"Max and the Challenging Job" could be about someone in operations, technology, finance, or marketing as each of these positions requires a strong character, but this book is about Max the Marketeer. Why marketing, well this is the hot corner of business right now, while finance (Sarbanes-Oxley), technology (don't blink, there is something new to integrate into an office), and operations (supply chain cost challenges) have all had their time to "shine." 

So, Max the Marketeer was challenged by some concerns and knew he had to understand and handle the concerns to keep his job. He had to deal with concerns such as top-line revenue growth, owning the customer experience, shrinking time between customer action and brand reaction, knowing which metrics matter, and hiring intelligence resources. 

Though he was a part of a big company, he knew that he was not alone and that many small and medium sized businesses were dealing with similar concerns. Though it was nice to know there were others who were dealing with similar challenges, he was only concerned about his job. 

He did not know what had changed, why all of this stuff seemed so new, so different, so much more challenging than when he was building his career in this formable field of endeavor called marketing. Top-line revenue growth was not a new term, but it felt so different. He felt he was being held more accountable than ever before, and that he was being held to demonstrate the value of his marketing budget. 

When he thought about the customer experience he felt overwhelmed as well as underprepared to manage his customer's touch-points. He knew that retaining a customer comes before customer acquisition, but there were so many channels, so many different areas of contact, he felt lost. 

One of the important steps that helped him during his climb to where he was today, was using a structured campaign calendar, but this just seemed so old-school when dealing in this real-time access everything anytime through whatever device world. He knew that this was causing way too much time between a customer's action and his brand's reaction. 

Next, he thought about measurements and metrics and how he could account for his return-on-investment for the marketing campaigns he was responsible for. But he felt that there seemed to be too many different views of what a return was, is, and should be. He knew that what he measured he managed, but was he measuring the right things? 

Lastly, he was inundated with data elements and analytics that seemed to challenge not only him but the many members of his hand-picked team. There was a need for an expertise in data and analytics and for someone who had insights to drive strategic decisions while creating personalization. It reminded him of opportunities that were presented to him years ago, and which helped to catapult his career. 

Max the Marketeer knew that the business leaders wanted him to show leadership, be accountable for spending and budgets, and most of all, he had no more excuses. He knew that everyone knows that there is more data and marketing intelligence than ever before, and that there are more ways to connect with customers than every before. So, what should he do? The line from Spiderman came to mind, "With more power comes more responsibility." He had to do what got him to his current position, lead, focus, listen, execute, and most of all, he could not worry about tomorrow as today had enough challenges to keep his attention. 

Sometimes you need to step back and look at the total picture versus getting caught up in the everyday concerns. You need to keep moving forward, lead by example, listen, learn, and act not react; Max the Marketeer would be proud of you. 

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