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Special Insights from Kneko Burney, CEO of Change3 Enteprises, included.

In Operations Management, best practices will tell you NEVER operate your production resources at full capacity.  I know – doesn’t make sense.  But, here’s why: when 100% of your resources are used to deliver your orders – it means you cannot make mistakes nor can you do vital activities like maintenance and repairs without stopping the entire production line. 

So, what exactly does this have to do with marketing?  Well, the same philosophy is true.  If you are using sales people to do marketing – guess what: they are not selling.  As such, your marketing department should not operate at full capacity.

Why shouldn’t I operate at full capacity?

1.  There is no direct correlation between increased production and increased productivity.  As with studying all night before an important exam, simply counting the number of hours studied as productivity would be wrong:  adding more hours of labor to a project does not necessarily produce an improved result.  While the field of economics may point to examples in the manufacturing industry, a marketing organization – with completely different inputs to production – cannot be managed in the same manner. 

Simply creating more email campaigns or producing more webinars may signal increased production, but the ROI of each marketing piece may drop, as fewer leads, engagement, or KPIs are recorded.  In this case, increased production does not lead to increased productivity.

2.  Focus on quality, not quantity.  A total commitment to quality is not a new concept.  Spearheaded by Japanese industry since the late 1970s, and later giving way to ISO 9000 and Six Sigma methodologies in the 1990s and 2000s, a focus on continuous improvement and a commitment to quality has been empirically shown to

• Reduce product and service complaints
• Support premium pricing
• Engender morale
• Increase overall productivity and profitability

Therefore, an organization, including a marketing team, should instill a total commitment to quality in every task, no matter how large or small. 

However, this concept is particularly difficult for today’s senior marketers operating in a complex media landscape with multiple platforms, channels, audiences, and endpoints all seeming to vie for importance and attention.  ‘Don’t we have to be where our clients are – everywhere?’ is often a question I am asked.  The answer is No, if there do not exist sufficient resources to produce the level of quality needed to meet the demands of a client or prospect. 

3.  Companies need to create a safe haven for experimentation and creativity -- and mistakes.  Entire industries, including technology, media, entertainment, and even pharmaceuticals, have built huge businesses on ‘mistakes’ in production that occurred even though they were never meant to happen in the first place.  Such mistakes are later productized and monetized.  If a company is operating at full capacity, with restrictions on activities not central to the business at hand, there are no resources left over to experiment and discover the next product that just might become a blockbuster.  While Google has long been known to famously allow its employees ’20 percent time,’ or one day a week to pursue side projects (the company has recently sunsetted this policy), time to pursue projects can indeed deliver results to the bottom line.

Final Thought:  Not operating at full capacity does not mean a lack of efficiency.  Today’s marketing professional may struggle with this concept, but satisfied customers will take notice of the resulting quality. Since all marketing should tie back to revenue, your team will easily be able to measure the results of this strategy. 

Inject the human element into your organization and decide what tasks should become more efficient and what others could be discarded. 

Want more info?  Expand your horizons with additional reading. 

ChangeU: for your independent study…

• Applying Lean, Six Sigma, BPM, and SOA to Drive Business Results: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpapers/abstracts/redp4447.html?Open (Lean Six Sigma unites tools and techniques from Lean and Six Sigma methodologies to produce real results.  Business process management (BPM) technologies and service-oriented architectures (SOAs) contribute  to accelerate improvements and results.  This IBM® Redguide™ e-book publication is intended to help companies that are leaders in their markets or are looking for new ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors.)

• Google’s 20 Percent Rule: http://www.slideshare.net/amitmakhija81/google-25631794 (From a Marketing Operations Manager at Microsoft, a look at the pro’s and con’s of Google’s ’20 percent time’ rule.)