The Tribune

By D’Arcy Rahming

I was on a radio talking about sports and the Olympic movement when it was mentioned that I held the office of treasurer with the Olympic Committee, and that marketing fell under my portfolio. The host asked a question that I’m sure was on the minds of many people. How is it that these disciplines, marketing and finance, can mix in one person? In fact, he said: “These disciplines often require different personality types for success.”

I smiled confidently because I get this question in one form or another all the time, and it is at the heart of why I call this column Marketing Revolution. I explained to the host that he was basing his statements on a couple of stereotypes. First, he was mistaking accounting with finance. Therefore, he pictured an introverted a guy, maybe even with some glasses and tape on them, counting the results of the business. Then, for marketing, he visualised that you need some extroverted guy, ‘the life of the party’ type of guy.

First of all, finance is not accounting. Think of accounting as dealing with the past,and finance as dealing with the future value of something. Now, why it gets confused is that the language of finance is accounting. Marketing and finance are still taught as separate disciplines in many places. However, there has been a lot more crossover in the past decade due to how companies communicate internally. Work is done more in teams than individually, and everyone has more information on what other team members are doing. Now, here’s the most important point. In successful companies, marketing leads finance.

And here’s the heart of the revolution; it is all systems. Marketing, even brand marketing, is driven by systems. So I like to think of myself more as an implementer of systems. For this I draw on the discipline of engineering, which says first identify what the problem is. Then figure out the scope of the answer. Finally, I apply a particular method to solving a problem. So here is a very real example that uses this thinking.

I am tasked with putting value into the Bahamas Olympic brand. The first thing is to identify what the problem is. After canvassing sponsors, I have identified that the major problem is that they think the Olympics is an event that happens once every four years. Then I try to figure out the scope of the problem. We are going to have to describe the journey of the persons likely to be Olympians, which is a four-year project that requires a massive public relations campaign. It necessitates that I apply the disciplines of financial planning, fundraising and brand management.

NB: D’Arcy Rahming holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A lecturer at the College of the Bahamas, Mr Rahming has clients in general insurance, retail, the health and medical fields, sports federations and financial services. To receive his marketing newsletter FREE go to http://darcyrahming.com