For Paris Hilton? Marketing. She's a walking billboard for the Hilton Hotels brand. Every mention of her name anywhere in the media is another plug for the brand. Genius.
And did you know that McDonald's really isn't in the hamburger business? Their franchisees are, but McDonald's Corp. has known for 40 years that they're really in the real estate business. And this singular insight powered their rapid growth over those decades.
Theodore Levitt first tackled this insightful question in his 1960 Harvard Business Review article "
Marketing Myopia." And 50 years later it's still one of the most read HBR articles ever.
Back in '60 (way before my time), Levitt believed that if railroad executives had understood that they were really in the transportation business, verus just railroads, they would have viewed their customers and their market more broadly and would have found themselves in a perennial growth business.
His point was that companies doom themselves from realizing greater growth because of their limited vision around the business or market they're really in.
And the same goes for CIOs.
CIOs who believe that they're in the technology business doom themselves from experiencing greater career growth, and their companies from experiencing greater revenue growth.
As technology continues its inevitable slide down the path of commoditization, CIOs who lean on technology as their value to a company will eventually find themselves a commodity as well.
But CIOs who understand that they exist to grow a business, and operate with this mindset, will not only help drive greater business growth, but greater career growth for themselves as well.
Having a business leadership and business growth mindset will differentiate CIOs going forward.
There is good news for all CIOs. They don't need long legs or a cute puppy in their arms to differentiate themselves. Just a simple shift in mindset from a focus on technology to a focus on business growth will do the trick.
So what business are you really in?
