According to Michael, “When there is so much complexity in the system, there is a great deal of value in simplicity. Clients buy based on culture. Cultural change is our clients’ biggest stumbling block as they try to achieve their own goals. Paying attention to culture when designing the work of marketing and structuring your team is critical. When you think about the culture dynamic first, it enables more decentralized work and makes marketing much more personal.”
At CGI, that translates into following a bottom-up approach. In other words, when the company is deciding how to advance into a market with a given topic or capability, the relevant teams build their campaign based on a deep understanding of local relationships. That calls for having the talent able to interpret these sorts of cultural conversations.
Michael emphasizes the importance of taking a wider view: “When I talk to clients, I learn that when they decide to buy, it’s not because of your collateral, value proposition, or excellent presentation. It’s not about your digital collaboration tools either. All those things are valuable, but they are not the reasons clients buy. They buy based on your attention, your fit with them, and your understanding of what they are going through. This is about people, not collateral.”
Read the Viewpoint to learn more about CGI’s story of how they used lessons learned from their own transformation to help clients manage change by providing for a more personal touch.