These were the words of the late Peter Drucker, a man that Jack Welch refers to as the "greatest management thinker of the 20th century", and Tom Peters refers to as the "inventor of modern management".
Having spoken with hundreds of business executives in recent years, I found that marketing has failed in its promise to produce results. Marketers are under siege from management executives in the sales, finance, and human resource departments, who are often cynical of the contributions of marketing departments. They perceive (correctly or incorrectly) that marketing teams spend a lot but have little to show for it. Sales executives complain about the lack of leads coming from campaigns like advertising, events, or mailers. Finance executives look at marketing expense, associate it with golf outings and flashy public relations parties, and see it as an easy target for cost-cutting measures. Human resource executives, steeped in the tribal knowledge that marketing departments should be the first to cut staff in a downturn, are naturally suspect about the importance of marketers. It is tough to be a marketer.
Are these perceptions about marketing fair? Has marketing lost track of its charter to “create the customer"? Does marketing still deliver on its promise to “produce results"? Is marketing actually the “distinguishing function of the business"?
If you ask anyone outside the marketing department, we know what the answer would be: “no!" And if you ask any marketer off-the-record, you would probably get the same answer. So what is the problem? And why isn’t something being done to fix it?
This is not true!
Do you know people who make a lot of money from their business or their job but never seem to have any money? Or maybe they have money, a luxurious house and fancy toys, like expensive cars and boats, but they still have to go to work every day to make ends meet?
While these people have high income, they have very low wealth. When speaking with prospective clients or people at a seminar, I keep running into this situation and I always come to the same conclusion:
Making a lot of money has nothing to do with wealth.
Just this week, I was talking to a new client who runs a very successful business. He makes hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, but has more liabilities than he has assets. The reason seems to be that while he has made incredible efforts to make his business successful, he has never devoted the time or energy to learn how to make his investing successful.
This is not a criticism of this client. It is usually what we are taught.
We are often taught to work hard at our job or our business and to turn our finances over to a financial advisor who may or may not know what he or she is doing.
In addition, this client was given some poor advice regarding his taxes, so now he has to work even harder to pay back taxes that proper tax planning may have prevented.
Like our finances, we are often taught that taxes are too difficult so we need to "hand them over" to a tax advisor who may or may not know what he or she is doing.
In reality, you cannot "hand over" your taxes to a tax advisor. You have to learn enough of the rules to know when to go to your tax advisor for advice.
- Increasing Knowledge = Increasing Wealth -
The answer, no matter what your level of income or wealth, is the same. It takes knowledge to be financially (and tax) free. If you ask a highly successful millionaire or billionaire, they will tell you one of their essential secrets is possessing a diverse, cross section of knowledge in ALL areas of business. And they never stop learning!
Both Jeff Curley & Tom Wheelwright are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Jeff Curley has sinced written about articles on various topics from Marketing, Copywriting and Marketing. Jeff Curley runs eMO (www.e-marketing-operations.com), a global leader in the deployment of marketing operations.. Jeff Curley's top article generates over 1300 views. to your Favourites.
Tom Wheelwright has sinced written about articles on various topics from Legal Matters, Finances and Management. Tom Wheelwright is not only the founder and CEO of Provision, but he is the creative force behind Provision Wealth Strategists. In addition to his management responsibilities, Tom likes to coach clients on wealth, business, and tax strategies. Along with. Tom Wheelwright's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.