There are times when I truly believe my grandmother might have had the world's best understanding of time. As far as she was concerned:
- Everything that has already happened was yesterday.
- Everything that is going on right now (or before midnight tonight) is today.
- Everything that would happen in the days and/or years to come is tomorrow.
Yes, I realize that it's a bit simplistic, but the concept worked very well for her. And because I spent so much time around her when I was growing up, it also helped to inform some of my own attitudes about time, which and also seems to have impacted some of my attitudes about marketing. More specifically:
- Projects are about the past. You may be designing and/or building something that people will use months or years down the road. But your company pursued and won the work a while ago. Your staff began working on the project a while ago and may have already completed the work.
- Invoicing is about today. Whether the project is complete or you're still working on it, the invoice is a snapshot of where the project is the day the invoice is prepared (i.e. today).
- Marketing is about the future. Marketing is about what you're going to pursue and win tomorrow or the next day. It is made up of the strategic processes regarding what clients and/or projects to pursue, the decisions about how to pursue and win the work, the processes of client interaction and positioning, and myriad other items culminating in signing a contract to do the work.
The moment a contract is signed and the project is declared a "win," a marketer moves it mentally to the "past" folder and sets his or her sights on the next "future"--the next pursuit.
Regardless of how you title it (Director, CMO, etc.), the person who makes the final decisions regarding "who" the firm is and where it is going, and implements the plans for the firm's marketing and business development activities, is also the firm's Chief Strategic Officer (CSO), or Director of Potential Futures. Whether their responsibilities are squarely delimited by the word "marketing" or involve contributions to broader strategic discussions about the firm's direction, he/she is the firm's CSO. He/she needs to have quick access to the firm's CFO, COO, and CEO (if there is one).
In the absence of an appointed CEO, the person who leads strategic planning may wear the CEO hat when a CEO is needed. Ultimately, that person may become the firm's CEO, with the full blessing and trust of the rest of the firm's key leaders and managers. We see this happening more and more often in the A/E/C industry, as more and more marketers earn, and are granted, seats at the Senior Management table and are given the opportunity to prove their worth.
I have seen a number of marketing/business development people in A/E/C firms end up in the CEO's office. I always find this fact encouraging because it has long been my personal goal to be the Marketing/Business Development PRINCIPAL in an A/E/C firm. I am happy to see that the future of Marketing is a seat at the big table, and maybe even the big chair at the head of that table.