eBoost Consulting's Guide to becoming a Complete Marketing Strategist | Part 1: Fundamentals

Fundamentals are the key to being a complete marketing strategist.  Everything we do at eBoost Consulting, everything we’ve achieved can be traced to how we approach business fundamentals and apply them to individual marketing cases for clients and ourselves.   

The pyramid above displays the basic building blocks that we use to make a complete marketing leader.  That is, someone who is strategic, cross-functional, intelligent and creative.  Whomever comes to our company, we assess them on how rigorously they’ve attacked the fundamentals and how aggressively do they continue to work at the fundamentals.  If you’re weak on one of these levels, the pyramid falls apart.  Nowadays, the space is ripe with one-trick ponies.  And there are plenty of people with great tactical skill but if they don’t know how to apply those tactics to the big picture, then what good are they?  

But most people, particularly those of the Gen Y clan, don’t want to deal with that.  They’re looking for instant gratification, the shortest route to promotion, to that next title.  Perhaps they don’t learn segmentation practices because they don’t like analytical work.  Perhaps they don’t develop proper communication with Operations or Finance because they rely on communicating with marketing peers with similar communication skills.  Perhaps this is you?  Sure, you can get away with it for a while but the deficiencies will catch up with you sooner or later.   

It’s like they’re so focused on composing a masterpiece that they never master the scales.  And you can’t do one without the other.  The minute you get away from fundamentals – whether its proper preparation, thought-processes, or work ethic – the bottom falls out easily. 

When I was at Whole Foods Market, everyone said I was being held back.  But I was taught the scales there.  I was taught the importance of fundamentals and how to apply them to individual cases and my own propensity to be creative.  The concept of being a complete leader was heavily stressed and imposed.  When I got to eBoost Consulting and applied my learning to include new digital tools, I had a strong foundation to work from.  I knew the way to approach learning and I developed a feel for what would be flashes-in-the-pan or solid tools.  It allows me to be decisive.  It allows me to save time.   

When you understand the building blocks, you begin to see how the entire operation works.  You know what tools to use, which frameworks will click to bring out the best in your team. 

People are often surprised that I spend so much time on the whiteboard in meetings when we made our name on being cutting-edge.  They ask if we knew which frameworks, which tools we were using.  My answer is always no.  Tools change.  But the fundamentals remain the same.  I assess the distinct abilities and personality traits of the personnel in the room because I am always confident in my understanding of fundamentals and my ability to apply the fundamentals to any canvas.  Give me  a $10,000 brainstorming software or give me the back of the napkin.  The results will be the same. 

It comes down to a very simple saying: there is a right way and a wrong way to do things.  Peter Drucker once noted that effectiveness comes before efficiency.  Not the other way around.  Get the fundamentals down to be effective and then your level of efficiency and probability for success will raise. 

More to come on The eBC Pyramid tomorrow.   

-johnny

The above excerpt is adapted from the chapter “Fundamentals” from I Can’t Accept Not Trying: Michael Jordan on the Pursuit of Excellence. 

Comments

[Nick Urbani]

I like this alot, Johnny. It explains what we've been thinking visually. When I see this as a representation of a consultant, I think "a consultant that can think like a CEO," which is refreshing specifically when it comes to digital marketing consultants or practitioners. In tomorrow's post can we see bullet points describing each level so that it can be turned into a lesson plan of sorts?

[Matt Byers]

Hey Johnny! Great stuff as always. I'm really excited to be seeing new posts again in my BoostStrapping RSS feed! What strikes me about this is not how it applies to any one business or profession, but how it applies to ALL businesses and professions. Without the fundamentals and a well rounded approach failure seems imminent.

Congrats on the recent accolades by the way. No one deserves it more than you guys. Keep up the good work!

[Johnny Chan]

@ Nick - yes, for sure! Good feedback.

@ Matt - thanks! i think you hit it right on the head. The fundamentals can be applied to any setting - professional, academic, et al. "Without the fundamentals and a well rounded approach failure seems imminent." I LOVE that. =) Thanks for the props Matt. Couldn't do it without the support of our network which definitely includes you!

Looking forward to more of your feedback as the series goes on.

-johnny

[Kurt]

Looks like I have another tool for my tool belt. I completely agree that when we get away from fundamentals we tend to lose the things that made us successful in the first place. A lesson I was taught early in my career, and a lesson that is universal in business. It's hard to create a new and innovative design for the Roman Coliseum when you don't know and understand how the original structure was built. Great post Johnny!

[Johnny Chan]

Appreciate the feedback, Kurt! That is a great analogy. Rome wasn't built in a day and professional success is no different. All great companies require unique time, scope, cost and resource demands. Rushing the process will do more harm than good.

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Great job here. I really enjoyed what you had to say. Keep going because you definitely bring a new voice to this subject. Not many people would say what you’ve said and still make it interesting. Well, at least I’m interested.