Marketing in the Age of Turbulence

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Where was the thinking done about what diseases the company should pursue, how big the opportunity is, should the solution be in the form of a pill, liquid, or patch, and so on?

I am not arguing that the marketing department should call the shots on growth strategy. I am asking for marketing to be a proactive collaborator in developing the firm's growth strategy. Yet marketing for the most part remains busy with details.

The recent appointment of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) is a good sign. A CMO presumably joins the senior management group to help plan the company's future. He or she brings in the voice of the customer into the company's thinking and tries to get management to move from marketing to "consumering." develops better ways to get customer insight; develops better metrics for measuring the impact of different marketing efforts; protects and enhances the company's brands; and brings in new marketing technologies and skills to the marketing department.

What is preventing the marketing department from taking on a stronger leadership role?

Most marketers have been hired into a marketing department because they are right-brain trained—that is, creative. They are less well-trained in their left brain, the part that thinks about numbers, finance, and evidence. But they have to deal with managers who by and large are left-brain trained. (Anyone interested in this subject should read the recently published book War in the Boardroom: Why Left-Brain Management and Right-Brain Marketing Don't See Eye-to-Eye—and What to Do About It by Al and Laura Ries). The key need then is to put into the marketing department some sharp left-brain people or two-brain people who can work with the other managers. Once department managers begin to deal with some two-brain strategic marketing managers, marketing will play a stronger leadership role.

What else are you busy thinking about?

In our newly released book, Chaotics: The Business of Managing and Marketing in The Age of Turbulence, John Caslione and I have built a Chaotics Management System for dealing with the increasing level of turbulence and disruption in the modern world. We talk about early warning systems, scenario planning, risk and uncertainty, new opportunities, and robust and resilient company departments. We offer a comprehensive way for managers to monitor the new economy and make better and quicker decisions.

Thank you for your time, Philip.

Readers, you can find out more about Philip Kotler's new projects at www.chaoticsstrategies.com and www.upandoutofpoverty.com. I would love to hear from you. Please send your comments about marketing in the Age of Turbulence.

Marshall Goldsmith is the author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Succession: Are You Ready? as well as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller What Got You Here Won't Get You There, a Harold Longman Award winner for Business Book of the Year. He can be reached at Marshall@MarshallGoldsmith.com, and he provides his articles and videos online at MarshallGoldsmithLibrary.com.

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