The need for middle-out development of marketing strategy

Article Abstract:

The current tendency to move decision making closer to those concerned with implementing decisions in order to make use of their local market and customer knowledge is timely, particularly in relation to marketing strategy. This tendency is reflected both in the shift away from broad strategic analysis and towards encouraging strategic thinking throughout the organization; and in the emergence of more decentralized strategy development through structural innovations such as Strategic Business Units. For the manager-in-the middle who has historically had the task of relating the broad corporate strategies to the detail of delivering products and services to the customer, this shift in emphasis creates new stresses, for it is not possible for him to assume, even in the most established consumer goods companies, that the strategic development of such activities can be construed within the traditional marketing mix (4Ps) framework. Under such circumstances, he needs a framework which enables him to take account of the crucial interactions going on within the market's infrastructure itself between customers, competition and channels (3Cs). If the manager-in-the middle is then to be effective in responding to his increasingly complex responsibilities in relation to such markets, he must also be given the ability to manage the micro-organizational context within which he delivers products and services. This micro-organizational context is crucial because it determines the qualities of the relationship that can be sustained with the customer. The higher the equality of the relationship, the tighter the coupling that can be maintained with the local market. Such tight coupling makes the relationship with the customer more defensible against competition. It therefore provides the basis for sustaining and developing the profitability of value-adding products and services so necessary to long term corporate survival. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Marketing management

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The effect of decision-making styles and contextual experience on executives' descriptions of organizational problem formulation

Article Abstract:

This study investigated the sensitivity of executives' descriptions of the problem-formulation process to decision styles, to the decision functions that comprise decision styles, and to executive experience. To refine previous research in this area, four types of organizational problems were included for comparison: strategic, operating, human relations, and technical. In addition, the study included executive experience with each problem type, rather than general management experience. The results indicated that decision functions explained more of the variation in problem descriptions for all four of the problem types than did either decision styles or experience. Particularly, the sensing perceptual function related to problem descriptions of the ill-structured problem types, strategic and human-relations, and the thinking judgemental function related to problem descriptions of the well-structured problem types, operating and technical. Though this offered support for the premise suggested by Ramaprasad and Mitroff (1984) regarding the usefulness of decision functions, it also raised concern about the available technology for measuring executives' experience in particular contexts. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Management, Executives, Problem solving

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Managerial perceptions of marketing planning

Article Abstract:

The literature on marketing planning is largely prescriptive in nature, with little or no reporting of empirical research. Additionally, the latter has been mostly concerned with classifying the official planning procedures that organizations have adopted. This article reports research which has investigated the perceptions of individual managers toward marketing planning. The overall result is that many differences of perception were identified, including major differences between managers in the same organizations. This insight also allowed for the development of a number of theoretical positions. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Management science, Business planning

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