Whenever there’s a general downturn in the economy or within an industry, you’ll see all the CFOs clearing the corporate decks and dumping their junk on the bad news barge.  As the barge passes each publicly traded company just before their earnings report is released, all the rotten write-offs and write downs, missed numbers, lost profits, crappy announcements and whatnot are tossed on board.  Everyone looks at the barge, sees how big the pile of junk is becoming, and with any luck fails to focus on your company’s contribution.  The news of the day focuses on the macro factors and hopefully misses your company. 

To marketing and communication leaders, the barge offers some blessings.  Focus is on the barge and not on specific company blunders.  You can also learn a thing or two from the seasoned CFOs—pile it all on at once.  Cut out the bad to the bone, and make it cathartic.  Even if your company is privately held, one big, bad and ugly internal announcement is a lot better than a haphazard stream of bad news.  It’s much easier to put the past behind and to start focusing on what’s next. 

If you’re running a marketing function, we suggest the following:

·         Review what’s not working

·         Make a realistic assessment

·         Eliminate resource drains without a strong ROI

If the program, promotion, person or partner is not working now, the situation probably won’t change in the future.   Difficult decisions are always easier to make when you are proactively prepared.   It’s times like these that test marketing leadership skills, but they also present opportunities to step up, assume responsibility and shine. 

Dump your junk on the barge and motor on!

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 17th, 2009 at 10:52 pm and is filed under Economic conditions, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.