As we enter the fourth industrial revolution, organisations and individuals alike are operating in a world that has witnessed massive change, brought on by technological disruption. And what we have seen so far is only the beginning. In fact, according to Deloitte, 96% of digitally maturing organisations around the world state that they are fundamentally changing their organisation as a result of digital technology.
Coping with this isn’t easy and many businesses are struggling to keep up with that pace of change and deliver for all audiences – 60% of the world’s business leaders admit it’s increasingly difficult to balance the demands of customers, employees and the public. A disrupted world means that we need to move incredibly fast – to keep up and to stay ahead of the competition. Consumers and therefore customers – B2B included – now expect instant, on-demand services and results. We’ve already seen examples of this with the likes of Uber, Deliveroo and Airbnb.
Despite many businesses still operating at ‘corporate speed’, a realisation has set in and a number of organisations are now recognising the need to move to this new ‘customer speed’. Take the automotive sector as a prime example of this – car companies are beginning to see themselves as mobility companies as opposed to manufacturers.
This existent core challenge to marketing – which is how to deliver improved services and products and find new revenues from customers and products – requires a new role for marketers. A role that not only takes a more all-encompassing position in the ownership of the client agenda, but one that understand how technology can drive opportunity to the business and act as an orchestrator of the functions within the new organisations of tomorrow.
A new mission for marketing
Interestingly, a recently commissioned survey by Fujitsu of 1600 business leaders – many of who hold CMO roles – on how they are copying with disruption, revealed that marketing is seen as one of the leading functions to lead digital transformation.
In order for the modern marketer to take that lead, marketing will need to drive organisational change based on insight from data and through our understanding of technology. And, alongside being an influential strategist, marketers will also need to ensure they have a solid understanding of the new tools and technologies at their disposal.
All of these challenges will lead to a new mission for marketing because, at the end of the day, the overarching culture of future marketing must be that of a value generator for clients, for the whole business, for employees and for other major stakeholders.
An important element of this will be to pull current and future marketing competencies – such as customer insight, brand, segmentation, value proposition development and customer experience management – and align it with the whole company, in order to drive strategic growth.
To do this, marketers need a wide range of skills, stemming from an understanding of the business, to data analytics, social media and martech, all the way through to more traditional skills such as communication, planning and project management.
Alongside developing the right skill-set, marketers will also need to encompass a range of behaviours required to influence the CEO and other executives within the company. These include being customer-focused, a change leader and collaborator.
Relationships built on collaboration
Customer understanding remains a central focus of being a marketer. But in this changing world, the future marketer will need to aspire to be a change leader, using their understanding of the changes in the market to drive change across the organisation.
Fundamentally, marketers need to be more aware than anyone else of the external perspective – from customer understanding to competitor and market analysts – and their mission must be to bring this not just into marketing, but the business as a whole.
In turn, this will link to the softer skill of collaboration, a necessary skill to bring together diverse views found within an organisation. The modern marketer must be able to feed into strategic plans by utilising technology, data and unrivalled audience understanding. At times, that will be at odds with the views of the board or any other part of the business. But part of the new role of marketing is to be brave, offering unbiased advice based on market understanding.
Collaboration is a vital skill here – marketers of the future will need to be fearless and fast, working with sales, the board and external stakeholders including customers. Marketers should no longer be asked to execute a business plan, we must fight to be more central to its development and use all of the skills, knowledge and insights we have at our disposal to help our businesses thrive.
At Fujitsu, for example, we recently worked on this challenge with a group of marketing directors from the ITSMA membership, as well as our own marketing team, at our Digital Transformation Centre (DTC) in London. A purpose-built space, the DTC empowers Fujitsu and other businesses to think about the future of their business, collaborate together and develop concepts that accelerate a digital transformation and approach to business – whether that is marketing, sales or any other function.
Marketers as change markers
There’s no denying the impact that technology is and will continue to have on our world. If companies are to survive in this context, they must adapt, or risk getting left behind. What’s clear is that marketers play a fundamental role in helping organisations through this change, but without open collaboration, marketers cannot meet our potential as change makers in the business.
This is true change-making and it is the role future marketers must play if they are to ensure their business, and their role within it, thrives now and in the future.
