According to a new white paper from Peppers & Rogers and Unica, “THERE’S A REVOLUTION IN PROGRESS.” That’s not a surprise. What is a surprise is that they just figured it out.

Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are continually under pressure from all sides of the company. CEOs, COOs, CIOs, CTOs, CFOs and all the other C-level executives continually use the CMO as a target when goals are not met. Therefore, we need a new paradigm and you’re reading it here first…

We propose that marketing leads the charge to create a new cross-cultural internal team, which we call “The Focus Team.” From its ranks, they will elect a CFO, the Chief Focus Officer, who will be much more important than the Chief Financial Officer, who worries about what has happened or is happening about revenues, expenses and, in some cases, procedures. (Am I showing my marketing bias?)

The new CFO and the Focus Team have a vital mission and that’s to keep the company focused on those dynamics that impact the business. Putting this team to work should be an immediate priority and, in my opinion, it should not be limited to one department because FOCUS impacts the entire organization. The goals of the focus team are:

1. To break down internal walls/silos and remove narrowcast visions of what the company is and can be.
   
   
2. To understand what dynamics are impacting the business – both internally and externally.
   
   
3. To evaluate how new technologies and cross-channel activities are impacting your business, your marketing, your customers, consumers, competitors – and what you have to do to remain competitive.
   
   
4. To provide a continuous source of information back to all parts of the company and LEAD the dialog for keeping up with the revolution.
   

I am not suggesting another planning group, an oversight group, or a strategic planning group. Some may think this is the role of the CEO. I don’t believe the CEO can do it alone. I also do not believe that is the sole responsibility of the “Executive Team.” The CFO and the Focus Team have to be charged with a mission-critical objective of keeping the company in tune with the world.

The downfall of many CMOs has not been that they are not smart but that they lost focus because they are overwhelmed with multi-channel options. At a time when the business is not growing, they are often too quick to reach for the next new technology that they hope will turn the business around.

The Focus Team has to begin their mission-critical journey by first defining their focus and I offer these suggestions:

1. The company – and the brand promise of the company.
   
   
2. Your customers – right now, I’ll wager your team knows a lot less about them than they should.
   
   
3. The internal systems for creating and managing customer data – and not just demographics.
   
   
4. The multi-channel technology opportunities that are just waiting for you to buy into them.
   
   

Customers have always been in control since the first shekel was exchanged for a goat or something. The customer has always been able to say NO, to check out a competitor and to find more information. The difference between then and now is ease and speed. Today’s consumers have become information hogs and they are not waiting for the brand to tell them what to do. They are doing more information gathering themselves because they can. It is the responsibility of the Focus Team to bring all the resources of the company into one single focus, discard what is not mission-critical relevant and be the cheerleaders for change that keeps the focus squarely on the brand and the customer.

This week’s AH-ha! suggests you consider all the data warehousing initiatives, advances in analytics, and web utilizations that have EXPLODED in the last couple of years and realize that you have a huge Petri dish of opportunities fermenting and waiting to be exploited. It’s the Focus Team that has to manage the process to take the best new strategies and technologies available to your business and integrate them into your overall business plan.

And you thought this was going to be another boring week? Absolutely not. Pull your team together and if you can’t create a company wide initiative, begin small within your own group and if that doesn’t work, anoint yourself with the CFO title and spread the word that there really is a revolution in progress.