Evolution of the Marketing Organization: New Forms for Turbulent Environments

Rapid changes in industrial structure and global competition have occurred in the last two decades. The changes herald the post-industrial era, producing an environment of ambiguity and paradox at this point in time, but nevertheless causing profound impacts on our economic and social institutions. The environment of the future will be characterized most notably by unprecedented levels of diversity, knowledge richness, and turbulence. However, marketing's strategy concepts remain rooted in the historical evolution of functional approaches to a customer orientation. In the post-industrial era, unusual forms of marketing organization (that are ambidextrous and highly flexible) will be needed to cope with complex and dynamic task environments. The author discusses two such forms, the marketing exchange company and the marketing coalition company. The marketing companies serve as the organizing hubs of complex networks of functionally specialized firms. The new forms are transorganizational systems in which the critical managerial activities are boundary-spanning ones. To be effective, such systems will evolve elaborate relational norms and sophisticated information, political, and quasijudicial systems.