Peter Drucker wisely said that there are only two critical tasks for an organization - Marketing and Innovation. Only Visionaries can mean it so true.
A project is a delivery that brings in top line to the organization. However the true bottom line is recognized through the innovation that brings about the freshness in the current as well as future projects. Creation of various product/service mix at various price points enable the benefits of the organization multifold and beyond the transient nature of projects.
At the same time, any task or activity that is done to get a sale, can be considered a marketing effort. For example, cold call can be argued as the first sales step. Widening the perspective, we can consider it a marketing program, since it is the first touch point in getting a feel and setting an expectation with a prospect. To get a sale, you need to go further in creating needs/desires, gain confidence on solution, may be give a sample POC, get to convince stakeholders on the investment and then seek permission to make a sale.
Since till the time a sale is made and closed, the main task is to get the prospect closer to us. This requires creating/understanding the desire, configuring a product/service that best addresses the needs and show a working model, based on which a sales person can ask for the sale and discuss the commercials.
So more and more I read the statement of Peter Drucker, the more I am convinced that be it delivery, support, sales, administration; innovation and marketing are the key catalysts in division or organization sustenance.
Related Posts:
1. A Best Marketing Program
2. Make it Visible
3. The way to market an IT solution
4. Brand building by Project Manager
5. The best Marketing Tool - Projects
6. Evolution Story - Power of Need
References:
* I took the Drucker quote from Marketing practice blog.
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Learning Practice by Shrinivasan.G is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 India License All views expressed here are my own and does not reflect that of my employer or clients or any other sources.
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This comment on the Skype handle used to disturb me a lot! And many a times during the day, while I worked alone at my machine, this quote has made me stop and wonder about the value of what I did to my organization.
ReplyDeleteWas I marketing anything? I didn't think so. Was I innovating? I wasn't too sure... I still am not unless creating new documents on the fly to meet the project's need of the moment can be called innovation...
I have mulled over these two words for a long time now...ever since this quote resided on Skype...
I have an innate respect for Peter Drucker; so could not shrug this off as nonsense.
I would come back to my hotel room and tick off my to-do list for the day (a routine task for me)...These days, I had started marking each task with a tiny "m" or "i" depending on what I thought was the category of my task. Mostly none fit but when even one did, I felt that I had done my bit for the org.
This post today startled me with its linkage to my thoughts...and has finally put my mental debate to rest.
I agree that when a task, no matter how seemingly simple, leads to a sale, a new acquisition, it must be seen as marketing.
P.S.: People on the field "out there" are not necessarily smarter or savvier. Often the two critical skills of engaging the client in a discussion and synthesizing their needs to address those effectively are missing.