Meet Shelagh Stoneham: SVP of Marketing at Shoppers Drug Mart

“My style is also about fostering a culture of creativity—and creativity demands a bit of risk-taking.”

Sharing industry insights and strategic advice, Shelagh Stoneham reflects on the evolutionary journey that led to her current position as Senior Vice-President of Marketing for Shoppers Drug Mart.

BY ASTRID VAN DEN BROEK

[woiiconheading type=”h4″]Shelagh shares her best tip for achieving goals:[/woiiconheading]

“I used to just write down my career goals, but then I realized that if you don’t have a strategy to achieve them, you won’t likely get there. I encourage women to write down their goals with clear success metrics, and revisit them every six months to see how they’re doing.” Also, she keeps them tucked away in her purse.

Clearly the strategy has worked for Shelagh. Starting out on the agency side of the business, she gained her career experience by crossing back and forth from advertising to client side, in a series of increasingly impressive senior titles at top firms. With 25 years of marketing experience behind her, she recently took over as Senior Vice-President of Marketing for national drug store chain Shoppers Drug Mart, guiding a brand that is synonymous with delivering great customer experience, value, and earning customers’ trust (Stoneham proudly notes that 59 per cent of Canadian shoppers visit at least once a month—a tally of 1.2 million customers daily).

“Marketers need to be pinball wizards as customers engage with brands on their terms anytime, anyplace, and in no fully predictable pattern.”

[woiiconheading type=”h4″]What made her such a great fit for the role?[/woiiconheading]

Shelagh has evolved with the industry as its marketing needs and demands have shifted rapidly and dramatically. “In the time I’ve worked in marketing, the competitive set for brands has expanded exponentially—Amazon is virtually every brand’s competitor. The face of media has changed in that new media is now mainstream, and consumers engage in multiple media channels at the same time. Marketing used to be a more classic skill with customers following a standard path to purchase, and today—more than ever before—we need to stay current in the latest technology and customer behaviour to work in it. Marketers need to be pinball wizards as customers engage with brands on their terms anytime, anyplace, and in no fully predictable pattern.”

Her leadership style has equally developed over that time, to what she describes it as today: “I’ve built a reputation for being a vibrant, collaborative, authentic leader with a passion for innovation. My style is also about fostering a culture of creativity—and creativity demands a bit of risk-taking.” Stoneham certainly doesn’t shy away from calculated risks, whether that means forging ahead with new ideas, or addressing problematic relationships head on.

“I tell women in the industry that it’s important to give back to your industry, so volunteer and serve on boards.”

She’s equally frank about career failures, which she sees in hindsight as learning moments, and vows never to repeat. “For example, I learned early on the importance of clear communication and collaboration and asking: what don’t I know? And what should I share?”

The passion and vibrancy she applies to her career carries over to her life outside the workplace as well. Shelagh lists a dizzying number of extra-curricular activities: her passion is scuba diving, she does a Pilates reformer program five days a week, plays tennis on summer weekends and in the winter also skis and skates; she reads on average five books a week, four personal and one business (such as Arianna Huffington’s Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder). On top of that, she has sat and continues to sit on numerous boards, such as Amalco (former PMB & NADbank), and is the chair of Alliance for Audited Media Canada (former Audit Bureau of Circulations Canada).

[woiiconheading type=”h4″]Parting advice[/woiiconheading]

“I tell women in the industry that it’s important to give back to your industry, so volunteer and serve on boards,” she says. “One goal I had a few years ago was to serve on a couple of industry boards so I could better understand the media industry, learn from my colleagues, and at the same time give back to my community.”

And yes, in case you’re wondering, that goal had been tucked away in her purse.