Harvard Business School Press published a Q&A with author Nirmalya Kumar on marketing’s role in organizational change. Kumar’s new book “Marketing as Strategy: Understanding the CEO’s Agenda for Driving Growth and Innovation” argues that marketing must help drive organizational change.
And while you won’t be shocked that I agree with the strategic role of marketing, let me tell you why. I have seen marketing drive organizational change.
A client recently reorganized their structure to eliminate some service issues it was facing. Change is not welcome in any company and, while their aim was to make customers happy, they now needed to clearly communicate the changes and what drove them to their employees. An internal brand launch helped educate employees about all of the changes and an awards program helped incentivize them to implement the changes. Then the client implemented a marketing program to raise industry awareness of what the company was doing.
Now, all of the above is useless if the company does not actually deliver on its industry-facing promise to deliver better service. A lot is on the line with this approach. But they are changing. Examples of better service and customer feedback are now channeled to the company’s intranet and the awards program is also promoted there. Were it not for marketing, the changes may have occurred, but not as quickly, efficiently or effectively. The key was marketing’s early involvement in the process.
Kumar hails from the London Business School and feels that management has forgotten, or never realized, the ability of the marketing function to help drive organizational change. In this interview, he discusses how the burden is on marketers themselves to rise above the tactical level and drive organization-wide initiatives to deliver value to customers.
Yet at the same time, The Harvard Business School Press includes an excerpt from Kumar’s book entitled the Market-Driving Checklist. A list of bulleted items helps promote a business book quickly and concisely. But if the book is a call to action for marketers to look at the big picture, perhaps a different excerpt should have been chosen?
Regardless, a shout out to Harvard Business School’s “Working Knowledge” Web site which offers a wealth of substantive content.
Kevin Dugan is the author of the popular Strategic Public Relations blog. Kevin is Director of Marketing Communications for FRCH Design Worldwide.
Visit Kevin’s blog: Strategic Public Relations.
