One of the first books I read on marketing was Ries and Trouts: Positioning. Al and jack have since gone their separate ways and Al Ries is working with his daughter Laura. They have a new book coming out tomorrow:
War in the Boardroom
As marketing professionals, Al and I spend way too much of our time trying to sell our ideas to top management. Meetings often turn into boardroom battles between marketing on one side and management on the other. On many occasions, we have lost these battles and have the scars to prove it.
So we tried to figure out why marketing and management always clash? And it occurred to us. They don’t understand each other because they think differently.
What makes a good chief executive? A person who is highly verbal, logical and analytical. Typical characteristics of a left brainer.
What makes a good marketing executive? A person who is highly visual, intuitive and holistic. Typical characteristics of a right brainer.
What are you? Not sure? Take our quiz to find out.
Because they think differently, the two sides don’t see eye-to-eye. Management is logical, marketing is not. What works in marketing is almost exactly the opposite of what seems to be the right thing to do.
Take expansion, for example. Management at almost every company in the world is committed to expanding its line. More products, more markets, more distribution channels, more variations, more price points.
Take the U.S. airline industry. Every major carrier offers multiple classes of service and flies both domestic and international routes. That makes sense to a left-brain manager.
But not to a right-brain entrepreneur like Herb Kelleher who launched Southwest Airlines, the first “no-frills” airline. Coach only. Domestic only. No food. No pets. No advanced seating reservations. No inter-airline baggage exchange.
Entrepreneurs are invariably visually-oriented right brainers who often turn out to be exceptionally good marketing thinkers, too. They are usually “visionaries” who focus on the “big picture,” sometimes suffering in the short term.
That’s not true of the vast majority of managers in America today who are verbally-oriented left brainers. Why is this so? Because of the way people move up the ladder in the corporate world. In many companies, you don’t get promoted, you get elected.
Management is like politics. Employees find a way to let management know whom they would like to work for.
Right brainers don’t have much of a chance in the office game. A left brainer is an extrovert, particularly good at schmoozing with people. A right brainer is an introvert, totally outclassed when it comes to office politics.
As companies get older and bigger, their upper levels tend to be staffed almost exclusively with left brainers. As a result, the innovators and marketing people (primarily right brainers) tend to leave or get pushed out.
Chief marketing officers, for example, have the shortest tenure of any top executive, only 26 months. “This job is radioactive,” reported BusinessWeek.
We certainly don’t advocate a right-brain takeover of corporate America. Business needs both: Logical, analytical left brainers to manage the business and intuitive, holistic right brainers to create the new marketing ideas and concepts that will insure future success.
But for this to happen, both sides need to better understand each other.
Our new book War in the Boardroom
will be available on February 24, 2009.
You can read more at Ries.com
Order today at Amazon.
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