|
Can marketers manage change?
I've just been looking at a few studies on the implementation
of marketing change - such as the introduction of a customer relationship management
approach, or a radical change in business model.
The studies show that the biggest
barrier to successful change is deployment of change management techniques, and
that when companies do deploy them, the change is much more likely to be successful
and profitable. But such success is rare.
Putting it another way, marketers
are not very good at managing change, but when they do it well, it works.
This led me to wonder why? My conclusions were that marketing
training never focuses on change management, but more importantly marketers are
rarely exposed to good change management practice, and even more rarely rewarded
for achieving high quality change.
Their rewards are much more related to the success with which
they deploy their existing marketing mix.
This is all very well in companies where the way marketing
is done does not change much. But in companies where changing regulation, technology,
and markets force constant changes to how marketers need to work, it's very dangerous.
Final conclusions: marketing directors, be honest about
your own change management record, consider whether you're going to need more
change management expertise, and if so, make sure you've got the right skills
in your team - whether by hiring or training.
|
