Nespresso NA’s CEO and Top Marketer Reveal the Keys to Their Powerful Relationship

Green Goblin and Spider-Man. The Montagues and the Capulets. The CEO and their top marketer.

Peaceful coexistence might seem like a pipe dream, but at least there’s a viable path forward for C-suite execs. Speaking at ADWEEK’s annual Brandweek conference in Phoenix, Ariz. on Tuesday, Nespresso’s North America CEO Alfonso Gonzalez Loeschen and vp of U.S. marketing Jessica Padula broke down the challenges they faced in making their relationship thrive—and how they overcame them.

Complicating the dynamic is Loeschen’s deep experience as a top marketer himself: He was Nespresso’s global CMO before stepping into its top spot in North America four years ago.

Before Padula started, she and Loeschen had to level-set on what the expectations of the job would be, Loeschen said. This was pivotal in starting the relationship, as Loeschen was able to lay out the hard and soft skills he valued most in a marketing leader.

“At that point in time, Jess was viewing the role in a way where it was more marketing-focused and marketing-oriented only,” Loeschen said.

He emphasized that since Padula would be sitting on the board of Nespresso North America, she’d have broader influence across the entire organization. She would, for instance, need to sway other colleagues in the C-suite, he said. The job also demanded the need to recognize when and how to be a right hand to the sales unit, Padula added.

Padula had to branch out within the Nespresso organization. For instance, no one had ever walked her, line-by-line, through Nespresso’s full profit and loss statement, she said, even though she was familiar with the marketing team’s P&L. Padula recalled going to the CFO and asking for someone to take her through the whole thing. 

If a marketer thinks of themselves as the only person who’s in charge of the brand, that’s going to be an issue from day one.

Jessica Padula, vp of U.S. marketing, Nespresso

“It’s not because I’m ever going to own it, but I need to be able to talk to [the CFO] about how he thinks,” she said. The need for curiosity and willingness to learn from colleagues become more relevant the higher someone ascends in an organization, she said. 

Meanwhile, Padula also needed Loeschen’s assurance that he would trust her enough to leave her alone enough so she could do her job.

“Can you let go enough to trust me to do this job now that I’m in that seat? But also, can I trust that I can bring you ideas and thoughts and have you engage with me?” she said.

As a former CMO, that aspect was harder for Loeschen, who said he had to make a “conscientious decision,” once he became a CEO, to walk away from a lot of marketing responsibilities. “Being an ex-CMO, the biggest pitfall is that I still want to be a marketer,” he said, adding: “But you need to take a step back.”  

Padula also needed to let go. As a younger marketer, she focused mostly on social and digital media, but now that she was working with the Nespresso brass, she had to realize that multiple people at the corporation have a say in how the brand is represented. 

“If a marketer thinks of themselves as the only person who’s in charge of the brand, that’s going to be an issue from day one,” she said. 

She understood that she would not be in every discussion where the Nespresso brand was represented, and had to trust that Loeschen would also make sure the brand would always be “thoughtfully considered.”

As marketers grow in their career, it’s important to have the counsel of the top executives beyond their main discipline. 

“It’s kind of lonely at the top,” Padula said. “And you don’t have a lot of marketers to share ideas with. Your team is relying on you to set that vision for the marketing strategy. And yet, I can go to my CEO, as long as you build that working relationship.”