Emeritus Professor of Management and Marketing at London Business School Patrick Barwise and marketing leadership expert Thomas Barta explain how marketers can help change perceptions and increase business impact. Their book, THE 12 POWERS OF A MARKETING LEADER, is out now.

1. Patrick Barwise and Thomas Barta’s study of
marketers shows us all how we can help change
perceptions and increase our business impact.
Marketing’s important.
But marketers often aren’t.

2. 2
Marketing’s important.
But marketers often aren’t.
Ask anyone, “Who’s important in your
company?” Marketing rarely tops the list.
Yet every firm wants to be more customer-
focused – and the evidence is that having an
influential marketing team does boost business
performance.
The paradox

3. 3
Marketing’s important.
But marketers often aren’t.
Marketing is your company’s linchpin for
customer focus. But only 44% of the senior
marketers we interviewed said they had
successful careers.
We can change this – leading to more effective
and successful marketers and improved
business performance.
Marketing leaders often struggle

4. 4
Marketing’s important.
But marketers often aren’t.
As part of a five-year study, 8,600 marketing
and non-marketing leaders were surveyed –
and more than 68,000 individual assessments
by these leaders, their bosses, peers and teams
were analysed.
We put the organisational challenge facing
marketers down to three fundamental gaps.
Largest-ever marketing study reveals big gap…
71%
44%
of senior marketers reported high
business impact
of senior marketers reported
successful careers

5. 5
Marketing’s important.
But marketers often aren’t.
It is a marketer’s job to live in the future –
future products, future markets, future
campaigns, prices and sales. When they
present, there will always be a trust gap
compared with, say, finance and operations,
which are mostly about the present and
the past.
1
A trust gap

6. 6
Marketing’s important.
But marketers often aren’t.
Imagine your company has the best customer
experience in your market.
How many people would need to make this
happen? Many. And how many of them would
report to marketing? Few.
Marketers are often ignored because of this
reporting gap.
2
A reporting gap

7. 7
Marketing’s important.
But marketers often aren’t.
Marketing is getting ever more complicated and
the pace of change is speeding up. The reality is
that marketing leaders can no longer be experts
at everything. They can’t know it all.
Inevitably, there’s a continuing skills gap.
3
A skills gap

8. 8
Marketing’s important.
But marketers often aren’t.
What can we learn from the 44% of successful
senior marketers? They weren’t just good at
doing marketing, they also excelled at leading
marketing. They found ways to close the three
gaps.
The powers of a marketing leader
Mobilise your boss
Mobilise your colleagues
Mobilise your team
Mobilise yourself

9. 9
Marketing’s important.
But marketers often aren’t.
To close the trust gap marketing must be
important to the CEO.
The issues you work on must be big. They
must meet both customer and company needs,
increasing the Value Creation Zone (V-Zone).
Mobilise your boss
Tip #1: Tackle the big issues
Value
Creation
Zone
(V-Zone)Customer
Needs
Company
Needs

10. 10
Marketing’s important.
But marketers often aren’t.
To close the reporting gap, marketing must be
important to everyone.
Marketers: get out from behind your desks:
tell your non-marketing colleagues stories that
will get under their skin; that will capture their
minds and hearts.
Mobilise your colleagues
Tip #2: Walk the halls

11. 11
Marketing’s important.
But marketers often aren’t.
To close the skills gap, marketing leaders must
build a team with the best mix of creative,
analytical and leadership skills – and then help
them to become brilliant by covering them
in trust and letting the outcomes speak for
themselves.
Mobilise your team
Tip #3: Become a leader of leaders

12. 12
Marketing’s important.
But marketers often aren’t.
Marketers have a big weapon: inspiration. They
can’t tell their CEO, colleagues or – these days –
even their team what to do. But they can inspire
people to follow them.
Do you know how you inspire? First, go out
and find your own inspiration. If you’re
inspired, you’ll be able to inspire others.
Mobilise yourself
Tip #4: Know how you inspire

13. 13
Marketing’s important.
But marketers often aren’t.
Marketing leaders have the power to increase
their influence and have more fulfilling,
successful careers – for the benefit of
their customers and companies as well as
themselves.
Now you know how to unleash it.
Increase the power of marketing leaders

14. Patrick Barwise is Emeritus Professor of Management and
Marketing at London Business School.
Thomas Barta is a marketing leadership expert, former
McKinsey partner and alumnus of London Business School.
The 12 Powers of a Marketing Leader:
How to Succeed by Building Customer and Company Value
McGraw-Hill (October 2016)
www.marketingleader.org
Discover all 12 powers of a marketing leader on
London Business School Review