The connection between VPs and MVPs...

VPs of small and mid-size industrial manufacturing companies have long used sports metaphors to exhort their people to hustle and show team effort. Unfortunately, not many have known how to lead that effort. If they did, then such disciplines as funnel marketing and such tools as CRM would have been effectively in place years ago.

The failures of industrial marketing are often the failures of management, but nowadays we talk a lot about the need for leadership if American industrial manufacturing is to continue to compete, grow and dominate. This is why leadership profiling has become a major function of outside executive search firms and of inside HR departments.

Many years ago, Management textbooks taught that the functions of management were planning, organizing, directing, leading, and controlling; and of these, the role of leadership was indispensable. The role of leadership was stressed in the teachings of Peter Drucker, widely known as the father of modern management. During an interview with Bill Moyers in the late 80's, Moyers suggested that management and leadership were two different traits, that even American presidential administrations were often good at leadership, but bad at management. To this, Drucker replied: "No, they are bad at administration, because leadership is a part of management."

Many American industrial manufacturing companies are composed of coaches and players who have a good chance of winning, because they want to win. But in order to win, everyone needs to know what game they are playing and why. The answer has little to do with pushing a product line card, but with building a collective purpose and a process for getting there. If marketing and sales are not sharing the ball, there is no team; and it's probably because there is no shared purpose or process for winning.

Last summer, Derek Rose of the Chicago Bulls was still a college age kid making his way in the big league, practicing all day at the gym and trying to stay focused on his game. When asked by a reporter why he wasn't paying much attention to all the fuss about LeBron James and where the ego-driven James Gang would end up playing. Showing the kind of managerial wisdom and leadership that would make most any industrial manufacturing company a success, Rose answered: "Let's figure out who we are first. Let's control the things we can control."

And then, in an act that showed too, the importance of character, Rose sent a text message to LeBron James so as not to be unfriendly or unclear:

"I just want to win."

jb
www.centrifuge-now.com