10.2. The Marketing Equation

You have to return your company to the growth mode. You have to keep your shareholders happy. You have to outpace inflation. You have to meet the ever-increasing wage-and-benefits expectations of a competitive labor market. To do all that, you have to achieve your Top Box. And the key to doing so lies in the marketing perspective.

Marketing? Yep. To once again quote Peter Drucker: "The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer."[] Many struggling companies lose sight of this fundamental principle. Instead, they spend their energies on mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, or a host of cost-cutting measures. Each of these tactics has its place in the normal course of business, but each can also become ...

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