Ask a dozen marketers privately and most will probably admit that the breadth of competencies required to do the whole  job optimally today are outpacing their ability to master these new skills.  The typical marketer has deep expertise in one or two specialties but is challenged when operating outside his or her comfort zone.  Many marketers cope with this discomfort — or what probably lies underneath … fear — by becoming very tactical, tending to view all decisions and actions as if they are on the TV show Survivor. This overly-dominating survivor mentality stunts objective strategic thinking and the ability to operate with integrity from a unifying framework.

One of the reasons we developed Marketing Operations Essentials is to help marketers take a step back to see the big picture. With so many changes over the past decade or so, we all can benefit by rethinking how we view Marketing  and how we choose to operate in a profession that has become very social on the outside (“the yin”) but needs to be both cross-functionally aligned and operationally disciplined from within (“the yang”) to stay in integrity.

The MO 2.0 training course, available online or in-person, shows marketers how to elevate their marketing efficiency initiatives for strategic impact enterprise-wide. From strategic analysis to creating mental models and establishing accountability, marketers learn helpful techniques to align stakeholders and manage change for rapid attainment of strategic vision. The course helps professionals discover how to accentuate strengths and minimize weaknesses among the people and processes essential to realizing your strategy.

Click on the diagram to the left for a PDF file that explains more. Enroll now to learn how to strengthen marketing strategy execution!

Here’s a preview of the course (on-demand demo webcast, 11:35, no registration necessary):

“The class was excellent; the specific value was seeing the larger picture and being able to define what a roadmap for Marketing Operations should look like.”
– Director of Marketing, Anritsu Corporation

While many companies are striving to master marketing accountability and efficiency (tactical MO 1.0), this course shows how to leap forward to integrate strategy, guidance, process, metrics, technology, ecosystem and infrastructure (strategic MO 2.0) to run a marketing organization as a value center, driving long-term company growth. The closed-loop model (see diagram above) highlights key elements to optimize Marketing Operations:

  • Strategy:Fact-based decision making.
  • Guidance: Competency development, marketing governance.
  • Process: Lean enterprise, six sigma, supply chain.
  • Metrics: Customer profitability, predictive analytics, enterprise metrics alignment.
  • Technology: Enterprise marketing management, portfolio management.
  • Ecosystem: Key drivers (change management, shared vision) that enable a Marketing organization’s successful collaboration and alignment with the key stakeholders.
  • Infrastructure:Back-end integration of processes, metrics and technology to optimize marketing efficiency and effectiveness.

These tools are essential to maximize return on marketing investment. The nine-class,four-module course provides invaluable insight on  how to apply best methods to buyer process acceleration, customer profitability, business intelligence, marketing scalability, return on Marketing and strategy execution.

Boost marketing performance and elevate strategic impact with the complete self-paced online course, individual modules or classes, multi-seat subscription, in-person training, or Marketing Operations Certification.

by Gary M. Katz, Chairman & Chief Strategy Officer at Marketing Operations Partners