Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Marketing and Operations Coordination: Block 1 - Reading 13 - Coggle…
Marketing and Operations Coordination: Block 1 - Reading 13
Marketing & Operations Coordination
The Challenge of Siloed Working & Functional Dominance
Functional Dominance - companies driven entirely by one function can cause strategies to drift, marketing-led growth can outpace operational capabilities.
Historical Divide - management subjects and textbooks often teat marketing and operations in isolation (e.g., marketing focuses on distribution/channels; operations focuses inward or on supply).
Core Conflicts (Shapiro, 1977):
Metrics/Rewards: Marketing is profit-oriented, operations is cost-oriented
Data Types - Marketing relies on "soft" qualitative data, operations relies on "hard" quantified data
Cultural Differences - different task orientations and social concerns between teams
Key Friction Areas
Scheduling - Marketing promises short lead times, operations finds delivery takes too long.
Capacity Planning - Marketing cites a lack of capacity: operations cites inaccurate forecasts.
Stock Control - Marketing wants high availability, operations notes high inventory costs
Breadth of Range & New Products - Marketing pushes for customer customization and new designs, operations struggles with cost variety and process disruption
Drivers of Divergence & Modern Pressures
Modern Technology Impact - Fast paced markets (e.g., "fast fashion" like Zara) require reactive sales forecasting and single-batch production runs, placing massive strain on traditional operations.
Inertia - Operations strategies are deeply embedded and take time/capital to change (e.g., establishing new overseas production networks).
Divergence Triggers - Changing market requirements, shifting customer needs, new geographic markets, subtle positioning changes or competitor pressures.
Improving Coordination & Integration
Core Priorities for Integration (Winterberry Group, 2012) - Speed, Insight, Access and Flexibility
Demand Chain Management (Christopher & Ryals, 2014):
Bridging demand creation (marketing) and demand fulfilment (supply chain/operative)
Moving from limited joint planning to full alignment of strategies, processes and KPIs across organisational boundaries involving customers, producers and suppliers.
Emerging Roles - Creation of "marketing operations managers" and holistic approaches replacing traditional channel management
Case Study Application (IKEA)
Operations Perspective (Slack et al) - Focuses on process design (store layout), product design (flat-packing), job design, supply network design, capacity management, inventory management and quality control.
Key Lesson - Success cannot be attributed to a single function, it repairs cross-functional coordination, sound human resource management and disciplined financial control
Marketing Perspective (Dibb & Simkin) - Focuses on low prices, consistent product updates, staff training, strategic store stie locations and "style without expense" branding