Kirk And Spock As An IT Marketing Leadership Team

I have a confession.

I’m a big fan of Star Trek. Like, seriously. It’s amazing.

But before you write me off as a huge nerd, let me make my case.

Watching Star Trek is great because it’ll make you think.

You’ll consider complex philosophical questions, imagine “what if” science fiction scenarios, and watch characters with contrasting personalities struggle to interact on a daily basis.

And perhaps the most interesting relationship you’ll find in Star Trek is the friendship of Kirk and Spock.

Why? Well, it’s simple really. They’re opposites, yet they complement each other. They irritate each other, yet they’re fiercely loyal to one another.

…Basically, if you looked up the word “bromance” in the dictionary, you’d see a picture of Spock and Kirk. They make a great team and share a deep mutual respect for one another.

But wait – what specifically makes these two so different? Let’s explore their individual personalities a little bit.

First, there’s Spock. He’s calm. He’s collected.

Let’s be honest… He’s basically a robot.

His main concern in life seems to be logic and keeping his emotions on a tight leash. And he certainly isn’t a social butterfly. In fact, it’s pretty hard to draw Spock out of his shell unless you’re challenging him intellectually.

Spock is kind of the opposite of spontaneous and friendly. He’s incredibly structured and analytical, and he has no problem openly stating facts that others might find offensive. He doesn’t really like risk taking and prefers to stick to the rules instead.

Kirk, on the other hand, loves to take risks. Constantly. He’s the stereotypical fearless leader.

He’s also a pretty emotional guy and completely unafraid to express himself. He has a great sense of humor and is naturally charismatic. People like him. Because of that, he’s an excellent leader. His passion for his job inspires others to follow him.

Kirk is an eternal optimist, too. He doesn’t believe in “no-win scenarios” and is completely confident in his ability to overcome challenges using only his intuition. He’s both respected and widely adored by his crew.

…So, how is it that Kirk, the reckless relator, and Spock, the logical analyzer, work so well together on the Enterprise?

It’s simple. Because of their differences, they can work together to analyze situations from multiple perspectives and, therefore, create the most effective solutions.

But how effective would these two be as an IT marketing leadership team?

My guess? Very effective.

How so? Well, let’s think about Kirk as the President of a hypothetical IT marketing company and Spock as the Vice President.

First of all, effective IT marketing requires an understanding of people and the ability to easily relate to them. That’s what it’s all about – getting people to believe in your cause and making them feel like they need to buy what you’re selling.

Emotions are important in IT marketing.

And that is why Kirk would be great at leading an IT marketing team.

He’s emotive and knows how to talk to people. He’d be able to get both his employees and his potential clients motivated because of how passionate he is.

Kirk’s tendency to take risks would also serve him well in an IT marketing leadership role. Many marketers fall into the rut of conforming and following traditional, boring marketing rules. If you really want to succeed, you’ve got to strive to be different than your competitors, even if it seems like you’re taking a chance. A good marketer will take some creative risks to put their company on the map and help the company grow.

Know what else a good marketing leader will do? Work with people who have different ways of seeing the world.

That’s where Spock comes in.

In Star Trek, Kirk always relies on him for a different point of view than his own. And he would do the same thing if they were working together to lead a marketing company to business success.

Why? It’s simple:

Logic is important in IT marketing.

And Spock is definitely a logical guy.

You see, you can’t always rely solely on emotion. People are getting smarter when it comes to buying, so you’ve got to be able to appeal to logic too. Buyers need a good reason to rationalize the action that you want them to take.

And, as a marketer, you’ve got to be able to think logically in general. You need to examine complex information and make good decisions for your company based on that information. If you aren’t analytical enough to even understand complicated marketing data in the first place, how can you ever hope to succeed?

You see, with only emotion or only logic, things probably wouldn’t work out so well for a marketing leadership team. But, when these strengths are combined, they create an unstoppable force.

After all, you can’t take every single risk – if you do, you’ll likely put your company in jeopardy or lose it completely.

And, on the other hand, you can’t use logic all of the time. Some impulsive risk-taking needs to happen. Otherwise, it’s likely that your company will likely stagnate and fail.

…So, next time you’ve got an important business decision to make in regards to IT marketing, think about Star Trek. What would Kirk and Spock do?