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Apr

Has Knowledge Management disguised itself as Marketing?

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It is not a disguise it is reality. Your marketing department should be investing many of their resources in capturing and building a structure for knowledge management. It is the core competence of your organization. If you look at the sole purpose of a Lean Marketing department it is disseminating pertinent information to the customer when he wants it and in the format of his choosing. That is Extreme Value. Most purchases are not made because you were cute and clever. They are made because you provided the knowledge the customer required and in doing so built a relationship with the customer of respect and trust.

As organizations have become flatter a constant flow of information is required not only throughout your organization but you must mimic the flow of information needed by your customer. This information flow cannot be funneled thru one person or even most of time who is saying what, when. The ultimate water cooler talk has now become a virtually oasis of knowledge. Not one person is an expert anymore. Not even one department can sell a job anymore. Your customer’s VP wants to talk to your VP, IT wants to talk to IT and Purchasing wants to talk to the Supply Chain Leader. The only person that no one wants to talk to is marketing (joke). Marketing must take the responsibility of making sure that the knowledge continuously flows and through the right channels – hence knowledge management. An excellent case study of this is Amazon. The information that flows as you click through their site is extraordinary.

Marketing must create systems that allow employees to collaborate, capture and share their knowledge without creating additional work or interruption of their job. It must become part of the process of work that they do. Of course, there will be times that this is not possible but it cannot be underestimated the importance creating an environment that a customer interaction is not an additional burden. Through the use of technology all types of information can be shared but great connections and relationships may be enhance through technology but seldom sustained. Live chats, personal connections, and community involvement must be emphasized.

Marketing must also take control of that knowledge transfer moment. Making that moment memorable is equivalent to those cute and clever sound bites. What differs about this type of marketing is this is when the person is most receptive to new ideas. They are the seekers and what they learn at this moment will be remembered and/or put to use.

In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, your one source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. Yet, few of us understand the true nature of the knowledge-creating company—let alone know how to manage it. According to a article by Japanese organizational theorist Ikujiro Nonaka, the problem is that most Western managers define knowledge—and what companies must do to exploit it—too narrowly. They believe that the only useful knowledge is “hard” (read “quantifiable”) data. And they see the company as a kind of machine for information processing

The challenges facing marketing and organizations in this climate are extraordinary. It is just not enough to start doing it. There must already be a shared vision, a set of guiding principles and culture within the organization that values this type of communication. Lean Companies have the necessary culture to succeed. However, I don’t believe that a company that is just starting a Lean journey is ready. They are still to tool orientated. Lean companies that are well on their way to developing a Lean Culture, 2^nd or 3^rd stage have the necessary ingredients to begin this journey.

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Feb

The Future of Marketing is Lean

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The sales and marketing structure has drastically changed. The typical structure still used by many is when competition was not as great and technology was not the force that it is today. Most of the time sales and marketing sold solutions without every defining the customers problem. The typical sales forecast was derived on increasing sales a certain percentage. That’s changed. In today’s business setting many companies are fighting for survival. Competition has never been so keen and the elements of the past are simply not working.

The new wave of marketing has seen an entire new set of tools being used with the components of social media leading the way. No longer do we trust print media, radio, television and other forms of traditional media. The tools have all become a commodity. Some organizations have even questioned the need for a sales force. To make effective marketing decisions, you need a clear understanding of what the customer values and what your company strategy is to support them.

Companies have found that they must listen at higher level than ever before to their customers, focusing on improving processes, and using teams. Companies have to build a culture that supports agility, relevancy and speed. To accomplish this there has to become an open sharing of information that will accelerate creativity and innovation. Value has to be understood that it is delivered at the point of consumption, not when it leaves your hands.

Lean Marketing is about installing a continuous improvement methodology to your sales and marketing process. It’s about constantly improving ever step up the way. In the smaller scheme of things it is about improving a launch, an advertising campaign and even a sales call. However, in the bigger scheme of things it is about building a structure that creates a learning organization based on an ever increasing knowledge of what the customer values.

The Lean practice of PDCA is ideal for learning and creating knowledge activities. Following this process it allows individuals and teams to recognize and take advantage of opportunities, make decisions faster, and be more responsive to customers. As part of the PDCA cycle you get feedback on the action from listening to customers and the companies’ measurement systems. Having information, taking informed action and getting feedback is part of the natural PDCA cycle. Effectiveness comes from when you use and take advantage of all your resources.

This why I believe the Future of Marketing is Lean!

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Dec

The Marketing Funnel using Six Sigma – Control Stage

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The first 4-steps of the DMAIC process answered the questions: What is important, how are we doing, what is wrong and what needs to be done? We also considered the marketing funnel stages of Awareness, consider, prefer and evaluate. The fifth stage of the process in DMAIC is Control and in the Marketing funnel it is the commit or buy stage. This is where in Six Sigma we document the process and standardize meeting critical to quality (CTQ) issues.

This step involves taking the improvements and implementing them. We will document standard operating procedures, create are process control plans, and establish a control process. The one final step is handing off the process or transitioning the process for implementation. It is imperative that we create an operation that is stable, predictable and meets the customer requirements. This is the implementation supported by documentation and project management to put all the work into practice. Another way of saying this is how we are going to guarantee performance.

In the marketing funnel it comes down to the basic decision to commit or buy the product or service. As I said in my last post, clarity is the number one issue that may prevent you from succeeding if you meet root cause. Customers want consistency. At this stage, you will see price and confidence that you can deliver what you say seemingly becoming the greatest issues. If price was the overwhelming issue, just think of how many times you have lost a job to a better known brand. Why? Security and your lack of ability to address the root cause with unquestionable clarity.

The Control process of Six Sigma can certainly teach us a few things. Creating an operation that delivers a stable and predictable outcome is the purpose of not only the Control stage but the entire DMAIC process. If you have identified predictable measures that the customer can visualize and satisfy the root cause of his problem, you are well on your way of obtaining commitment.

Another stage of Control is handing off of the project for implementation. How many marketing projects are not supported by sales or vice versa? Sales efforts can be undermined especially when the process is does not monitor predictable results. The ability to control this stage of the process may prevent you from caving into unreasonable demands that prospects may place upon you. However, most worries are not about the prospect but in the effort to close sales many organizations will take their eye off the target and take jobs that may or not solve the root problem for the customer. Seldom in that circumstance will you deliver the product or service that the customer is hoping for. It may even be over delivering, which not only is wasted but to the prospect unclear and not evaluated appropriately. Sales will look at this as part of these results and either determines that there is a greater degree of flexibility in the product/service than there is and/or that pricing could be adjusted because the next customer may not need all this. This is not a problem of sales, you have built the platform and handed off a poorly designed control phase. Build a process management plan for implementation and establishing ongoing measure and methods to be used for improvement will facilitate your process.

The Marketing Funnel using Six Sigma DMAIC Methodology
Most Marketing Systems are Out of Control.
If you control it well, it flows well!