A Champion of Champions
I was recently asked by a promising young professional if he should accept his firm’s offer to head up a team taking a new service to market. To do so he would have to give up an important, but not leading position in one of the firm’s most profitable, traditional services. He was being offered the chance to become a professional firm’s equivalent of a product champion. A product champion at a company like Proctor & Gamble or Diageo is responsible for making her product a commercial success, be it a shampoo or a champagne. My young friend was concerned he might be moving off the mainline of his career onto a siding.
After asking a few question about the new service and its importance to his firm, I told him to take the offer without delay. In giving this advice I was influenced by my experiences in a similar position early in my career.
Service champion is a wonderful job. If offered one, by all means accept it. You are given your own little business, with a budget and a mandate. Because the service is new to the firm, few of your colleagues know enough about it to meddle. It’s all yours to make of what you can. It creates a solid platform for more senior management positions and rainmaker status later in your career.
I am a great believer in service champions. I guess that makes me a champion of champions.
