Marketing's role in strategic planning: Servant Warrior

Although a critical function for the success of a firm, marketing is not, nor should it be, the driver of firm strategy. Marketing can inform strategy, can critique it, can counsel and provide insight... but at the end of the day, top-line strategy needs to be set by the owners of a business or their representatives.

That being said, any organization that does notinclude marketing in their strategic discussions is missing out. Many of the planning and opperational practices of solid marketing are very valuable tools that can be borrowed by other management functions. Also, a goodmarketing department will be involved in a constant cycle of measure-analyze-plan-execute-measure with management. So, in effect,marketing is involved in the strategic process.

A good marketing director can suggest that management's plan is flawed and offer helpful criticism, or agree with the direction and work towards achieving that goal. In many cases, the marketing director should be part of the management team that is assessing current strategy and evaluating it for the future. That's how I see the "seat at the table" role that I hear so much about. That also touches on the "warrior" side of the servant warrior mentality. A good marketing director should not meekly accept direction when it is flawed.

A seat at the table, though, is not the same as being the head of the table. That's where the shareholders sit. In private industry, it's the stockowners, represented (usually) by the board and upper management. In law firms, it's the partners, often represented by an executive or management committee or partner(s).

Marketing and strategy are inextricable in the business process the same way that my brain and my hand are inextricable in the eating process. I can, however, eat without my hands (though my wife frowns on it). I won't eat, though, unless my brain to tells me, "You are hungry. You need to eat now."[Or, in the case of many of us brought up in a "food is love" culture, unless my brain tells me, "You are lonely and/or bored. You need to eat now."]

I differentiate between an organization's vision/strategy (what are the key goals?) and mission/tactics (how do we get there?). As far as marketing goes, I'm a lifer. I believe the hype -- great marketing can help an organization by identifying and addressing improvement opportunities in the customer/supplier chain. That may sound like marketing gibberish to many, but I've lived that stance successfully for 15+ years.

Strategy guides tactics which in turn support and inform strategy. But marketing's job isn't -- and shouldn't be -- to tell the owners what the right goals are. We can advise. We can interpret. We can suggest. But at the end of the day, they own the joint. It's like the staffers on West Wing say; "I serve at the pleasure of the President." We serve at the pleasure of the partnerships.

Servant hood gets a bad rep in this country; people tend to think of "butler" or "nanny" when they picture a servant. Those are examples, yes. But service can be, I believe, a noble calling; it's how many lawyers regard their relationship to clients. They don't tell clients what their goals should be. They help them get there. And the "warrior" part helps me remember that I'm not a butler; my job is to arm my clients with the best marketing possible. You don't have to be at the "head of the table" to be a key player, vital to an organization's success.