MacKenzie Marketing Group - Home

I have a lot of pet peeves. The small ones are the random use of bullets and lack of parallel structure. Marketing is all about communication and if you can’t frame your point, then what is the point?

But there is a bigger issue. My biggest pet peeve is lack of leadership. In my book, this is the leading cause of company failure.

Company executives may blame lack of success on the product or the market, or even worse, the marketing department. But hey buddy, the real issue is lack of leadership.

Real leaders provide clear direction. But more importantly, leaders admit when they don’t know the right direction and work like hell with their exec team to create and stick to a plan of action.

Leadership isn’t about ego. Leadership is about getting people to take action.

There is a great dialogue in the movie, “The American President,” when the President, played by Michael Douglas is having a debate with his staffer, Lewis Rothschild played by Michael J Fox

Lewis: “…in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.”

President Andrew Shepherd: “ Lewis, we've had presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference.”

Thanks President Shepherd. Great leaders are great communicators.