Question

Topic: Other

Marcomm Organizational Structure

Posted by Anonymous on 4/23/2007 at 8:33 PM ET 500 Points
I recently joined a company in one role, but learned during the last fews weeks that I will soon take on the Marketing Communications group, which includes PR/Media and Internal Communications; Interactive Marketing (web, internet, electronic) and Sales Support (events, tradeshows, nat'l sales meeting). The group is divided into these three functional areas. I would like input/feedback on re-structuring this team to be more effective. Currently there are 9 people and 3 managers. The area that I haven't mentioned is that I also plan to add a program manager to assist me with the role I was orginally hired for - which is building out programs for the B2C portion of the business.
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  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 4/24/2007 at 5:43 AM Accepted
    Hello Deborah

    Welcome to KHE, where one question spawns about one hundred more...

    You mentioned you joined the company in one role...

    What role was that? Was it outside the Marketing/Comms area? If so, are you integrating that role with the new role, or abandoning the original role?

    Ideally, I would work with the team as is for a month and see who performs best at doing what - you might be able to effect a departure or two to get the team down to what you might call fighting weight before going to the next step.

    Alternatively, if you're being pressed to act immediately. and assuming there's no integration with the original role you had, or even if there is, I would take the entire team into a room for a couple of days, turn off the phones, and do some detailed introspection and extrospection (I think I just made up that word).

    Go through the usual strategic planning process for the Marketing/Communications Division. If you don't have a "usual" strategic planning process, contact me offline via my profile, and I'll send you a slide with a very comprehensive process.

    Make sure you know the corporate objectives before you go in - these need to be built into your divisional/departmental objectives.

    Once you have defined the objectives for your group, develop your execution plan. Lord knows, so does everyone here, how I love strategy maps and Balanced Scorecard as an implementation framework, but if something else rocks your boat, go with it. Just make sure you have specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, timely goals. Group your metrics with each goal and monitor them ruthlessly and regularly.

    Now figure out who's going to be on the bus. (Read this) - and I do know that's in the wrong order, really, but you already have a team in place you need to reorganize, you probably don't really know who's who in the zoo yet, and the two day process will help you get to the point of deciding who gets to do what.

    You can even make the process a group decision, where people have to bid for various key tasks to build up a portfolio based on what they are really good at - and have their peers agree or disagree whether they should get that role.

    You could always ask your boss and your peer group who they think is a keeper, sometimes those views are really worth having. But be warned, sometimes they can be very wrong. Don't act on those alone. Use your primary first-five-seconds intuition, as well as any other tools you can along the way.

    Once you've worked out what you're doing, and who's doing what to make it happen, you will find the team structure more or less falls into place.

    And if it doesn't, you'll get to see whether people are cutting the mustard by monitoring the metrics you set up in the planning phase.

    If people are failing, look for the reasons for that failure, and then act decisively to fix that piece, fast.

    Hope that helps.

    ChrisB
  • Posted by telemoxie on 4/24/2007 at 7:12 AM Member
    Careful. If I worked in one of those departments, I'd be pissed.

    You will be taking on a department with 12 marketing professionals, all of whom have a great deal of knowledge about your business, about how it operates, about where the issues and communications problems lie...

    ... and yet you come to us and ask us to reorganize the department, and we don't even know what industry you are in, what country you are in, what problems you are facing...

    If I were one of those 12 employees, I would be offended. My suggestion is that you spend time talking with the folks who are doing the work before blindly reorganizing things.

    I would agree with the folks above who suggest you get to know these folks and the department before making hasty decisions.
  • Posted by Harry Hallman on 4/24/2007 at 9:31 AM Member
    Deborah, you did not mention why you want to make changes, so it is very difficult to give you any accurate and truly helpful advice on this one. Frankly, I find it hard to believe anyone would make suggestions to you to get rid of managers when all we have is a paragraph of information. It seems to me that the three areas you mentioned each require specific knowledge and knowledge leader in each area makes sense.

    Just because you have a new position does not mean you have to make wholesale changes. A leader is only as good as the people they lead. Keep in mind that most of your people are fearful of you taking over. Some may be angered that they did not get your job. I suggest you start working with the group and make gradual changes. Of course, if you see something that needs changing immediately then by all means make the change.

    You, of course, must establish your leadership position quickly. How your department operates and your own future depends on how you establish that leadership position.
  • Posted by Phoenix ONE on 4/24/2007 at 11:06 AM Accepted
    There are 2 ways to tackle your problem -

    Traditional is from the top down. My colleagues above have given you much insight into this method.

    I would offer an Alternative Method:
    From the Bottom up - start at the bottom and

    Work your way up the organization NOT by function but by Task- required, needed and desired!

    Discover and Address what tasks are required to be done on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc basis. Who is actually doing these tasks, and to whom do they report. What interfaces are essiential vs. what is redundant. Break each task by Required, Needed and Desired.

    Simply chart this continual flow UPstream ----sooner or later you will discover either we are top heavy, and are poorly addressed in certain disciplines in your Marcomm strata. Tasks they we desire to perform we either do not have manhours or talent.

    Do not do an organization chart until you plot the work that is required today, work you would like to implement and work that you could propose to management for company improvement.

    Once you plot all task who is needed and what they should be doing will be quite clear.

    We have used this methodology many times over and it never fails to provide a great insight into who, what and why.

    Good Luck & Happy Marketing ~ Bill
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