Interview with Judie Lannon

Judie edits The Marketing Society’s quarterly journal and will be joining our panel of advocates as a monthly blogger. Look out for her first article on Monday. Until then, a brief interview

What’s your golden rule?
Shorter is better

Who has been your biggest influence?
Stephen King at JWT.  He codified the intellectual disciplines underpinning Account Planning and  taught me how to think about brands and branding issues.   Also in the ‘how to think’ category, Jeremy Bullmore (a model of how to write)  and Charles Handy (profound insights into organisational culture)

What is your most hated business expression?
Things to do with boxes: ticking (all of) them or thinking outside them, low hanging fruit and almost anything with hyphens: go-to-market, consumer-centric, etc. I also ruthlessly strike out clumsy words like pushback and, granular and wonder why ‘around’ has crept into the language replacing  ‘about’

What’s the smartest business idea you’ve ever had?
Agreeing to edit Market Leader and shaping the content to feature strategic marketing issues

Which leader do you admire most and why?
A client I worked with called Al West, CEO of SEI 40 years ago he built a brilliant billion $ technology based financial services business himself, is still CEO and presides over the most innovative, inspiring company culture that  I’ve ever encountered.

What’s your favourite word?
Lunch

Tell us a secret
In another life I would love to have been a country and western singer. Somewhere between Dolly Parton and Dusty Springfield.