• by Sean Hargrave , Staff Writer, December 10, 2015

It's a constant question echoing around marketing circles -- how does a top marketing executive make it from their department to the board and then CEO?

I was fortunate enough to recently talk about this with Martin Glenn, CEO of the Football Association -- the FA, which owns Wembley Stadium and runs the various national teams as well as overseeing the game in England. Although he's actually a qualified grassroots coach and a former director at Leicester FC, he was actually appointed to the role earlier this year to be an agent of change within the organisation. As a marketer at Pepsi and Walker's crisps, he is probably best known for signing up England football star, Gary Lineker, to be the face of the snack brand.

We had a conversation ahead of him speaking at a marketing event and he had some very simple advice on getting to the very top. The main point is to know where you add value and then be the agent of change within your marketing department. This can be initiated by posing all those questions that everyone knows they should be asking. Glenn's example on the night was to wonder aloud whether the black products a fictional company sells would do well in orange or pink. It's a simple question, but to get an answer the marketing person needs to be at the centre of everything. He or she needs good research, a rapport with sales to know what clients are feeding back and a direct relationship with the product guys and the research lab.

Being at the centre of the company, rather than feeling like you are a cog in a corporate wheel, is the best way to be an agent of change, Glenn assures.  The thing here, of course, is not just to think and talk like a marketer but to be able to talk at board level about how strategic plans can be delivered -- what is the company missing and how can it be delivered. It could be a new customer experience, a new line of products or just a new way of keeping customers more loyal. As long as the marketer can lay out a clear business case and leave the marketing waffle behind, they will be taken seriously by the board and make it more likely to get a seat around the hallowed table.

Ultimately, however, his advice echoes that of many business coaches I've been speaking to lately for various features. Get out from behind the desk. As Glenn left me he suggested that marketers need to know "a desk is a dangerous place to run a business from". He could say this because he had come to the event straight from a walk around a level of Wembley Stadium to talk through the customer journey and to work on potential improvements. 

So push your chair back, get out of the office and find where you can add value -- and then become a change agent who delivers that extra value. That's the word from a guy who has done exactly that repeatedly, and now holds one of the most prestigious roles in sport.