OVER TO YOU
Drive performance
How the right blend of principles architects growth in any scenario.
Resources to accompany chapter 11 of Make Marketing Matter: Change perceptions. Drive performance. Architect growth.
Chapter snapshot
Things change, often rapidly. What stays constant is the ability of the principles to enable growth. The skill is knowing which blend of principles the moment calls for.
Chapter 11 looks out the window at the competitive landscape, the macro-environment and buyer behaviour, then reads the room inside the business across growth horizon, growth direction and organisational readiness. Together these shape which principles lead, which support and which are maintained.
It explores the four common scenarios - building new, scaling, retaining share and reinvigorating growth - and how to navigate uncertainty, when the instinct to cut is strongest and most damaging. Ecosystem thinking brings it all together: a discipline of reading the signals, blending the principles and adjusting as the business and the world change.
Definitions in this chapter
ecosystem thinking enabler.
Blending the five principles in any scenario. Adapting to internal and external pressures to architect growth regardless of the constraints, pressure or opportunity.
Check In
Take a moment to reflect on how your business responds to change.
- Does marketing's focus shift as the market, competition and business priorities shift, or stay fixed until the next annual plan?
- When uncertainty hits, is the instinct to cut marketing investment, or to lean in deliberately?
- Can you articulate which principles are leading, supporting and being maintained right now, and why?
Take Action
Find your blend. Start with where the business is now:
- Which scenario most closely reflects your current position: building new, scaling, retaining share or reinvigorating growth?
- Which principle needs to lead given the scenario, the external pressures and the internal reality?
- Which should actively support it and which can be maintained at a base level without losing ground?
- Where are the gaps between the blend the business needs and the blend it has today?
Write the blend and the reasoning behind it in commercial terms. If you can't explain it without marketing language, keep refining.
Bring it to the room
No single leader sees every signal. Bring the room together to read them collectively.
Ask each leader to bring what they're seeing from their vantage point: pressures from customers, shifts in deals, competitor moves, and changes in the wider environment. Then read the room together across growth horizon, growth direction and organisational readiness.
Where is investment really focused? Which markets and strategies is the business committing to? Do the skills, structure and capacity exist to deliver them?
Share your proposed blend of principles and sense-check it. Is there alignment on where to invest and what success looks like?
Related reading
Porter's Five Forces, Michael E. Porter
Porter’s Five Forces is a framework developed by Harvard professor Michael Porter that helps businesses understand competitive pressures shaping their industry. It looks beyond immediate competitors to include new entrants to the market, options to substitute, the power of buyers and the power of suppliers.
Three Horizons, McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company’s Three Horizons provides a way to think about where a business is investing over short, medium and long-term timeframes.
Read the article here >
7-S Framework, McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company’s 7-S Framework maps the internal factors that determine how effective an organisation is across strategy, structure, systems, shared values, style, staff and skills.
Back pocket arguments
- Businesses that maintain strategic marketing investment during uncertainty consistently outperform those that pull back.
R. Srinivasan, A. Rangaswamy & G.L. Lilien, ‘Turning adversity into advantage: Does proactive marketing during a recession pay off?’, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 22(2), 2005. - Companies that maintained communication and customer commitment during economic downturns consistently outperformed those that went quiet, retaining trust and remaining front of mind when confidence returned. Read the article here > and here >
- And they emerge from volatility better positioned to grow. Read the article here >
Get the full picture
This page includes additional resources to support Chapter 11: Drive performance in the book Make Marketing Matter.
The chapter examines how ecosystem thinking blends the five principles in any scenario so marketing drives performance whatever the constraints, pressure or opportunity. Make Marketing Matter is a comprehensive guide for marketing leaders and boardroom colleagues who want to build a marketing ecosystem that shows impact, links to outcomes, and leads to recognisable revenue.
30
Definitions
Clear, precise language that gives you a shared vocabulary for your ecosystem approach.
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Practical Exercises
Consistent, repeatable actions that bring the ecosystem approach to life.
Preorder Make Marketing Matter
Make Marketing Matter: Change perceptions. Drive performance. Architect growth. is out on 20th October 2026.
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