"I walked into a quarterly business review, confident in our marketing metrics. We were hitting or surpassing every KPI, and I presented our achievements with pride. My CEO made a statement that stopped me in my tracks: "Marketing success means nothing unless the company as a whole is winning." That moment was a turning point."
"The problem with a laser focus on your individual department's goals is that it tends to be myopic, focused only on your stats. We track what's measurable. We celebrate what's improving. We report on what highlights our team's productivity. However, it's easy to optimize for your own scorecard without checking whether those scores are driving company growth. The harder work is asking whether we're moving the needle on the larger business goals and aligning your metrics to that."
"Unfortunately, your department dashboard can show improvement while the company and customers need something different. Your team can hit targets while overall revenue needs a different kind of support. My CEO's feedback helped me see this gap. Marketing wins that don't translate to business wins are just activity, and this insight applies to all areas of the business."
An early-career experience revealed that strong marketing KPIs can coexist with company underperformance. A CEO's blunt assessment—"Marketing success means nothing unless the company as a whole is winning"—shifted focus toward business-level impact. Metrics remain important, but department scorecards can become myopic, celebrating measurable improvements that do not advance company growth. Teams must evaluate whether activities drive larger business goals and align metrics accordingly. Department dashboards can show improvement even as revenue or customer needs diverge. Marketing wins that fail to translate into business results are mere activity; alignment across functions is necessary for company-level success.
Read at Fast Company
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