Marketing implementation, organizational change and internal marketing strategy 557
the tendency of planners and analysts to
separate the implementation issue from the
process of generating exciting and innovative
marketing strategies. It is this dichotomy
between strategy formulation and implementa-
tion issues which lies at the heart of many of the
implementation failures that marketing execu-
tives describe. The simple fact is that imple-
mentationisstrategy, and no marketing plan or
strategy which does not explicitly, realistically
and in detail address the implementation issue
can possibly be regarded as satisfactorily com-
pleted. However, it is equally important that the
way we address implementation issues should
go beyond the simple issuing of instructions and
building of detailed action plans (although that
may follow). What we are seeking is the
development of convincing and operational
implementation strategies in marketing.
We introduced the notions of implementa-
tion capabilities and ‘organizational stretch’ to
describe the issues that managers must con-
front in building strategy implementation
approaches. These issues highlight the impor-
tance of understanding the organizational con-
text in which marketing must be implemented.
We saw that the organizational positioning of
marketing may be weak (probably leading to
weak strategy implementation capabilities).
However, the future of the marketing organiza-
tion in the process-based organization and the
hollow or network organization is even more
uncertain. We argued that radical organiza-
tional changes will place even higher priorities
on understanding and sustaining implementa-
tion capabilities.
The price of ignoring the implementation
issue, or treating it as simply tactical, may be
considerable in terms of the costs of failed plans
and strategies, missed opportunities to exploit
competitive advantages, and the damage
caused by ignoring the real workings of the
infrastructure of the organization which we
hope will put our marketing strategies into
effect. These are not easy issues to resolve, but
we described several ways in which progress
may be made:
By recognizing the degree of organizational
stretch that a new strategy represents.
By putting implementation into the context of
the organizational realities of a weaker
marketing paradigm, process-based
management and new types of structure.
By focusing attention on the issues with
highest priority through the evaluation of
strategic gaps.
By examining the reasons for those strategic
gaps in terms of implementation barriers and
the match between our strategies and the
characteristics of the company.
By using the strategic internal marketing
framework as an operational method for
dealing with these issues realistically.The evaluation of strategic gaps asked us to
identify the marketing strategy we are pursu-
ing (or wish to pursue) in a given market, and
to identify what we have to achieve in market-
ing programme elements and strategic position
for that strategy to become real. This strategic
intent is then contrasted with strategic reality
(i.e. what we have actually achieved in practical
marketing and positioning) to identify strategic
gaps. The most revealing part of the exercise is
in attempting to identify the reasons for the
strategic gaps we have identified – the strategy,
its translation into practical operational market-
ing terms, or the ability of the organization to
successfully deliver that strategic intent into the
real marketplace.
Pursuing that latter questioning into the
underlying reasons for implementation barriers
raises further issues, such as: The acceptance by key people of the existence
of marketing problems that need to be solved,
compared to their willingness to change and
learn new ways of doing business, suggesting
the need for different implementation
approaches.
Comparing the marketing strategy and the
company’s execution skills as relative
contributors to implementation problems –
and testing the key attributes of the strategy.