Marketing Management 2022: How do you answer the five core questions? 

How can marketing be managed successfully in the operating environment of the future, where everything is uncertain and chaotic? Dagmar’s strategists Salla Erkkilä, Heini Nuutinen and Iida Marjosalmi summarised the five core questions of marketing management and the solutions to them. Are these already on your 2022 development list? 

1. ADAPTIVE STRATEGY 

We live in an uncertain and discontinuous world where companies can no longer commit to several years of solid strategy. Modern business strategy is dynamic, iterative and constantly present in everyday life. It proactively takes into account capability and development needs and provides each employee with direction and tools for self-directed decision-making. Companies need to have the courage to implement their strategy as a continuous process that everyone in the organization can participate in. 

2. LEAD THE FUTURE WITH KNOWLEDGE 

Instead of collecting data, the winning organisations of the future will focus on analysing and using it to guide their operations. In particular, predictive analytics, i.e. data predicting customers’ future behaviour, enables the identification of new kinds of development targets and growth areas along the customer path. Understand your customers better than they understand themselves! 

3. DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION 

Development and innovation are at the heart of modern business, and their speed is linked to maintaining competitiveness. Innovation is not self-evident but requires commitment from the organization. Marketing is used to thinking that creativity is at the core of innovation and belongs almost exclusively on the desks of the most artistic people. With the right design processes and methods, every team can be transformed into an innovative and creative team when needed. The measurement of innovations and the reward system ensure the permanence of the operating model in long-term development work. 

4. CULTURE OF TRUST 

A culture of trust gives employees the power and responsibility to carry out their work in the best possible way – in a self- and co-directed manner. Trust is built through a clearly communicated direction, shared values and psychological safety. Independent success increases motivation, which in turn enables the employee to be highly vibrant, and the cycle of positive action is complete. The management’s job is to support and coach the team and only make decisions that only the leader can make. 

5. DREAM TEAM 

People and expertise are at the heart of all development and the pursuit of profitability. Fewer organizations are able to hire full-time the most brilliant expertise in the field that development projects would require in order to succeed. This is facilitated by dynamic dream teams, where expertise is borrowed from strategic partners whenever necessary. 
 
With the new loan team members, the organization’s own expertise takes a leap in development when attention is paid to sharing lessons learned and working together. However, the greatest threat to development is time. Development days and training times are too often lived up in rhetoric. Clear time allocations for self-development in the calendar and respect for these bookings by the entire organization help to take time for the most important thing – the future.