Zachary Dugas
Global Product Owner CMS & SaaS
Zachary Dugas
What has been your business/work highlight of 2024 so far?
Led the development and launch of the first-ever CDP & Personalisation solution at the centre of the MarTech stack
Who is your business hero and why?
Yvon Chouinard – founding, and leading one of the outdoor industry’s most well-known and highly profitable companies to finally donate 98% of the company to a newly established nonprofit organisation to use the funds to combat climate change. Showing that there is an aspect of humanity amidst the capitalist machine that drives most of the world today, and we can be better than it.
What’s the biggest business mistake you’ve made and what did you learn from it?
Probably attempting to do everything myself. When something becomes highly important and time-sensitive I tend to shift to “tunnel vision” and omit delegating to my team.
What’s the most inspirational book you’ve ever read and why?
Finding the Mother Tree – by Suzanne Simard (a fellow Quebecois) who inspires via her research and story-telling of the interconnection of forests and human society. I must have read this at least 5 times by now and recommend it to everyone I meet. Her ability to describe the extremely elaborate and complex theories pertaining to networks of different fungi linking the roots of different trees together just shows us how interconnected everything really is. Truly fascinating and I believe can be applied to much more.
What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role in 2024?
There is no shortage of challenges, all exciting and varying in size, complexity and priority. Leaving out all those that will show up unannounced!
One major challenge that we have already defined is to change the ecommerce solution/platform. With the plan to drastically activate new B2C markets exponentially, we will need to ensure a solid solution is in place.
What technology will have the greatest impact on your business this year and why?
With everything happening around data security, compliance and integrity, I believe that a CDP with master data management will be critical to:
1. Gaining the trust of customers
2. Understanding customers
3. Engaging properly with customer