Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Do you have multiple brands, or is everything branded with the company name (only)? If multiple brands, you might want a brand manager for each major brand. The organization of the department will depend on your primary distribution channels, specific market(s), and historical marketing practices in your industry/segment.

I doubt that there is a single "best practice" for organizing a marketing department in a B2B technology company. Who are your customers? Competitors? Location of target audience?

Now I am no professional, and have little idea of what best practices might - or might not be. However my insights into business are always based on the human. For business would not exist without them, and business would have nothing to do but for them. Knowing what humans are and how they relate to one another is as good a start as any I know.

Namely what are the individuals in your organization actually good at? Most teams are comprised almost at random, and must function as best they can. This is not the best recipe for any kind of successful interaction inside the team - and any stresses put on the team by negative interactions will have an impact on their overall abilities.

I make frequent recourse to the work of Perry Marshall - he is as close as need come to understanding what makes and drives the human. He has a test which determines the qualities in a human - now I do not agree with it 100% as I have a different world view. He reveres what he terms "the Alchemist" - the one who has qualities of imagination beyond the ordinary. Also his concept of the producer to me confuses two polar dynamics - that of the naturally slow and careful person with the person who dare not make a move so appears to be slow. However it is as good a measure as you could wish for. You can find it here: https://MarketingDNAtest.com

The essence of the idea is to find a balance of qualities - from the person who takes to life slowly, gently yet once moving will continue until pressed to stop - the flighty witty character who's always flying around the place but finds settling to one thing difficult. I'm sure you have met these types. These two in balance will play to each other's strengths and (hopefully) guard the other's weakness. This sort of knowledge is used to great effect in the Waldorf Schools.

Whilst this is not directly related to your problems, an understanding of a person's essential character - snappy, dull, powerful or reticent - will allow you to form a team that will be more powerful simply because the people within it are able to appreciate each other more and thereby do their work better.

I hope that you were not offended by this intrusion.

Another way to look at this problem would be .. before you have a team you need to have a team leader. And if the team leader doesn't know how to put together a great team that would be a disqualification to be the leader. Otherwise stated, first the President, then the cabinet.