Decentralized Centralization
Back in 2021 I was asked to answer the question: what leads to the re-use of globally produced content? I was working in a global team who’s mission was to increase the efficiency of enterprise wide marketing by centralizing decision making to one authority (ourselves).
[This is a very common question for most global enterprises]
I ran my investigation across global capability and technology owners, global product / brand teams, regional and local brand teams and local subject matter experts etc.. We found, tested and learned from a range of different hypothesis presented to us through more than 100 interviews and tens of workshops.The results were clear:
We are asking the wrong question.
The reason is simple:
For markets to copy content they need content that is relevant to what they are trying to achieve. Which means it needs to be based on the same strategy. The answer to the original question was simple: what leads to the re-use of globally produced content is shared strategy.
Now how do you get to shared strategy? That is a more interesting question and one that our research had already answered: we need a more networked and transparent organization.
Networked because we needed to increase the flow of information between markets and transparent because the commonly used mechanism for learning from each others expertise and experience was sharing… which is an exceptionally inefficient and ineffective means of learning in a complex organization.
Transparency on the other hand is much more efficient as it lowers the barriers to learning, learning happens when you need it (not in events or ceremonies detached from the work you are doing at the moment) and it puts the effort on the learner who is incentivized to learn, not the sharer who often does it out of charity.
Our findings suggested that the way to reach a more networked and transparent organization is not to force all markets towards the same strategy, but to help markets figure out the strategic opportunities they share with a significant volume of other markets. And that these clusters of markets create temporary networks solving those opportunities they have in common. Global does not give orders, but amplifies the flow of information, works to make the networks run smoothly and incentivizes the decisions that align with its global strategy.
There are tons of benefits. From learning (100’s of customer insights learnings happening and shared at the same time), reduced cost of production of strategy, planning and content, reduced time-to-market / compliance efficiencies / and a more meaningful work environment and outcomes for colleagues.
But it does demand a rethinking of the global role and authority, an appreciation for local market dynamics compared to product centricity, an understanding of what makes networks and systems more efficient and an interest in performing a transformative change.
