Thou shalt not take marketing and innovation in vain

Is everyone in your organisation contributing to marketing and innovation?

A proper environment

Some people do sales, some people produce, others do marketing, legal, HR, etc. This is still the main paradigm in many organisations. This might lead some professionals to consider their job description too narrowly: sales persons who do not consider their impact on value creation; service professionals who do not see their contribution on sales.

And what happens when people unconsciously impact a fundamental function of the organisation? At best, their contribution is not optimal; sometimes it is downright destructive. Companies need to create an environment where everyone is consciously contributing to marketing and innovation, whatever their title or their department.

The right attitudes

Prejudice and fears have permeated all industries for decades. Sometimes self-depreciating like “innovation is for people brighter than me”, sometimes self-righteous like “selling is not for me because I cannot lie”. Here again, the role of the organisation is central to fighting these counter-productive thoughts. HR departments should consider available strategies to alter and improve mindsets towards marketing and innovation.

The appropriate skills

The skills obstacle is the easiest to tackle and still many fail to address it efficiently. It should just be about training people on techniques, methods and tools that will help them when they consider taking on marketing or innovation. And this is where the trap is: you cannot expect skills training to work on people who are neither enabled by their environment nor naturally inclined. Any marketing or innovation training for the wider public must address together the environment, the attitudes and the skills.

Modern businesses might not yet fully comprehend the profound implications of Peter Drucker’s observations decades ago. Getting everyone to contribute meaningfully to what he considered the basic functions of any business, might therefore land your company a welcome competitive advantage.