Unlocking The Value Of Marketing Through Structural Transformation

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What's the best way to structure and organize marketing in a modern commercial model? That's an important question at a time when most marketing organizations are trying to become more digital, agile, customer centric, accountable and revenue oriented – all at the same time.

This is a problem that needs to be solved. "The industry lacks a common understanding of how the marketing function delivers value to the organization, which is leading some companies to deprioritize - and de-fund - marketing and limit the role of the CMO," says Frank Findley , the Executive Director of the Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB). "The marketing function faces an array of headwinds that impact the ability of marketing to drive growth and value in a business," adds Findley, who is co-leader of MASB's Marketing Organization Best Practices Research Initiative , which seeks to identify ways leaders can design marketing organizations and roles that maximize their contribution to revenues, profits and firm value. "Marketers must deal with complex performance measurements, the fragmented ownership of growth resources and channels, accounting changes, and having other functions making key marketing decisions."

Frank Findley is right. Ultimately, that's the only answer to the question what's the best way to structure and organize marketing? Do it in the way that creates the most value for your business. While that sounds very conceptual, it's actually on point. Faced with these challenges, making the goal of creating firm value the scorecard for success is a north star that can lead marketers out of these woods.

Transformation is daunting, but Teo embraces it as an opportunity for marketing to create and demonstrate more business impact. "Transformation can be an intimidating word to a lot of people because it implies change, pain, risk, and disruption – and it is hard – but it's also necessary to compete" says Teo. "I've found it to be liberating and a way to unlock more value from my team and resources" she adds. "To me, transformation means having the opportunity to take a fresh look at the business through a different lens."