One of the most consistent things I hear from leaders is that marketing’s biggest challenge isn’t tools, tactics or AI. It’s something much simpler – understanding the business model they’re working in.
But it’s a cheap and tired tactic to pin that solely on marketers.
From what I’ve seen, firms usually fall into one of two camps:
1. They accidentally do a terrible job
No meaningful onboarding. No exposure to how the business actually runs.
No sense of loss-leaders, cash-cows or the constant trade-offs.
You end up reverse-engineering the company from scraps. And unless you’ve got the resilience of an ox, you massively misread things.
2. They actively gatekeep commercial reality
Margins, risks, levers – all behind closed doors. Everything treated with the secrecy of MI5 (despite selling flavoured water or an identikit SaaS product)
Marketing gets the outputs, never the context. Then leadership clutches their pearls wondering why the team ‘doesn’t think strategically.’ 😭
And to top it off, too many firms still position marketing as a promotional function…then seem baffled when the team behaves exactly like the promotional function they were told they were.
Yes – people can be more bullish, more proactive, more commercially curious.
But why on earth should anyone have to push themselves to breaking point just to get the basic context required to do their job properly?
If you want strategic marketers, start by giving them the conditions to become strategic.
By Dave Heywood
A marketer who’s spent his career figuring out how real growth happens – for brands and people alike. He runs Marketing Careers Uncovered, a podcast where marketers talk honestly about the work, the missteps, and what actually moves the needle.
