The Marketing Bureau

By Brian H Meredith
From the NZBusiness"Marketing Maestro" Archive
First published May 2011

Bill English recently announced the certainty of austerity measures being reflected in further significant downsizing of the public sector. Phil Goff responded with criticism of the government’s intentions, claiming it to be a result of the government’s failure to stimulate the economy.

Is it the responsibility of government to stimulate the economy? Where does the drive for growth really need to come from? Does this, in fact, sit firmly in the remit of government?

To some extent it does. But to a far greater extent it is the responsibility of business. Government exists to engage in governance (which, in itself does not stimulate anything and nor is it intended to) as well as the identification and provision of the services that our society needs in order to function safely and productively. It does this with funds that come from that society. That means from business.

If business isn’t earning it, the government isn’t getting it.

So is business doing everything it can to maximise its financial performance? I don’t believe so.

In fact, based on the number of businesses that we observe from one year to the next, business in New Zealand is sub optimising its performance to a significant degree.

Why?

Let’s start with a biggie. Many of the businesses we encounter have no documented Business Plan. No Plan = No Planning. The majority of these businesses (and they range from the smallest to some of the biggest) are, largely, making it up as they go along.

Many businesses don’t have Marketing Plans either. They can’t answer fundamental marketing questions about their business – e.g. what business are they in (drills or holes?), what are they selling? (bigger holes, more accurate holes, cleaner holes, cheaper holes?) who are they selling it to? why should they want to buy it anyway? Many of these businesses are locked into the “good idea a day” approach to marketing.

Even where a Business and/or Marketing Plan does exist, it is either a magnificent document sitting on a shelf gathering dust or it is focussed on just one aspect of the business – typically, short term sales & profit.

In the absence of plans, goals or strategies, everything a business does is going to fall well short of the mark. That includes its’ people. Poor management results in poor recruitment, poor training and inadequate motivating, nurturing and supporting of this vital resource.

That, in turn, leads to poor delivery, poor customer satisfaction, poor customer retention, poor sales, poor profit and so it goes on. These are some of the factors that will account for the seriously worrying results of an Employment Survey recently published which identified that a significant percentage of New Zealand employees (from the most senior to the most junior) are deeply unhappy in their jobs.

So, too many of our businesses have no Business Plan, no Marketing Plan and deeply unhappy staff at every level.

They are unclear on where they are, where they need to be and what they need to do to get there.

They lack direction, consistency and, increasingly, market relevance. They are not market-oriented (despite data demonstrating that those few businesses that are market oriented are outperforming others in their sector on key business performance criteria).

I recently attended a small, intimate, dinner with some “serious” businesspeople, as well as two senior members of the government – about 20 people in all.  Discussion over dinner was about business. Yet if you had just landed from Mars you would not have believed that markets, customers, competitors, planning, strategy, tactics or implementation formed any part of the business concept. These words, let alone the topics of opportunity, growth and building futures, simply did not come up. Rather, the evening was spent complaining about the government’s role in making life difficult for them.

The responsibility must, of course, lie with business leadership. I have spoken with many CEOs over the years who can’t articulate the business or marketing concepts and who are out of touch with pretty much everything in their business beyond their PA’s office door.

Their front line people see more customers in a day than they do in a year (or more). They are disconnected from the realities of their businesses and often concentrate only on the results, not on identifying, understanding and driving those factors that deliver the results.

We urgently need more CEOs who are leading businesses that are innovative, creative, energetic, flexible, responsive and far sighted. They need to be market driven and people powered.

And the CEOs themselves must lead from the front. They must demonstrate spirit, commitment, inclusiveness, integrity and commitment.
They must, together with all of their people, celebrate success and learn from failure.

But above all, they must inculcate one simple yet powerful reality into the psyches of all their people, from the most senior to the most junior – the reality that there is only one place the money comes from - customers. A business is a marketing organism. Nothing more. Nothing less.

That makes every one of its’ people an MMD – a Mini Marketing Director. Until that concept, philosophy and practice is alive and thriving, little will change in terms of business (and therefore, economic), performance.

Yes, government has a role to play in economic growth.

But business has a significantly bigger one.

By Brian H Meredith
From the NZBusiness"Marketing Maestro" Archive
First published May 2011

Bill English recently announced the certainty of austerity measures being reflected in further significant downsizing of the public sector. Phil Goff responded with criticism of the government’s intentions, claiming it to be a result of the government’s failure to stimulate the economy.

Is it the responsibility of government to stimulate the economy? Where does the drive for growth really need to come from? Does this, in fact, sit firmly in the remit of government?

To some extent it does. But to a far greater extent it is the responsibility of business. Government exists to engage in governance (which, in itself does not stimulate anything and nor is it intended to) as well as the identification and provision of the services that our society needs in order to function safely and productively. It does this with funds that come from that society. That means from business.

If business isn’t earning it, the government isn’t getting it.

So is business doing everything it can to maximise its financial performance? I don’t believe so.

In fact, based on the number of businesses that we observe from one year to the next, business in New Zealand is sub optimising its performance to a significant degree.

Why?

Let’s start with a biggie. Many of the businesses we encounter have no documented Business Plan. No Plan = No Planning. The majority of these businesses (and they range from the smallest to some of the biggest) are, largely, making it up as they go along.

Many businesses don’t have Marketing Plans either. They can’t answer fundamental marketing questions about their business – e.g. what business are they in (drills or holes?), what are they selling? (bigger holes, more accurate holes, cleaner holes, cheaper holes?) who are they selling it to? why should they want to buy it anyway? Many of these businesses are locked into the “good idea a day” approach to marketing.

Even where a Business and/or Marketing Plan does exist, it is either a magnificent document sitting on a shelf gathering dust or it is focussed on just one aspect of the business – typically, short term sales & profit.

In the absence of plans, goals or strategies, everything a business does is going to fall well short of the mark. That includes its’ people. Poor management results in poor recruitment, poor training and inadequate motivating, nurturing and supporting of this vital resource.

That, in turn, leads to poor delivery, poor customer satisfaction, poor customer retention, poor sales, poor profit and so it goes on. These are some of the factors that will account for the seriously worrying results of an Employment Survey recently published which identified that a significant percentage of New Zealand employees (from the most senior to the most junior) are deeply unhappy in their jobs.

So, too many of our businesses have no Business Plan, no Marketing Plan and deeply unhappy staff at every level.

They are unclear on where they are, where they need to be and what they need to do to get there.

They lack direction, consistency and, increasingly, market relevance. They are not market-oriented (despite data demonstrating that those few businesses that are market oriented are outperforming others in their sector on key business performance criteria).

I recently attended a small, intimate, dinner with some “serious” businesspeople, as well as two senior members of the government – about 20 people in all.  Discussion over dinner was about business. Yet if you had just landed from Mars you would not have believed that markets, customers, competitors, planning, strategy, tactics or implementation formed any part of the business concept. These words, let alone the topics of opportunity, growth and building futures, simply did not come up. Rather, the evening was spent complaining about the government’s role in making life difficult for them.

The responsibility must, of course, lie with business leadership. I have spoken with many CEOs over the years who can’t articulate the business or marketing concepts and who are out of touch with pretty much everything in their business beyond their PA’s office door.

Their front line people see more customers in a day than they do in a year (or more). They are disconnected from the realities of their businesses and often concentrate only on the results, not on identifying, understanding and driving those factors that deliver the results.

We urgently need more CEOs who are leading businesses that are innovative, creative, energetic, flexible, responsive and far sighted. They need to be market driven and people powered.

And the CEOs themselves must lead from the front. They must demonstrate spirit, commitment, inclusiveness, integrity and commitment.
They must, together with all of their people, celebrate success and learn from failure.

But above all, they must inculcate one simple yet powerful reality into the psyches of all their people, from the most senior to the most junior – the reality that there is only one place the money comes from - customers. A business is a marketing organism. Nothing more. Nothing less.

That makes every one of its’ people an MMD – a Mini Marketing Director. Until that concept, philosophy and practice is alive and thriving, little will change in terms of business (and therefore, economic), performance.

Yes, government has a role to play in economic growth.

But business has a significantly bigger one.