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Book Title:Marketing in the (Great, Big, Messy) Real World: Rewire Your Marketing Organization to Navigate Anything
Author:Kathleen Schaub
Published:2025
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Marketing in the (Great, Big, Messy) Real World invites leaders to see marketing for what it truly is: a living ecosystem shaped by human behavior, uncertainty, and change. By embracing complexity, rather than following an outdated “factory” model, businesses open doors to increased value, and to organizations more respectful of customers, that make smarter, less reactive decisions, and encourage a workplace where empowered employees can experiment and learn. Aimed at marketing leaders and their executive partners, the book proposes four mindset shifts—think like an investor, navigator, statistician, and ecologist. It draws on the author’s experience as a CMO and industry analyst combined with inspiration from turbulent environments including medicine and the military. The book delivers practical guidance on intelligence, team design, operations, and change. The result is more realistic, responsible marketing, thus helping organizations function better for people, not just profits.