Why a CMO Must Establish a System for Continuous Improvement

Posted: 22 Mar 2016 06:00 AM PDT

There is an inherent need for CMOs to establish a system for continuous improvement. The cold, harsh reality is that the customer is outpacing companies in terms of their expectations for personalized service compared to a company’s ability to act on the information—both technologically and analytically. It is important to create a continuous loop of information to drive intelligent changes to the technology roadmap shared between the CMO and your CIO or CTO.

To create this system for continuous improvement, a CMO must be vigilantly agile and risk receptive. However, it is important to remember that the need to be vigilantly agile is not necessarily the same thing as speed.

Technology has completely changed what fast means — we are on an agility mission right now because speed is different than agility," says Jeff Jones, CMO of Target. "What we're trying to build is the capability to go in new directions fast, not just go straight ahead fast, and that’s a really different muscle for us to build.”

Julie Lyle, former CMO of hhgregg and current Chairman of the Board for the Global Retail Marketing Association believes agility is more important today because of the velocity of technological advancements, the convergence of channels, and the increasing empowerment that instant access to information provides today’s consumers.

The CMO of today must—in addition to being agile—be open to taking chances and remain risk receptive. However, this stance is not about taking risks just for the sake of taking them, it’s about taking calculated risks to realize innovation and achieve success.

Seth Farbman, former CMO of GAP and current CMO of Spotify says it is the technology that provides a consistent feedback loop/system for continuous improvement which helps a brand know if its products, service, experiences and messages are useful to customers. "Today, we are still required to aggregate information and insights from many tools-- CRM, social listening, POS and ecommerce data, etc.-- but together, they provide an almost immediate read on how you’re doing," he says. "That should translate to greater risk- taking and invention, which ultimately lead to success.”

Lyle adds: "Technology enables us to monitor how customers respond to the experience we offer at each touch point. We can test enhancements, track impact (from the customer’s POV), and leverage the insights we garner for continuous improvement."

In its most layman terms, what we're talking about here is not resting on any laurels.

For more on the role technology plays, download The CMO Solution Guide to Leveraging New Technology and Marketing Platforms.