According to the research, while 63% of chief marketing officers said their ability to set a strategy was strong, only 41% said their ability to plan to achieve that strategy was good. Furthermore, fewer than 30% believed they had the ability to execute their strategy successfully.
According to Nikki Tyrer, customer relationship management lead at Accenture South Africa, “the inability of marketers to successfully plan and implement programmes is a significant obstacle”.
Accenture's High Performance Business Research shows operationally excellent marketers appear to have three distinctive capabilities that allow them to lead their industry in growth and value creation:
“Leading companies become operationally excellent by implementing programmes that enable increased market share and brand recognition in complex and cluttered environments,” says Tyrer.
“While vision is a key aspect of marketing strategy, the failure to create a roadmap to move from concept to implementation leaves strategy on the starting block,” adds Tyrer.
Accenture states that high performers in this industry use four elements to ensure marketing programme development:
1. Marketing roadmap – identifying the right visions to create value.
2. Value architecting – modelling cost/benefit scenarios.
3. Development plan – moving the vision through identifying the tools and initiatives needed.
4. Change management plan – high performers have a leadership strategy to support change.
“By-passing a roadmap will have long-term negative consequences. It is akin to building a house without an architect's plans. The vision of what you want will never be realized. While there is great value and competitive differentiation to be achieved through marketing operations, many companies will realise only a small portion of what is possible,” concludes Tyrer.
