Hi everybody!
Quite a long time ago since my last entry but I was kind of busy.
Light at the end of the tunnel
I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. So after a bit more than 2.5 years the end of the MBA seems not that far away. It has been an extremely valuable journey with ups and downs but in the end I’m convinced that I made some important experiences and learned a lot of applicable stuff. I now have a huge toolbox but at the end of the day the difference comes from which tool is being used rather than the sheer number of tools. It’s not the tools it’s about their application. This is something Henley excels at….teaching what’s relevant.
Master thesis proposal accepted
So why can I see the light at the end of the tunnel? I have handed in my management challenge proposal (=master thesis) and it has been accepted. This means that in the following months I’m going to focus on my master thesis which is about marketing metrics. The title: “Development of bespoke marketing metrics for the use within a strategic marketing dashboard to sustain growth”. The whole story then revolves around strategic marketing (especially marketing performance evaluation, relationship marketing etc), financial resources (KPI’s, project evaluation with the help of NPV etc.), corporate finance. Bespoke because the whole thesis is in application to my employer Dun & Bradstreet (Switzerland) Ltd.
400-600 hours of work ahead of me
I’m really looking forward to the estimated 350-400 hours of work (according to Henley, but we have learned that they tend to underestimate the workload by some 50%) as this project offers me intresting insigth into a very fascinating topic. Be honest: Does your marketing department or your senior management align marketing metrics (if there are any at all) to the overarching strategy? Do you plan marketing campaigns etc. from that perspective? Current thinking in the area shows that a lot of companies don’t even measure marketing perfromance apart from the commonplace metrics like sales, profit margin, market share. But is that sufficient? How does sales fit into your customer retention strategy or put differently is sales anyhow a valuable metrics of your customer retention strategy efforts? I’m keen to delve into this topic to figure out the interrelationships etc. Will be kind of fun and from a future point of view it’ll make me an expert in a field where a lot of “creative” people bustle but many of them lack knowledge when it comes to performance evaluation. In the end marketing is not about pure creativity and innovation but about measurable impact and contribution to a company’s strategy and bottom line.