Over the last year or so, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to a variety of groups and organizations. The focus has been on just ‘how’ we, at EMC, have piloted, rolled out, refined and ultimately embraced the concept of Agile Marketing.
The questions frequently revolve around: How did you do it? What steps did you take? What did you encounter? What should my company do to adopt Agile Marketing?
While I can answer those questions without much hesitation, it became clear to me that the real reason others have these questions is because they are struggling with the WHY. Why did we embark down this path?
My short answer is always the same: It wasn’t just for fun!
The push towards Agile, specifically in a marketing world, is not a function of simply trying something new or different for the sake of changing things up. If you have been in the mix, you already know the crush to produce materials, programs, activities and content is overwhelming. So the thought of change for the sake of change holds no water.
Instead, it was really a question of understanding the new realities of the world around us and recognizing our core business challenges. It’s about a business environment where change is constant, but more importantly, the documented rate of change is off the charts. It’s about a way of life that has us all struggling with the amount of information that inundates our brains and our psyches every minute of every day.
It’s about individuals attempting to understand the methods, modes and best practices while trying to keep up with a never-ending list of to-dos and requests. It’s about hard working managers trying to prioritize an ever- increasing amount of requests and demands. It’s about go-getters spending endless hours figuring out who to go to, at what point in time, and with what information in hand in order to successfully get their job done.
THESE are the reasons for bringing Agile concepts to the marketing world. It’s really a case of adapt and change or be prepared to flounder, possibly sink or just embrace gridlock.
We chose to ‘change’. A word and concept that does not always elicit cheers and excitement…change can be difficult. Any or all of us can claim to embrace change, and for some it’s easier than others, but it always presents a set of challenges no matter who you are.
While our brains crave rhythm and consistency (in order to make room for all that new information) we sometimes have to force change upon ourselves. Many times, it boils down to short-term pain for the brain as a path to long-term gains.
In this case it’s painful in the short term to rework our methodologies, but hugely valuable in the long run to improve the quality of our outputs. And that is exactly what we are doing in order to manage the lightning fast changes in our world and the overflow of information and requests we all face every day.
For more insight into the ‘why Agile’ question and how EMC moved towards (and continually adapts) an agile marketing methodology, download our e-Book Agile Marketing: When Clear and Simple Processes Drive Innovation. It is now also available at both the Apple App Store and Google Play.
