Do You Have A Second?

Six Career Tips

My colleague Jeremiah Owyang posts six career tips - good advice from someone who has made quite a name for himself.

Dress for success

A conversation and a random search result led me to this article:  "How to manage your image."

To get the part, you must look the part; so dress for success, my friend.

How to succeed in marketing

Rule #1.  Realize that you can't please everyone all the time.

Rule #1.1  Try to please your boss as much as possible.

Perception is more important than Reality

Having grown up in a no-nonsense household, this was one I learned the hard way about the business world - perception is more important than reality.

One time on a consulting project, I was working at a location that required that I rent a car every week for about three months.  The rental of choice for the newly minted MBAs that I worked with was the Ford Mustang convertible.  It was California after all and these consultants were flying in from cold places like Chicago and Boston.  For whatever reason, renting a Volvo S70 at this location was less expensive, about the same as renting a Toyota Camry.

When my project manager and I pulled up to the office at the same time one day, he was clearly displeased.  I had a "do you have a second" moment later that morning about wasting the client's money.  When I explained the price differential it didn't matter - Volvo was a "luxury" brand and renting something different than the other consultants was not acceptable.

Sam Decker on Careers

Sam Decker, former Dell marketer and current with Bazaarvoice, has started a series of posts with career advice.  He's promised 15 to 20 posts on the subject, so you might want to pick up the feed and tune in.

Underpromise and overdeliver?

I had a friend who did very well for himself as an associate consultant at Bain.  He's a brilliant guy but never applied himself - always turning in assignments last minute or late, graduating on the five (and a half) year plan.  But he got himself a great job and then was a high performer during his years with the firm.

His secret?  Underpromise and overdeliver.

A risky strategy for sure, depending on what your definitions are - but it worked for him.

So you want to be a CMO?

Back in October, I was a privileged fly on the wall of Forrester's CMO Leadership Board meeting in Chicago.  The guest speaker was Greg Welch from Spencer Stuart, talking about what makes a good CMO.  Greg should know - he handles some of the highest profile searches around.

Some things you may know already:  CMO tenure is way down - almost 23 months, about half of CEO tenure.  These are $1mm jobs that are really general manager roles that come with high stakes and expectations.  New chief marketers need to build bridges and prove that marketing delivers value, doesn't just spend money.  A key question:  does your marketing team look like your customer base?

CEOs are looking for a fit at the intersection of job (i.e. responsibilities), organization (i.e. cultural elements), and personal qualifications (i.e. competencies).  The top skills required for success?  Leadership - influence and impact.  A track record of results - no excuses.  General management and P&L experience.  Innovation experience.

So how do you get there?  In the short term, create a list of your 100 goals in life.  Develop a personal board of directors.  Gain experience with a blue chip company in an industry that you like.  Network now.  Get an international assignment.  Go through a sales rotation. Participate in an acquisition.  Manage your career aggressively.  And finally (maybe the toughest one for this day and age) don't change companies too frequently - loyalty counts.

Thinking through this advice, I feel it's important to figure out WHY you want to be a CMO.  If you like creating ads but don't like numbers, shoot for VP of Advertising and love your job.  If you enjoy focusing on a single market, work towards managing a regionally-focused subsidiary company.  If you have brilliant ideas but don't want to manage people...become a consultant!