Often times in an organizational structure, the approval chain of command can be quite unclear. Logically, the CEO would make all the executive decisions, and the CMO would sign off on all marketing decisions. But is it really efficient or even necessary for the big cheese to approve everything the company makes in his or her respected department? Seeing as there are more than likely bigger fish to fry, it probably isn’t.
Questions about organization structure are very popular in our recently-launched Marketing Org & Ops Forum, where one executive question asks, “What type of communications get what type of approval?”
Based on member responses, much of the approval process is typically based on budget and risk. This comes as little surprise—the CMO probably ought to sign off on that Superbowl ad. Legal probably ought to review that spot making comparative claims against named competitors.
Some members have rightly targeted approval queue “dead time” for streamlining. We’ve seen cases where marketers can remove weeks of cycle time to complete a campaign by moving their approval process online and establishing escalation criteria that kick in when creative sits on an approver’s doorstep for more than 24 hours. These sound like small ideas, but they add up. Time is money.
Read through member verbatim on the Q&A forum here. If you’re interested in approval streamlining, take a look at how one CPG company applied lean principles to cut its print labor costs by over 45%.
Related posts:
Commenting Guidelines
We hope conversations will be energetic, constructive, and provocative. All posts will be reviewed by our editors and may be edited for clarity, length, and relevance.
We ask that you adhere to the following guidelines.
1. No selling of products or services.
2. No ad hominem attacks. These are conversations in which we debate ideas. Criticize ideas, not the people behind them.