So
who should a market intelligence person or team report into? In many companies
you will find such a role in the marketing department. This is perhaps due to
the confusion with the role of marketing
intelligence, which has more to do with managing databases for lead generation
purposes. Market intelligence, however, covers many more activities and its
impact should be much broader than just marketing. In fact in many ways it
should assess the impact and direction of the marketing function, so in that
sense it is perhaps better to leave it out of the marketing department all
together.
In
other companies the market intelligence role would report in the ‘Operations’
team. This certainly makes sense since the Operations department has a footprint
in every activity of a company, so this would ensure that market intelligence
stays in touch with every aspect of your business. Furthermore, if ensuring
corporate growth is part of the
responsibilities of Operations, market intelligence should certainly offer a
valuable contribution to this effort.
Bigger
companies will often have a strategy division responsible for detecting untapped
market potential. Its responsibility involves assessing markets en improving
the strategic positioning of the company, where market intelligence obviously
plays a crucial role. Also, by nature almost, this division needs to develop
strong working relationships with each other divisions of a company, which
helps to realize the full potential of a market intelligence function.
Regardless
of where exactly you establish your market intelligence practice, there are
some guidelines to keep in mind in order to maximize the effectiveness of this
role:
- The function needs to be in a position to establish working relations with each and every division within the company;
- It needs to be perceived as a neutral function, although intricately it needs to challenge the effectiveness of every other division;
- Ideally it should be situated at maximal 2 levels from the CEO.
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