‘Companies lack strategic vision’

A NEW study has delivered a stark warning to businesses across the South East.

The report by Arlington Research and the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has found close to half (42 per cent) of decision makers in the UK do not believe their company has a strategic vision.

With the world finding itself in a global pandemic and with rising unemployment figures, many employees are looking to their boards for strong leadership, but the research shows a worrying level of neglect when it comes to strategic vision.

A critical part of any strategy is to understand the problem a business is trying to solve, so it is encouraging to see 71 per cent of decision makers questioned stating that they regularly survey their customers.

However, almost half of employees (48 per cent) said their organisation didn’t have an adequate process to share knowledge of customer needs upwards in the company.

CIM South East chairwoman Diana Tucker said: “If you have a robust strategy, backed up with insight and data, you are only part of the way there.

“You also need your staff to implement the plan.

“But only when staff understand the thinking behind the key decisions will they really put their heart and soul into it and make it a success.

“Every business in the South East should be looking to their marketing teams to inform the strategy for the next 12 to 18 months and beyond.

“We’ve come through a year of the pandemic and during that time marketers have had to adjust, flex, revise, and think on their feet to keep their programmes running.

“As we enter a phase of recovery with restrictions set to be lifted, businesses should consider new tactics and ways of reaching customers, while making sure everything is tracked at every stage.

“I strongly urge business owners in the South East to involve marketing in their decision making to ensure their organisations stay relevant to engage customers and drive productivity.”

Likewise, less than half of UK employees (45 per cent) believe their organisation monitors how the competition communicates in the public domain while half of employees believe their competitors’ marketing is better than theirs.

Arlington Research managing director Paul Stallard said: “Customers, competition and communication. Understanding the importance of all three of these are critical for any business plan to succeed.

“The worry from our research was the amount of businesses who are blindly focusing on specific tactics and approaches regardless of insight.

“Now is the time to understand the full picture and create a strategy that employees can get excited about and fully behind.”