Big Data Marketing: Engage Your Customers More Effectively and Drive Value

Chapter 7

Step Two

Tear Down the Silos

Source: © Teradata 2013

I've met with thousands of marketers during my decade as a chief marketing officer (CMO). I've listened to marketing leaders share war stories over dinners, during panel discussions, at keynotes, or in private chats. I've heard how they are working to transform their organizations to provide better customer experiences and fuel revenue growth in the Enlightened Age of Data. Their efforts go far beyond traditional repositioning; these change agents are actually recreating their organizations. They know tearing down proverbial corporate silos is critical to enable the interdepartmental collaboration and alignment required to gain the full value from data-driven marketing.

While they are reinventing the marketing function to be data-driven, these C-level executives face some mighty obstacles across the organization. Roadblocks, bottlenecks, and detours can slow or even derail a change initiative, and in order to keep moving forward, it's not uncommon for CMOs and their teams to find themselves challenging the status quo, bucking convention, and testing cultural boundaries. Once complete, the transformations are often considered confidential and the strategies proprietary. Why? Because the evolution proves integral to driving value and gaining a competitive advantage. I tip my hat to these change agents; tearing down corporate ...