From Agency to Corporate: Trial by Fire!

Joseph Panetta

Fractional CMO | “makes the complex simple, the boring unforgettable and the risky wildly successful” | Experience Architect | Framework

August 5, 2025

By 2004 I had worked in New York City #marketingagencies for 15 years.  As one #recruiter put it: you are on the verge of becoming an ‘agency guy.’  Subtext there was I would never transition to corporate.

To be honest, I was happy in my role at the time.  The agency was great, the owner was an amazing mentor and my team and clients were primo.

Being poached for this role was a bit of a surprise.  And I would come to peel this onion over the coming weeks….

Swatch Group is like saying “I work at Coke.”  The Coca Cola Corporation is more than one soft drink brand.  Similarly, The Swatch Group is more than Swatch: it is a holding company of 160 brands – a vertically integrated behemoth with (at that time) 23,000 employees, 43 subsidiaries, 22 retail watch brands; 140-ish manufacturing brands that made component parts for every Swiss watch.  Yes, every Swiss watch brand at the time contained at lest one (usualy a lot more) part from one or more of the companie that comprise The Swatch Group.  Most still do.

The company’s origins are fascinating, and I will cover those another time.

My new role was Vice President Corporate Communications and Brand Relations. Big title.  Big job.  And my boss, the head of the US subsidiary, committed a political sin hiring me sight-unseen by his Swiss counterparts.  In a matrix organization like this, new management committee members are vetted by many people at different levels in the company.  My boss had little time to turn the tide in the US and he needed an “agency guy.”  He wanted the discipline and rigor of an agency veteran – not a watch industry stalwart who’d been at three other watch brands prior to this.

I received the offer while on vacation in Mexico and the recruiter told me there was no negotiation.  It was “yes” or “no”.  I said yes.

My literal first day on the job, I flew to Switzerland to attend the annual Watch & Jewelry Trade Fair in Basel.  I would meet all 22 brands in the Group, their leadership and learn all their new products over briefings 2 days before the start of the Fair.  I was put through the ‘literal’ ringer on that trip – it was a trial by fire.  But I succeeded.

Frankly, the whole thing is a blur now but there was one encounter I recall with great clarity – I was introduced to Beatrice Howald .  She had been with the company almost since inception and was the global head of comms.  This woman knew where “all the bodies were buried.”

We met, she greeted me saying, “head of US comms.  That’s a big job.”

“It is,” I replied.

A bit of light chit chat ensure and off I went.

Later my boss pulled me aside and said, “Congratulations, you made a very good first impression with Mdme Howald.”

“Oh?  I did?” said I.

“Yes, when she mentioned how big this role is, you did not come in with big American shoes and talk about being ready for it – or projecting over-confidence.  You just agreed.  She liked that,” he explained.

 “I see,” I demurred.

My tenure with Swatch Group took me to the UK for 2+ years, to Switzerland, to China, Japan, East Germany; twice I entertained at The Louvre and even attended a special event at The Petit Trianon at Versailles.

It was quite a run and there are many more stories to share.  Eventually, the HQ wanted my talents applied to one of the brands on a global scale versus being in a subsidiary over multiple brands.  There were a few offers but none spoke to me.

I allowed my contract to expire and repatriated to the US and my home in NYC.  It was 2009, the throes of the Great Recession – I could not have picked a worse time to be a CMO out of a job.

And thus, the origins of Left of Cent

er Consulting.