Situation As Motorola
was constricting its cellular phone business globally, marketing resources and
activities become scarce and fell under increased scrutiny. Through this process the decision was made to
gain efficiencies in planning, execution, and scale by globally consolidating
many of the marketing operational functions and creative development. Unfortunately, the execution of this plan was
very complex because it meant that for the first time marketing budgets would
no longer be distributed based on forecasted revenue, and local marketing
programs had to be approved by a centralized function to prevent redundant or
“off-strategy” expenses. Leadership To manage
under this new paradigm meant that I needed to shift the culture from regional
creative autonomy to one of global operational discipline. This shifted focus from developing creative
sell through programs with local carriers to preparing internal business cases
focused on sales volumes, customer commitments, product launch schedules, and
cross-regional creative collaboration.
In summary, business justification had to be provided for all marketing
expenditures and it was my responsibility to support each region’s development
and then validate with recommendations to the CMO and Finance. Successful execution meant more than just
developing an allocation model, it meant aligning product launch dates with
creative campaign development and ensuring forecasts were matching customer
shipments. The strength of the position
did not come from the title or management of the budgets, instead it came from
having a deep business understanding of each region (sales, product, and
marketing) and the ability to build consensus, communicate and articulate the
very fluid management decisions. Result I developed and implemented
a set of new processes and tools for aligning product launch strategies,
prioritizing the development of global campaigns and distributing marketing
funds. Once I developed a deeper
understanding of each region's sales, marketing and product requirements
(forecasts, budgets, competitive intelligence, etc.), the new process was
quickly adopted. As Motorola’s financial
situation became more challenged the role evolved from managing four regions to
managing twelve strategic countries.
While the data inputs remained the same, the complexity grew due with
the nuances of localization. Eventually the greatest challenges I experienced
became timely transmission and sharing of data due to local sales priorities,
not from a willingness to collaborate.
At Motorola, the culture has always been a business driven one of
strategically aligning sales and marketing at every level and in every
market.