George S. Day

English

Research Papers in Economics

© SYMPHONYA Emerging Issues in Management, n.1, 2009 
www.unimib.it/symphonya 
 
 
 
 
Edited by: ISTEI - University of Milan-Bicocca  ISSN: 1593-0319 
Zito  Emilio,  From  Brand  Management  to  Global  Business  Management  in  Market-Driven 
Companies, Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management (www.unimib.it/symphonya), n. 1, 2009, 
pp. 49-53 
http://dx.doi.org/10.4468/2009.1.05zito 
     49 
From Brand Management 
to Global Business Management 
in Market-Driven Companies
* 
 
 
Emilio Zito
** 
 
 
 
Abstract 
      Over  the  past  several  years,  the  most  competitive  mass-market  companies 
(automobile, high-tech, consumer and retail, etc.) have been experiencing a new 
strategic approach around the concept of Market-Driven strategy, as opposed to a 
pure marketing-focused approach known as Customer-Driven strategy. 
A  fast-moving,  mass-market  global  company  would  likely  have  a  precise 
performance  measurement  system  in  place  with  broad  performance  indicators 
based on: project economics, ratios analysis (ROI, inventory turnover, etc.), risk 
management,  shareholders’  value  analysis,  synergies  forecasts  (economies  of 
scale, scope, learning, etc.), market share, customer and retailer satisfaction. 
Therefore,  the  management  structure  will  be  focused  on  brand  and  product 
global strategies involving a new type of operational manager: the global business 
manager. 
 
Keywords:  Globalisation;  Market-Driven  Management;  Market-Driven 
Companies;  Global  Companies;  Global  Business  Management;  Brand 
Management; Product Management 
 
 
 
1. Market-Driven Companies 
 
Over the past several years, the most competitive mass-market companies across 
a wide range of industries (automobile, high-tech, consumer and retail, etc.) have 
been experiencing a new strategic approach around the concept of Market-Driven 
strategy, as opposed to a pure marketing-focused approach known as Customer-
Driven  strategy.  In  the  current  market  economy,  the  role  of  Market-Driven 
management is to create, develop and sustain added value solutions helping and 
affecting the primary market actors (community, individuals and organisations) to 
                                                 
* Invited Article 
** Merger and Acquisition Manager, EDF - Electricité de France, Paris (emilio.zito@edf.fr)  © SYMPHONYA Emerging Issues in Management, n.1, 2009 
www.unimib.it/symphonya 
 
 
 
 
Edited by: ISTEI - University of Milan-Bicocca  ISSN: 1593-0319 
 
               50 
efficiently  face  issues  and  needs.  This  approach  highlights  the  fact  that  a 
competitive  company  should  be  driven  by  the  market  as  a  whole,  including 
customers  and  trade  on  the  one  hand  and  competitors  and  other  strategic 
stakeholders on the other one. Such a strategy allows companies to focus on their 
final products and/or services in a competitive way by looking at what the market 
potentials  are  out  there  and  the  way  those  potentials  can  be  best  exploited, 
controlled and developed. 
 
 
2. Brand Management in Market-Driven Companies 
 
A Market-Driven strategy follows the necessity for companies operating in global 
landscapes  to  cope  with  fast-moving  market  conditions  based  on  a  clear  and 
structural excess of supply over demand. To put it another way, it becomes crucial 
for  fast-moving,  mass-market  companies  to  retain  and  boost  any  competitive 
advantage they have by quickly adapting their international strategy and internal 
organization to best reflect the evolution in market strategic drivers and critical 
stakeholders. 
For such companies, some of the most common strategic drivers are: 
-  Brand (product, positioning, pricing, competitors, communication, etc.); 
-  Final  customer  and  Trade  (CRM,  incentives,  marketing  strategy,  market 
research, etc.); 
-  Suppliers (supply chain strategies, vertical integration, outsourcing, etc.). 
 
Following upon these main strategic drivers, on a brand/product analysis level, a 
fast-moving,  mass-market  company  is  likely to have some of its most standard 
performance indicators based on: full market share, revenue, fixed and variable 
costs, operating margins analysis, customer and trade satisfaction. 
As  far  as  its  internal  organization  is  concerned  to  support  such  a  strategic 
approach,  the  management  structure  is  mainly  focused  on  brand  and  product 
strategies involving, on an operational level, brand and product managers.  
The decision-making process can be quite hierarchical as functional top managers 
and  executives  cascade  down  the  requests  and  tasks  following  a  ‘top  down’ 
approach.  The  first  step  in  the  information  flowing  mechanism  turns  out  to  be 
pretty efficient, meaning information usually flows timely and effectively among 
senior managers and executives, on a non-operational level interaction. The second 
step in the information flowing mechanism comes when the job request and all 
related  pre-analysis  information  (e.g.  starting  a  product  analysis,  comparing 
positioning  with  competitors,  studying  the  feasibility  of  a  new  brand/product 
launch, analysing a new market entry, just to cite some) will be cascaded down to 
operational-functional managers to get analysed and executed. 
The risk here is that the information flows may be heavy and at times pretty slow 
as the interaction between operational and top managers is not based on an day-to-
day  relationship  and  their  ‘distance’  might  sometimes  determine  a  loss  of 
information. Following this interpretation, information will be entirely managed on 
a top, non-operational level and cascaded down according to a precise functional 
consideration. © SYMPHONYA Emerging Issues in Management, n.1, 2009 
www.unimib.it/symphonya 
 
 
 
 
Edited by: ISTEI - University of Milan-Bicocca  ISSN: 1593-0319 
 
               51 
A very simple and illustrative example of such a ‘top-down’ information flows 
within  a  fast-moving,  mass-market  company  could  be:  marketing  senior 
management exchanging with finance senior management about the feasibility of 
launching a new brand into the market. Marketing senior management will then 
cascade the pre-analysis marketing information down to brand/product managers. 
The same will happen with the finance senior management concerning the financial 
objectives  related  to  the  specific  job  request  (see  Figure  1).  Brand/product 
managers and finance managers will then perform their analysis by focusing on 
their specific function and role and will then hand their results up to their senior 
management. 
 
Figure 1: Brand Management in Market-Driven Companies 
 
 
 
 
3. Global Business Management in Market-Driven Companies 
 
Mission,  culture,  strategic  drivers  and  internal  organization  represent  for  an 
international  company  some  of  the  most  important  milestones,  determining  the 
company’s strategy on a worldwide dimension. Multinational approaches usually 
trigger  ‘Glocal  strategies’  characterized  by  strong  local  market  adaptation  and 
significant change management capability. The challenge for fast-moving, mass-
market multinational companies stems from the fact that standard Glocal strategies 
might not be enough in the current global environment to allow companies to retain 
and/or differentiate their competitive advantages.  
Some  of  the reasons for that are: markets and stock exchanges are becoming 
increasingly global and volatile; customer loyalty is getting very complicated to 
maintain  and/or  influence;  the  extreme  rapidity  in  market  strategic  drivers  and 
stakeholders  evolution  makes  difficult  for  companies  to  efficiently  manage  the 
change; and the list does not clearly stop there. 
That  said,  some  of  the  most  competitive,  market-driven  companies  are  being 
adjusting their strategy towards a more complicated and flexible ‘strategic metrics’ 
to reflect the fastness of the change and development in their main strategic drivers 
and global stakeholders. To put it another way, some more market strategic drivers 
would be added to the ones mentioned above, in particular: 
-  Shareholders 
-  Financial  Community  (creditors  and/or  banks,  stock  exchanges,  financial 
analysts, rating agencies, journals, etc.). 
 
Following upon this more-mixed strategic drivers approach, a fast-moving, mass-
market  global  company  would  likely  have  a  precise  performance  measurement 
system in place with broad performance indicators based on: project economics and © SYMPHONYA Emerging Issues in Management, n.1, 2009 
www.unimib.it/symphonya 
 
 
 
 
Edited by: ISTEI - University of Milan-Bicocca  ISSN: 1593-0319 
 
               52 
cash flows analysis (full project profitability, NPV and break-even analysis, IRR, 
cost  of  capital,  etc.),  ratios  analysis  (ROI,  inventory  turnover,  etc.),  risk 
management,  shareholders’  value  analysis,  synergies  forecasts  (particularly  with 
regard to brand/product acquisition: economies of scale, scope, and learning, etc.), 
full market share, customer and trade satisfaction. 
By performing such a factual analysis, an organization will make the ‘strategic 
metrics’ the tool to make decisions rapidly and efficiently. Strategic drivers are the 
granularity  which  determines  the  ‘strategic  metrics’,  heavily  affecting  the  way 
internal  organization  and  management  focus  will  be  built  up.  Therefore,  the 
management  structure  will  be  focused  on  brand  and  product  global  strategies 
involving a new type of operational manager: the global business manager. 
The very main reason for a manager to be a global business manager comes from 
his/her capability to have a ‘global’ professional knowledge, including marketing, 
strategy and finance broad knowledge. He or she will need to have a clear vision on 
‘where to go’ and ‘how to get there’, being able to: 1) understand the changing 
strategic drivers, 2) absorb scorecards and strategic metrics methodologies, 3) build 
and lead skill-mixed operational teams, and so on. 
The  decision-making  process  will  be  much  less  hierarchical  compared  to  the 
previous ‘top-down’ structure. As a matter of fact, there will probably still exist 
functional  top  managers  cascading  down the requests and tasks. The difference 
here  is  the  direct  participation  of  the  operational  management  (through  global 
business managers) in a higher level strategic discussions making them able to play 
a role more of an assembler of information rather than of an executor of functional 
requests.  
This  follows  a  ‘bottom  up’  approach  and  a  matrix  organisational structure as 
opposed  to  a  functional  organisational  structure  in  the  more  standard  case  of 
functional managers and the ‘top down’ approaches. Practically, information will 
timely flow among senior managers and executives on the one hand and global 
managers and their teams on the other hand. Such a ‘bottom up’ approach will 
likely:  1)  streamline  the  overall  organisational  structure  and  decision-making 
process; 2) centralise the operational management by getting them closer to the 
decision-making process; and 3) help a Corporation to have an efficient internal 
organisation. 
A  very  simple  and  illustrative  example  relative  to  the  information  flowing 
mechanism in such a situation may be the following: marketing senior management 
exchanging  with  finance  senior  management  the  feasibility  of  launching  a  new 
brand into the market. Senior managements will have a direct operational person, 
the global business manager, to speak to and begin a pre-analysis interaction with. 
On an ongoing basis, global business managers will interact with their teams to get 
the job request effectively and efficiently analysed and performed by: 1/ focusing 
on a global project outlook; and 2/ expressing a final recommendation. 
 
 
 
 
 
 © SYMPHONYA Emerging Issues in Management, n.1, 2009 
www.unimib.it/symphonya 
 
 
 
 
Edited by: ISTEI - University of Milan-Bicocca  ISSN: 1593-0319 
 
               53 
Figure 2: Global Business Management in Market-Driven Companies 
 
 
 
The key word in such a ‘bottom up’ matrix structure is interaction. It’s only by 
embarking  on  a  global  strategic  approach,  like  the  one  set  out  above  as  an 
illustrative example, that a fast-moving, mass-market global company will be able 
to continue outperforming its rivals by retaining, sustaining and differentiating its 
strategic competitive advantage in a Market-Driven corporate environment. 

Market-Driven Winners

http://webdepot.gsi.unimib.it/symphonya/RePec/pdf/symjournl131.pdf

Market-Driven Winners

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Research Papers in Economics