The Tribune

By D’Arcy Rahming

When I was in the technical field, an industry slogan was: “No one ever got fired for buying IBM.” So conservative managers always bought IBM equipment. Then a young guy by the name of Bill Gates turned everything upside down. Bill Gates found a better, and cheaper, way to get the desired results and, after getting rich off of IBM, he opened things up for all of their competitors.

It was difficult for managers from large companies to adapt. They started to get their lunch handed to them by smaller companies using cheaper PC technology. These larger companies lacked the political will to make hard decisions.

Most marketers can tell you about the four Ps of marketing: Product, price, place and promotion. But, as the famous marketing professor, Kotler, pointed out in one of his many books, there is a 5th P: Political will.

For example, Christmas is fast approaching, and most companies will run the exact same promotions that they did last year in the exact same places. There will be many great new ideas presented, and abandoned, over the next few weeks because the persons presenting them could not change their company’s political will.

I’m not suggesting radical change for the sake of change. If last year’s promotions worked, why not do more of the same? May I humbly make the suggestion that there are some really strong reasons to make adjustments in your strategy. They are the very same things that the managers who insist on buying IBM missed: The competitive environment has changed, and across many industries there have been a lot of changes in how people receive information in a short period of time. Sometimes new ideas can save a company.

I know it will be very difficult to get an organisation to change strategies that were successful before. But it may not be as difficult to get a company to expand upon them. For example, it may be easier to convince an organisation that has not used Facebook or newspaper advertising before that now is a great moment to try these channels if it is presented as an addition to current strategies, rather than a replacement for them.

Of course, this will involve some politicking with the decision makers beforehand. Educating people on why your ideas are important should not occur at the time of critical decision making, but rather, beforehand. That’s politics 101. This is a skill that all marketers need to develop as they may find themselves quickly discouraged or, worse still, out of a job or a contract.

• 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, the retail, health and medical fields, sports federations and Ffinancial services. He is also treasurer of the Bahamas Olympic Committee. To receive his marketing newsletter FREE go to http://darcyrahming.com.