How A Business Can Experience |
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| An article by Sam Markowitz | ||
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Dear Friend, I’m going to tell you how a business can experience quantum growth by To best explain this to you, I’m going to begin with this very important point… Peter Drucker, The Father Of enterprise has two–and only two–basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.” – The Practice Of Management, 1954 Peter Drucker had his remarkable contributions to gift to the business world with innovations in management principles, literally transforming the business world. But Peter still knew, “Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.” That is why Peter lauded marketing above all else, even management. And yet still, 52 years later in 2006, a Forbes article made the following unfortunate observation: “Today, when top management is surveyed, their priorities in order are: Finance, sales, production, management, legal, and people. Missing from the list: Marketing and innovation.” And this grave mistake, or more accurately – this epidemic – continues on today. Somehow, a large part of the business world has seemed to forget Peter’s words. They put all these other things before marketing. And they wonder, why they fail? And while they fail, a new company, all the wiser, swoops in and takes their market share with great marketing. (I call that strategy: Easy pray, easy kill). Those of us who understand what marketing really is… what it can really do… and who capitalize on it accordingly and comprehensively… are an exception to the rule. Marketing Provides The Greatest Leverage Marketing is to business what the cardiovascular system is to the body. It is the ‘heart’ of your business. The heart pumps blood, which carries oxygen, to all organs, and keeps them and the entire body alive. Likewise, marketing is what pumps life into all the other departments of the business and keeps the entire business alive. Marketing’s key job is to drive the customers, sales and profits to the business. All other departments in the business exist because marketing is producing the money to pay for all those departments and jobs to exist. If marketing stopped bringing in new customers, sales and profits, the whole business would collapse. Marketing is the life source of the entire business, sustaining it day-in day-out. And if you want to reign #1 against your competitors in the marathon of business, then you need your cardiovascular system to run at its peak, optimal performance. Marketing truly offers you the greatest leverage to rise to being #1 in your industry. So, I want to share with you how you can begin really capitalizing on it. The Transformational Power And unique function of the business”, and proceeds to make itself marketing-centric, the business can see massive impact, improvement and results beyond its belief. Quantum growth. What exactly do I mean by marketing-centric? I just had this discussion while meeting with investment bankers who’re in financial restructuring. Restructurings are often done when a company changes ownership, if it needs to be organized better, if it needs to be made more profitable, or if there’s a crisis or major change in the business like a bankruptcy or buyout. And restructurings typically involve reorganizing either the financial, legal, ownership, operational and/or other company structures. But what about a ‘marketing restructuring’? Why don’t we as often hear of that? Companies fail to seize the astronomical growth, profits and transformation available by doing a marketing restructuring. And the reality is, the majority of businesses are in need of a marketing restructuring. The bankers agreed with me. Let me explain what it means to restructure your company to be marketing- centric, by following the same exact 5 steps we deploy when we do this for other companies... The 5 Key Steps To priority list. Marketing needs to sit at the top of the corporate pyramid. It is not a department like any of the other departments. It is the cardiovascular system of the company. 2) The best marketing talent needs to be hired. And the right talent needs to be hired. Pay top dollar for it. When you need a heart surgeon you don’t shop for a deal, you pay for the best surgeon you can get. Likewise you need to take ultimate care after the ‘heart’ of your business. The best and right talent will make you #1. 3) Every department in the company needs to understand the key role marketing plays, and it needs to work in unison with the marketing department. So, every department needs to be strategically integrated with the marketing department. And surely what you don’t want happening, which is all too common unfortunately, is for other departments to actually interfere with marketing’s job. Warning: Blockages in your cardiovascular system can lead it to slow and to fail. 4) Initiate ongoing company-wide marketing education programs. First, all of your departments need education in connection to their integration with the marketing department. Second, the marketing department should be receiving trainings on all new advancements in marketing. You need to stay far, far ahead of the competition. 5) And finally, your business needs to follow best marketing practices, and to engage in direct response marketing and advertising – which is accountable, measurable and results-based. Well, those are the 5 main steps. And if you implement and follow through on them, you can achieve quantum growth.
© 2014. The Sam Markowitz Group. All Rights Reserved. |
