From our Harvard Business Review article: Brand activism’s tricky. You care about a cause. Your customers want action. You’re ready to dive in. But hold up.

CMOs already know: The Marketing Academy CMO Fellowship is one of the top leadership programs out there. And here’s the thing—it’s closing soon.

The Marketing Leadership Masterclass is back! Starting September 2023, the next global group of marketing leaders will get together to learn the secrets of...

Five separate studies leave no doubt: CMOs and strong marketing teams are essential for company success.

マーケティングリーダーシップテスト:あなたの強みを見つける

マーケティングをリードするのはマーケティングをすると同じではありません。世界最大のマーケティングリーダーシップ調査では、マーケティングをリードすることは360度のタスクであることがわかりました。世界で最も成功しているマーケターは、上司、同僚、チーム、そして自分自身を巻き込む方法を知っています。

For marketers, a massive window for change has just opened—and the prize is big.

Marketers are facing a major problem. Post-virus, how will markets change? What are the trends? 

Making change happen is tough. New products? Too risky. Agile working? Maybe next year. Better digital tools? We’ll look into it. Why change when life is good? 

When the world suddenly stops for 90 days, could you use this time well?

Creative accumulation leads to better things. Creative destruction leads to new things. One isn’t better than the other. Both innovations matter.

Fran Crippen loved the water. The US long-distance swimmer had beaten his competition many times. 7 medals in 6 years—one gold, four silver, two bronze. Olympic...

A few days ago, The Marketing Society asked me to share with their senior marketers the insights from the largest ever study on marketer success. Seats were...

Making it to the next level can be exciting. More responsibility, more options, more pay. But how to get promoted? Perhaps your firm has a fixed promotion...

When the numbers don’t add up, business dreams evaporate, change movements stall, projects die. Perhaps people love your idea....

Last weekend, my partner and I took a bicycle tour to a small village near our home, called Adendorf. Each year, it hosts an iconic garden exhibition – a sales...

As a marketer, people are paying you for the firm’s most important job (next to innovation): finding customers – at the lowest possible cost. Finding customers is...

I love the Airbus A380. It’s an engineering masterpiece. The world’s largest airplane. Quiet. Spacious. Loved by passengers. Yet the A380 demonstrates what happens...

Who’s the most powerful person in a firm? The CEO? No. The CFO? No. The head of sales? No. It’s the customer. When a customer complains, the CEO sits up. When a...

“You can help us build a love brand. I want to hire you,” the CEO said. Nina was thrilled. Her last years in consumer goods had been tough. Tight margins....

Who wants to be a middle manager? Not many people. It’s nice to be the trainee – young and cool; it’s nice to be the CEO – with all the power. But the rest? Stuck...

Everyone in the boardroom turned to me in anger. I spent much of my former career doing two jobs: leading large brands and running major marketing transformation...

We love the familiar, the recognisable, the known. And when it comes to picking a team member, many people are looking for a clone. Men recruit men. Creatives...

Do you thrive in a matrix organisation? In a matrix, everybody is in charge--and nobody has all the power. The person who can tell sales what to do, doesn't exist....

Trust in politicians has evaporated. Consumer trust in brands is at an all-time low. And too many executives don’t trust their bosses. What’s the problem? Perhaps...

The internet is great. If you know something and you want to write a blog that 100,000 people read, you can. If you want to do a podcast that 100,000 people hear,...

Brave leaders change the world. Air traffic controller Anthonius Gunawan saved the 160 souls on board Batik Air 6231, by staying in the tower, so the plane could...

You are in the business of change. In fact, we are all in the business of change. We try to get customers to accept our offer. We try to get colleagues to support...

Marketers are more emotional than many of their colleagues, which makes earning respect difficult, but they can gain influence by speaking the language of logic.

Hard work is appreciated. Or so people hope. That’s why they put in the long hours, go the extra mile, give their best. But then, things go nowhere. The big...

To make change happen, shed light on the issue. Measure customer feedback, costs, time wasted – whatever your currency is. Make sure your data is solid. Praise those in the top left corner who are doing well; no need to shame those in the bottom right-hand corner – the chart will do it for you.

Tell people how you got to where you are. Talk about the hurdles. Share your tricks. Give hope. As a leader, the most precious thing you can help others build is confidence. And it’s free.

If you want dissatisfied customers, lock them in.

For breakthrough results, harmony isn’t the recipe. Fighting is. Under one condition: the fight has to be constructive.

Tell customers it’s a middle seat upfront. Then, be generous. Give people a free drink, more air miles, a discount coupon, an extra report, your premium service package. Make the middle seat wider.If people feel good about your middle seat, they may come back. For sure, it’s fair.

Sheryl Sandberg has a point. In her book ‘Lean In’, Facebook’s current COO asks women, “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” Sandberg is a public role model....

“What’s the point of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)?” I asked Marketing Week readers that question. Why? Well, here is a baffling paradox: Each day, the world’s...

Use the power of travel for change. In organizations, get people to meet customers, switch departments, take on cross-functional work. Do the same yourself—and leave your country now and then. That one new perspective, that one new idea, that one new priority that you acquire can make all the difference.

Elvis didn’t invent rock 'n' roll. Steve Jobs didn’t invent the smartphone.* Google didn't invent web search. All three took an idea, twisted it, made it...