Rory Sutherland: Why marketing can’t afford to work in silos
28 September 2026
This week Rory argues marketing works better when the whole organisation understands how marketers think and why behavioural science belongs beyond the marketing silo.
“The most valuable thing marketers can have nowadays is people outside marketing who understand what they're trying to do”
The corporate habit of confining core business elements like understanding customer behaviour to the marketing department effectively puts a self-imposed limit on the scope for value creation, argues Rory Sutherland.
“What's really interesting about behavioural science is it actually takes the use of psychology and the understanding of value creation beyond one narrow discipline and beyond what you might call the functional role of marketing and takes it into a wider space by instead of talking about what marketers do.”
So, instead of keeping marketing thinking within one department, organisations should spread the way marketers think across the wider business, complementing how people in other functions approach their work.
This is why Rory argues that behavioural science shouldn’t be confined to marketing or any one division. Its value comes from being shared more widely across an organisation, giving people in different functions a common way of thinking about behaviour, decision-making and value creation.
So if you’re looking for fresh thinking, creative energy and new tools to drive value creation, do get in touch with lenny@madfestlondon.com find out how MAD//Masters is delivering results for start-ups, corporates, and everything in between.
