs to obsess over the customer experience. This is a big reflection point for me because I am not a detail-oriented person, and yet, when I see a tiny part that is wrong in the customer journey, I do get involved and ask questions. I am deeply convinced that there is no such thing as a small issue, because it all contributes and will eventually lead to a negative view of the brand. For that reason, marketers should not just be responsible for the brand campaigns but take ownership of the entire customer journey.

Another one is curiosity. I really think you should be very open to the outside world and be curious about new experiences, new brands, and new technology. Your customers will be confronted with it and raise their expectations accordingly, so marketers need to be aware of the trends happening around them.

Thirdly, a great marketing leader should really love to work with a combination of data, creativity, and technology. That is where the magic happens so having an interest – or ideally, a love – for all three is a necessity.

Has there been a particular experience at bol.com that brings one of these attributes to life?

Over the past couple of years, we have restructured the marketing organisation so that anything that involves customer interaction, such as customer service or app technology, is now the responsibility of the Marketing and Shopping department. The Product team are also part of that, which is where the combination of data, creativity, and technology comes into account. Every day we learn from the data to help us build app improvements and make sure our customers continue to love using it.

In your opinion, why does diversity matter and have you got any examples from your career where you have seen tangible business impact from increasing diversity?

There is now so much research available that proves that diverse teams are more successful. At bol.com we have 12.5 million customers, so if as a company we only represent one type of person, it is not going to work. Having a diverse team is a better reflection of our customers and our society.

I also think that ideas are much richer if you have a diverse team. I really saw this in action when I worked at Wieden + Kennedy. We had 150 nationalities working there, whereby I was the only Dutch person in the Amsterdam office for perspective, and it meant we created much richer global campaigns as we could draw on all those nationalities.

It also helps to set an example for those people that do not fit the ‘cookie cutter mould’ that we often see in Board Rooms. For example, all the Director positions in my team are held by women as they were the best people for the job. By representing a more diverse team, it highlights the opportunities available to different types of people and ultimately benefits the business by having a broader talent pool.

What advice do you have for your peers and other executives on prioritising D&I within their teams?

It may not be a popular opinion, but I do firmly believe there should be quotas and measurable targets when hiring. I know the counter-argument, of people thinking you have got the job because you are a woman and have felt it before myself, but I think it’s going too slow if we don’t set targets. If Advisory Boards become more diverse, I do believe that would help reduce the bias of who gets picked, because people are prone to hiring people that look like them. By having quotas now, it helps to create fair choices with more equally balanced teams. I also encourage everyone to say no to featuring on panels where diversity has not been considered or has been an afterthought with just one woman for example.

What have been the most important leadership lessons you have learnt over the past year, and will this change your leadership style?

The past year hasn’t changed, but rather, reinforced my leadership style of focusing on the people. I believe it is my role to gather the best people and to give them all the resources they need to do a good job, and they need to be happy and balanced doing that. At the beginning of the pandemic, I put almost all work topics to the side and concentrated on how my employees were personally coping. It highlighted what was important, and that if people know they have your trust and you are providing them the environment to flourish, then that gives them the confidence to do a good job.

How do you create a high-performance culture and are there any frameworks you have put in place?

The first step is to have clarity on what you need to do as a team. I have a great example that I learnt in my current role whilst at a team day we had when I was new. I was asked to create a ‘New Leader’s Speech’ which outlined my vision, rules, and what was important to me. Initially I felt uncomfortable as it seemed hierarchical, but it was a great exercise in providing clarity on where we were going as a team, how we could work together and what level of detail was expected. It set the scene and was a great experience from my side and the team’s perspective.

I am proud to say that I have a high-performing team and I value them immensely. In analysing it, one of the things that helped create that was my belief in hiring authentic people who want to perform for the benefit of the team. To get that high-performing environment, people need to really trust each other, and if it becomes clear that someone is only in it for their own gain, that trust disappears and overall performance decreases. Building a team on trust and finding those authentic people is so important.

The final suggestion I have is to grow your own confidence to be able to take a step back and let the people in your team flourish. I often advise hiring people who are smarter than you, but it takes self-confidence to do that because you must believe that someone in your team knows more about that subject than you do, and that can make you feel useless, but a leader’s role is to hire and support them to deliver their goals.

What is your career highlight to date?

I think my highlight is that I never really planned my career. I was in marketing at Unilever when I thought wow what they do at the agency sounds so interesting and I could learn so much there, then I took the next step. I worried that all these steps wouldn’t make sense and that I might have a really scattered profile. But the highlight is that in hindsight, it made sense – I went from brand marketing to creative agencies to digital. Because of those three separate aspects, I was able to create a profile which made sense for the role of CMO. I think by following my passion at the time, it turned out quite well for me.

I was also just awarded Marketer of the Year 2021 [at the Dutch Marketing Awards], so that is a mini highlight as well!

Consumer brands are being pulled into the stance of speaking up on social issues, and marketing is at the heart of that decision-making process. Where do you stand on that and how do you approach it?  

From an outside perspective, it was not very clear what bol.com stood for. I had previously spent so much time working with brands on finding their voice and I firmly believe that you need to have a point of view or opinion, which is often related to big social issues. So, the first thing I did was help define our voice so we could take a stand on certain issues and formulate ambitions.

For example, in the Netherlands there is the tradition of ‘Zwarte Piet’ [translates to Black Pete] which has been a topic of debate in recent years. As a brand, our slogan is ‘the shop of all of us’ and for that to happen we need to be inclusive, so we put a ban on selling any black faced articles, images, or toys. Part of the Dutch population exploded with negative reviews, but our social team responded exactly how you would expect a brand with a voice to do so – we were very sharp, aligned with our brand tone of voice and stood our ground on our point of view.

It also helped us to think more about the role we want to play in society and as we started off as a bookstore, education is at the core of what we do. We zoomed in on supporting children as it fits with our brand and launched a foundation to help support equal education rights for all children. Brands need to have a focus on what they are going to support, and the reason behind it.  

The environment is also a very important topic for us as a large eCommerce player. Originally our ambition was to be CO2 neutral in 2025 and we are on our way to achieving that. Yet we are also thinking about the next goal and how we might help our customers get more out of the things we sell, so having a sharper ambition around consumption. The topic is front of mind for all our customers, and it makes business sense to listen to them and act on it.

Are there any books, blogs or podcasts that have influenced your leadership style which you would recommend?

I like listening to podcasts with big creative thinkers. I really like Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. I love to go on a walk and listen to their vision.

The book Ikigai by Francesc Miralles and Hector Garcia is a great read, about a population in Japan who are the world’s longest-living people and they believe everyone has an ikigai – a reason to jump out of bed each morning. It’s about finding your purpose and how your job plays a big role in that. During the pandemic, it has helped me reset and remind myself why I do what I do.