As changing business priorities have expanded the scope and responsibility of marketing, CMOs find themselves at a crossroads. By 2022, 71% of CMOs were re-evaluating the role marketing should play in their organization to achieve the long-term business vision. Yet more than half of CMOs agree that short-term execution pressures prevent the marketing function from focusing on long-term strategic goals. These short-term pressures include:
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Lack of organizational alignment. The expanded scope of marketing has made it necessary to work cross-functionally, increasing operational complexity. Yet there is no mechanism for cross-functional alignment on the critical business goals that marketing must support.
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Multiple competing priorities. Marketers must balance workload and priorities arising from the needs and expectations of their internal stakeholders and self-identified initiatives that drive business value.
It’s no wonder CMOs invest nearly a third of their budgets in the pursuit of operational excellence. But despite their best efforts at formal strategic planning and goal setting for their teams, CMOs still struggle to implement business strategy and translate marketing performance into impact on the company’s business goals. ‘business.
OKR Programs Can Improve Strategic Marketing Measurement
OKR is a flexible goal-setting framework used to convert business goals and priorities into concrete, measurable business results. OKRs are defined through a transparent and collaborative process that aligns the efforts of teams and individuals toward achieving strategic outcomes.
OKRs as a concept are very simple:
- Goals are a statement of what you will achieve. They should be meaningful, concrete, action-oriented and inspiring.
- Key results are a statement about how you will achieve your goals. They must be specific, time-limited, aggressive but realistic, measurable and verifiable.
