These are remarks I’m delivering today for the Phi Beta Kappa induction ceremony at my alma mater, the School of General Studies at Columbia University. Since these five strategies come in handy in my work nearly every day, I thought I share them here as well. When I arrived at Columbia, a 30-year-old software entrepreneur with a chip on his shoulder about never finishing college, I was pretty fearless. Tackle art history, no problem. Learn …

5 Strategies for Business, Life and Really Hard Math Problems Continue Reading »

A recent Forrester report on Understanding The Marketing Technology Buying Process (which is also available from Neolane) had a few exciting revelations. Their survey of 137 customer intelligence professionals — whom they see as a new breed of marketer — showed that marketing is now starting to lead the buying process for marketing technologies. I know, that probably sounds obvious — marketing leading marketing technology decisions. It’s like asking who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb? But …

Forrester: Establish a marketing technology office Continue Reading »

Written version of my Search Insider Summit presentation today: In the beginning, there was marketing. Simply marketing. Then, in the era of Mad Men, the marketing universe split in two. Suddenly, we had brand marketing, building a brand image, a position in the market — marketing above the fray. Versus direct marketing, right down in the frothy fray of persuading individual prospects to do something, the origin of calls-to-action and conversion rates. Specialized galaxies of …

From marketing specialties to marketing mash-ups Continue Reading »

Last month, the IT Services Marketing Association published an interview with me, Do You Need a Chief Marketing Technologist? (Note: the article is free for ITSMA members, but $195 for everyone else.) Although I’ve made the case for a chief marketing technologist several times before on this blog (my original post, my Search Insider presentation, and my Pivot presentation), the ITSMA interview had some great discussion and pushback on whether marketing should have its own …

Lobbying for marketing technologists outside IT Continue Reading »

I have to share an inspiring IT-marketing experience with you. I’ve advocated before that IT doesn’t need to own and implement all technology in an organization in order to provide valuable guidance and oversight. Instead, the CIO can provide governance on independently operated technology projects much in the same way that the CFO provides financial governance for other departments — while still letting those groups wield their budgets without micromanagement. Or, more broadly, how the …

An inspiring case of IT-marketing governance Continue Reading »

A colleague recently alerted me to an article in Marketing Week that shares new data from a Forrester report by Chris Stutzman: An astonishing 75% of chief marketing officers plan to rearrange their teams by the end of this year, according to a study seen exclusively by Marketing Week. Why? Because new forms of media and communications are having such a fundamental effect on business that the customer is closer to becoming king than ever …

75% of CMOs rearranging their teams in 2011 Continue Reading »