Description:

Marketing executives typically fail to play a central role in the strategic activities required to help their companies thrive today’s competitive market environment. In part, marketing executives and their organizations often are ill equipped for the job. Just as often they are simply not oriented sufficiently to strategy, planning, and intelligence priorities. Instead, marketing has come to focus mainly on operational issues, especially those related to short-term sales support. Ironically, the recent push to emphasize marketing accountability may have made things worse, as the immediate return on "strategic analysis" is hard to measure.

This ITSMA briefing, developed by Philip Oliver, former head of strategy for IBM Global Services, explores the role that marketing can and should play in leading business strategy. Drawing on new ITSMA research into the role of marketing in formulating strategy for major US and European IT and professional services firms, the briefing highlights common problems in the ways firms conduct strategy, the dominance of financial planning over strategic analysis, and the frequent disconnect between marketing and strategy. The briefing then provide a series of recommendations to help marketing lead an improved strategy process that generates deep insight into fundamental challenges, opportunities and requirements for success.