The first step is to understand the role and purpose that marketing departments will play within their organisations moving forward. To do this, we suggest that teams consider the behaviour and impact that they’d like to make on the business overall. Make it aspirational, and clearly aligned – but not identical – to the strategic direction of the company.
Next, it’s vital to review teams, capabilities and experience and understand if it’s the right fit. By anchoring decisions in the underlying vision, you can maintain perspective when emotions are at stake and jobs are at risk. You may well have concerns about the strength of your team — but the truth is, there’s not an organisation or group on the planet that couldn’t improve.
It’s then time to traverse the (often challenging, difficult and sensitive) road to get there. This kind of shift is hard, no question. However, it’s also an opportunity to lay the path for continued success, while becoming more agile, more collaborative, and better at meeting both business and customer demands.Change is inevitable, and businesses that do not adapt and improve simply won’t survive.
This process can be helped by implementing and managing the change effectively, by using the ‘3 Cs’ of Consultation, Collaboration and Communication. Consultation within and outside of the team will give you a good idea of the challenges and pain points. Ongoing Collaboration across multi-disciplinary teams will help when designing the solutions, and Communicating the vision, plan and successes along the way will help to make the transition more successful.
