Integrated Marketing

David Maister wrote this article about managing a lawfirm, but it is equally applicable to a service industry like an advertising agency. Here is the summary of what he says.

The full article is worth a read on David's website, (click the headline for a hotlink). Like much of David's advice, it is worth following but it is only followed by precious few because it forces hard choices.

"Professional businesses today are structurally complex organizations with many senior people overburdened by time-consuming and often conflicting roles.

Professional businesses often have some combination of

* Business unit
* Geographic markets or offices
* Division or department
* Product line/service offering
* Industry group
* Key account team
* Committees (recruitment, training)
* Task force or project team (service innovation, new offerings)

Each of these organizational groupings can, and does, intersect with duplicated missions, overlapping membership, and common resource pools to draw upon.

We frequently hear comments like this from members of management:

It is not at all clear what each of these groupings should be responsible for and how their activities should be coordinated and evaluated. If you are a key player in this organization, you can spend an inordinate amount of time in meetings. There has got to be a better way to organize for effective operations!

There is a better way, but the way professional businesses organize and manage has not kept up with their increasing complexity. Eventually — we think sooner rather than later — this will significantly impede their continuing success."