We’re not going down, we’re going to Philly

Listening to a podcast discussing leadership today, I learnt the story of Tammie Jo Shults, who in 2018 was flying a Boeing 737 when one of the engines exploded, ripping off parts of the plane, including a window.

Needing to reduce altitude rapidly, in this moment of stress, she felt empathy for what would be going through the minds of her passengers with the plane damaged and descending fast, and reassured them with the phrase:

“We’re not going down, we’re going to Philly”.

And this phrase, and her actions on landing in Philadelphia and walking through the plane to talk to the passengers, were cited as the behaviour of a great, empathetic leader.

Now, it might seem a bit crass to take this and then make a point about marketing, as sadly, while 148 passengers landed safely in Philadelphia, there was a fatality, but hopefully you’ll forgive me, as it’s such a great quote.

Maybe it’s the algorithm, the goldfish bowl I’m swimming in, but it feels our craft of marketing needs a bit of this fortitude right now, as there are endless posts about what’s wrong with our business discipline and why we are all, well, fucked.

From the terminator that is AI, short tenures, ageism, sexism, lack of alignment, lack of C-Suite understanding, short-termism, shredded budgets, to being confined to the children’s table with the crayons, etc., etc.

And from what I see in my feed, this story is not predominantly written by external folks bitching about those buggers in marketing, it’s those most gifted of communicators; marketers themselves.

Now, these are all valid concerns, don’t get me wrong, I’ve made my own contribution to this discord. Which was fine, until I saw one of these threads on LinkedIn, a wringing of hands from a senior marketer about their plight, and a CFO commented, agreeing and chipping in with his own negative observation.

If you are a parent, you know that thing that it's OK when you complain about your own kids, but as soon as someone else says the same thing about them, the hackles rise and you feel defensive - how dare they say that.

I felt that, when a CFO joined the fray of what this CMO was saying, there was a realization that all this bitching about ourselves was playing out to an audience of CEOs and CFOs nodding in agreement.

Are we talking ourselves out of a job?

And as I listened to this podcast talking about leadership, it struck me that our thought leadership seems to be lacking a bit of leadership.

Things in B2B marketing are disrupted, uncertain, and maybe a bit damaged; all of that is true.

But this venerable marketing profession isn't going down; it’s changing course.

We’re going to Philly.