Marketing continues to play second fiddle.

Adrian Dore

Why is it that marketers have never asserted their rightful place on company boards internationally, given the obvious importance of marketing?

The answer is rather simple; marketers are too a large extent involved in the process of value creation, but unfortunately for them, value creation and our financial perspective are often diametrically opposed. As our financial perspective holds sway, only those with a keen appreciation for influencing the financials are elevated to the board. The problem is further exacerbated by there being no universally accepted evaluation criteria by which to measure their performance. Until you can effectively measure performance, evaluation remains subjective and as the accountants are in charge, expect a “hiding to nothing”.

Research after research confirms marketers acute awareness that they have no formal measurement standards by which to rate their performance and that this is inhibiting them from promoting the ideals of marketing effectively.

What’s the solution? The obvious solution, which many are following, is to establish “marketing metrics” or “market performance scorecards” etc., but is this the right route to follow?

I would argue that it is definitely not, based on two strong arguments.

1) First and foremost - change our business perspective!
The biggest challenge facing marketers is not one of establishing appropriate measurement standards but of changing business perceptions. As long as we continue to measure and evaluate performance based on a financial perspective we are going nowhere!! You can introduce whatever measures you want and they won’t make a jot of difference until we change our business perspective. Only when our financial and value creation metrics are aligned and supportive of each other will marketing metrics become meaningful.

Business faces major and fundamental change right now, steaming from the realisation that our financial perspective is entirely inappropriate and inadequate in effectively managing the profit objective. Most businesses view, manage and measure the profit objective from a financial perspective, using the Accounting Model, but this model is proving to be inappropriate, inadequate, misleading and disruptive in this role. To put it as plainly as possible, its inhibiting value creation and the business community (including accountants) are coming to the realisation that value creation and not our narrow financial concept of profit is more important.

Marketers should throw their combined and considerable weight behind this movement as the single and most important thing they can do to allow marketing to assert its rightful place in business. This won’t just be a marketer’s revolution as there is major concern shown within the ranks of executives and accountants, together with other business disciplines about the serious shortcomings of the Accounting Model.

While it may not be a marketer’s revolution, I firmly believe they should be leading it. I find it almost inconceivable, definitely incongruous that accountants are being called upon to lead the value creation revolution. It’s somewhat like asking the aristocrats to lead the French Revolution! Recent studies indicate that “CEOs expect their CFOs to be leaders in their company’s forward looking, value creation activities.” I can think of few less likely candidates for this role. Marketers must step up and embrace this opportunity with both hands!

2) Integrated solution
Marketing forms an integral part of business, so it should form part of an integrated measurement and management model. Departmentalisation and the lack of an integrated measurement and management model is one of the biggest wealth destroyers in business today. In my book “The Value Creation Model” I had this to say

“The over-allocation of resources probably represents one of the principal causes of value destruction in business today. The reason for this is that departmentalisation within business results in little or no cohesion between departments, with departmental management pursuing their own narrow goals rather than the wider interests of the business.

If business cannot operate in a cohesive, single-minded manner in the pursuit of sustained value creation, then the probabilities of them destroying wealth are extremely high.”

You will never unlock the full wealth creation potential of business following an insular, departmental approach. The solution we seek is a business wide solution as everybody contributes to value creation, not just a select few. Research into the value creation process shows that value creation is based upon a hierarchical cause-and-effect model with explicit relationships between all processes within business. Marketing like all other disciplines has to take into consideration these cause-and-effect relationships, appreciating how their actions and the actions of others impact on the dynamics of value creation. It’s a simple fact - you cannot act independently if you are to optimize wealth creation opportunities. Thinking and acting as an integrated, cohesive business is one of the first and most important steps toward greater wealth creation.

The extent of our insular and departmentalized approach is borne out by any number of research projects that highlight poor departmental alignment with business objectives.

The solution in providing a business wide, integrated management model lies in Value Management. It integrates the value creation process with both financial and people management models to provide a comprehensive and all inclusive management solution. Read more about this in my article “A new business approach” on this website.

Over 18 years experience as a business consultant working with SMEs and large corporations across a broad business spectrum. The balance of my 32 years business experience has been mainly in the Sales, Marketing and IT fields. Other areas of expertise include Accounting, Logistics and Strategic planning. I have spent over ten years researching and developing ideas within the field of value creation and continue to do so. I run my own consultancy – Value Creation Consultants.

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Marketing continues to play second fiddle.

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