Some of the most remarkable stories of business innovation have come from some of the most unlikely sources. For example, a factory worker for Swan Vesta matches came up with the money-saving idea of only having the strike band sandpaper on one side of the box and saved the company millions. I'm sure we can all claim to have had flashes of genius or insight that we think could deliver genuine business improvement but often we struggle to get them implemented.
For many organisations, the challenge is how to empower people who come up with ideas and nurture them in such a way that they are realised. Marketing is perhaps one of the most fertile grounds for innovative ideas that can drive positive business change. It's uniquely placed as a bridge between the product owners and the customers and should have a complete view of the organisation. However, newly empowered by more accessible technology that is easier and quicker to deploy, we're seeing a new generation of tech-savvy marketers driving positive business change. A recent study by Forrester, commissioned by Microsoft, shows how these "change agents" aren't a new phenomenon, but when enabled by technology, people with ideas, conviction and passion are able to better drive important programmes.
For the marketer, new technology can have a profound effect.
Marketer + cloud = change agent
The role of marketers has evolved rapidly over the past decade as the range of digital services on offer to consumers has developed. Now marketers have to create new strategies and campaigns in order to reach and influence consumers who are more demanding, more vocal, wider spread and tougher to keep hold of. Campaigns have to be fast-moving in order to keep organisations ahead of an ever changing market landscape. Technology is instrumental to deliver modern marketing campaigns, at speed, involving social media, owned digital properties, real-time monitoring, big data, and consumer insight.
Marketers have the chance to accelerate their plans from lightbulb moment to campaign launch without the usual hold-ups – and the catalyst for this is cloud computing. Running projects in the cloud means minimal upfront costs, they can get up and running very quickly and can be adapted rapidly to meet changing campaign needs.
Previously it was tougher for marketers to act fast when deploying IT given traditional constraints over procurement and deployment schedules. Now, however, cloud computing provides the means to liberate marketers, bridging the gap with a fast-track between idea and execution. The stakes are very high indeed: marketing directors that aim for the stars aim to change their organisations and the sectors in which they operate.
The chief marketing officer is now using cloud computing to deploy a range of tools and services to run modern marketing campaigns – they've started making their own technology decisions, hiring their own resources, and running their own projects. The Forrester change-agents study highlights an example of one organisation that has implemented a cloud project to share information with partners and customers quickly and simply.
But marketing departments cannot work in isolation of the IT team. The chief information officer and IT department have unique expertise on supplier decision-making, governance, service levels and technical issues. When marketing change agents work in concert with IT they are more effective than when going it alone. The CIO needn't be a blocker to speed but an expert counsel that can head off problems at the pass. By acting in tandem the effects of far-reaching change are doubled.
Marketing driving business innovation
Marketers are known in businesses as key to generating revenue and image but their role can at times be seen less seriously than other functions. But they can and should have a role to play in high-level operations of organisations. They can do this by becoming synonymous with business intelligence and helping to guide the strategic direction of a company. Marketers are now leading initiatives that are capturing and analysing data to generate mass feedback on products and creating unique insight on their company, rival organisations and the marketplace. By deploying projects like this that are fast and powerful, CMOs can reshape the image, reach and strategy of their organisations.
Marketers have this once-in-a-generation opportunity to combine their thinking with the rapid deployment of IT to elevate their ideas and standing within the organisation. New technology like cloud computing has given them this opportunity and they shouldn't waste it.
Matt Ballantine is principal evangelist at Microsoft. You can download the change agents report here and add to the debate using #CloudChangeAgents on Twitter.
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