Primer on Organizational Change for Marketers

Innovation is change. Marketers are familiar with changes to products, services, advertisements, sales collateral, pricing, delivery options and customer communications.  To implement these innovations, successful marketers have to manage change in their organizations. Many marketers understand this intuitively, but don't have a framework for understanding what to change, or how.  My colleague, Frank Capek, Vice President of The Concours Group, describes five dimensions of organizational change:

1. Culture, values and beliefs.  These define what the written and unwritten boundaries of acceptable action are in an organization.  Market intelligence plays a leadership role (ideally) in connecting an organization's beliefs about its constitutencies with changes in what its constituents actually want. 



2. Job, skills and organization.  As constituencies' wants evolve, jobs and skills must often be reorganized to deliver the intended innovations in the customer experience.



3. Metrics, measures and rewards.  Measures and metrics define the dimensions by which the customer experience is assessed and the minimum performance standards for delivering the intended experience, i.e, we will answer the phone within three rings.  Rewards are inducements assuring that employees who consistently meet or exceed these measures are recognized, compensated and promoted accordingly.



4. Tools and technology. These are the enablers of organizational processes and quality control systems that deliver an innovated customer experience.



5. Processes.  This refers to the order of  interactions and events within the organization.  The process encompasses the first four dimensions of organizational change.

I've already mentioned the critical role of market intelligence in changing the beliefs of the organization in accordance with market place opportunities.  To implement successful, profitable innovation, marketers have to do two things.  First, we must use market intelligence as a vehicle for creating alignment about what should change.  Second, we need to collaborate with other internal business partners to implement each dimension of organizational change.

Do those two things successfully, and we'll find ourselves at the forefront of innovation in our companies.

Bon appetit and happy innovating!

     --Jason Sherman, Whyze Group

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