Wexit: Parting words from Ken Wong

This story was originally published in the Winter 2023 issue of strategy.

On the eve of his retirement from Queen’s University, industry vet Ken Wong sits down with Tony Chapman to talk marketing – the final installment of their popular strategy column.

Tony Chapman: Ken, what would you say was your superpower as an educator?

Ken Wong (pictured, left): I wonder if I have a superpower, other than trying to practice what I preach. We’re marketers. We make our living by getting people to behave in what we feel is their best interest. Isn’t that what a teacher is supposed to do?

TC: The next generation will fight for jobs in the cloud, relevancy against AI and machines that will get faster, better and cheaper. How do we need to prepare them?

KW: Machines will always beat humans on efficiency issues, so don’t try to outdo it on that basis. Instead, accept that in some instances (like the activities accountants call “cost centres”) machines will win. It’s a good thing because it frees us to differentiate on the things a device is less well equipped to do: considering context, knowing how to frame a problem, factoring in considerations that are harder to quantify or where there isn’t enough data for statistical analysis, and being creative in every sense.

Machines play a game of probability, so number skills will be necessary for analytics. It isn’t a matter of knowing how to do the analytics, but rather knowing their assumptions and limitations. After all, if AI were perfect, we’d all kill the stock market. So, we need to teach our kids to excel at those skills and perspectives that cause us to question the recommendations and decisions of machines. Teach them what data to collect so machines can inform us, but never delegate decision-making to them.

One final thing: no matter what tech we use, nothing beats the power of observation. How else do we know what to study?

TC (pictured, right): You not only rode the changing waves of marketing, you also helped to define them. During your tenure, we went from mass (when the consumer was captive and enchanted) to “my” (where the consumer’s in control, contributing to the narrative and demanding more personalized offerings). What’s the next wave?

KW: I don’t think our focus has changed or ever will. We have always known and wanted consumer sovereignty and more personalization. What’s different now is that the technology and information infrastructures let us do things we could never do before. So, we will always be drawn to technology that allows us to be more customer intimate.

The next wave won’t be strategic or technical. It will be when we learn how to manage marketing and the people who do it. Technology and the democratization of knowledge mean we will all be doing the same things. The key won’t be what, but how we do it.

Marketing is different from other business functions, but we manage it the same way. We would never allow staff to play video games on the job… but what if they are “creative staff”? You can’t regiment the creative process. We’ll aim to crack the code on how to engage staff, to show them that they have a purpose beyond making a sale or generating a tweet, that what they do matters. We need to think about our people as our target market and apply what we do as marketers to how we “sell” them on our strategies and tactics.

For example: we usually have one HR policy even though we know that different employees view work differently. Seniors might care about retirement policies, do 20-year-olds?

TC: How do you want to be remembered most?

KW: Head: an intellectual superpower on the bleeding edge.

Heart: someone who deeply cared.

Hands: a bias for action and never resting on your laurels.

I have always loved your three “H”’s and hope my brand incorporates all three. But they are tools that only gain value when used to produce an outcome. So, in the end, I hope I’ll be remembered most as someone who used whatever skills he had to help others realize their dreams, just as others helped me realize mine.

Ken Wong is an award-winning educator, with 40 years spent as a marketing professor at Queen’s University. He’s a member of the Canadian Marketing Hall of Legends and winner of the Financial Post’s Leaders in Management Education award.

Tony Chapman was the founder of Toronto ad agency Capital C as well as Chapman Reactions. He’ s also host of Chatter That Matters, a weekly podcast that spotlights people who do extraordinary things, despite challenging circumstances.