Growth the GE Way

"Before we launched this growth initiative, marketing was the place washed-up salespeople went." Jeff Immelt talking about the organic growth initiative GE has been driving for the past three years and how previously even a sophisticated company like GE looked at marketing. It was a dumping ground for has been sales people. No wonder we don’t get no respect.

Is it all doom and gloom for marketing – Headlines tell us CMOs have shorter tenures today than three years ago, now Jeff Immelt tells us that we are not as valuable as tired sales people?

Do not despair. Jeff Immelt in the same HBR article (pdf on GE website) also said - In a deflationary world you can drive margin through productivity, now you need marketing to get price. There is not only light at the end of this tunnel, there is actually a garden of eden. Marketing it turns out is the driver of organic growth. But to make this happen, marketers must change their thinking. Marketing can no longer be thought of as a creative activity – it must now be viewed as an innovative process. A process that can be systematized to ensure we create a repeatable process that can be spread throughout an organization, driving growth in a number of places. And of course, we have to build the right metrics platform for this process to drive accountability and demonstrate that we are moving in the right direction.

Yes Virginia, marketing is more important than ever. And marketers can have a special place in CEOs' hearts. But they have to earn that place or they’ll be looked at as sales support or worse, washed up salespeople.

Comments

[Tom Asacker]

Great post! As a G.E. alum, I can attest to Mr. Immelt's observation. In the past twenty years, G.E. built value primarily through operational excellence; six sigma, work-outs, etc. It's now up to marketing - in conjuction with product development, sales, service, etc. - to deliver value through its new products, marcom, stakeholder relations, et al.