Leadership

    Leadership. Digital and otherwise.

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    I often think about leadership.  Understanding how to lead is a marketing fundamental. A life fundamental. Impressionable junior high schoolers watch what the cool kid wears hoping to be led.  Plains Indians of yore, thinking about wintering destinations, follow the chief not the warrior. And to whom do patients with a rare forms of cancer turn when looking for the right doctor and hospital?  A health portal that makes money selling ads, or a doc with humility who takes the time to explain, educate and engender trust?

    All forms and flavors of leadership.

    Leadership in marketing, trending wise, lies with the “media socialists.” Those who can build Facebook pages. The builders of mobile promotions who use words like “create a Google API that drags content into the site.”  We are all smitten with these pop marketing tactics. They are way less expensive than a page in People Magazine, and can live for months. But folks, many hawking social media and digital media solutions are not leaders. The top 5% may be are, but there are not enough to go around. When the biggest social effort of the last two years is a body wash campaign that has earned more talk than sales receipts, you know we’re pressing. (And please know, I loves me some social media. It is transformational. Just often mishandled.)

    As marketers reach out to agency partners and prospective employees, please ask them to talk about digital leadership. What are their firsts? Their onlys? Their big wins…and big losses?  Anyone can win a battle but only those with demonstrated strategic chops can lead into the future. And isn’t that where we’re headed? Peace!

    Ask or Tell?

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    According to The New York Times Sunday President Biden has decided to ask Homeland Security and NASA employees to take paid leave from their organizations and go down to the southern border to help minister to the thousands of children crossing the border seeking asylum. Finally, a smart and workable solution to handling the huge influx. Problem is, he is asking rather than telling. It may be the kindler gentler approach to ask, yet in times of crisis we need fast and decisive moves.

    In the 1990s while working as an ad agency guy on the AT&T account, AT&T faced a government regulation requiring them to allocate a proportion of corporate 800 numbers to MCI and Sprint. Until that time, AT&T owned all 800s and was viewed as a monopoly. If you chose to stay with A&T, though, you could.

    The president of the Business Communications Services group, Joe Nacchio, emptied two huge corporate buildings in New Jersey of his white-collar work force and sent them on the road to meet with 800 service customers large and small in an effort to get them to stay. Talk about a redeployed workforce! He didn’t ask. He told. It was an unmitigated success. If memory serves, they retained about 90% of their 800 business and margins probably increased as MCI and Sprint were discounters. As an added bonus, they picked up quite a bit of market intelligence for their efforts.

    Moral of the story, think big. Be big. Lead decisively.

    Peace.