In a video interview with the Kilts Center, Roehm offers insight into why she chose Chicago Booth, the ways that her MBA has supported her in her work, and how the Kilts Center enriches the marketing curriculum here.
One in five part-time students chooses to pursue a concentration in marketing management while earning their MBA at Chicago Booth, and there are many resources available for students interested in making marketing a focus of their degree.
The James M. Kilts Center for Marketing advances marketing at Chicago Booth by facilitating faculty research, supporting innovations in the marketing curriculum, funding scholarships for MBA and PhD students, and creating engaging programs aimed at enhancing the careers of students and alumni. Each year, hundreds of students take part in events, marketing labs, and the Part-Time Booth Marketing Club. The Kilts Center has gathered some recent features on program faculty and alumni whose work is helping to revolutionize the industry.
Julie Roehm received her MBA from Chicago Booth in 1995 and is currently the senior vice president and chief storyteller at SAP. In a video interview with the Kilts Center, Roehm offers insight into why she chose Chicago Booth, the ways that her MBA has supported her in her work, and how the Kilts Center enriches the marketing curriculum at Booth.
Julie Roehm: 00:00
What I've tried to do over my career is hone the combination of art, science, and psychology into the craft of marketing. Because today, software isn't just consumed by the CTO and CIO. It's consumed by everybody. So if we can't relate what we do to everybody, we're going to be missing some people that are going to be very important to us in the long run. So we created a whole host of storytellers. We built a bunch of stories and we put them out there in the public for people to consume and think of us differently. That we could talk about what it is that we do from a sometimes very complex technological software solution, in a way that is very compelling and memorable to people like my mom. She's my litmus test. If my mom gets it and eyes light up, I know I've done it well, right?
Julie Roehm: 00:49
I've made a complex story simple. Here, at Booth, I felt like this was going to hone in on the quantitative element and separate me from the pack, because I would be able to fit in a conversation with a CFO or COO or head of manufacturing. I would be able to have a peer-to-peer conversation much more naturally because I wouldn't be afraid of that quantitative analytical conversation, and I'd be able to relate the importance of marketing to it, and that has served me so well. The Kilts Center, having seen that and knowing Jim Kilts and the legacy that he brings and the support that he has given, is amazing. For me, this is a resource that I don't think you can begin to overestimate the importance of. I just think it's a great opportunity for community, for network, for exploring resources and skills. I think that we've got something very exciting happening.
Excerpts from the interview:
“Here at Booth, I felt like this was going to hone in on the quantitative element and separate me from the pack because I would be able to fit in in a conversation with a CFO or a COO or a head of manufacturing. I would be able to have a peer-to-peer conversation much more naturally because I wouldn’t be afraid of that quantitative, analytical conversation, and I’d be able to relate the importance of marketing to it – and that has served me so well.”
“The Kilts Center…is a resource that I don’t think you can begin to overestimate the importance of. It’s a great opportunity for community, for network, for exploring resources and skills. I think we’ve got something very exciting happening.”
If you would like to learn more about Chicago Booth’s marketing concentration, please contact the Evening MBA and Weekend MBA Admissions staff. For more information about the Kilts Center and resources for students, please visit their website.
