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Knowing something doesn't get it done

07/26/09 11:59 AM Filed in: Management Marketing
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Earlier this year a friend of mine was called into a room and told that he no longer had a job after 8 long years with the same company in a marketing role. As he later told me “it was a really bad day and the first thing that went through my mind is who the hell is going to do this job?”. After being out of work for a month he finally took a lower paying job at another company and I was surprised to hear him say that he really liked his new job. “People listen to me and I am making a difference everyday, he told me, my boss is wonderful she listens and actually asks me for my opinion on different things”. What really made his day however was that his former boss called him up and almost begged him to come back because they were having problems implementing some marketing programs. You can guess what his response was...





The first clue that something was wrong at his old company were the eMails that he was getting from the person who replaced him asking a whole range of questions. At first he replied but after a while he simply said “I’m sorry I am no longer an employee but would be happy to be a consultant at $90 an hour”. I asked him what was going on and his reply was that it’s simple “they have a lot of people who are knowers but very few doers”. That is more relevant than ever before in today’s business climate.



Getting things done within a company is not always easy. There are meetings that have to be scheduled and stakeholders who need to be informed so that they can allocate resources as needed. Then there is management of the vendor and more importantly knowing where to go and who to call to get things done. Companies, when laying people off, don’t always think of that as my recent attempt to take advantage of company promotions proved. The promotions were well thought out but were executed poorly and provided a horrible customer experience to which I am still not over.


I often describe business as a huge ship that needs to turn around in a small river. While I understand that change is better when it’s evolutionary rather than revolutionary the fact remains that way too much time is needed to get things implemented because a lot of corporate America has made cuts that are too deep within middle management; the same management that knows who, what, where and when.


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