Ms the Word: Do the right (marketing) thing

What I learned from Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham

By Malcolm Allison on Feb 14, 2011





Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves was first shown in England in 1991. I can remember taking my wife, nephew, and niece to see it.

I remember the scene where Robin drives a lance through Mordecai. My wife jumped out of the seat, and 8-year-old Rebecca put a hand on her knee to reassure her, "Don't worry, Aunty. It is only a film."

So this is one of my favorite films, up there alongside The Long Kiss Goodnight and Pretty Woman.

Before you sign off in shame, let me explain.

The plot is well known to anyone who has ever been to England.

It is spiced up a little with the inclusion of Morgan Freeman (as an Arabian, of all things) and a fine Shakespearean actor, Alan Rickman, who plays the Sheriff of Nottingham.

And it is he, and not Robin, who steals the film for me.

At about the same time that Robin is sticking a lance into Mordecai, Alan Rickman is kneeling between the legs of Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, asking the Archbishop to marry them. "For once in my life, I would like things done in the right order," he says.

After 32 years in marketing, and countless business plans, launch plans, life cycle management plans, I find myself telling people just that.

For once in my marketing life, I would like the luxury of making sure things get done in the right order.

I have launched when the dose was wrong, when the efficacy was not demonstrated in a meaningful trial, when the side effect profile was more important than the efficacy, and even with a name that was not approved.

So this time, things are happening in the right order.

In order to achieve this small miracle, I have had to smoke the peace pipe with a lot of people and deliver a lot of presentations with conviction and energy, but I have discovered that they are also keen to get things right.

I have found that in general, people want to do the right thing.

There is a latent pride in all of us to do a good job.

It is just depressing that somehow managers seem to grind that out of people.

And I wondered at what stage in our lives we move from that innocence and lightness of touch, like Rebecca, to the crunch of the lance.

I can hear you saying that life is serious and we have our choices to make, but I wonder.

I think I have achieved the unity in my workplace through a little humor, a little patience, some enthusiasm, and I guess a little tobacco.

I think that with age comes ... age-oh, and perhaps the confidence to accept that sometimes things go wrong, but generally if you have a clear view of where you want to go, and you endeavour to do things in the right order, sometimes you can be rewarded.