The B-Side: Boody's Ruth Haffenden On What Makes A Good Leader & What She Has Learned Since Becoming A CMO

The B-Side: Boody’s Ruth Haffenden On What Makes A Good Leader & What She Has Learned Since Becoming A CMO

Published on: 29th July 2024 at 10:40 AM

Arvind Hickman

4 Min Read

Watch the full episode of The B-Side with Ruth Haffenden above.

After an extensive career at advertising agencies, Ruth Haffenden took on a role to lead marketing at the Australian bamboo apparel brand Boody. She speaks to Dan Krigstein about the move, what she has learned as a marketer and what good leadership looks like in the latest episode of the B-Side vodcast series by News Corp’s The Growth Distillery in partnership with B&T.

Ruth Haffenden began her career in PR and worked at Four Communications in the UK. She then moved into a content and social role at Mindshare before moving to Australia where she worked at Isentia and The Works, where she was a managing partner.

Haffenden joined Boody in 2022 as its global head of brand and marketing and was promoted to CMO earlier this year. The brand has gained B-Corp status and substantially grown its e-commerce sales; historically Boody products were primarily sold in pharmacies.

In the latest episode of The B-Side, The Growth Distillery’s director Dan Krigstein asked Haffenden what she has learned since going client side.

“I’ve gained a huge amount of knowledge,” she said. “I was always aware that the agency only had a slice of the picture and often weren’t far enough up the chain to make change – after all the brief is the brief. You can question the brief but you can’t question the product, the price or position. So exposure to that has been an incredible learning curve and something I cherish every day.”

Haffenden said that she has picked up valuable lessons about leadership throughout her career as an agency boss and CMO. When asked what are common traits of a good leader, she said: “Leadership is about having a good level of EQ, that’s the primary thing I see in good leaders… It’s about knowing when to be vulnerable and knowing when to lead with real spirit and dedication.

“Learn the difference between resilience and being taken advantage of. I think that is the most important thing because leadership doesn’t look like one certain thing.

“At Boody we also talk about ruthless prioritisation, how you can deliver news better, bring people on a journey, how you can deliver bad news while still motivating people.”