It may sound like a recruiter’s job only, but the matter of fact is, your marketing success will be determined by the skill set and experience of the person in charge of your marketing. As such, you should take a keen interested in finding the person with the right profile for your SME. Read More
Earlier on we discussed that marketers profile should support the firm’s intent, life circle stage and further its competitive advantage. Read More
Brand is a recognised source of competitive advantage for firms of all sizes (Young 2005). By looking at what is at the centre of a firm’s activity, management is actually setting the scene for what the company is about. ‘Core competency’ is often so obvious, that people overlook it as a given thing. In our consultancy experience we often find SME’s that offer a service or product which is perceived as the most important task of the firm; money, expertise and resources are dedicated to it.
However, somehow in the midst of ‘doing’, firms often can’t define or emphasise their competency in such ways that it would give them competitive advantage in the market. To improve the competitive advantage, we suggest to clients to look into three areas of strategic planning. The firms’ core competencies need to be identified, Market trends to be scouted for and competitor intelligence need to gathered to arrive at meaningful strategic planning outcomes.
This is where we ask- who is doing it? In smaller firms, marketing is often understaffed or not at all present. Increasing organisational capability is becoming vital if any firm wants to grow or expand. How would you know that your invested dollars are giving you return? The role of marketing in your organisation needs to be seen clearly. We encounter very different types of marketing personnel in organisations, not always with the set of skills required to identify competitive advantage for the company. In our upcoming posts, we will discuss some of the different ‘marketer types’ we think of.
Australian Design Management- A mythical beast?
It strikes me as very odd. In the UK and USA design management has fought its way onto the business agenda. For example, look at the myriads of events and conferences in the US and UK DMI conferences, etc. However, according to the Design Council UK , Design Management is not a discipline like product, packaging, usability or graphic design (or at least it is not listed as such).
Interestingly, the Australian Design Institute is listing in career profiles “Design Management” amongst graphic, industrial, interior, etc.
With this in mind, I researched who offered jobs with the title of “Design Manager”, or “Manager, Design” in Australia or who included ‘design management’ as skills/experience/qualification. You may have guessed it, the “Design Manager” demand, I found, is for a property and construction industry profile. Alternatively, it is also a production manager’s job. So who and where are these professionals in Australia that work in ‘design management’ as defined by DIA? Would be good to hear from the companies who employ them or the recruiters who place them.