First 100 days

The just published biography of Marvin Bower, the former McKinsey managing director, (described on the consulting firm's web-site as the 'Soul of McKinsey') is a great source for first 100 day inspiration.

Bower belongs firmly in the tradition of the charismatic leader - setting a famously stentorian moral tone...including mandatory hat-wearing (!?).

He mellowed into old age, dying rather poignantly aged 99....having established and maintained (marketers take note!!) the cult of excellence, honesty and respect, that still characterises McKinsey to this day...

One Bower memo, on blue paper, written by the long-time managing director of McKinsey in 1961 can only make us pine for this long-departed era of measured communication...no blogs...just memos in in-trays...

Bower writes: "Before I turn to the future, I would like to preach my perennial sermon on the subject of behavior. I want the newcomers to know what kind of behavior we admire, and what kind of behavior we deplore:

* First, we admire people who work hard. We dislike passengers who don't pull their weight in the boat.

* We admire people with first-class brains, because you cannot run a great (organization) without brainy people.

* We admire people who avoid politics -- office politics, I mean.

* We despise toadied who suck up to their bosses; they are generally the same people who bully their subordinates.

* We admire the great professionals, the craftsmen who do their jobs with superlative excellence. We notice that these people always respect the professional expertise of their colleagues in other departments.

* We admire people who hire subordinates who are good enough to succeed them. We pity people who are so insecure that they feel compelled to hire inferior specimens as their subordinates.

* We admire people who build up and develop their subordinates, because this is the only way we can promote from within the ranks. We detest having to go outside to fill important jobs, and I look forward to the day when that will never be necessary.

* We admire people who practice delegation. The more you delegate, the more responsibility will be loaded upon you.

* We admire kindly people with gentle manners who treat other people as human beings -- particularly the people who sell things to us. We abhor quarrelsome people. We abhor people who wage paper warfare. We abhor buck passers and people who don't tell the truth.

* We admire well-organized people who keep their offices ship-shape, and deliver their work on time.

* We admire people who are good citizens in their communities -- people who work for their local hospitals, their church, the PTA, the Community Chest, and so on. In this connection, I am proud of the example set by some of my colleagues during the year.

There is, it seems to be, something ultimately very paternal about great leadership...

How many marketing departments feel like this?

Posted by Editor at 6:23 PM | Permalink

Surely any discussion of starting a new job merits mention of babies and bathwater.

Some of the biggest slip-ups in marketing history have been committed by people who probably didn’t try hard enough to understand what was working about the brand or company they were responsible for.

Take Snapple. Launched in 1972. Sold by a small independent to Quaker Oats Corp in 1994 for US$1.7bn. Sold 3 years later to Triarc for US$300m.

There’s been a lot of commentary on this business catastrophe, but the consensus is that increased competition made Quaker rethink the brand’s successful niche strategy – targeting urban youth with a counterculture, anti-big business pitch - and throw out key aspects of the brand’s equity such as Howard Stern and Wendy the Snapple Lady. Triarc reinstated Howard and Wendy, refound the magic and in the next 3 years almost regained all the lost ground, selling it on to Cadbury Schweppes for US$1.45bn.

So, when you start a new role, don’t forget to

• find some people who you respect and have been around a while
• work with them to drill down into what has driven historical business success (even if you have to go back a while to find success)
• try to find data to substantiate the hypotheses where necessary
• decide whether these drivers of success can help the brand or business win going forward

Posted by will at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Will's description of the demise and resurgence of Snapple is a salutary lesson in how reckless marketers can be - not just with brand essence, but with heritage and iconography. The jinxed replacement of Coke Classic is not the only brand failure.

So a quick plea to whoever eventually takes over as brand steward of Innocent drinks. Please keep those bobble hats! Genius.

Posted by Editor at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Knowing my focus on supporting marketing directors through their First 100Days, a friend sent me this piece of career advice - from Don Kendall - the co-founding CEO of Pepsico, no less.

Set your own performance standards. Make sure they comfortably exceed the corporate norms. Then make sure you exert the extra effort needed to match your own higher standards. It's superior performance that pays off, not good intentions.

Especially in your building years, put your emphasis on job fulfilment and a positive working environment, not on making money. Respect for the people you work with, and what they stand for, are much more important than most people realise. If the business is growing - the right way - and you are contributing your share, the money always follows. And in my experience, 'staying the course' is usually a better way to learn and grow than rushing off in search of greener pastures at the first sign of trouble - or to chase a better offer.

Make the most of opportunities, but don't 'press' when you get one. And don't try to preselect every opportunity. Often you'll be wrong.

Being sensitive to others is critical. People do it in varying degrees, but there is a minimum level required to succeed. Be sure you're conscious of what is in your environment. People at either extrenme usually fail. Either by offending others, or by needing approval so badly they are indecisive.

Try to develop a special competence early on, preferably one that is reasonably broad (i.e. sales, marketing, finance etc). A specialty helps build confidence and acts as a grounding in reality as you move upward. There is usually plenty of time to become a generalist if you're good.

Take a genuine interest in helping others. It builds the organization. It builds you. And it builds your value far beyond your individual contributions.

Don goes on to advise tactful self-promotion, constantly seeking to take the initiative, and self-knowledge.

He also advocates the frequently-suggested, but seldom-practised virtue of hiring people superior to yourself.

Finally, he says:

" there is no requirement - on my list at least - to ruin your marriage in order to succeed."

His last words that will ring most true for the private lives of Oxford Strategic Marketing consultants and our clients:

"Long hours and intense commitment do not have to last 24 hours (save in spurts). Plan your (personal) time together, but also grab it opportunistically as you go along."

Posted by robyn at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)