Whose responsibility is strategy?
Not as obvious a question as it may sound. You should not outsource key decisions about how your business generates profit. These are too personal and too fundamental. Of course getting help with these is fine, but the business owners must be involved. So, the level and nature of the strategic input needs to be considered.
But should businesses of all kinds care about things other than profit?
For a number of reasons, the answer is a very certain yes.
If customers can’t trust or like you, why will they buy?
The internet is great in the sense of giving everyone a platform, on a theoretically equal basis. But it does present audiences, including business people with challenges in terms of distinguishing an expert from a rank charlatan.
To be clear, I don’t just mean stuff I don’t like. I mean the kind of stuff which is deliberately intended for people to act on.
As someone who advises companies on how to plan and manage their marketing, I, of course, have to deal with agencies – both incumbent and those of my choosing. I’ve definitely seen the ‘good, the bad and the ugly’ in this area.
There are times when you’ll need one or the other and times when you need both. Here are my thoughts on how a consultant differs from an agency.