Fulbright Economics Teaching Program 2004-2005 Marketing Places Readings The Marketing Leadership Audit The Marketing Leadership Audit Introduction The Marketing Leadership Audit has educational and team building components. One objective of this session is to assess your place or company’s market orientation. You will see that there are several underlying factors to market orientation and that the extent to which a manager of a company/place is market-oriented –and a leader—is somewhat contingent upon perception. A second objective therefore is to give you the opportunity to discuss openly with your differences in perceptions about your market orientation and to consider areas in which your team can be strengthened and thus become or continue to be a market leader. Instructions 1. Carefully complete the Marketing Leadership Audit. Take your time; reflect upon each item before checking a numerical response. You may want to place notes in the margins so that when you discuss the item with your colleagues, relevant issues can be considered in greater detail. 2. Self-select groups of four persons (one group may be slightly larger or smaller depending upon the number of participants in the seminar.) Select colleagues who have similar job descriptions, who work with you on projects, are from the same business unit, or select a group based on some other criterion that suggests to you that the group is comprised of individuals with similar work roles. Once the group is formed assign different team members the following roles: • Moderator: Crystallizes ideas, keeps discussion focused, monitors time. • Tabulator: Computes mean scores of individual items, sub factors and total audit. • Scribe: Prepares overheads of team’s presentation. • Spokesperson: Presents the team’s findings; observations and recommendations. 3. Discuss each item and compare different ratings. If ratings for an item vary within the team, discuss why? Come to a consensus rating, but note dissenting opinions and minority views. The tabulator should record the mean of the scores as well as the consensus score for each item. Remember: the tabulator also records mean scores for each of the factors and the total audit, but these scores should be calculated using the consensus measures. 4. The scribe should crystallize the discussion and make notes of highlights and salient issues emerging from discussion. Experience shows that team discussion is more efficient and meaningful when the scribe’s notes are available for regernce by the other team members. 5. Summarize your team’s conclusions and prepare your transparencies. • List the factors and mean scores for each factor. 1 Fulbright Economics Teaching Program 2004-2005 Marketing Places Readings The Marketing Leadership Audit • Record the mean score for the entire audit. 6. Help the spokesperson prepare a synopsis of your discussion. • The spokesperson should:  Present general conclusions.  Report issues that led to considerable discussion and dissenting opinions.  Assess the organization’s/place’s orientation toward marketing leadership. 2 Fulbright Economics Teaching Program 2004-2005 Marketing Places Readings The Marketing Leadership Audit Marketing Leadership Audit Values To what extent is a concern for customers reflected in the attitudes, beliefs and management practices of your organization? To answer this question, check the appropriate box opposite each of the following items: 1. In our organization, we view marketing as an investment rather than an expense 2. For us serving the customer is a central organizational value; one that informs everyone’s notions 3. We try hard not only to meet but to exceed customers’ expectations 4. We strive for top quality in our products and services and take great pains to communicate this to our employees and stakeholders 5. Senior management in our organization reads, listens to, and responds to customer complaints on a regular basis 6. We view product defects and poor service as the our problem – not the customer’s problem 7. In our organization, we play down the product and play up our commitment to customers 8. Our concern for customers is evident in little things – for example, we reserve our best parking places, seats, etc. for our customers 9. We believe that the quality of our products and services is the best means of communicating our image as a company or place 10. We try to focus people’s emotional energies outward …on winning in the marketplace … rather than inward … on job security 3 To no extent To a little extent To some extent To a great extent To a very great extent 11. We set prices based on their perceived value. 12. Our strategies flow from an analysis of customer needs and our competitor’s capabilities and strategies – not this year’s budget or last years performance 13. We consider the “soft” impressionistic information we get from talking to customers just as important as the data we get formal surveys. 14. We view complacency as an ever-present threat and do everything we can to avoid it 15. Responsiveness to customers is a regular subject of discussion within our company 16. People in our organization have the sense that what they do matters – they know the value they add to customers 17. We use “frequent flyer” – like incentives, among other things, to reward customers for their loyalty 18. We involve customers early and directly in our product or place development process 19. People in our organization feel like they “own” it and take responsibility for its success 20. All of our employees know the good and bad of our performance as a company or place 21. Product quality for us is an absolute requirement 22. Listening – and responding to customers – is a way of living in our organization 23. We worry about fairness in our organization . to customers, suppliers, employees, etc. Assign the following points to answers in each column To no extent To a little extent To some extent To a great extent To a very great extent 1 2 3 4 5 Marketing Leadership Audit Integration To what extent is marketing integrated with other functions of the business? To indicate your answer, check the appropriate box opposite each of the following items: 1. We have systems and procedures which promote a high degree of control and coordination between marketing and the other functions of the organization 2. Marketing, sales, and customer service are integrated at the top to promote cooperation and coordination 3. Marketing and the other functions work well together – there is a high degree of communication and collaboration 4. We work to create a sense of personal familiarity and mutual obligation among employees 5. We have a variety of tools for getting people to talk across functions – and we use them 6. We have a well organized product or place development process 7. We involve customers early and directly in our development process 8. Every department in our organization knows who its customers are, internal and external Assign the following points to answers in each column To no extent To a little extent To some extent To a great extent To a very great extent 1 2 3 4 5 Marketing Leadership Audit Service How much emphasis is placed on service within your organization? To answer this question, check the appropriate box opposite the items below: 1. We spend as much time analyzing customers’ service requirements as we do their product requirements 2. In our organization the service function reports directly to senior management 3. We believe that the quality of our service can’t be good enough 4. We define service requirements in the early stages of a product’s development 5. We make sure that when we introduce a new product that we can also service it 6. We have clear standards for response time, complaint handling, maintenance and other factors which affect the quality of service 7. We view service as a potential source of competitive advantage – a way of getting an edge over competitors 8. We have clear contact points within out organization for customers to come with ideas and wishes 9. We recognize that “intangibles” like service are just as important as the physical product or place 10. We train our employees to answer customers’ questions 11. We make sure that product and marketing managers can be reached directly by our customers To no extent To a little extent To some extent To a great extent To a very great extent 1 2 3 4 5 Assign the following points to answers in each column Marketing Leadership Audit Systems How “customer-sensitive” are your systems? To indicate your answer, check the appropriate box opposite each of the following items: 1. We can track orders and inform customers of their status quickly and reliably 2. Customer service has on-line, real-time information which it can use to interact with customers 3. Information about customers and competitors moves quickly through our organization 4. We have a direct costing system which enables us to determine the profitability of markets, segments, customers channels, products and order sizes Assign the following points to answers in each column To no extent To a little extent To some extent To a great extent To a very great extent 1 2 3 4 5 Marketing Leadership Audit Management Style To what extent does the management style of your organization promote greater responsiveness to customers? To indicate your answer, check the appropriate box opposite each of the following items: 1. Our middle managers are the stronghold of the organization; they see their role as combination teacher, cheerleader, and liberator 2. We share information and ideas openly and candidly including product and program failures 3. When people ask questions of those higher up the line, they get answers 4. We expect people to criticize the status quo – to be forceful advocates of better ways of doing things 5. We reward managers for candor and openness 6. We encourage creativity at all levels 7. Staff in our organization assist the field rather than just challenge or question Assign the following points to answers in each column To no extent To a little extent To some extent To a great extent To a very great extent 1 2 3 4 5 Marketing Leadership Audit Human Resources Management How customer-oriented is human resources management in your organization? To indicate your answer, check the appropriate box opposite each of the following items: 1. Our recognition and reward systems are designed to ensure responsiveness to customers 2. We hire ex-customers 3. We use customers’ evaluations, when appropriate, to appraise the performance of employees 4. We solicit from our customers ideas for appraising and rewarding our employees 5. All of the training we offer – technical, secretarial, sales, marketing – emphasizes the importance of the customer 6. Every employee is provided with guidelines on how to respond to customers 7. Part of the training we provide emphasizes communication skills and how to use these skills when interacting with customers 8. We have customers participate in our training programs to communicate the importance of the customer to our business 9. We try to provide the line with as much feedback as possible – to feed customer complaints directly back to operators 10. We have a statement of values – one that puts the customer front and center – and we use these values in our performance evaluations 11. Exposure to customers is part of everyone’s professional development To no extent To a little extent To some extent To a great extent To a very great extent 1 2 3 4 5Assign the following points to answers in each column Marketing Leadership Audit Efficiency How efficient is the organization in meeting the needs or wants of customers? To answer this question, check the appropriate box opposite each of the following items: 1. We have a sense of urgency about introducing new products and improvements 2. We recognize that in today’s business environment, we have to be fast and flexible – and we are 3. We strive constantly to get unproductive work out 4. We have a simple organization – one that can react quickly to changes in the business environment 5. Information about customers and competitors moves quickly through our organization 6. We recognize the importance of speed – we will go over budget if it means getting the product out before the competition 7. Implementation we consider critical – we do everything we can to ensure that our strategies are implemented as intended Assign the following points to answers in each column To no extent To a little extent To some extent To a great extent To a very great extent 1 2 3 4 5 [...].. .Marketing Leadership Audit Strategic Orientation How strategic is your organization’s thinking about customers and the actions required to get and keep them? To indicate your answer, check the appropriate box opposite each of the following items: To a very great extent To a great extent To some extent To a little... around markets – not products 5 We base our strategies on our assumptions about the future and use these assumptions as a basis for contingency planning 6 We allocate resources based on the relative attractiveness of different segments and our chances of winning 7 Positioning is a critical element in our formulation of marketing strategy 8 Our sales planning involves more than setting objectives –... consider to be our most important markets, segments, and customers 2 Marketing strategies in our organization are of good quality; they are clear, creative, fact-based, and well-reasoned 3 We take a “systems view” of markets – we consider not only customers, but suppliers, channels, and competitors, knowing that a change in any part of the system can create a threat or opportunity 4 We organize our planning... a critical element in our formulation of marketing strategy 8 Our sales planning involves more than setting objectives – we spell out how sales resources will be allocated to achieve objectives Assign the following points to answers in each column 1 2 3 4 5 . Program 2004-2005 Marketing Places Readings The Marketing Leadership Audit The Marketing Leadership Audit Introduction The Marketing Leadership Audit has educational. marketing leadership. 2 Fulbright Economics Teaching Program 2004-2005 Marketing Places Readings The Marketing Leadership Audit Marketing Leadership Audit