Brand

I was flipping through the October issue of SmartCEO, a free magazine that somehow makes it to my door every month, and came across an interesting review of The Shift: Transformation of Today’s Marketers into Tomorrow’s Growth Leaders.

The review was written by Doug Davidoff (founder and CEO of Imagine Business Development) and he has an interesting blog that you might want to check out.

Here are a few excerpts I found of great interest:

Davis concedes that the confusion around the function of marketing is the marketing executives’ fault.  Marketing has become increasingly myopic and focused on tactical issues, such as marketing mix, media selection and ROI.  While these issues are important, rarely are they the difference between success and failure.  Davis says the marketing leader must be at the center of all aspects of a company’s growth initiatives.

I couldn’t agree more – by focusing solely on today rather than where the organization needs to go in order to bring the mission to life, the marketing leader is transactional and tactical.

Now, that said, the challenge is getting the rest of the C-level suite engaged in a conversation that goes beyond daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly performance.  It takes a unique CEO and culture to focus on where the organization is today, where it needs to be tomorrow and discuss how to get there quickly, efficiently, successfully.

Davidoff goes on to write about Davis’ “…five critical shifts that are changing the nature of the marketing leader’s function.”

1. A shift from creating marketing strategies to driving business impact.
2. From controlling the message to galvanizing your network.
3. From incremental improvements to pervasive innovation.
4. From manging marketing investments to inspiring marketing excellence.
5. From an operational focus to a relentless customer focus.

His points are important though I have issues with the label of ‘critical shifts’ since I have long believed that marketing should drive senior-level discussions on growth, and that marketing drives data-driven strategic initiatives and innovations.  I also have long believed that marketing should optimize performance (test, learn, adapt) and success can only come when all areas of the business are involved because there’s nothing like a great promotional campaign for a poor product surrounded by poor service.

Bottom line – the review is well written and the book sounds like a good read on my next business trip.  If you have read the book, let me know what you think.