Alex McLean, general manager of marketing at BMW Australia and New Zealand, has told The Growth Distillery’s Stories (Un)Told vodcast the trick to being a marketing leader is being able—and willing—to let go of control.
“People who maybe join marketing having never done it before, say they’ve come from sales or elsewhere, they struggle with [not being in control],” he told Dan Krigstein, live at the Cairns Crocodiles festival.
“Marketers have an innate ability to be OK with never being in control of everything. You’re spinning multiple plates all the time and you need to be OK with some dropping. To be a good marketer in a way for me was about relinquishing control and being OK with that.”
But while the transition from sales to marketing might be about relinquishing control, the transition from agency to client side is an entirely different kettle of fish.
“You need to pick your moments. You need to play the game. On agency-side, it’s a very free and open discussion particularly as a relatively junior account manager. You were empowered to discuss—creatives could shoot you down and let you know, ‘Don’t change my copy!’ But on the corporate side you need to play the game a bit and know the times when you can raise stuff and times you can’t,” he said.
“Everyone’s got that wrong, too. In my team, if we got every decision we made correct, we’d be paid seven figures plus. We get it wrong more than we get it right but we balance our decision making and that’s why client-side can be slower. It can’t have the pace.
“And you don’t know everything. As a junior or middle manager, you don’t want to be seen to be silly, not know or ask the wrong question. Being in the leadership role I’m now in and particularly with the leaders I’ve worked with, they’re very open about not knowing everything and looking to their team and colleagues to empower them with the knowledge they have.”
McLean was speaking on-stage in Cairns, too. Together with fellow Stories (Un)Told vodcast guest Mel Fein, they discussed what was need to future-proof brands in 2025.
