Some thoughts on marketing controllership

“It is paradoxical that while many of the most significant financial and accounting activities within any company start with the forecasts of market opportunities, sales volumes, prices and anticipated revenues, the explicit role of accounting and finance in the control of the marketing function itself has been neglected.” (Anthony Hopwood in Vernon (1976: p.227).) Whilst there is an increasing trend towards an interdisciplinary approach to managerial problem-solving, there still appears to be an absence of mutual understanding between marketing and control people due to (in Boulding’s terms) ‘specialised ears’ and ‘generalised deafness’.