Does Marketing add value ?

We all have perceptions about marketing. Unless you are a cave man, chances are you come across marketing routinely. So the question is - does marketing add value ?

My early professional career was spent thinking that Marketing meant a department full of well dressed good looking people who knew only 1 thing i.e. talk that only other people in marketing could understand.

As with many other things, my perception about marketing has changed. Now I understand the broader context of marketing and that everyone does marketing. Sending resume to prospective employers is an example of marketing.

From an organization perspective, Marketing helps achieve various objectives such as brand identity, potential market identification etc.

I think Marketing adds most value by identifying potential growth avenues that are mainly achieved through Market Research. Exactly what Apple Computers did with iPod. They identified potential gap in the market i.e. PC users who listens to songs on computer and have a large collection of songs that could not fit easily in available formats at the time. Hence the iPod.

Apple did that by answering a simple questions i.e. Is there a Gap in the market ? And is there a market in the Gap ?

Hence, marketing can add value by helping organization answer this question to promote growth.

Manager Add Value

Yes believe it or not - But Managers Add Value. The very reason management exists is because managers add a lot of value to the organization.

I first stumbled across this statement during Corporate Finance class at Australian Graduate School of Management. Where our instructor kept on repeating this statement. After few years of soul searching and extensive management development training, I am finally convinced that managers add a lot of value.

However, many people feel overwhelmed with the concept of value and many times misunderstand what value really means. Is a manager, who is just tracking hours spent by employees on the job is adding any value ? Or what value relationship managers add ? Does the value creation has any link to the remunerations paid to the managers ?

I would argue that management by its very nature exists to add value. The fact that a person has been employed to track employee hour spent on job suggests that such tracking information is important for an organization to assess and improve its value chain.

The challenge for most managers and management employing such managers is to understand that value created by a manager should be adequately rewarded. That brings us to the interesting topic of measuring value. Do we measure value purely in terms of financial figures e.g. revenue increased, costs saved etc or Do we measure value in terms of emotional quotient e.g. displayed empathy, built strong coherent team.

I think it is a mix of both. One can't be achieved without the other. For example, if the manager does not have emotional quotient it is difficult for him to get commitments from his subordinates. Which means that subordinates do not take initiative and are happy to follow directions. That results in organization missing out on performance improvement avenues.

So, coming back to original point. Yes, managers add a lot of value. It is upto the organization to put in relevant systems in place to ensure value created is adequately captured and people creating such value are properly rewarded.