The digital transformation demands an evolution in marketing’s organizational structure. Leading CMO’s are progressing towards a “network of teams” approach that is more agile and customer-responsive than the traditional hierarchy of functional silos designed for industrial 20th-century needs. This team-based structure works like a “tiger team” where experts from various marketing specialties join forces to achieve customer-centric performance goals. For example, a film production company assembles a tiger team to produce a movie. For a few months, various specialists such as directors, actors, creative specialists, and technical crew come together for the operation. When they finish the project, they disband.
Account-based Marketing Tiger Team Example
The CMO of a large tech services company used tiger teams to quickly scale his account-based marketing (ABM) program. Tiger teams formed around role-based personas (e.g. chief data officer). Each campaign team had eight members: a leader plus seven specialists (analytics, content, web/inbound, outbound, communications, sales enablement, and social). Everyone components of a job seekers database was measured on the same goal – closed deals within the identified account list. Specialists collaborated across teams to develop customizable, journey-staged content; to centralize customer data into a data lake and develop feedback analytics; and to work with sales on the right tactics. Channel specialists assembled a series of personalized campaigns focused on named individuals in named accounts. In four months, the CMO met his goal of nearly 100 ABM programs. The sales team was ecstatic. One sales manager suggested that the company “fire 10 salespeople and put the money into marketing.”
The Emerging Agile Network of Four Interdependent Teams
While campaigns may be transient, the future agile marketing organization will have a more permanent structure that supports dynamic recombination of capabilities to support whatever campaigns need. Here are the four sets of teams in the network:
Campaign management teams: Campaign leaders are the directors of programs that assist customers through their decision-journey.
Campaign services teams: Specialists in content, analytics, and communications channels will be assigned to campaign teams and share the campaign’s customer-centric mission. Today, most companies suffer from an expensive, chaotic, content glut yet lack the assets campaigns need to be successful. This situation is one of the major drivers for a team-based approach.
Strategy teams: Providing “big picture” guidance to the campaign teams will be strategists focused on three interdependent points-of-view: markets/products/solutions, brand and reputation, and audience/customers.
“Scaffolding” teams: Marketing management, marketing operations, and marketing technologists supply the critical leadership, technology, processes, metrics, communications, guidance, education, and standards (i.e., scaffolding) required to make the teams work.