Winning Culture

I completely agree with Rosabeth Moss Kanter's closing statement in her blog posting In a Recession, Put Everyone in Marketing. In it she says,

"Challenging times divide winners from losers. Winners survive because they never forget the important enduring truth: High quality products and services are created by engaged employees who know and care about customers."

The winners also know how to create a culture of getting the best out of their people. In this kind of culture, employees feel valued and respected. They feel empowered to make decisions. They will go out of their way to "do whatever it takes to delight the customer". There's a mutual respect between the employer and employee.

Everyone wins in this type of culture...customers, employees, and the employer.

Marketing When Times Are Tough

During these economically challenging times, some companies are drastically cutting their marketing budgets. Is this wise? I don't think so. Instead, I suggest you trim as little as possible from marketing. You need to maintain your market presence and position your company for a turnaround in the economy.

Be prudent about how you spend your marketing dollars. Prioritize your marketing activities. Try to quantify not only the cost of those activities, but the people and time resources needed. Put the activities that generate the greatest return in terms of expense, people, and time at the top of the list. Review the list and make sure you have both short-term and long-term revenue generating activities on the list.