think like dell

When it comes to operational excellence, Dell is the market leader in supply chain performance* today. So what can we learn from their success?

Marketing can draw many parallels from the underlying supply chain principles that helped Dell become No. 1. For example, your "marketing supply chain" consists of the following:

1. There is a clearly defined process - as represented by a pipeline depicting various stages of progress.
2. There are players to coordinate - including internal constituents like sales, product marketing, and field marketing, and external constituents like channel partners, agencies, Web services providers, and (of course) customers.
3. There are metrics - for each stage and across the entire process. Otherwise, you won't know where or how much to improve.
4. You need assets like people, raw materials, and resources to operate the business - some of which you own and others that are outsourced.
5. You need real-time visibility to quickly adapt to changes - both inside and outside the four walls of your business.

In essence, the operating principle is the same:

How to get more stuff through the pipeline (more revenue) at a faster rate without having to add more pipe (fewer expenses and assets)?

At MarketViz, we've synthesized these insights and best practices into a methodology for building a high-velocity, high-performance marketing organization.

* Source: "The Top 25 Supply Chains for 2005," AMR Research.