Jim Cook

Joined Mission Data,  a Web solutions company based in Louisville, KY. and Washington D.C. in 2008, leading the transition to a digital strategy, marketing, social and mobile Web consulting services focus. Experiencing 25% growth during a recessionary economy by targeting growth start up and medium size businesses in several industries that require digital thoughtleadership in Web, social and mobile marketing strategies. My experience developing strategic client relationships and innovation in emerging media and digital marketing consulting services is significantly contributing to our revenue growth. Utilizing my operational expertise to increase efficiency, scaling business development, project management processes, and execution effectiveness with complex integrated client solutions. Creating measurable return on investment for clients by transitioning their traditional marketing budgets into effective and engaging digital consumer marketing initiatives. Through the application of emerging mobile and social Web technologies I develop innovative digital marketing and social interaction solutions to grow brand awareness and meet consumer engagement objectives. My digital marketing consulting process involves a comprehensive approach including competitive analysis, target audience research, development and alignment of key business drivers, analytical measurement and ongoing iterative optimization. During the last two years I have developed digital marketing, mobile and social interaction strategies for clients in diverse industries; health and wellness, pharmaceutical, financial services, manufacturing, fashion, real estate, non-profit, education, technology, government, transportation, communication, sports, media, advertising, entertainment, publishing and consumer products.

led the strategic transition from a Internet marketing strategy, customer experience design and Web development company to a Software as a Services (SaaS) company providing semantic marketing enablement services and technology. This is a brief description of our success and my role: I co-founded ThoughtLava and developed a base of over 50 clients. My method of new business development is to quickly identify three or four key business drivers (activities that will increase revenue and or provide operational efficiencies) and demonstrate how digital marketing and Web strategies can partner to achieve those business objectives. While, in my opinion, one of most critical functions of a digital marketing strategy is lead capture or customer acquisition, the conversion of an engaged visitor into a prospect is optimal. I have found the higher the relevance the higher the likelihood that a prospect will provide contact information or become a customer. To that end, we developed patent pending semantic marketing services and technology enabling websites to recognize representatives of specific market segments or personas and deliver a more meaningful experience and brand personalization. We began marketing our technology - Semanticator™ - as a license in February 2008. More than ten companies licensed  our semantic marketing services and technology from industries likeautomotive, floral, publishing, hospitality, transportation and storage.ThoughtLava evolved into a virtual operation with geographically dispersed personnel and clients across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Through our rapid adoption of innovative business methodologies and Web 2.0 technologies, we built a strong relationship with public and private global companies as a unified organization. I led our company in the research and adoption of 100% Web 2.0 applications to operate our business - project management, communication, business development, customer relationship management, accounting, etc.. Even our presentations were delivered via Web applications; this enabled us to be hyper effective and productive from any computer or mobile device connected to the Internet. With regard to managing our Web developers in India, we initially experienced 70% accuracy due to misinterpretation and ambiguity within business and functional requirements. To resolve this issue, we began utilizing a Web 2.0 application that enabled us to create rapid prototype simulations for each Web development project, which increased developer accuracy to 95%. This was successful for two reasons. First, it allowed our clients to become more involved in the process - they found it easier to contribute when exploring a functioning simulation versus only reviewing written business, functional and technical requirements. Second, our India based developers were able to deal with less ambiguity when a prototype accompanied the traditional requirements documentation. I utilized business development 2.0, digital marketing and social media marketing strategies to accomplish client acquisition goals. I am extremely active in business and consumer social networks like LinkedIn, Plaxo and Facebook. These social networks resulted in the majority of our business development opportunities. In addition, I participate in emerging social networks like Twitter - by engaging and following those in our target market segments, I found that they began following me. Twitter humanizes the marketing process providing me with direct, instant access via computer or iPhone to hundreds of digital marketing, Web 2.0, search marketing, social media, mobile marketing and Internet technology opinion leaders that not only discovered what we did interesting, but took action. I have also utilized "Comment Marketing" into a fertile customer acquisition strategy. I monitored hundreds of blogs read by my target market utilizing Google Reader. On a daily basis we looked for opportunities to be relevant. We contributed comments on blogs that were related to our work - always promoting our solution, albeit subtly. This resulted in significant qualified prospect traffic to our semantic marketing technology website semanticator.com.

Insight Enterprises, Inc. (NSIT) is ranked 477 on the 2008 Fortune 500, a leading provider of information technology hardware, software and services to large enterprises, small- to medium-sized businesses and public sector institutions in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. My role at Insight, was to set marketing, customer experience and ecommerce strategy objectives and manage marketing operational processes across the parent company and its subsidiaries. I participated in mergers, acquisitions and my strategic marketing leadership and ecommerce management expertise was critical in transitioning Insight’s brand to a position of trusted advisor to its clients, helping them enhance their business performance through innovative technology solutions. led Insight’s ecommerce excellence with strategic focus on developing an optimal customer experience, resulting in the growth of Web based sales to over $3 billion.

When I joined Direct Alliance Corporation it was the largest subsidiary of Insight Enterprises (NSIT) with annual sales of greater than $60 million offering outsourced sales & marketing, business process, account management and ecommerce services that enable the Fortune 500 to efficiently serve small and medium-sized businesses. I was a member of the Executive Management team that set strategic direction for the entire company. I led the marketing, experience design and ecommerce team in packaging a complex array of related, but separate services into a cohesive set of branded sales & marketing offerings that followed a more natural sales progression. This enabled the Direct Alliance sales and business development process to more clearly communicate the offerings and close significant new business, including Xerox, HP, Okidata and IBM. Insight Enterprises was interested in improved performance with the goal of divesting - Direct Alliance Corporation was acquired by TeleTech (TTEC) in 2006 with annual revenues in excess of $77 million.

General Electric (GE) is ranked 6 on the 2008 Fortune 500 with annual revenue of $173 billion operating six businesses from jet engines to power generation, financial services to water processing, and medical imaging to media content. My role in the Capital Solutions business unit was to provide strategic leadership in experience design methodologies and alignment of ecommerce applications to the business objectives of each market segment. I developed globally applicable business-to-business personalization strategies focused on customer acquisition, retention and loyalty. Synchronized disparate digital marketing strategies into a cohesive plan for search optimization and search marketing to achieve ecommerce customer acquisition objectives. Resulting in operational cost saving efficiencies and improved ROI in excess of $3 million. Established Web analytics processes utilizing multivariate testing and data mining of Web browsing and purchase patterns to develop personas and market segmentation profiles. Leveraged this knowledge to deliver highly relevant targeted content in a persuasive and compelling customer experience. The personalization strategy and market segmentation schemes increased Capital Solutions ability to meet Internet channel acquisition and customer retention objectives.

Sprint Nextel (S) is ranked 58 on the 2008 Fortune 500 with annual revenue over $40 billion, and is a leading telecommunications company delivering comprehensive communication services from personal to enterprise. I was requested to lead the 'One Sprint' Web experience design strategy and integration initiative of all major business units into a single cohesive website. I created and managed a cross-functional team comprised from each of Sprint’s seven major business units. As a team, we secured the commitment and cooperation of the top 30 marketing and ecommerce individuals across the organization. Our team transitioned seven separate websites into a single unified customer experience. This provided Sprint customers a view of the full spectrum of services for their particular customer type, re-establishing an implicit message of "Clarity" consistent with the core Sprint brand message. We accomplished this goal without utilizing outside agencies (minimum $500,000 in cost savings). We also led the migration of all Sprint websites to a single Web marketing and ecommerce platform by persuading each major business unit to unify their development budgets and technology selection process. The consolidation of ecommerce budgets resulted in operational cost savings in excess of $9 million.

My initial role at Sprint was in the wireless business unit, Sprint PCS. I developed and managed product concept engineering initiatives in marketing research, usability and user centered design processes. My role involved the complex articulation and communication of emerging products and services in the wireless market, accurately defining the optimal customer experience into research design simulations and Web applications. Developed strategy and managed the customer experience design, information architecture, content development and production team for a retail digital sales & marketing kiosk, InfoCenter. The Sprint PCS InfoCenter provided potential wireless customers with qualifying market specific purchase decision information in a variety of third party retail environments including Best Buy, Radio Shack, Circuit City and Sprint stores. The application was designed to track usage patterns and trends, facilitating the initial data collection, analysis and ecommerce strategy development of sprintpcs.com. led the usability research and experience design of the initial Sprint PCS ecommerce website. It's hard to imagine, but prior to my work at Sprint PCS, you could not buy a mobile phone and service online until 1998. I developed a comprehensive digital sales & marketing strategy focused on customer engagement, sales and retention by providing Web based customer care. The new website resulted in operational cost savings to the Sprint call centers in excess of $6 million.

Bandag, Inc. | Bridgestone Corporation (BRDCY) provides commercial tire products and trucking fleet services through a dealer network of over 1,600 sales and service locations in North America.  Bandag serves global trucking fleets through 1,000 franchisees in 100 countries. Provided strategic innovation and development of portable computer based interactive multimedia sales and marketing applications. These interactive multimedia sales & marketing tools converted research and development data on product performance into dynamic interactive models that visualized and articulated the benefits of Bandag’s product & service suite to national fleet client prospects. Developed the initial Internet marketing strategy, designed and produced the first website in 1995. Led interactive computer based multimedia into a new sales & marketing tool in the Bandag corporate communications group. Produced a major interactive multimedia application that utilized digital video and touch screen kiosk technology in 1992. The kiosk business objective was to communicate Bandag’s corporate quality initiatives at their annual global franchisee trade show and business conference. The interactive kiosk received a Silver CINDY award at the 1993 INFOCOMM conference. Research and development of a digital video/multimedia production facility and creative services design team to cost effectively project manage and produce technical training, sales & marketing communication initiatives within the corporate communications group. Resulting in annual cost savings of $1 million, Bandag Inc., with annual revenue over $900 million was acquired by Bridgestone in 2007.