Grant Johnson

Given all the pressure to deliver "in quarter" results, it's becoming increasingly difficult to get executive attention on strategy formation and/or re-examination.   Executive energy is largely consumed with driving operational excellence and available "cycles' are devoted to sales and growth initiatives designed to drive near-term, measurable improvements in sales and/or profitability.  It makes sense given we are still "heads down" working our way out of an enduring global recession. Nevertheless, there's a risk that by ignoring meaningful strategy formulation today, your company will likely limit its growth potential when the economy actually picks up.  So where does that leave marketers who understand the need to craft and refine strategies to drive long term competitive advantage?   Do we just wait for the recession cycle to end and then raise our hands highe... (more)

Marketing Your Way Out of The Recession

It's anyone's guess when the recession bottoms out and we get back to growth.  Rather than remain in a "state" of denial - like California did for too long - or adopt a hunker down mentality - "let's just ride this one out" - as many companies have, there's a middle path of taking proactive measures steps now, so that when growth reappears, your company is better positioned to gain an unfair share of the increased customer demand that will be there to harvest.  Here are a few considerations to come out will your guns ablazing. Get back to basics.  One of my colleagues recently s... (more)

Pick the CEO, Not the Company

Most organizational experts will tell you that when joining an organization, the company's culture is the key to determining whether you will thrive or suffer in a given work environment.  While this is true for a mid-level manager or individual contributor, the closer you get to the top, the less a culture matters and the more the CEO's leadership and management style impact your work satisfaction. I learned this when early in my career I was a director at a privately held company that was acquired by a much large public company.  In a matter of a few weeks our approachable, per... (more)

The #1 Success Factor for CMOs: Leading Change

This past spring, the CMO Council issued a press release about the “DNA of a CMO, “stating: “among the most essential qualities, a CMO must be: a visionary & thought leader; a strong business driver; able to secure executive support & foster cross functional relationships; customer centric; competitive strategy guru; and a brand advocate & champion.” These attributes make sense, but the ability to “secure executive support” doesn’t quite capture the hardest, and most essential, quality and success factor I’ve seen for CMOs (at least in technology companies where’s I’ve spent the... (more)

Sales & Marketing: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Over the past 15 years waging war in the technology marketplace, I’ve come to appreciate that the first battle for marketing is often the one fought inside a company between sales and marketing.  Let’s face it, the two functions are often at odds due to the he fundamental schism of one function primarily rewarded for delivering near term results, i.e. get sales this quarter, and the other function primarily rewarded for creating competitive advantage and building brand preference. It’s no wonder there’s a lot of finger pointing in the hallways and conference rooms across America... (more)