Building Teams and Processes in a Global Marketing Organization

A leading global enterprise software firm was in the middle of a company-wide, significant restructuring. The massive change was imperative so that the company would be nimble and creative enough to respond to the increasing demands of their customer base. Restructuring and significant personnel changes had happened across all areas of the business, with more to come. The Marketing organization, under its maverick leader, had had some successes in recent years, but still lacked a true 'seat at the table'. This change presented a unique opportunity to become true strategic partners.

Cross-functional teams open up new possibilities for service delivery
An initial diagnostic made it clear that success would require figuring out how to harness the entrepreneurial spirit of the people towards a shared goal.

What we did:

• Worked side-by-side with multiple client project teams for three-weeks to flesh data on many potential initiatives that were underway or being considered
• Facilitated a two-day leadership meeting to identify three key strategic initiatives for the Global Marketing Business
• Partnered with senior leaders to set up cross-functional project teams (requiring substantial stakeholder engagement) for each initiative
• Structured and led a comprehensive stakeholder engagement approach including targeted communications and facilitated meetings
• Developed and managed a robust governance and communications approach for the transformation

The marketing transformation was adopted by senior leadership in Europe
At the end of the first phase of work, the results of the project teams were such that they attracted the attention of the senior leaders of the organization. One team, a combination of clients and consultants, developed an entirely new approach for the fastest-growing market segment; upon seeing it, senior leadership decided it was better than their existing 'new' approach and adopted the thinking.