3 Operations and Marketing

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Faculties Insight

Mr. Venugopal Rao Professor, IBS Hyderabad

Marketing and Operations

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The world of business is changing rapidly all around us. This has impact on every f unction in an organization. It is hard to ignore one f or the other. The relationship between Marketing and Operations needs greater discussion in the current scenario. The primary role of marketing is to create value f or the customer. This is possible by looking at the role of marketing f rom a broader perspective – one that involves marketing processes, organizational perf ormance, and society.

Intense competition has pushed companies into a vortex. The challenges they f ace today are quite dif f erent. Shorter product lif ecycles, changing processes, shif ting consumer pref erences, technological disruptions are all contributing to the marketer’s challenge. Successful organizations need to align their Marketing with processes such as Supply Chain Management, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Service Delivery, Marketing Knowledge Management, and Innovation Management. Perf ormance and get them assessed by a variety of metrics. The questions bef ore marketers are many and varied. Answers to these questions will depend on effective use of technology, leveraging dif ferent information and technology platf orms and constantly strive to mix and match the marketing mix elements by leveraging the power of big data and analytics.

Technological changes will shif t our perspectives towards marketing and the consumer. These advancements will reduce the barriers between industries, shif t the balance of power to empowered consumers and create a ‘global grid’.

The grid consists of a network of users and portals, of f ering f ree communications, scalability, total connectivity, and universal digitalization (Rethinking Marketing, Yoram Wind, JAMS, 2009). Companies will draw together R&D, Marketing and Operations f or developing new products. By bridging silos, corporations will create an enterprise capable of addressing new age

marketing challenges.

As technological developments advance and disrupt the way businesses are done, the success of individual f irms will depend on how well they learn and expand their technological f oundations, minimize expenditures, maximize productivity while leveraging the power of the brands in their portf olios. The f uture of marketing has never been more challenging. As we move into the next decade these changes will become even more pronounced and exciting.

About the author:

Mr. Venugopal Rao

He is a Professor and Head of the Department in Marketing Management at The ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education Hyderabad with teaching areas being Strategic Marketing Management, Sales and Distribution Management and Marketing Management.