There’s no doubt its tough on the streets. The post-recession marketplace differs in so many ways to what went before, yet organisations the world around are still approaching business in the same way and wondering why they aren’t getting results.
Their slowness in adapting is often due to their habitual reliance on processes and infrastructure, which in some ways explains the success of those few start-ups with a clean sheet of paper and the understanding to get it right, but it takes real skills and experience to change a business on the move, so its ironic that just when you need the best brains on the job so many businesses are dumbing down.
Organisations world-wide are recognising that until the recession changed the rules businesses that were “average” could still earn a living and realising that efficiency is the difference between success and failure. Now its game on, of course. Average doesn’t cut-it anymore, we are talking fine degrees of excellence separating the movers and shakers from the has-beens.
Sadly, a lot of misguided managers are confusing efficiency with cost-cutting and employing managers with little or no experience and limited skill on the cheap. It doesn’t work of course, because to succeed in business these days requires the best and the smartest and the cracks are very much in evidence. I recently encountered a major global concern where the senior management were frustrated that they weren’t getting, what they considered a reasonable return on their marketing investment. It was easy to see why. The wastage was apocalyptic – they talked about integration (the only way any business is going to achieve the necessary efficiency) but didn’t understand it, nor implement even the basics and they had a department called “Propositions” whose brief it was to come up with a continuous stream of short-term tactical promotions that were so short they never had a chance to get up a head of steam and were just confusing their prospects. To make matters worse, the focus on proliferation of ideas inevitably meant standards were sacrificed. All they needed was one “Big Idea” and what they were doing was throwing half-arsed ideas around like confetti.
Behaviour like this can only be a product of inexperience and limited skills, but the business I mentioned are by no means alone, this is a worrying trend. The businesses that I see succeeding right now have limited numbers of really smart people with the skills and experience to contribute across the business. Structures involve everyone having clearly defined responsibilities, while appropriate culture and practices empower capable managers and employees to contribute in areas of the business beyond their remit. This way you make the most of your resources and the gaps in the skills and experience can be covered by bringing in consultants as and when they’re needed.
Of course, while small businesses have the luxury of starting with a clean sheet, larger concerns will struggle to adapt existing structures and practices, but that’s not an excuse to do nothing and it’s certainly not going to be resolved by anything other than the best, most experienced and highly skilled marketers. The decision to dumb-down by recruiting on the cheap is a false economy and the sooner businesses that are going this way recognise this and reverse the process the more likely they are to survive the next few years.
Michael Weaver
May 11, 2011