Stop rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic

By: Bo McDonald

I’ve had the pleasure of hearing Neen James speak on several occasions.  Just last week, Neen, a productivity expert, was the closing speaker at a marketing conference I was also invited to speak at.  Though all of her content was amazing as always, there were seven words really stood out from the thousands in her presentation.

“STOP REARRANGING DECK CHAIRS ON THE TITANIC.”

It describes so well how some people approach their marketing strategy. Often, it’s not marketing or strategy that is missing, it’s the lack of something to market. There are several organizations that I could name off the top of my head that have the ability to do wonderfully amazing things. But they don’t.  Simply because they’re too busy fiddling with small details instead of making the much larger decisions. Why? I can only guess, but I think fear plays a large role in this behavior.

When the ship is starting to sink, we often try to occupy ourselves with the small details like rearranging the deck chairs.  Looks organized, but in doing that we forget to patch the hole to try to save the ship from the inevitable.

So what does this have to do with marketing? It’s hard for a marketing professional who truly cares to put out a rosy message about the great aspects of a cruise on the Titanic, knowing full well the fate of the ship and all who are involved.

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