Think Big and Act Small

Leslie Koch
99U © 2011
[@] getab.li/16125
Video:

Rating Take-Aways

7
9 Applicability • Leslie Koch, president of Governors Island, believes in five marketing principles. First,
pay attention to your customers and “ask the right questions.”
6 Innovation
7 Style • Second, know the product you are selling, its market and the people to whom you are
selling it.

• Third, formulate a strategy in simple language and align every action to support it.
 
Focus • Fourth, translate your vision into actions you can execute every day.

• Fifth, base your marketing plan on what motivates and inspires your customers.
Leadership & Management
Strategy
Sales & Marketing
Finance
Human Resources
IT, Production & Logistics
Career & Self-Development
Small Business
Economics & Politics
Industries
Global Business
Concepts & Trends

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Review
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Leslie Koch, a marketer and former CEO of the Fund for Public Schools, is in charge of selling Governors Island to
New Yorkers. She espouses the importance of five basic marketing principles. Her intelligence and humor, coupled
with down-to-earth practicality, reveal her passion for her job and her commitment to effective marketing. If you
would like a clear, useful introduction to marketing, getAbstract recommends this video.
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Summary
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Governors Island is an abandoned military base off the coast of Manhattan. In 2003, the
US federal government sold Governors Island to the city and state of New York. When
Leslie Koch, president of the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation
(GIPEC), was responsible for marketing the island, she drew lessons from her early career
“These are five lessons at Microsoft, where she had learned five valuable lessons that are applicable to selling any
I’ve learned that work
equally for islands and
product or service. Though few marketing professionals follow these elementary tenets,
software.” everyone should.

1. “Listen and ask the right questions ” – Marketers get so caught up in the message
they want to convey that they stop listening to their clients and don’t ask the questions
that uncover customer needs. When Koch began working at Microsoft, she found Word
software difficult to use. The programmers discounted her input as a “user error.” But
Koch, inexperienced with computers, felt that she represented the average customer
“Many not-for- better than the programmers did.
profit organizations,
certainly government
2. “Understand the customer, product and market ” – This principle seems obvious,
organizations and many but many marketers are unaware of their product’s strengths and weaknesses, their
companies don’t really customers’ wants and needs, and the competitive environment. At Microsoft, all product
understand who their
customer is.” managers must pass the “elevator test”: They must be able to describe their product
strategy in around 30 seconds.
3. “Develop a strategy and stick to it ” – Align every action with the strategy. Every
employee must understand how their efforts contribute to strategy fulfillment. For
example, the janitor at Governors Island is responsible for its clean image, which is an
essential part of the strategy. Avoid industry jargon, acronyms and technobabble. If your
mother can’t understand your strategy, the language is too complex.
“People develop 4. “Think big and act small ” – Ambitious ideas are wonderful. But if you don’t
a vocabulary that “get something done” every day, your idea remains a fantasy. People don’t trust the
is completely self-
referential.” government to get things done, so the general public was skeptical when Koch presented
her lofty goals for Governors Island. When she promised skeptics a ferry service, she
made sure she would deliver on time.
5. “Marketing is all ” – Marketing is about developing a strategy that “maps how people
work and think.” If you want to sell your vision, consider how you can market your
product or service in everything you do.
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About the Speaker
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Leslie Koch is president of the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC).

Think Big and Act Small                                                                                                                                                               getAbstract © 2016 2 of 2

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