Marketers: What is Your Legacy?

When James Schlesinger became the new secretary of defense, his most ardent desire was to leave a legacy behind. He wanted to people to know that he had not only occupied the “SecDef” seat, but had made a difference. To find out how to do that he sought the counsel of a number of people, but one in particular, Colonel Richard Hallock. Richard was a paratrooper, a highly decorated combat hero and a person who understood the hollowed Pentagon halls well. Especially the potential pitfalls. More importantly, Hallock understood how the institutions like the Pentagon can quickly swallow you up by engaging you in so many projects, you end up being known or standing for nothing in particular. Hallock sat Schlesinger down and said, “You must understand that if you want to leave a legacy it is vital for you to make a decision about what you want that legacy to be. If you don’t make that decision, and make it early in your tenure, you will have no legacy. Because even after several months on the job you will become so caught up in the business of the Pentagon, so enmeshed with the generals, so overwhelmed with the scope and enormity of the job that it will be too late.

As a marketer, what will your legacy be? What few projects will you pick and put the full weight of your office behind them? How will you guide your legacy projects and nurture them? If you determine from the very beginning what your legacy will be, then and only then can you force them through the bureaucracy. And you will have to force them through the bureaucracy especially if you wish to be a change agent. The world only embraces change agents when they have succeeded. Not the ones who are in the process of driving change.