QUOTATION 89

DAVID PACKARD ON THE IMPORTANCE OF MARKETING

Use this to remind you that people see you as a representative of your organisation.

David Packard (1912–96) was a Co-founder, with William Hewlett, of Hewlett-Packard and served as President, CEO and Chairman of the company. His experience led him to suggest that:

Marketing is too important to leave to the marketing department.

David Packard

Packard was not suggesting that you should dump your marketing department/team. Rather, he was suggesting that every member of staff had a role to play in it.

WHAT TO DO

  • In the age of social media, every member of staff has to realise that their actions can reflect on the organisation and be spread worldwide in less than 24 hours (see Quotation 81).
  • Seek to build an organisation where everyone from cleaner to CEO recognises that they are representatives of the company and that how they behave with stakeholders, and even in their private life, can have an impact on how people see and judge the organisation. For example, many years ago I decided never to fly with a particular budget airline because I found the CEO obnoxious and I never have. How many other potential customers did he lose with that one interview?
  • Conversely, if an engineer gets cornered at a party about a faulty machine that has just been delivered, they can do the organisation’s reputation a world of good by taking the details and trying to sort the issue out for the person – even though it’s not their responsibility.

QUESTIONS TO ASK

  • What can I and my staff do to promote the organisation and its products?
  • Have I and my staff had any training about how to deal with complaints received from the organisation’s stakeholders?
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