When CEOs get involved in marketing, companies fail.
May 29th, 2009 // 4:53 pm @ admin
In the past 17 years I have met with countless companies both large and small. From boot strapped startups to large Fortune 500 conglomerates. My experience shows that whenever the CEO of a company becomes overly involved in day to day marketing affairs, especially in the agency selection process, we know that the process will not be smooth.
CEOs that get involved with day to day affairs of marketing tend to be habitual micromanagers in every aspect of the business including their employees. And we all know what that means. A lack of trust in your staff, the notion that you know it all and the belief that you are better than everyone else is a blatant sign of a CEO that is not taking care of his own responsibilities and somehow finds marketing more interesting.
The question comes up, what about companies that don’t have anyone to handle their marketing where the CEO has to also fill that position?
I would have to say that they better get their act together and gather up the finances any which way possible and hire that marketing person. The person does not have to be an employee or a contractor. It could even be a consultant. The key here is to let people do what they do best and not get involved in areas that are not within your realm of expertise.
In fact, once we follow these companies closely and monitor their progress, most of the time these types of companies do not progress to the next level (to no surprise of course). Now the question arises, why are CEOs incapable of handling marketing? Well, this is a separate subject for discussion and we can look into that in our future blogs.
Category : corporate marketing
Miguel Tam
1 year ago
I’ve definitely seen this with TopSprout’s clients. CEO’s or presidents who have been very involved in the formation of a company or business unit have an extremely hard time letting go – not just marketing, but all aspects of company operations. They tend to be very passionate, detail-oriented people who want nothing more than success. But I’ve seen this passion sometimes undermine the morale of the team or lead to less than optimal results if they keep changing their mind or being a bottleneck. Easier said than done – but they need to just let go a little and trust the team they’ve built around them.
Tim McGraw
1 year ago
Where the most damage is done is with the small- to medium-sized businesses, where I have personally observed brand value damaged by CEO intervention. I often recommend “Crossing the Chasm” by Geoffrey A. Moore for a case study in the evolution of company marketing.
Steve Gershik
1 year ago
What a thought provoking question. The first time I read it, I thought, “well, every time we have a creative review, our CEO gets ‘too’ involved in marketing,” in my thinking. But the more I think about it, the more I realize how complex and nuanced a question it is.
Here’s my question back to you: What does it mean to be “too involved” in marketing?
armanarami
1 year ago
Steve, thank you for your comment.
First and foremost, I would like to mention that since all marketing and branding efforts ought to convey and support the “Brand Message” therefore developing the “Brand Message” itself is the first step and foundation of all marketing efforts. The CEO’s vision plays a great role in forming that message and he/she should not and can not be alienated and completely isolated from marketing efforts. In fact, I believe that the CEO’s presence in the initial stages of forming the brand message is crucial and necessary.
Now, in regards to my answer to: What does it mean for the CEO to be “too involved”? I like to explain the level of their involvement by evaluating the result from their involvement in all marketing efforts whether its an agency review/selection process, a creative review or developing the marketing strategy.
I believe that when the CEO’s involvement results in any of the following, they are too involved:
1- Slow down of the company’s progress.
Whether it is by delaying the launch of a startup and effecting it’s time-to-market or simply by halting the launch of an individual project such as brand message development, naming, brand identity design, company website or advertising campaign and so on. In today’s market time is of essence. Every delay could cost the company greatly in the race for lead position and market share.
2- Making marketing team feel as though their contribution is not of any value. In other words, the CEO is micromanaging. Not really valuing the expertise of the marketing executives they have hired, just exercising their authority and power. A corporate dictatorship.
3- Falling behind in performing their CEO duties.
This is the sign of CEO not really concentrating on his own responsibilities and taking greater interest in only one of his departments such as marketing and in this case completely forgetting about the rest of the company.