The Marketing Director's Role in Business Planning and Corporate Governance

Corporate governance is a hot topic, as is the need for marketing to operate at board level. But no-one has yet brought the two issues together. This book changes that. Gerald MichIaluk builds on the latest research to help marketing directors incorporate marketing systems and best practice into a board’s decision-making process.

Michaluk outlines marketing’s key role in alerting the board to market conditions that merit adjustment of the corporate strategy, thus ensuring that strategy is based on sound intelligence and grounded in market reality. The book is illustrated with examples from a host of top companies, as well as interviews with their CEOs and CMOs.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

ACRONYMS USED IN THE TEXT.

1 BOARD LEVEL IMPLICATIONS.

The role of the board of directors.

The marketing director as a leader.

Types of director.

The managing director.

With great risk there has to be great rewards.

Company minutes and resolutions.

Summary.

2 WHO DO WE SERVE AS DIRECTORS?

Surveying the organisation.

Publics maps.

Company stakeholders.

Growth in consumerism.

The big picture.

Summary.

3 THE TOOLS AND AIDS AVAILABLE TO THE MARKETING DIRECTOR.

Time management.

Assistants.

The marketing director’s primary areas of responsibility.

Information and its value.

Knowledge security.

Marketing intelligence.

Summary.

4 MARKETING ADVANTAGE FROM TOP DOWN AND BOTTOM UP.

Leadership and leading by example.

C4IRS.

Communications and command.

Control.

Intelligence.

Surveillance.

Reconnaissance.

McKinsey’s 7-S model.

All together.

The open mind.

Breakthrough marketing.

Summary.

5 CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND RISK ASSESSMENT.

The FRC Code of Conduct.

What’s it all worth?

Does anyone comply?

Risk.

Summary.

6 INNOVATION AND BUSINESS PLANNING RESEARCH.

Chicken or egg?

Unique selling proposition.

Incremental improvements.

Traditional market research.

Validity and reliability.

Access to information.

Summary.

7 BUSINESS PLANNING PROCESS.

Corporate vision mission and values.

How long should you spend on business planning?

STORM.

The board’s role.

8 BENCHMARKING PERFORMANCE.

The ABCD–WOW of benchmarking.

Project planning.

Summary.

9 CORPORATE SYSTEMS TO AID MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL.

On Demand.

Relationship systems.

Summary.

10 BOARDROOM POLITICS: “ONLY THE PARANOID SURVIVE”.

Boardroom threats.

Knowledge is power.

Standard protection mechanisms.

Risk takers.

Summary.

11 THE STOCK MARKET.

The role of finance.

Shareholders.

Profit and loss accounts and balance sheets.

Gearing.

Investor evaluation of your stock.

Summary.

12 FLOTATION AND BEYOND.

To float or not to float?

Summary.

13 SHAREHOLDER VALUE.

Return on investment.

The old military model of selection.

Summary.

14 COMPETENCE, INTEGRITY, HONOUR AND TRUST.

The director’s role.

APPENDIX 1.

APPENDIX 2.

GLOSSARY OF MARKETING TERMS.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

INDEX.

"Intelligently written, accessible, and full of real-world advice, Michaluk has produced an authoritative book." (The Marketer, February 2008) Gerald Michaluk is the founder and CEO of Marketing Management Services International, one of the worlds leading strategic marketing consultancies and market research providers.
Having worked with a host of leading companies in both good and bad times such as Lucent Technologies, Compaq Computers, Hewlett Packard, Innogy, Scottish Power and over 200 SME’s. Gerald has a depth and breadth of knowledge and has had to deal with some very challenging.
Working often at board level and being an active business angel investing in companies as diverse as Antique Warehouses to Internet firms both nationally and internationally, Gerald has determined why marketing directors excel or fail miserably.
Gerald is a former university lecturer and a highly regarded international speaker and author. Current thinking on corporate governance, strategic planning, ethical behaviour, as well as the regulatory environment and recent changes to company law are considered with a view on how they will impact the role of the marketing director.

Marketing guru, experienced company director, CEO and business angel Gerald Michaluk describes the key roles, responsibilities and liabilities associated with taking up a board level position.

Systems and processes are described in detail that will help the marketing director stay on top of all the board level functions, while providing the vital marketing intelligence that is the life blood of a successful corporate strategy and hence successful company.

The Marketing Director will enable marketing directors to:

• Manage their complex multi-facetted role in an increasingly regulated environment.
• Ensure corporate planning is effective regardless of the size of the organisation.
• Ensure strategic and tactical plans are aligned and that the results desired by the board are achieved in the various marketing functions of the organisation.

Knowledge is power so be better than all the rest.

In this hugely practical book, The Marketing Director, Gerald Michaluk introduces the complex role that must be fulfilled by the marketing director if the company they work for is to excel regardless of market conditions.