From IT to Marketing: Why the Future of Marketing Leaders Is Technical - with Claudio Toldi

Marketing leadership is changing. The marketers creating the biggest impact today aren't only experts in brand, messaging, or campaigns...they're also the leaders who understand systems, data, technology, and how to connect business needs with technical execution. In this episode, Michael Jäger sits down with Claudio Toldi, Head of Global Marketing Platforms & Operations at Continental. Having moved from IT, digital transformation, and e-commerce into global marketing leadership, Claudio shares why technical fluency is becoming one of the most important capabilities for modern marketing leaders. In this episode: ✌️ Win #1 — Becoming the bridge between business and IT: how Claudio helped accelerate the development of a customer-facing fleet management platform by translating business requirements into scalable technical solutions, helping take a concept from idea to market in just six months. ✌️ Win #2 — Finding the win-win between stakeholders: why successful marketing operations require balancing customer needs, business priorities, and technical constraints — and how defining a pragmatic MVP helped align sales, marketing, and IT around measurable customer value. 🌱 Fail — Moving too fast with marketing automation: how launching a marketing automation initiative in APAC without fully defining business goals and requirements led to confusion, rework, and a complete reset of the project approach. Whether you're a CMO, marketing leader, RevOps professional, or someone navigating the growing intersection between marketing and technology, this episode offers practical lessons on why the future of marketing leadership is increasingly technical. Connect with Claudio: 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudiotoldi/ 🔗 Continental: https://www.continental.com/ 🎙️ Beyond Revenue is hosted by Michael Jäger, Managing Partner at Cremanski & Company. New episodes every Friday. ⏱️ Episode Timestamps 00:00 — Intro & Claudio's background 01:24 — The moment marketing became a technical discipline 02:22 — The technical capabilities marketing leaders underestimate 03:20 — Customer experience, digitalisation & marketing transformation 04:13 — Win #1: Bridging business and IT 05:50 — Building a customer platform in six months 07:10 — Win #2: Finding the stakeholder win-win 09:32 — Defining the right MVP 10:05 — The fail: Marketing automation in APAC 11:39 — Why speed isn't always the answer 14:04 — Where to find Claudio