30% market share in 30 days
Company Overview
Company Name
DiDi
Company Size
10,000+ employees
Location
Beijing, China (based in UK with global travel)
Lines of Business
Ride-Hailing, Food Delivery, Financial Payments
Context
DiDi's international business spanned 12 countries across Latin America, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia, operating across three verticals: ride-hailing, food delivery, and financial payments. It operated under two brands: DiDi globally and 99 in Brazil. Marketing was fully distributed across countries with the brand presented inconsistently and with little coherence, significantly eroding brand power and value. At the same time, DiDi was planning to expand into another 50 markets at speed. The business needed an international centre of excellence for marketing that could transform performance in existing markets while enabling rapid, efficient expansion into new ones.
Background
I was hired as Chief Marketing Officer for DiDi's international business, covering all lines of business outside of China. The brief was twofold: build an international marketing centre of excellence that could scale to 50 new markets at speed and with efficiency, while simultaneously transforming and reorganising marketing in the existing 12 countries to improve effectiveness and reduce costs. This was a build-and-transform mandate running in parallel, across three business verticals, two brands, and multiple cultures and languages. Shortly after I joined, DiDi launched its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, the biggest Chinese IPO since Alibaba, but against the wishes of the Chinese government. A cyber security investigation followed swiftly. DiDi's app was removed from app stores in China and the company was eventually forced to delist from New York. My brief changed overnight from expansion and growth to maximum efficiency and managed contraction.
Actions Taken
I completed a detailed situation analysis including a listening tour across all markets and with all stakeholders. From this I developed a strategy for the business, a new operating model, a new organisational model, and new ways of working. I standardised KPIs, measurement frameworks, planning frameworks, and performance management across all markets.
I established a marketing centre of excellence in London that handled brand, research, reporting, analytics, all global marketing activity, and new country launches. I conducted research across all businesses and all markets, developed positioning hypotheses and brand expressions, and tested these with customers and employees. I then ran a workshop with the global executive leadership team to work through the results and agree a final brand positioning and expression. Within 60 days, DiDi International had a new global and integrated brand strategy that represented all business lines and both brands. The final positioning was not the one favoured by the executive leadership in China. It was the one favoured by consumers and employees. It is still in use by the brand today.
Through the centre of excellence, we led the launches in South Africa, Egypt, and Kazakhstan, achieving 30% market share within 30 days in each. Towards the end of my tenure, we launched an entirely new brand and a new business model in Tanzania as a market test, designed to counter a very aggressive competitor entering our markets with a pure agency model.
I also had to deal with a significant performance issue in Brazil, our single biggest and most profitable market. The marketing leader was underperforming and creating disruption across the wider international business. I removed the individual, took over as interim for Brazil alongside my international CMO role, and stabilised the market. Brazil returned to growth and we appointed an internal successor.
When the business shifted to contraction following the IPO crisis, I managed the closure of the London centre of excellence, led the exits from South Africa and Kazakhstan, and oversaw the withdrawal from three countries in Latin America. The focus of the role moved to Latin America optimisation. I organised and trained a replacement regional CMO for Latin America before resigning to pursue other opportunities. The company wanted to retain me, but the role no longer required a CMO of my scope based in London.
Results
DiDi launched in three new countries, achieving 30% market share within 30 days in each. A fourth market, Tanzania, was launched under an entirely new brand and business model as a competitive response. Existing markets achieved all commercial targets and brand performance targets while reducing costs by 20%. Marketing achieved the highest employee net promoter score of any business unit in the international business. A new integrated brand strategy was delivered within 60 days and adopted globally, and it remains in use today. When the business pivoted to contraction, the managed exit from multiple markets, closure of the centre of excellence, and handover to a trained regional replacement were all completed without disruption to ongoing operations.