Marketer as Leader

The Fortune 500 - the biggest corporations in America - by definition produce products for the masses. These are the industry leaders, the category killers, that have dominated their particular market and have legions of customers for their goods and services. A few have amazing stories to tell a gigantic tribe - but most have ordinary commoditized products sold to the big fat middle. Many of these behemoths are run by seasoned CEOs from the more "formulaic" corporate functions. There is a sizable cohort of chiefs from accounting and finance backgrounds. Many are the "general management" types from Harvard Business School. Often, the COO is the heir apparent and gets promoted to the top spot because he knows how things are run. But what about the marketer? Why are there so few CEOs with marketing backgrounds? Why is this? There is a deficit of imagination in the boardrooms of Corporate America. The industrial revolution ushered in a focus on efficiency and cost control. If a CEO could reduce costs, maximize manufacturing capacity, and deliver on time through the supply chain, his job was done and he could reap the big bucks. A good CEO back then basically commoditized a product faster and cheaper than his competitors. The residue of this thinking exists to this day. Directors on boards still see the world through the eyes of Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Ford. In a world of commoditized products, it makes sense to promote the bean counter who knows where costs can be cut. The finance guy knows how to lead in a world of almost uniform interest rates and razor-thin profit margins. The operations guy is intimately familiar with the clockwork factories. But we're living in a new world where the rules have changed. The digital world makes commoditized products nearly unprofitable - there is little to no room for profit margins. If what Seth Godin says is true, that only companies that tell compelling stories to tribes of loyal customers will succeed, that "marketing is the new leadership," then we need to promote the CMO to the top spot. We need boards of directors to see the world through the eyes of Branson, Jobs, and Knight, finding marketers at heart who know how to tell great stories and command a premium for their products.

Comments

[Tim Walker]

Interesting points, Allan -- and I'm all for promoting more marketing-savvy leaders like Jobs, Knight, and Branson.

But, speaking from where I sit in a marketing department, let me offer another interpretation: taken on average, achieving competence as a marketing executive may not be as demanding as achieving competence as an executive in operations or finance. Ergo, the field as a whole may not turn up as many outstanding top executives.

There's a parallel in the academic world: a mathematically astute grad student who can't hack it as a theoretical physicist may switch to something "lighter" like economics or statistics or finance -- not because those fields are easy, but because they're not *as* hard as physics. Not surprisingly, the grad student who can't hack it in economics will never make a move into physics.

If my devil's-advocate position holds water, it may be that, looking at the aggregate, an engineer like Jack Welch or Jeff Bezos will have an easier time gaining CEO-worthy competence in marketing than a marketer like Carly Fiorina will have gaining CEO-worthy competence in operations or finance. I'm not ready to put up my dukes to defend this position, but it's at least one more way of looking at the issue.

Maybe marketing needs to get harder (better) to produce more leaders that are better?

[Patricio]

Tim... you post a great point. I have been in Marketing and Advertising for more than 10 years now and there is so much BS in this industry that it's not even funny.

But it is about Marketing getting better. They are trying to make marketing an exact science, almost like accounting. That way they can control it, people can easily learn it and you have a lot of "marketers" out there with a job. The problem is that is not the case. Marketing (and advertising) have a human component to it that makes them disciplines, a liitle bit of methods a little bit of art and a lot of mastery.

Yes, anyone can be an average marketer, but not everyone can be an excellent one because as Seth would say, you are going against the inertia of commodizationa and standardization. Only those that have the passion to fight against that will have the chance to become leaders and true marketers.

[Foodie]

Well, I disagree with the idea that fewer marketing guys are in CEO position. Look at Steve Ballmer, what is he? Jack Welch what was he? They all are marketeers. My complain is other way round. I feel like all the giant organizations have become sales and marketing org and they simply buy innovation from small companies. Just take a look at big pharma and big software companies.

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